Baseball Hall of Fame Challenge Quiz

Answer: Lou Gehrig

Clemente, Joss, and Delahanty were elected to the Hall of Fame after all passing away as active players and therefore none of them ever formally retired. Due to the crippling effects of ALS (subsequently named Lou Gehrig's Disease), Gehrig was forced to retire from the game in 1939.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in a special election after the season during baseball's winter meetings. He passed away in June 2, 1941, exactly 16 years after first claiming his first baseman spot from Wally Pipp in the Yankees lineup.

Answer: Cal Hubbard

All four players have been elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame and all four players either played or were otherwise affiliated with Major League Baseball. Hubbard was a standout offensive lineman for mainly the Giants and Packers during the formative years of pro football. Following his retirement he was a top umpire in the American League umpiring 4 World Series (1939, 1942, 1946, and 1949).

The iconic Chicago Bear owner, George Halas played 12 games for the New York Yankees in 1919. Jim Thorpe played in the Major Leagues for 6 years amassing a .252 batting average. Ernie Nevers spent part of 3 seasons with the St. Louis Browns and actually gave up 2 of the home runs that Babe Ruth hit in his 60 home run season of 1927.

Answer: Phil Rizzuto

Rizzuto was named to the Hall of Fame in 1994. However, he was prominently featured as a baseball announcer on Meatloaf's 1977 8 minute and 28 second single Paradise By the Dashboard Light. The song was a track on Meatloaf's album Bat Out of Hell. Rizzuto's distinctive commentary, including his classic catchphrase "Holy Cow", was used in the song as a metaphor for a young man trying to "score" with his girlfriend.

The 1977 album despite lukewarm initial reception has gone on to sell, as of December 2008, over 34 million worldwide copies and was certified as a Diamond Record by the RIAA (over 10 million copies sold in the U.S.) in 2001.

Answer: Connie Mack

Connie Mack was elected to the Hall of Fame in the second Hall of Fame class in 1937. At the time he was still the manager of the Philadelphia Athletics. He would remain the A's manager for 13 more years through his retirement in 1950. He was active in baseball for 56 years as a player, manager, and team owner. John McGraw retired from baseball in 1932 and passed away in 1934.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1937. Casey Stengel retired from managing the New York Mets in 1965. In less than perfect health, there had been some controversy at the time about waiving the 5 year waiting period to permit his election. Stengel was in fact named to the Hall in 1966 the year after he retired.

He passed away in 1975.

Answer: Dominican Republic

Despite the current talent that is in the Major Leagues from the DR, only Juan Marichal had been elected to the Hall of Fame during this period. Two of the founders of the game Harry Wright and Henry Chadwick hailed from England as did umpire Tommy Connolly. Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda hailed from Puerto Rico. 4 inducted players including 3 Negro League players were born in Cuba.

These players were Tony Perez, Cristobal Torriente, Jose Mendez, and Martin Dihigo. Other countries besides the U.S. claiming Hall of Fame players include Canada (Ferguson Jenkins), Venezuela (Luis Aparicio), and Panama (Rod Carew).

Answer: Dave Winfield

A fantastic athlete, Winfield was actually drafted by the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA and the Utah Stars of the ABA. He was even drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in football in the 17th and final round of the 1973 NFL draft. However he never played for the Globetrotters. Bob Gibson delayed his baseball career to play with the Trotters in 1957. Jenkins and Brock played for the Trotters during his baseball career in 1968 and 1969 offseasons.

Answer: 4

In order, the full time managers the Giants employed had John McGraw (1902-1932), Bill Terry (1932-1941), Mel Ott (1942-1948), and Leo Durocher (1948-1955). Each of them managed over 1,000 games.

Hall of Famer Hughie Jennings filled in for McGraw in the 1924 and 1925 seasons and during these seasons managed 76 games. Due to an extended period of an illness to McGraw, the Giants tapped Rogers Hornsby to manage them for a 33 game stretch in 1927.

Answer: A Negro League team owner

Effa Manley was the first woman ever elected to the Hall of Fame in 2006. She had been an owner of the Negro Leagues Newark Eagles franchise with her husband and subsequently on her own after his passing. Several Major League ballplayers including Larry Doby, Don Newcombe, and Monte Irvin played on her team.

