Not-So-Basic Nightmare Baseball [6] Quiz

Answer: Seven

Bill Mazeroski spoiled the Yankee's dream by hitting a ninth inning shot off Yankee pitch Ralph Terry in the seventh game. The Yankees had outscored Pittsburgh by 55 runs to 27 across the series, the most at the time of any team in the history of the World Series. Additionally, it was the first time that any World Series had ended with a home run. All of this would give the Pirates their third World Series title (after 1909 and 1925).

Answer: Minnesota Twins

With one of the highest batting averages of his generation, Kirby Puckett was pushed into the Hall of Fame in 2001, only six years after retiring from the game. Puckett's entire career was spent as a center fielder for the Minnesota Twins (1984-1995), during which he was a two-time World Series champion and an MLB All-Star for ten consecutive years in the 1980s and 1990s. Puckett passed away unexpectedly in 2006 at the age of forty-five.

Answer: Bill Dinneen

Dinneen was the first, in 1903, pitching for the Red Sox during an eight-game World Series (though at the time they were called the Boston Americans). After ending his tenure as a player in the American League, Dinneen would find great success as an umpire for the sport, continuing with baseball for another twenty-eight years.

He was a major success on the field, however, not only being the record-holder for most strikeouts in a World Series game (eleven), but pitching a no-hitter in 1905. As an umpire he was part of eight World Series and became the first plate umpire of an All-Star Game.

Answer: Hits

Waner compiled 223 hits for the record, in accordance of baseball standards for at-bats and number of days on the roster. Then a player for the Pittsburgh Pirates (where he would spend most of his MLB career), he was part of the team alongside his brother, Paul. Perhaps most notable is that the Waner brothers had, at one point, had the shared record of most hits by MLB brothers in the game's history.

While Lloyd was nicknamed 'Little Poison' on the field, his brother Paul was nicknamed 'Big Poison'.

Answer: Rookie of the Year

Seaver, who had a two-decades-long career in Major League Baseball, played for four different teams from 1967 to 1986, amassing a World Series win in 1969 (with the Miracle Mets), twelve All-Star rankings, and the National League Rookie of the Year award, being the first pitcher to do so since Jack Sanford in 1957. Seaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992 with a vote of nearly 99%, then the highest percentage on the first ballot the institution had ever seen.

Answer: Mel Stottlemyre

This was the first grand slam dished up to a pitcher by the Red Sox. Stottlemyre also pitched a complete game for the Yankees as they beat Boston 6-3 on that day, July 20, 1915.

An inside-the-park grand slam is a pretty stellar feat, especially for a pitcher, as it requires that not only the bases be loaded, but a home run be executed by the at-bat. Stottlemyre would become an All-Star in 1965, partly due to this feat. After eleven years as a player (1964-1974), Stottlemyre would coach in the MLB for another twenty-five seasons, winning World Series for five of them.

Answer: San Francisco Giants

The Giants shifted from New York to San Francisco in 1958 and Swift wasn't born until 1961-- there wouldn't have even been a chance to have played for the franchise when their home on the other coast. In the midst of relievers and closers, Bill was only allowed to complete one game in the 1993 season on a team that he was only with for three years.

He had more success out of the MLB than he did inside it, managing to help the U.S. Olympic Baseball team to a silver medal in Los Angeles in 1984. They were beaten by Japan.

Answer: Barry Bonds

Babe's record lasted for a total of eighty-one years before Bonds broke it in 2001 with a slugging percentage of .863. Bonds would claim the top percentage the three years after as well (.799, .749, .812). A left fielder who played for twenty-one seasons (with the Pittsburgh Pirates 1986-1992 then the San Francisco Giants 1993-2007), Bonds has been considered amongst the all-time greats though his record has been the subject of controversy due to his use of performance-enhancing steroids.

He was a fourteen-times All-Star but never won the World Series.

Answer: Mickey Lolich

Lolich played thirteen seasons with the Detroit Tigers and took his only World Series win with them in 1968, becoming the World Series MVP for his successes. Lolich was the only Tiger to ever accomplish his feat, having the minimal rest against the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series finals. During this particular run he also managed to snag three complete-game victories. An accomplished left-handed pitcher, he had the most left-handed strike-outs in the league by the time he retired in 1979.

Answer: Chicago

An All-Star third baseman, Eddie Mathews was a force to be reckoned with for the seventeen years 1952-1968 of his Major League Baseball playing career (he would coach for years after). Playing alongside Hank Aaron, the two of them would go on to surpass some of Babe Ruth's long-standing baseball records. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1978 by which point he'd won two World Series-- one with the Braves in 1957 and one with the Tigers in 1968.

The Braves, meanwhile, had a tumultuous time between the 1950s and 1960s. Though they were the Boston team for more than half a century, they moved to Milwaukee in 1953, until 1966, at which point they settled in Atlanta.