Trivia

[topper09er]

I really like baseball trivia so I figured there must be other people here who do to so I'll try to post some good questions from time to time for fun. Im not sure if this belongs here or not so the moderators should move this or delete it if they want to.

 

1. What are the only 2 times (city and season) when a major league baseball team played in a city for only 1 year in the modern era (1900-present)?

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

Milwaukee before they moved to St. Louis to become the Browns (now the Orioles), I think 1903?

 

Pilots - 1969.

 

How'd I do?

[topper09er]

Well I guess I can just post the answer here and hopefully people will think about the answer before scrolling down. You were close, they are:

 

1901 Milwaukee Brewers (who moved to St. Louis as the Browns in 1902 and then moved to Baltimore as the current Orioles in 1954)

1969 Seattle Pilots (who obviously moved to MIlwaukee in 1970)

 

This happens to be a Milwaukee related question but I will post league-wide questions in general.

[joepepsi]

OK, sorry to hijack this topic, but this is my favorite baseball trivia question.

 

What player in which season qualified for the batting title, led the majors in batting average, yet didn't win the batting title in either league?

(I think this has only happened once.)

[thebruce44]

He must have been traded to the other league mid season or something? Some kind of technicality?

[RU Rah Rah]

Was it Polanco that one year?

[Baldkin]

I do believe it was Willie McGee. But I could be wrong.

[joepepsi]

Willie McGee is involved, but he wasn't the player that failed to win the batting title.

[Godspeed]

That would be Eddie Murray then, right? He had a .330 average in 1990, lower than McGee's .335 mark in the NL (which qualified for the title), but above McGee's total of .324 across both leagues.

[joepepsi]

We have a winner! McGee was traded late in the year, after he had enough plate appearances to qualify for the NL batting title. He only hit .274 for Oakland and they didn't resign him.

 

George Brett won the AL crown hitting .329. So, Eddie won the major league batting title but didn't win any league title. Arguably his finest season.

[topper09er]

Similar thing happened to McGwire in '97, he hits 58 Homers but was traded and didnt lead either league.

 

Also, I suggest that we use the honor system and people only post here if they knew the answer without looking it up (Im assuming GodSpeed did not remember that Eddie hit .330 and McGee hit .335 while in the NL and .324 overall, if you did then thats impressive and sorry)

[topper09er]

OK heres another one:

 

How many times did Babe Ruth set the single season HR record (bonus for seasons and totals)?

[RightFieldCoder]

I will say 5, with the last one being 60 HR in '29.

[MadScientist]

I think it was 4. Before the 60 season he hit 54 in '23 and 29 in '22. I'm guessing he had the record before that as well (say 17 in '21 or something like that).

[topper09er]

4 is the right answer with the last being 60 in 1927 but the others are wrong

 

They are:

1919: 29 HRs with BOS

1920: 54 HRs with NYY

1921: 59 HRs (this is the greatest single season anyone has ever had, check out the stats http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ruthba01.shtml)

1927: 60 HRs

[3Putt]

Who is the only batting champ whose name is all body parts?

[joepepsi]

I've come up with a lot of possible names so far, but none of them are right, I'm sure!

[3Putt]

Thanks for trying Joe.

 

And the answer is "Tony Armas".

[topper09er]

these are obviously not right but Bartolo Colon, Rollie Fingers, Jim Palmer, Cory H(e)art

 

I think of 2 possibilities who I think won batting titles: Dick Groat and Hienie Zimmerman

[topper09er]

Pretty creative with ToeKnee ArmAss, but he never won a batting title

[3Putt]

Great guesses topper but none of those uses both the first and last names completely. That's several more than I could have come up with though.

[3Putt]

topper,

 

By golly you're right. Looks like I've been giving the wrong question all these years. I see he's won the HR title a couple times so I must be repeating it incorrectly. I'll go with HR title from now on. Thanks for the clarification.

[topper09er]

One more for today:

 

Is it possible to be on base when it is your legal turn to bat (and explain)?

[brewdude15]

One more for today:

 

Is it possible to be on base when it is your legal turn to bat (and explain)?

Yes, it's called a "ghost runner". No, but in all seriousness, I'll guess that it's not possible.

[Baldkin]

Its been awhile, and baseball is kind of goofy about its rules, but if I remember right, if a pitch is thrown to a batter after you bat out of order, your at bat is considered valid.

 

So, batting order written in the lineup book is: Counsell, Hardy, Braun, Fielder

 

So, Braun leads off the game with a double, then JJ walks on 4 pitches, the opposing team asks for a ruling as Prince steps up, knowing Braun should hit after JJ. Since JJ hit in the correct spot, Braun is then due up 3rd so it would be his spot in the order while he's on base.

 

Yes... I was a huge rules geek back in the day.