Pitching Records Trivia

1. This great Dodger southpaw had his career ended by injury while still in his prime. But first he broke and made all kinds of records including receiving the MVP, a rarity for a pitcher in the Cy Young Award era. Who was this great lefty?

From Quiz Top Left Handed Pitchers

Answer: Sandy Koufax

Koufax, in his last 5 years before retiring due to arthritis had an incredible 1.95 ERA and a 111-34 win-loss record. The other three were all great Dodger pitchers at some point. Valenzuela was the only pitcher to win both the Cy Young Award and the Rookie of the Year in the same year. Kershaw will eventually make this list of top lefties once he retires. We wish him many healthy years of exciting pitching. Drysdale, a teammate of Koufax who set his own record of 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless inninngs, was a righty.

From Quiz The Old Arms of Baseball

Answer: Christy Mathewson

Mathewson was inducted into the Hall amongst the other first four inaugural inductees in 1936. One of those four was the great Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators. Mathewson was a New York Giant pitcher and was on 90.7% of the balloting. Johnson made it in with 83.6%. The other three inducted were outfielder Ty Cobb (98.2%), outfielder Babe Ruth (95.1%), and infielder Honus Wagner (95.1%). Cy Young and Nap Lajoie barely missed the 75% cut-off, then were both inducted in 1937.

From Quiz Who Gave It Up?

Answer: Ralph Branca

The Dodgers led the National League for much of the 1951 season, but beginning in mid-August they began to falter slightly while the Giants caught fire. At the end of the season the two teams had identical records, forcing a best of three playoff. The game three starter for the Dodgers was Newcombe who was relieved by Branca in the ninth inning. Branca's autbiography "A Moment In Time" is not only an excellent account of one of the most dramatic finishes in baseball history, but a fascinating recollection of his own life.

From Quiz The Arms of Baseball

Answer: Cy Young

After watching Lee Richmond and John Ward throw perfect games in the National League in the 1880's, Young threw the first American League perfecto in 1904 while with the Boston Americans. This was after playing in the National League for 11 seasons, mostly with the Cleveland Spiders. Young's perfect game came at the expense of the Philadelphia Athletics at the age of 37. He had 25+ wins in 12 seasons throughout his career. Denton True "Cy" Young retired in 1911 after 22 seasons with a leading 511-316 pitching record. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1937, the second round of inductions into the Hall. He died in 1955 at the age of 88.

From Quiz Memorable Pitching Moments

Answer: Joe Nuxhall

This occurred during World War II when many pitchers over 18 were either drafted or enlisted. Joe was too young to go to war but he wasn't too young to play for Cincinnati.

From Quiz Perfection!

Answer: 1968

Catfish Hunter had 3 RBIs, helping his own cause. The opposing starting pitcher was Dave Boswell. Hunter had 11 strikeouts in the game against the Twins on May 8th, 1968. The score was 4-0.

From Quiz Pitchers and Pitches

Answer: Curveball

Since managers tend to favor overpowering fastball pitchers, Blyleven's reputation as a curveball artist may have been hard on his career. Despite having more strikeouts and shutout games than most Hall of Famers, Blyleven was traded frequently and only selected for the All-Star Game twice.

From Quiz 20-Game Winners or Losers?

Answer: Robin Roberts

Robin played 14 of his 19 seasons with the Phillies. He gave up 505 career home runs, and this record was broken by Jamie Moyer in 2010. Robin's career win/loss record was 286-245. He was runner-up for the MVP in 1952 to Hank Sauer of the Cubs. Roberts was a 20-game winner from 1951-1955, then went 10-22 in 1957. Robin died in May 2010 just before Moyer broke his home run record. Ironically, Moyer was with the Phillies also.

From Quiz Hey, Who Threw That?

Answer: Dallas Braden

The others were long retired. After an incident a couple of weeks earlier, words were exchanged between Braden and Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees for A-Rod running across his pitcher's mound in a game. Braden took offense to it, then he and his Oakland Athletics would throw a perfecto against the Tampa Bay Rays two weeks later.

From Quiz MLB 30-Game Winners

Answer: Christy Mathewson

Mathewson won 30 games four times in the early 1900s. Though aided by the strong New York Giants, Mathewson would win 373 games in 17 seasons. Cy Young won 20 games five times: 1892, 1893, 1895, 1901 and 1902.

From Quiz The MLB 300-Victory Club

Answer: "The Big Train"

Walter "Big Train" Johnson is considered by some historians to be the greatest pitcher in big league history. His fastball whizzed by hitters like an express train, helping him to win 417 Major League games. Johnson played for the Washington Senators from 1907-1927, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. Christy Mathewson was nicknamed "Big Six".

