1980s on the Diamond Trivia Quiz

Answer: Don Sutton

With the first 15 of those consecutive seasons being as a Dodger, Sutton finished the 1985 season with the California Angels and would continue the streak for one more additional season. Over 23 seasons, Don was a 20-game winner only one time. He retired with a 324-256 record in 1988. He was inducted into the Hall in 1998.

Answer: Rickey Henderson

It is understandable that the more attempts to steal the more times failed. Rickey was an Oakland Athletic in 1982 when he set a season record for stealing 130 bases. In his 172 attempts he was caught 42 times. He retired in 2003 with 1406 stolen bases, becoming the first person to reach 1000. Henderson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.

Answer: Royals

The Phillies tasted it all for the first time in their 98-year history in 1980. The Royals were no light team as they put the Yankees down in three straight games in that ALCS. The Phillies won the series four games to two and third baseman Mike Schmidt was the series MVP. Pitcher Steve Carlton won two games for the Phillies also.

Answer: Giants

Four of the World Series in the decade went seven games. The Giants met the Athletics in 1989 in what was called the 'Earthquake Series'. A bay area quake hit the region during warm-ups in game three on October 17. The series was suspended for 10 days. After being up two games to none prior to the quake, Oakland continued their domination and finished off the Giants in four games.

Answer: Joel Youngblood

On August 4, 1982, Youngblood was in a game for the Mets against the Cubs in Chicago. He had a two-RBI single in the game just five minutes before being notified that he was just traded to the Expos for a player to be named later. The Expos were playing in Philadelphia in a night game so Youngblood hopped on a plane and off he went.

He arrived on the field in a Montreal uniform in time to get one at-bat and play right field. He hit a single for the Expos. Montreal completed the trade 12 days later by giving the Mets pitcher Tom Gorman.

Answer: Dodgers

After the 50-day strike in the 1981 season, all parties involved were concerned that the 1982 season would contain empty seats in the stands. The fans proved them wrong in Los Angeles by the Dodgers having a season attendance of 3,608,881. The Dodgers won 88 games and finished one game behind the NL West winning Braves.

Answer: Nolan Ryan

The great Nolan Ryan won his eighth strikeout crown in 1987 with the Astros after winning seven titles in the 1970s. Ryan won his second crown of the 1980s in 1988 with the Astros again, then his third in 1989 with the Rangers. The first pitcher in history to reach 5000 strikeouts, Nolan retired in 1993 with 5714.

Answer: Mets

The Mets went 108-54 in 1986. Along with very balanced bats, the Mets had six pitchers win in double-figures led by Bob Ojeda and his 18 wins. The pitching staff finished in the top three of 12 major categories. They went on to put down the Astros in the NLCS, then the Red Sox in the World Series four games to three.

Answer: Rollie Fingers

Fingers worked out of the bullpen most of his 17-season career. In 1981 with the Brewers Rollie saved 28 games with a ERA of 1.04. He won the MVP ahead of Oakland's Rickey Henderson and the Cy Young ahead of Oakland's Steve McCatty. Roger Clemens also won the MVP and Cy Young in 1986 for the Red Sox.

Answer: White Sox

The Manager of the Year Award began its presentation in 1983 with Tommy Lasorda winning it with the Dodgers in the NL, and La Russa of the White Sox taking it for the AL. The White Sox finished first in the AL West in 1983. La Russa's second award came in 1989 with the Athletics who went on to blank the Giants four games to none in the World Series.