George Will's annual baseball quiz (his only redeeming characteristic)

[Blue_Tires]

Last edited Tue Apr 2, 2013, 01:51 PM - Edit history (1)

EDIT: These are my own, unresearched answers, the real ones are at the link

As the unendurable monotony of the off-season ends, celebrate baseball’s return with mental calisthenics. Everyone knows it was former Atlanta Manager Dave Bristol who said, “Only trouble I ever had with chewing tobacco was that the orthodontist said my daughter was going to have to give it up because of her braces.” But do you know:

1. What pitcher in a 25-3 season had more complete games than home runs allowed?
Ron Guidry

2. What four players hit home runs in four decades?
Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Rickey Henderson, Dave Winfield

3. What three players hit home runs as teenagers and after their 40th birthdays?
Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Pete Rose

4. What two teams lost a World Series after being one strike away from winning?
Boston (86) and Cleveland (97)

5. Which National League team has won the most World Series games?
Cardinals

6. Which four players won multiple MVP awards between 1940 and 1949?
Williams, Musial, DiMaggio, Enos Slaughter

7. Since the Cy Young Award began in 1956, what player won 25 or more games three times but never won the award?
Robin Roberts

8. Which team has had the most Cy Young winners?
Giants

9. Which four National League pitchers have won two consecutive Cy Young Awards?
Gibson, Maddux, Koufax, Lincecum

10. Who received the highest percentage of Hall of Fame votes in history?
Clemente

11. What four former MVPs have won the Manager of the Year awards?
Mike Scosicia, Frank Robinson, Don Baylor, Joe Torre

12. Of the 106 switch-hitters with at least 5,000 at bats, which two hit .300 or better from both sides?
Roberto Alomar, Robin Ventura

13. What switch-hitter holds the record of hitting home runs from both sides in 13 games?
Eddie Murray

14. Which two Hall of Fame second basemen were on the woeful (66-96) 1964 Houston Colt .45s?
Joe Morgan and Dick Groat

15. Who pitched no-hitters at ages 43 and 44?
Nolan Ryan

16. What Hall of Famer participated in 12 double plays in 1929 playing right field ?
Willie Keeler

17. Who led the majors in hits in the 1980s?
Don Mattingly

18. Who has the highest stolen base success percentage (minimum 500 attempts)?
Maury Wills

19. Who holds the record for most shutouts (69) by a left-handed pitcher?
Warren Spahn

20. Who is the only reliever who had a season with more saves than baserunners allowed?
Dennis Eckersley

21. What two third basemen have hit 400 home runs while playing third base?
Eddie Matthews, Mike Schmidt

22. What was the last World Series in which a pitcher on each team pitched three complete games?
1966

23. Which two all-time leaders in sacrifice flies were teammates in their prime years?
Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill

24. What pitchers threw the most one-hitters?
Bob Feller

25. Which Minnesota Twin won batting titles in his first two full seasons?
Tony Oliva

26. Which Hall of Fame pitcher retired the side with nine pitches and nine strikes, once in each league?
Hoyt Wilhelm

27. Which two players hit more than 400 home runs and more than 150 triples?
Willie Mays, Barry Bonds

28. Who hit more than 40 home runs and batted over .400 in the same season?
Rogers Hornsby

29. Among active players with 100 or more career home runs, which two have more walks than strikeouts?
Kevin Youkilis, Evan Longoria

30. What pair of teammates hit home runs in the same game the most times?
Ruth-Gehrig

31. How many Hall of Fame pitchers did Joe DiMaggio face during his 56-game hitting streak?
11

32. Who played on the losing team while setting the record for most RBIs (12) in a seven-game World Series?
Willie McCovey, 1962

Bonus Question: What Hall of Famer said, “The Mets just had their first .500-or-better April since July of 1992”?
--What is, "Shit Ralph Kiner says!"

answers at the link
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/hey_fans_take_swing_at_these_l1jwK1IJ5WhpXOJqa7jX4K

[Blue_Tires]

1. My score: 7 correct, 7 partial credit, and the bonus

[Blue_Tires]

2. kick

[Scuba]

3. I knew numbers ...

5

10

13

15

and

19


Great trivia, thanks for posting.

Now, who had five hits in a single World Series game?

[Blue_Tires]

4. I'm guessing someone recent

David Eckstein?

[Scuba]

6. Over 30 years ago.

[UTUSN]

7. Not about sports, about "Debate Books" WILL being ascribed *any* redeeming characteristics...

Last edited Tue Apr 2, 2013, 09:22 PM - Edit history (1)

One of the hard-learned lessons on DU has been not to chime in on threads that I disagree with, e.g., when Hugo CHAVEZ supporters are celebrating something, therefore only chiming in when the O.P. is disapproving of CHAVEZ.

I'm no sports fanatic, just a detestor of Wingnuts, so he is a prime target for me. Since in this case "Debate Books" WILL was writing in his own column with its own announced headline, therefore allowing skimmers to drop in or skip on by, fine. But it was irritating years back on This Weak, when he would be given a segment to do his sports thing. LIMBOsevic says he also gets complaints when he talks about golf or NFL, fans telling him they want to hear his politics not his sports. So when This Weak would do his sports thing, I didn't want sports on a politics show, and nothing could make him humanized for me.

"sports on a politics show" - This is what bugs me about the GD SoP being undermined with The Cuteness of animals, or news-of-the-weird, or "personals"/vanity topics. The attempted, frequent "reasons" given: "GD is too serious, needs a little lightening up." No, it's not. There are plenty of ironic/satiric/parody/cartoons, whatever, with the themes of politics or current events. "We need a break from GD." Well, when that happens that's what the Lounge is for (a break) or whatever specialized fora or groups, or brazillions of places on the web, or, GASP, turning off the 'puter and living some real life for a tiny bit!1 Exactly what is the purpose of designating forums/groups if self-appointed underminers declare they will not abide by the design, and even - EVEN - make themselves into Hosts of a forum whose SoP they clearly detest or (charitably) don't understand?!1 The most devious type of undermining.

But I digress.

So my whole quibble here is to have the word "redeeming" applied to him. Yes, I am aware he has a disabled child. HITLER loved dogs and LIMBOsevic loves Xmas.

Please, I'm not flaming, just attacking WILL. As for the "Debate Books" thing, remember in 2000 that some Shrub operative (KKKarl?!1) sent the Shrub debate prep notebooks to the GORE campaign and the GORE campaign promptly reported it and turned it over for investigation? Well, in '80 SOMEhow the CARTER debate prep notebooks ended up in the RAYGUN spider hole, in the very hands of the aforesaid G.F. WILL, except that he did NOT immediately turn them in for investigation, certainly not until he had thoroughly studied them. So you see why I quibble about "redeeming".

Again, please I'm NOT trying to start a flame war. I realize that the thread topic is sports for sports fans. I just detest "Debate Books" WILL.