From Quiz Larsen, Wells, Cone: Perfect!

Answer: Larsen, Wells, Cone

Larsen's was in 1956, Wells in 1998, and Cone in 1999.

From Quiz The "Right" Stuff

Answer: Bert Blyleven

The others were all left-handers. Bert gave up 50 in 1986, but the Twins held on to him. To show his appreciation, he almost broke his own record by giving up 46 in 1987. Half his 22 seasons saw him in a Twins uniform. He retired in 1992.

From Quiz Oh No!

Answer: Anibal Sanchez

The others were neither rookies or Marlins in 2006. The 22-year old Sanchez went 10-3 in 18 games for the club. Florida had five pitchers win in double-figures, but none more than 12.

From Quiz Lower-Profile No-Hitters

Answer: Mariners

Gooden beat Sterling Hitchcock and the Mariners that day.

From Quiz The Losing Side of Perfection

Answer: Mike Hampton

Johnson struck out 13 that day. At age 40, he became the oldest pitcher to throw a perfect game and the first left-hander to throw no-hitters in both leagues.

From Quiz Round and Round We Go!

Answer: Dave McNally

The others never pitched for the Orioles. Amazingly enough, although McNally went 21-5 in the season, he was still fourth in the Cy Young voting, with Vida Blue of the Athletics winning it along with the MVP award also. The Orioles finished the 1971 season with a 101-57 record, but lost in the World Series to the Pirates, four games to three.

From Quiz MLB Pitching Greats

Answer: Cy Young

Cy recorded his 400th win on September 20th, 1904. Walter Johnson did it on April 27th, 1926, and the other two never reached the 400-win mark.

From Quiz 20th Century Runner-up Pitchers

Answer: Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson

In 1904, Mathewson posted 33 wins for the New York Giants, only to be second to teammate Joe McGinnity's 35 victories. In 1912, it happened again, as Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators, or Nationals, as they were also known, finished one win back of Boston's "Smokey" Joe Wood.

From Quiz Is the Season Over Yet?

Answer: Mike Maroth

After going 6-10 in his rookie season in 2002, Maroth, a Detroit Tiger pitcher, went 9-21 in 2003. The Tigers mustered one of the worst season records in history, by winning only 43 games. Maroth led the Tigers with wins in 2003. Brian Kingman of the Athletics went 8-20 in 1980.

From Quiz Baseball's Premier Pitchers

Answer: 13

In that same year, he complied an incredible ERA of 1.12! He won the Cy Young Award that year and is also a nine-time Gold Glove winner for his excellent fielding. He won those awards every year from 1965-73. He was thought to be the most frightening pitcher of his time.

From Quiz Devastating Pitchers

Answer: Cut Fastball

Rivera's cutter comes to the plate as a 95-mph four-seam fastball. Once in a while, it WILL be a four-seam fastball. However, it probably would be a cutter, which will explode away from right-handed batters or into the thumbs of a left-handed batter. Since it comes at you at 95-mph, batters have don't have time to guess if it is a four-seam fastball or cutter.

From Quiz Tough Pitchers

Answer: Roy Face

Face pitched for the Pirates in 1959 and finished the season with a record of 18-1. At one point in the season he was 17-0.

From Quiz How Do You Spell Relief?

Answer: Jack Russell

Jack Russell of Washington was selected to the All-Star game in 1934. He never actually was called in from the bullpen. The first pitcher to actually pitch was Mace Brown of the Pirates in 1938.

From Quiz Don't Shut Me Out!

Answer: Pete Alexander

Pete shutout 16 teams in 1916 with Phildelphia of the National League. Jack Coombs set the American League record of 13 in 1910.

From Quiz Pitchers

Answer: Orel Hershiser

From Quiz Gopher Balls

Answer: Al Downing

From Quiz Top Left Handed Pitchers

Answer: Randy Johnson

Johnson, nicknamed 'The Big Unit', is one of the few pitchers who won a Cy Young Award in both leagues - with Seattle in the AL and with Arizona in the NL. He led Arizona to a World Series over the Yankees in 2001 going 3-0 with an incredible 1.04 ERA

From Quiz The Old Arms of Baseball

Answer: John Ward

Ward was the primary starter for the Providence Grays in 1879 and helped them to win the National League pennant in the season. John topped the 200-mark twice in his career. With some rules changes for the 1879 season, his new season record of 239 started a wave of pitchers throwing 200+ strikeouts for the next nine consecutive seasons. The others listed never threw 100 strikeouts in a National League season.

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Last Updated Dec 21 2024 5:47 AM

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