1970s in a Bucket Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tom Seaver

Seaver and the Mets had their stuff on April 22. Tom threw a two-hitter against the Padres, and gave up their only run by an Al Ferrara second inning home run. They won the game 2-1. The year also saw Curt Flood of the Cardinals file suit against Major League Baseball involving the contract reserve clause. Aaron's 3000th hit came off Wayne Granger of the Reds on May 17th.

In Jim Ray Hart's huge fifth inning on July 8 against the Braves, he hit a three-run home run off Phil Niekro, then a three-run triple off Aubrey Gatewood for a total of six RBIs.

He went on to hit for the cycle in the game in the 13-0 Giants win. The Orioles' Frank Robinson's grand slams were against the Washington Senators.

Answer: Nobody received enough votes

The Hall of Fame opened its doors in 1936 when it inducted Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, and Honus Wagner. In 1971, no person received the 270 votes that were required for them to be inducted. In fact, no person was even close to the 270-mark.

The closest number was 242, and those ballots belonged to Yankee star Yogi Berra (Berra would be inducted in 1972). Ernie Banks, known as 'Mr. Cub', hit his 512th home run on August 24 off pitcher Jim McGlothlin of the Reds. The Pirates' World Series crown against the Orioles was the team's fourth series crown.

In 1971, Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn also made new policy and opened the Hall of Fame doors up to players of the Negro Leagues.

Answer: Reggie Jackson

In another one of Reggie's, 'Hey, look at me!' antics, he brought his natural moustache to an Oakland Athletics game. This was enhanced into a trend by Athletics owner Charlie Finley in offering money to all his players who would grow one. This brought on Rollie Fingers' famous handlebar moustache amongst others. Jackson was the first player since Wally Schang in 1914 to wear one. In Ryan's game, he gave up a first inning one-out single to Boston's Carl Yastrzemski, then retired the next 26 batters in a row. Clemente's final hit of his career, a double, came off Jon Matlack of the Mets on September 30.

It was the 3000th hit of his career. Clemente was killed three months later in a plane crash. In another strange occurrence, a last place team had a Cy Young Award winner. Steve Carlton threw a 27-10 season for his last place Phillies.

The Twin's Rod Carew was also the first player to win an AL batting crown without hitting a home run in the season.

Answer: Rich Reese

Reese struck out only 23 times in the season, but it would give Ryan number 383, breaking Koufax's 1965 record by one strikeout.
Robinson was a California Angel at the time, and was in his 18th season when he completed the pie slices. Wood's attempt to duplicate early baseball pitching by starting both doubleheader games turned into a fiasco. The White Sox lost both games, 12-0 and 7-0. On August 17th, Willie Mays' 660th home run, his career final, was dished up by Don Gullett of the Reds.

Answer: Cardinals

Interleague play had not yet been introduced. The Mets hosted the Cardinals, with the Mets starting Jerry Koosman against the Cardinals' Bob Forsch. Forsch went six innings, Koosman went nine, then the fun began. The game was tied at 3-3 going into the 10th, and it would remain that score until the top of the 25th when Bake McBride singled.

In a crazy play, the Mets had him picked off first, but first baseman John Milner choked out an error, then McBride ran to second. Then, another throwing error allowed him to score.

The final was Cardinals 4, Mets 3. The game set many other records than the obvious also. The game lasted seven hours and 25 minutes, with the Mets batting 103 times. The game began with an attendance of 13,460, and ended with less than 1000 at the 3:00am local time finish. As for the great Hank Aaron, his 714th home run which tied the great Babe Ruth, came off pitcher Jack Billingham of the Reds.

It was a shame that Aaron could not tie or break Ruth's record in the previous season. Thus, he and his family went through tons of racial issues and death threats during the offseason.

A few days after number 714, came the new record for Hank.

Answer: Cleveland Indians

After making a name for himself playing with the Reds and Orioles for many seasons, he took the helm of the Cleveland Indians in 1975, replacing Ken Aspromonte. He would manage the Indians for three seasons, then four with the Giants before taking over the Orioles in 1988.

He was Manager of the Year in 1989 with Baltimore. During Frank's baseball career, the awards he won were the 1956 NL Rookie of the Year, 1961 NL MVP, 1966 AL Babe Ruth Award, 1966 AL Triple Crown Award, 1966 Major League Player of the Year Award, 1966 AL MVP, 1966 World Series MVP, 1971 All-Star Game MVP, and 1989 Manager of the Year Award. Robinson was also inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1982.

Answer: Thurman Munson

Munson was the 1970 American League Rookie of the Year. He also won the AL MVP in 1976. Like fellow-Yankee Lou Gehrig, Munson's career ended early in life, and Munson died in a plane crash.
The Yankees would go on to lose in the World Series against the Reds. It was the second time in history that the Yankees were skunked in a World Series, the first being by the 1963 Dodgers. Aaron hit number 755 off pitcher Dick Drago of the Angels on July 20. In another rare feat, on April 17, Mike Schmidt of the Phillies hit four home runs in four consecutive at-bats.

Answer: Game 6

The Yankees met the Dodgers in the World Series, and put them down four games to two. Jackson, nicknamed 'Mr. October', wasn't picky as he hit his three home runs off three different Dodger pitchers in game six. The Dodger victims were Burt Hooton, Charlie Hough, and Elias Sosa. Reggie's other two blasts came in game four and game five.

He had nine hits and batted .450 in the series to also win the series MVP. Frank Robinson became the first African-American manager when the Indians hired him in 1975.

After only 57 games of the 1977 season, the Indians fired him and replaced him with Jeff Torborg. Mary Shane was the first female regular play-by-play announcer when she was hired by the White Sox media team. Fans also mourned the loss of Hall of Famers Bucky Harris and Ernie Lombardi in the year.

Answer: Ron Guidry

On June 17, Guidry and his Yankees faced the Angels at Yankee Stadium. Including Joe Rudi being fanned four times, and Ike Hampton another three, Guidry put down 18 Angels in the 4-0 Yankee win. Ron went on to strike out 248 in the season. Ripken was drafted in the second round in the 1978 draft, but would not begin his Major League career until 1981.

He would go on to break Lou Gehrig's consecutive game playing streak. On May 5, Rose collected his 3000th career hit off Montreal pitcher Steve Rogers.

A month later, Rose would start his 44-game hitting streak. The District Court ruling came after "Sports Illustrated" filed suit against the Yankees for banning their female reporters from the Yankee locker room. Judge Constance Baker Motley ruled that women reporters could no longer be banned from the locker rooms of all New York City sports teams.

Answer: Gary Templeton

Gary Templeton of the St. Louis Cardinals was in his fourth season of baseball in 1979. He knew that he had a chance for the record, so in the last nine games of the season, he batted right-handed to get the record. He had 211 total hits in the season which led the league. 'Disco Demolition Night' was a White Sox promotion day at Comiskey Park which resulted in fan rioting, damage to the field, and the Tigers being awarded a 9-0 forfeit. Walter O'Malley was the person solely responsible for bringing the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958, and was instrumental in the move for the Giants also. On July 24, Carl Yastrzemski also hit his 400th career home run. That pitch was dished up by Mike Morgan of the Athletics. Baseball also lost 1976 AL MVP Yankee catcher Thurman Munson who was killed in a plane crash.