An Absolute Baseball Nightmare Quiz

Answer: Rogers Hornsby

All these greats won a season MVP with different teams. Hornsby won two MVPs four seasons apart. His first was in 1925 with the St. Louis Cardinals for having a .403 batting average. Amazingly, he batted .424 the previous season, but was runner-up for the MVP to Brooklyn Robins (later Dodgers) pitcher Dazzy Vance, who went 28-6. Rogers was traded to the New York Giants and Boston Braves, then the Chicago Cubs in 1929.

This is where he won his second MVP, by batting .380 in the season.

Answer: Harry Steinfeldt

After playing for eight seasons with Cincinnati, Steinfeldt came to the Chicago Cubs in 1906, where the Hall of Fame double-play greats were created. In the next three seasons, the Cubs would go to three consecutive World Series, winning two of them. Steinfeldt retired in 1911 with the Boston Braves of the National League at the age of 33, and died at age 36. Of this historical combination, Joe Tinker was the shortstop, Johnny Evers was the second baseman, plus the first baseman and player-manager, Frank Chance.

Answer: Honus Wagner

All these greats have reached this milestone, in addition to Eddie Collins and Paul Molitor to name more. Wagner reached this plateau in 1914 while with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He played his entire career of 21 seasons with this franchise, branching out from the Louisville Colonels of the National League after the 1899 season.

He won eight batting crowns and five stolen base titles. Honus was one of the first five players inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1936.

Answer: 5

Jim Bibby threw a no-no on July 1973 vs. the Oakland A's, which was the first for the Rangers. Bert Blyleven (who also set a record for allowing 50 home runs in a season) and Kenny Rogers each threw a no-hitter. Then the great Nolan Ryan, who threw seven no-hitters in his career, threw two with the Rangers.

Answer: John Roseboro

Wille D. wore the number 3, Cey the number 10, and the two-time batting champion Tommy Davis, wore the number 12. With Perranoski's number 16, added to Osteen's number 23, this equals 39. Subtracting Piazza's 31 would leave 8. John Roseboro, the left hand batting, right hand throwing catcher, played 11 of his 14 seasons as a Dodger.

He won two Gold Gloves as a catcher, and had the privilege of catching Osteen, Perranoski, Sandy Koufax, and Don Drysdale. John died in August 2002, in Los Angeles.

Answer: First brothers to both win 20 games in a season

The Covelski's were pitching brothers. Harry, nicknamed, 'The Giant Killer', was the first to win 20 of the two, by going 22-12 with the Detroit Tigers in 1914. He had three 20-game winning seasons. Brother Stan, went 22-13 in 1918 with the Cleveland Indians. Stan would have five 20-game winning seasons in his career. Stan was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1969.

Answer: 28

The first unfortunate miss was by the great Cy Young, who in 1908, missed a perfect game by one pitch with the Boston Red Sox. Cy went 21-11 in the 33 games that he started. The last pitcher in the century to miss one, was Kevin Brown with the Florida Marlins in 1997. Brown went 16-7 in the season.

Answer: Andy Ashby

On August 5, 1999, Ashby of the Padres, dished number 500 up to McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals. Ashby was 14-10 in the season. This was one of McGwire's 65 home runs for the 1999 season. He set a season record for hitting 70 in 1998. McGwire retired in 2001 with 583 career home runs, just shy of the 586 that the great Frank Robinson hit in his career.

Answer: St. Louis Cardinals

The unfortunate 1949 St. Louis Cardinals held this distinction. Their second baseman, Red Schoendienst, had almost half their total with eight thefts. The great Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter had three each themselves. Amazingly, the Cardinals still finished with 96 wins, only one game behind the NL Champions Brooklyn Dodgers, who lost the World Series to the Yankees four games to one.

This record lasted just eight seasons. The AL Washington Senators had just 13 steals in 1957.

Answer: Nine

Musial was one of those loyal players who played their entire career with one team. The St. Louis Cardinals employed him from 1941-1963. In six seasons, from 1943-1948, Musial won three National League MVPs. Musial was inducted into the Hall of Fame, and most deservingly, in 1969. Ironically, former Cardinal Lou Brock also had nine inside-the-park home runs of his own, which is not a very common statistic.