A Sporting Chance Trivia Quiz

Answer: balk

According to the rules of baseball, a balk "is an illegal act by the pitcher with a runner or runners on base, entitling all runners to advance one base". In other words, the pitcher is not allowed to fake a throw to a base to fool the base runner in order to stop a player from stealing a base. There are 13 actions where an umpire can call a balk on the pitcher for illegal motion, but I will spare you. Suffice it to say, once the pitcher starts to pitch, if he doesn't complete his motion, anyone on base gets to go to the next base.

Answer: salchow

A salchow is a figure skating jump which got its name from its inventor, Ulrich Salchow. It is a particular move with a takeoff from a back inside edge of one foot. The skater rotates in the air and lands on the back outside edge of the opposite foot. It is a graceful and exciting jump often seen at the Winter Olympics.

Answer: bonspiel

Curling looks like a strange sport; it involves sliding 'stones' or rocks (lumps of granite) on a sheet of ice toward a target area. Participants use brooms to sweep the ice to move the stone. The target area is segmented into four concentric circles.

A bonspiel is the Canadian and Scottish word for a curling tournament. The object of the game is to win a 'hammer', i.e., the last rock at the end. A game usually consists of eight or ten ends. Curling has its own terminology but, frankly, I find the entire sport baffling.

Answer: fronton

A fronton is a building in which the sport of jai-alai is played and contains the cancha, a two-walled or single walled court. The players use hand held basket-like rackets attached to the hand called cestas, where they catch the ball or pelota and fling it against the walled space at high speeds. It is said to be the 'fastest game in the world'.

Answer: semekata

In karate, semekata is the term for attacking techniques, as opposed to ukekata or blocking techniques, and kerikata which are kicking techniques. Karate is a martial art developed on the Ryukyu Islands, now called Okinawa, Japan. Karate involves sharp kicks and blows to pressure points on the body of an opponent.

The word karate, however, comes from the Chinese; it is a combination of two Chinese characters, i.e., 'kara' meaning empty and 'te' meaning hand, or "empty hand".

Answer: traceur

A traceur is a person who takes part in the 'sport' or activity of parkour, and a 'jam' is a meeting of traceurs to train. Parkour was developed in France, and is a relatively new activity which involves free running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, etc., to get from one place to another in the most efficient way without the use of external transportation.

It evolved from military obstacle course training, and can be described as a "non-combative martial art". Parkour can be done alone or with others, and is often carried out in urban spaces.

It requires extreme athleticism.

Answer: dunk

A dunk or a dunk shot or slam dunk is an exciting shot in basketball made when the player jumps in the air (sometimes even turns around) with the ball over the horizontal rim of the basket and scores by putting (or slamming) the ball directly into the basket with one or two hands, resulting in a score of two points; although if that player is fouled in the act of shooting he gets to shoot another shot. Years ago, when players first began to be big and strong enough to 'dunk' the ball, they sometimes shattered the backboard at the same time. Anyone remember "Chocolate Thunder"?

Answer: love

I think tennis is one of the simpler games to understand, although not necessarily to play. 'Love' in tennis is a score of zero; it comes from the French 'l'oeuf' which translates to 'egg' - the shape of a zero or a goosegg.
Unlike life, in tennis you do not want to wind up with love! The scoring is fairly simple, i.e., love, 15, 30, 45, game (unless there's a tie or deuce).

Answer: yokozuna

Ahhh! I wonder how many sumo wrestling aficionados are out there? You may have seen this sport on television or in the movies. Usually, it is two huge Japanese men (rikishi) wearing a mawashi or loincloth competing against each other in the ring where the bout is held, i.e., dohyo. Yokozuna is the sport's highest rank.

In fact, one American professional wrestler, Rodney Agatupu Anoa'i, wrestled under the ring name of Yokozuna for the World Wrestling Federation.

Answer: blitz

In American or Canadian football, a blitz is when extra defensive players (usually a total of five or more) are sent to "rush the quarterback", to try and tackle him or disrupt his passing attempt. The term comes from the German word 'Blitzkreig' which means 'Lightning War', which was used as a strategy in World War II.

However, if the 'blitz' fails, it leaves more offensive players open to potentially score.