Baseball Hoagie Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mickey Mantle

Mantle wore the pinstripes from 1951-1968. He won the batting title and batted for the Triple Crown in his 1956 MVP season. He also won the AL MVP in 1957 and 1962. Appearing in 12 World Series, the 'Commerce Comet' hit 18 home runs along with his 40 RBIs.

In a loss to the Pirates in the 1960 World Series, Mantle had an amazing 11 RBIs with his 10 hits and .400 average. Mickey died in Dallas in 1995 after his Hall of Fame induction in 1974.

Answer: Lou Brock

Except for McGee, all the others stole 100+ bases in a season and won multiple stolen base crowns. Wills stole 104 in 1962 with the Dodgers, then Brock stole 118 in 1974 with the Cardinals. Henderson came along in 1982 with 130 of his own with the Athletics. Coleman stole 100+ three times in the 1980s. McGee didn't come close to 100 and reached the 50-plateau in his career only once with 56 in 1982 with the Cardinals. McGee never led the league even once either.

Answer: 1961

The first All-Star Game between the American and National League was held in 1933. There were two separate All-Star Games in 1961. One was on July 11 which the National League won 5-4. The second game was held on July 31 in Boston. With the score tied 1-1 at the end of nine innings, the rains fell on Fenway Park and the game could never be resumed. Bill White of the Cardinals had the only RBI-scoring double of the game for the National League. Tiger Rocky Colavito hit a home run for the American League.

A second All-Star Game was called in 2002 after the 11th inning with a 7-7 tie because both teams ran out of pitchers.

Answer: Chicago Cubs

The other teams did not exist in the 1930s. The 1935 World Series pitted the NL Champion Chicago Cubs against the AL Champion Detroit Tigers. On October 4, 1935, with the series tied at one each, Chicago's bench opened up on home plate umpire Bill McGowan and just heckled him to death.

After numerous warnings from McGowan, he finally started plucking players from the bench. He ejected Charlie Grimm, Woody English, and Tuck Stainback. The three weren't in the starting lineup and never even played in the game. To show good measure and equality, McGowan ejected Detroit Tiger Del Baker for arguing a pickoff play.

Answer: Ralph Kiner

Mize was with the New York Giants when he banged out 51 big ones in 1947. Kiner reached the 50-mark twice. Ralph was a Pittsburgh Pirate in the 1940s and in his second season in the big leagues he also hit 51 in 1947. He topped that mark with 54 in 1949. Kiner led the National League seven times for the most home runs.

He retired with 369 after only 10 seasons in 1955. Ralph was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975. He died in 2014 at the age of 91.

Answer: Mickey Cochrane

Banks was a career Chicago Cub and blessed their infield for 19 seasons from 1953-1971 and they retired the number 14 in his honor. The Hall of Fame pitcher Bunning wore the number 14 with the Tigers, Phillies, and Pirates during his 17 seasons from 1955-1971.

The 'Say Hey' kid, Willie Mays, wore the number 14 in his rookie season with the Giants in 1951 before switching to his famous 24. Cochrane was a Philadelphia Athletic and Detroit Tiger catcher from 1925-1937. He wore the number 2 with the Athletics and the number 3 with the Tigers. Nicknamed 'Black Mike', he won the AL MVP in 1928 with Philadelphia, then again in 1934 with Detroit.

He was inducted into the Hall in 1947.

Answer: Lou Gehrig

Other than Gehrig, Delahanty was the only other listed who hit four in a game but it was with the Phillies of the National League in 1896. Amongst many huge days for Gehrig, one was on June 3, 1932 - in a game against hosts Philadelphia Athletics, Lou had four hits and all were home runs. The Yankees won the game 20-13 with 23 hits.

Answer: Christy Mathewson

Young spent 12 of his 22 seasons in the National League. He retired with 34 NL shutouts and 42 AL shutouts. The great Walter Johnson spent his entire career with the Senators of the American League. Warren Spahn threw 63 National League shutouts. Mathewson pitched for 17 seasons from 1900-1916, all in the National League, and all with the New York Giants except for one game with the Reds.

He led the league four times in shutouts and left the game with 79. He also led the National League in strikeouts another five times. Nicknamed 'Big Six', he retired with a 373-188 record. Christy died in 1925 at the young age of 45.

He was inducted into the hall in 1939 along with the great Lou Gehrig. Pete Alexander was another National League wonder and had 90 shutouts of his own. Alexander retired in 1930.

Answer: Chuck Finley

With the normal three outs in an inning, a batter who encounters strike three and the catcher doesn't catch the ball allows the batter to try and make it to first base safely. It is still recorded as a strikeout but the inning does not end if it was the so-called third out. Chuck Finley amazingly did this twice in the 1999 season as an Angel. On May 12 against the Yankees he struck out four in an inning. Finley pulled this off again on August 15 against the Tigers.

The following season on April 16 as a Cleveland Indian, Chuck waved his magic wand and did it again with the Yankees on the receiving end.

Answer: Nolan Ryan

It was Ryan on the mound for the Astros on July 11, 1985. Ryan struck out 11 New York Met batters in the game including Danny Heep for his 4,000th strikeout. The Astros won the game 4-3 in 12 innings. Ryan would go on to add to his amazing career records list and would surpass 5,000 strikeouts with Rickey Henderson as his 5,000th victim. Nolan would retire in 1993 after 27 seasons with 5,714 strikeouts. An easy Hall of Fame inductee, Ryan was greeted in 1999 with 98.8% of the ballots.