A well known civil rights activist, she used her position, team and the field that the team played to stage civic civil rights demonstrations.

Answer: Robinson, Johnson, Smith, Jones

The surname Robinson has 4 Hall of Famers tied to it including Brooks, Frank, Wilbert, and Jackie. Johnson comes in 2nd place with 3 - Walter, Ban, and Judy. Smith has 2 recently elected members - Hilton and Ozzie. No person with the last name of Jones has as yet been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Answer: 9

A team between dynasties, the 1930 version of the Yankees still had most of the starting rotation from the famous 1927 team including Waite Hoyt (1) and Herb Pennock (2). They also had the young core of their staff that would lead them to 5 World Series wins in the decade of the 30's including Lefty Gomez (3) and Red Ruffing (4).

The 1930 Yankees started 5 hitters who eventually made the Hall including Bill Dickey (C)(5), Earle Combs (CF) (6), Tony Lazzeri (2B) (7), Lou Gehrig (1B) (8), and of course Babe Ruth (RF)(9).

Despite having those 9 Hall of Fame players, they finished 16 games back of the pennant winning A's in 3rd place. Maybe the Yankees needed a Hall of Fame manager that season? The A's only had 5 Hall of Famers play for them that season, 6 if you include Connie Mack.

Answer: Ross Youngs

Youngs died at the age of 30 of a type of kidney ailment, Bright's Disease, in 1927. He was elected by the Veteran's Committee to the Hall in 1972 with some controversy stemming from the fact that he had qualified for the Hall of Fame's 10 year service requirement only after his rookie season was counted when he played only 7 games for the 1917 Giants. Addie Joss was 31 when he passed away of meningitis.

He was elected to the hall despite only playing 9 years in baseball and remains, through 2008, the only exception to the 10 year service rule. King Kelly was 36 years old when he died of pneumonia in 1894.

This was the earliest year any eventual Hall of Famer has passed away. Clemente was 38 when he died in the unfortunate plane crash that took his life on December 31, 1972.

Answer: Rollie Fingers

Mays' last regular season hit came in 1973 off of San Diego pitcher Rich Troedson on August 29th. His last hit in any Major League game actually came in the 1973 World Series when the Mets played the A's. In Game 2, Mays entered the game as a pinch runner in a tie game in the 9th inning but failed to score.

In the 12th inning, Mays came up against Fingers with 2 runners on base and drove home the lead runner. The Mets ended up scoring 4 runs in the inning and took the game 10-7. Mays went 2 for 7 during the series.

Answer: Tom Seaver

In 1992, Tom Seaver set a voting percentage record for Hall of Fame inductees by achieving 98.8% of the eligible vote. Babe Ruth was elected in the first HOF Class of 1936 and among the 5 inductees finished tied with Honus Wagner for 2nd behind Ty Cobb with 95.1% of the writers votes. Cobb had the highest votes in the class with 98.2%. Hank Aaron gained induction with 97.8% of the vote.

Answer: Abner Doubleday

There is significant question amongst historians if Doubleday had any affiliation to baseball whatsoever. A Major General during the American Civil War, Doubleday's association with baseball was never personally claimed by himself. His affilation was generally made through questionable 3rd party witness accounts, during an early 20th Century attempt to prove that baseball had a single American inventor. Most historians today credit the invention of baseball as an evolution from the British games of cricket and rounders. Alexander Cartwright was credited for developing the early rules of the game and founding the first organized team, the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club in 1842.

Henry Chadwick was credited as having developed and reported many of the baseball statistics that are so commonly used today. Harry Wright is credited with having developed much of baseball's basic strategy as the manager for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, baseball's first professional team.

Answer: Bill Dickey

This was the 2nd annual All-Star game and it was played in the Polo Grounds in New York. Hubbell fanned Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, Simmons, and Cronin consecutively in the 1st and 2nd innings of the game. Bill Dickey broke the streak with a single, but Hubbell proceeded to strike out the pitcher Lefty Gomez to retire the side.

Despite the effort, the American League squad battered the next three NL pitchers for 9 runs over 3 innings and won the game 9-7. The AL would go on to win 7 of the first 10 games played.