Outside Topic Sports trivia thread 2020-2021 - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Outside Topic Sports trivia thread 2020-2021 (/thread-21498.html)

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RE: Sports trivia thread - BobK - 04-22-2021

Ah I’m old. Traded from the Giants to the Red sox Bill Mueller hit grand slams from both sides of the plate

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RE: Sports trivia thread - BostonCard - 04-22-2021

Yup.  Mueller. July 29, 2003.  3/5, three home runs, including one grand slam from each side of the plate, 9 RBI.

Not a bad day at the office.

BC

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Phogge - 04-22-2021

Process of elimination, Tatis JR.

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Wild guess at most AB's no salami, Kuiper?

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RE: Sports trivia thread - BostonCard - 04-22-2021

Tatis Sr. Is the answer to the question.  His son Jr. is the current player.  But, no love for Vlad Guerrero?

BC

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Mick - 04-25-2021

In the years between the Giants' arrival to San Francisco and the start of the steroid era (1993), there was only one year that baseball teams averaged more than one home run per game, and the typical average was about .75 to .80 home runs per game pre-1993. During the steroid era (roughly 1993 through 2002), average home runs per game increased from .72 in 1992 to 1.03 in 1994 and to 1.17 in 2000, tapering off to 1.04 in 2002 and 1.00 by 2008 and a post-'roids era low of 0.86 hrpg by 2014.  

The dirty little not-so-secret is that team home run per game averages crept back up reaching an astounding 1.39 per game in 2019, and were still 1.28 per game through last year. What is undeniable is that during the same period, strikeouts have been skyrocketing.  Pre-Sandy Koufax, strikeouts were 3.7 per team per game, then jumped to the high 5.8/5.9 range during the heydays of Koufax, Drysdale, Gibson and Marichal -- and they stayed there until the start of the same steroid era when batters began to go for broke, breaking the 6.00 K's per team/per game record in 1993, then breaking 7.00 K's per team/per game by 2010.  By 2016, team averages were more than 8 strikeouts per game, and this season, for the first time, team strikeout averages are more than 9.00 per game.

When they lowered the mound in 1969 after Gibson's 1.12 ERA, it was noted that 22 pitchers had sub-2.00 ERAs.  Any one of those 22 would have led the league in 86% of the prior seasons.  So, something had to be done.

Today, there has been talk of lowering the mound to return some advantage to the hitters, mandating defensive alignments away from the shift and the like.  So with this in mind, here's a few trivia questions:

1) In what year did baseball first introduce the pitching mound?
2) What effect did it have on number of strikeouts per game?
3) In what year did baseball move the pitching distance back to 60' 6" and what was the original distance?
4) Why are pitchers called "pitchers" and not "designated throwers" or any other term?

Bonus question: In 1927, the New York Yankees had the famed Murderers Row lineup. In how many of the major offensive categories did the Yankees lead the other American League teams? How about pitching categories?

Extra bonus question: around this same time, Ty Cobb was managing the Detroit Tigers and ran across a pitcher with a unique pitch. He advised the pitcher to get rid of the pitch and let him languish in the Detroit minor league system for a few years. He later became a Hall of Famer for another team, a pitcher that Joe DiMaggio called the toughest pitcher he'd ever faced. Who was that pitcher and what was the unique pitch?

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RE: Sports trivia thread - BobK - 04-25-2021

So happy to be way too young to recall any of this Great questions

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Phogge - 04-25-2021

I thought that Joe D said that Satchel was the toughest he faced but he doesn’t fit the question.

What HOF pitcher is the only honoree with more career walks than strikeouts?

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RE: Sports trivia thread - BobK - 04-25-2021

Going with Phil Nieko on more walks than Ks.

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Giants - 04-25-2021

(04-25-2021, 11:00 AM)Mick Wrote:  In the years between the Giants' arrival to San Francisco and the start of the steroid era (1993), there was only one year that baseball teams averaged more than one home run per game, and the typical average was about .75 to .80 home runs per game pre-1993. During the steroid era (roughly 1993 through 2002), average home runs per game increased from .72 in 1992 to 1.03 in 1994 and to 1.17 in 2000, tapering off to 1.04 in 2002 and 1.00 by 2008 and a post-'roids era low of 0.86 hrpg by 2014.  

