A Medium Aroma of Baseball Trivia Quiz

Answer: Willie Mays

The three teams involved were the New York Giants, New York Yankees, and Brooklyn Dodgers. Mays hit 660, Mantle 536, and Snider 407. Home runs, hits, stolen bases, fielding, etc, stats are stats, and the fans still debate them all as to who was the best. However, it really doesn't matter who really was, but the chance to debate them all.

Answer: Frank Chance

Chance played the game from 1898-1914, mostly with Chicago of the National League. He led the league in stolen bases twice, and runs scored once. He was player-manager of the Cubs from 1905-1912, then player-manager of the Yankees in 1913 and 1914. He came back as a manager for one season, then retired in 1923 with the Red Sox. Chance was inducted in 1946. Frank Robinson, the only other baseball player listed, was a tremendous player in the 1960s and 1970s, was inducted into the hall in 1982. Frank Selvy was a former Los Angeles Laker basketball player in the 1960s. Frank Drebin was a character played by Leslie Nielsen in "Police Squad" movies.

Answer: Walter Johnson

With no designated-hitter in Johnson's era, he combined for 547 hits over his career, and even hit 24 home runs. Walter retired with a .235 average. Warren Spahn of the Braves was a pretty good hitting pitcher also, and retired with a .234 average. Warren's hit total of 363 matched his career wins mark. Ryan, who spent half of his time in the American League, had only 94 hits. Both Foxx and Speaker were not pitchers.

Answer: Detroit Tigers

The Tigers, managed by Del Baker won the American League by one game over the Indians, and two games over the Yankees. The fourth place Red Sox were 21 games out. The Tigers went head-to-head against the 1940 NL Champion Reds, and would lose four games to three.

Answer: Jimmie Foxx

The Hall of Famer played his first 11 of 20 seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics from 1925-1935. He hit a tremendous 58 in 1932 and won the AL MVP for his efforts. In 1933, he won it again along with batting for the Triple Crown. Jimmie won another MVP in 1938 with the Red Sox. Mark McGwire was next for the Athletics when he hit 52 home runs for the team in 1996.

The others listed never hit 50 home runs in a season for any team.

Answer: Andy Karl

The others listed were all career American League pitchers. Karl pitched for only five seasons, and set a National League record by throwing 167 innings in relief for the Phillies in 1945. Karl went 8-8 with 15 saves in the season, while Marshall went 15-12 with 21 saves in his record-breaking 1974 season. An American League record was set with 168.3 innings set by Bob Stanley of the Red Sox in 1982. Stanley's record stood for at least 25 seasons.

Answer: 1

Ruth hit 54 home runs in 1920, his first season with the Yankees, then 59 in 1921, but there was no MVP Award presented due to both leagues arguing over the requirements and limitations for the award. When the award was reinstated by the American League in 1922, George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns won it.

In 1923, Ruth finally received his recognition by winning the award, hitting 41 home runs and batting .393 in the season. Due to limitations back then, a player could only win the award once.

His 60 home runs in 1927 was over-looked because of this, and teammate Lou Gehrig won the MVP Award. In 1928, although the Babe hit another 54, Mickey Cochrane of the Philadelphia Athletics won the MVP Award.

Answer: Yankees

The Yankees reached the 50-mark on July 4, a week before the All-Star break. At that point the team was 50-31. They hit the 50-mark with a win over the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-6. 100-win seasons had been rather scarce for the previous 10 seasons. The Orioles' record on July 4 was a dismal 25-56, Pittsburgh was 30-52, and the Royals were 36-46.

Answer: Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux

Both were great pitchers for the Cubs in their day. Jenkins donned the Cubs uniform in 10 of his 19 seasons. He won the NL Cy Young in 1971 with the Cubs. Maddux played 10 of his 23 seasons with the Cubs, then another 11 with Atlanta. Greg won his first Cy Young Award in 1992 with the Cubs, then they let him go to free agency. Maddux then won three more consecutive Cy Young awards with the Braves from 1993-1995.

He also finished second, third, and fourth for the Cy Young between 1997-2000 with the Braves.

The others listed were not Cubs player combinations, and none were pitchers.

Answer: Gavvy Cravath

The others listed were all career American League players. Cravath played most of his career with the Philadelphia Phillies. He won his three consecutive crowns in 1913, 1914, and 1915. After losing the 1916 home run title to Cy Williams of the Cubs and Dave Robertson of the Giants by just one home run, Gavvy would win three more from 1917-1919.

He retired after the 1920 season with 11 seasons under his belt.