500 vs 500 Trivia Quiz

Answer: None listed

This is somewhat an unreachable milestone. Although all great hitters, these sluggers hit between 254-257 in 10 seasons, between 1920-1930. George Sisler set the 20th century record by smacking 257 in 1920, batting .407 for the St. Louis Browns. Sisler, a primary first baseman who also pitched at times, played from 1915-1930.

He retired with a career batting average of .340, and was a Hall of Fame inductee in 1939.

Answer: Cy Young

The others listed fell short of Young's 511 career wins by more than 175 wins. Young was the first pitcher to reach the 500 win milestone. In the 20th century, Walter Johnson was the only other pitcher to reach the 400 win milestone. Young retired in 1911 with a 511-316 career record.

Answer: Al Kaline

Kaline, the 22 season career Detroit Tiger, fell short of the 400 mark by only one. He retired in 1974, and was a 1980 Hall of Fame inductee. McCovey, the Giants' slugger retired with 521, McGwire with 583 in 2001, and Robinson with 586 in 1976.

Answer: None listed

I would hope that nobody reaches this milestone, as Walter Johnson set a Major League record when he retired in 1927. Johnson was the first and only pitcher in the 20th century to hit over 200 batters in their career, by hitting 203. Even with the great Cy Young facing over 30,000 batters in his career, he hit only 163.

Answer: Rod Carew

Of this group, Henderson stole 1406 bases, setting a Major League career record. Morgan, of Houston and the Cincinnati Reds, stole a career 689 bases. Wills, who was the first player to ever reach 100 stolen bases in a season, retired with 586. Carew, a batting champion in his own world, was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1967 with the Twins, and was also the American League MVP in 1977. Rod was a seven-time batting champion, and was pretty reliable as a stolen base artist.

However, he was not called upon enough, as his season high was 49 thefts in 1976, and retired with 353 stolen bases.

Answer: Robin Roberts

The other listed were not pitchers. Roberts, retiring after 19 seasons in 1966, gave up 503 home runs in his career. He played mostly for the Philadelphia Phillies throughout his career. Ferguson Jenkins retired in 1983 with 484, and the great Phil Niekro, retired in 1987 with 482 home runs given up.

At the time of Roberts' retirement in 1966, only he and Braves' great, Warren Spahn, had given up more than 400 home runs.

Answer: Walter Johnson

The others were not pitchers. An almost impossible feat with the inception of relievers, save artists, and closers since the 1970s, there were only seven pitchers in the 19th and 20th century who accomplished this feat. Johnson with his entire career with the Washington Senators, completed 531 over his 21 seasons.

He retired with an amazing record of 417-279, only second to Cy Young in 1927. Johnson was inducted in 1936, in the Hall of Fame's first induction ceremony.

Answer: Babe Ruth

The others listed were all pitchers. Ruth, in an amazing season with the Yankees in 1921 (one of many), had 59 home runs, 204 hits, and 145 base on balls. He compiled a record of 457 total bases in the season, and also batted .378.

Answer: Tris Speaker

The others never reached 500. In fact, of the others listed, Powell, mostly with the Orioles in the 1960s, leads this other group with only 270. In Speaker's 22 seasons, mostly with Boston and Cleveland of the American League, set a career record in 1928 by retiring with 792 doubles in his career.

He stole only 432 bases in his career, but this speedster hit 20 or more doubles in 20 of his seasons. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1937, in its second year of the Hall's existence.

Answer: Babe Ruth

Other than Foxx, the other two were pitchers. Foxx was the second in history to hit more than 500 career home runs, behind the great 'Bambino'. Ruth reached the 500 milestone when hit his 500th in the 1930 season. He added 49 big ones that season for him and the Yankees. He retired with 714 home runs, which was later surpassed by the great Hank Aaron, who retired with 755.