The dirty little not-so-secret is that team home run per game averages crept back up reaching an astounding 1.39 per game in 2019, and were still 1.28 per game through last year. What is undeniable is that during the same period, strikeouts have been skyrocketing.  Pre-Sandy Koufax, strikeouts were 3.7 per team per game, then jumped to the high 5.8/5.9 range during the heydays of Koufax, Drysdale, Gibson and Marichal -- and they stayed there until the start of the same steroid era when batters began to go for broke, breaking the 6.00 K's per team/per game record in 1993, then breaking 7.00 K's per team/per game by 2010.  By 2016, team averages were more than 8 strikeouts per game, and this season, for the first time, team strikeout averages are more than 9.00 per game.

When they lowered the mound in 1969 after Gibson's 1.12 ERA, it was noted that 22 pitchers had sub-2.00 ERAs.  Any one of those 22 would have led the league in 86% of the prior seasons.  So, something had to be done.

Today, there has been talk of lowering the mound to return some advantage to the hitters, mandating defensive alignments away from the shift and the like.  So with this in mind, here's a few trivia questions:

1) In what year did baseball first introduce the pitching mound?
2) What effect did it have on number of strikeouts per game?
3) In what year did baseball move the pitching distance back to 60' 6" and what was the original distance?
4) Why are pitchers called "pitchers" and not "designated throwers" or any other term?

Bonus question: In 1927, the New York Yankees had the famed Murderers Row lineup. In how many of the major offensive categories did the Yankees lead the other American League teams?  How about pitching categories?

Extra bonus question: around this same time, Ty Cobb was managing the Detroit Tigers and ran across a pitcher with a unique pitch.  He advised the pitcher to get rid of the pitch and let him languish in the Detroit minor league system for a few years.  He later became a Hall of Famer for another team, a pitcher that Joe DiMaggio called the toughest pitcher he'd ever faced.  Who was that pitcher and what was the unique pitch?

The days of “you get one good pitch to hit each at-bat, make sure you hit it” have changed to “wait until you get a pitch you can hit for a home run or just strike out”. An exaggeration, of course, but the numbers Mick cited don’t lie, the game has changed substantially.

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(04-25-2021, 12:15 PM)Phogge Wrote:  I thought that Joe D said that Satchel was the toughest he faced but he doesn’t fit the question.

What HOF pitcher is the only honoree with more career walks than strikeouts?

Early Wynn?

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Phogge - 04-25-2021

Ted Lyons.

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Mick - 04-25-2021

(04-25-2021, 03:24 PM)Phogge Wrote:  Ted Lyons.

He also had the fourth highest career ERA of any pitcher in the HoF (Jack Morris, Red Ruffing and Mike Mussina are the others) and only appeared in one all star game.  He was cut a little slack for missing three years of his career due to WWII, and he was a fan favorite for Chicago, which helped.

Eight pitchers are not in the HoF, but won more games with a better winning percentage than Ted, including Roger Clemens, Tommy John, Jim Kaat, Tony Mullane, Bobby Mathews, Jamie Moyer, Jim McCormick, and Gus Weyhing.

There are 83 pitchers in the Hall of Fame, and Lyons is #535 in winning percentage (.5306).

Bonus question: In 1927, the New York Yankees had the famed Murderers Row lineup. In how many of the major offensive categories did the Yankees lead the other American League teams? How about pitching categories?

The Yankees finished first in hits, triples, HRs, batting avg,, OBP, slugging percentage, OPS, RBIs, runs scored, walks, (most) strikeouts.  They finished second in doubles and fourth in stolen bases.  They also finished first in wins, ERA, shutouts, hits allowed, runs allowed, HRs allowed, fewest walks and third most in strikeouts.

Extra bonus question: around this same time, Ty Cobb was managing the Detroit Tigers and ran across a pitcher with a unique pitch. He advised the pitcher to get rid of the pitch and let him languish in the Detroit minor league system for a few years. He later became a Hall of Famer for another team, a pitcher that Joe DiMaggio called the toughest pitcher he'd ever faced. Who was that pitcher and what was the unique pitch? 

The pitcher was Carl Hubbell, and his famed pitch was the screwball.  He languished in the Detroit system because Cobb essentially refused to allow him to throw the screwball.  He wasn't the first, BTW, even Mathewson threw the screwball.  As for DiMaggio, he went 3 for 16 against Hubbell with three singles in the 1936 and 1937 World Series.  He was 12 for 34 against the other Giants' pitchers.

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(04-25-2021, 11:00 AM)Mick Wrote:  So with this in mind, here's a few trivia questions:

1) In what year did baseball first introduce the pitching mound?  1893
2) What effect did it have on number of strikeouts per game?  You would figure they would increase, but strikeouts leaguewide actually declined from 5,978 to 3,342.  Why?  Because...
3) In what year did baseball move the pitching distance back to 60' 6" and what was the original distance?  The league also moved the pitching distance back in 1893 as well.  So they gave with one hand, but took away with the other.  The real problem in 1892 was...
4) Why are pitchers called "pitchers" and not "designated throwers" or any other term?  They were called pitchers because they originally "pitched" the balls underhand like horseshoes, which made more sense when the pitching zone was 4 feet x 5.5 feet.  The pitcher had to "pitch" from the back of the box, which was 55 feet from home plate.  But in 1892, the year before the change, pitchers found they could throw sidearm, get more strikeouts and get around the "underhand only" rule.

Bonus question: In 1927, the New York Yankees had the famed Murderers Row lineup. In how many of the major offensive categories did the Yankees lead the other American League teams?  How about pitching categories?

Extra bonus question: around this same time, Ty Cobb was managing the Detroit Tigers and ran across a pitcher with a unique pitch.  He advised the pitcher to get rid of the pitch and let him languish in the Detroit minor league system for a few years.  He later became a Hall of Famer for another team, a pitcher that Joe DiMaggio called the toughest pitcher he'd ever faced.  Who was that pitcher and what was the unique pitch?

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Phogge - 04-27-2021

Of these five who never hit .400?

Billy Hamilton (not the current player)
Tris Speaker
George Sisler
Ed Delehanty
Napoleon Lajoie

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Mick - 04-27-2021

(04-27-2021, 06:56 AM)Phogge Wrote:  Of these five who never hit .400?

Billy Hamilton (not the current player)
Tris Speaker
George Sisler
Ed Delehanty
Napoleon Lajoie

Pretty sure Lajoie and Sisler did, especially the year Sisler had 250+ hits.  He used to hold the league record.  I think Speaker did it at least once.  I don't know about Delahanty or Hamilton.  I'm going to guess Delahanty.

Went back and checked. Interesting.

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Giants - 04-27-2021

(04-27-2021, 06:56 AM)Phogge Wrote:  Of these five who never hit .400?

Billy Hamilton (not the current player)
Tris Speaker
George Sisler
Ed Delehanty
Napoleon Lajoie

Speaker.

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RE: Sports trivia thread - BostonCard - 04-27-2021

Last night Shohei Ohtani started a game for the Angels as the major league leader in home runs.  Who was the last player to accomplish such a feat?

BC

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Phogge - 04-27-2021

Obvious choice is Ruth but BC is sly.

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Further review... didn't Bumgarner hit two fingers on Opening Day in San Diego a few years ago?

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RE: Sports trivia thread - BostonCard - 04-27-2021

(04-27-2021, 10:02 AM)Phogge Wrote:  Obvious choice is Ruth but BC is sly.

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Further review... didn't Bumgarner hit two fingers on Opening Day in San Diego a few years ago?

It was the Babe, at least as far as I could find.  It will be more impressive the next time someone does it (if anyone does), when Ohtani can be the answer to the question.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/MattBirch12/status/1386534227810807811?s=20[/tweet]

BC

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Phogge - 04-27-2021

Babe gave up pitching on his own counsel. If Otanhi continues to be a top pitcher and hitter for many seasons it will be a unique feat. However no way he becomes anything close to the icon (hate to use the word) that Ruth was. Don Newcombe was the best hitting pitcher I saw.

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RE: Sports trivia thread - BobK - 04-27-2021

Speaking of pitchers hitting HRs. What pitcher holds the NL record for most career HRs ?

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RE: Sports trivia thread - Phogge - 04-27-2021

Wes Farell?

What Seal pitcher was the last PCL'er to start and finish both ends of a doubleheader?

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