Baseball in a Salad Bowl Trivia Quiz

Answer: April 15

The other dates listed are all outside of a Major League season. It was not that April 15 is the American federal tax deadline, it was the date of Robinson's debut on April 15, 1947. Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers with the aid of Branch Rickey in 1945 before he took the field with them two years later. Jackie won the Rookie of the Year Award along with a MVP Award in his 10 seasons with the Dodgers.

After his 10th season, the Dodgers tried to trade him but Robinson retired shortly after that instead.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962 in his first season of eligibility.

Answer: 1

The Cardinals were the only team to reach the 100-win mark in the season by going 100-62. It was the first time since 2005 that they hit the century mark. The only team close to St. Louis was the Kansas City Royals who were still five games back at 95 wins.

While the Cardinals lost to the Cubs in the NLDS, the Royals went all the way to the World Series crown by defeating the Mets four games to one. It was the Royals' first World Series title since 1985. On the other side of the fence was the Philadelphia Phillies who had the worst record in the 2015 season with their 63-99 finish.

Answer: 1940s

DiMaggio had his hitting streak in 1941 with the Yankees and won the AL MVP for it. The Sultan of Swat died in 1948. The Browns had their team in St. Louis for 52 seasons and could only squeak out one World Series appearance. They lost it to the Cardinals in 1944. Ted Williams won his MVPs in 1946 and 1949. Williams was a runner-up MVP another four times in his 19 seasons.

Answer: Jose Canseco

The others options didn't steal 40 bases in their entire career. After winning the Rookie of the Year Award earlier, Canseco was in his fourth of 17 seasons in 1988 when he did the ultimate with his bat and speed on the base paths. The Oakland Athletic hit 42 home runs and stole 40 bases in the season. For his efforts he won the AL MVP Award over Mike Greenwell of the Red Sox and Kirby Puckett of the Twins. Jose hit 40+ home runs three times in his career and went baseball unemployed in 2001 with 462 big ones.

Others who later joined the 40-40 Club in the century were Barry Bonds of the Giants in 1996 and Alex Rodriguez of the Mariners in 1998.

Answer: Cleveland Indians

The other teams listed did not exist in 1961. Roger was a Fargo, North Dakota high school graduate and signed a contract with the Indians in 1953. He finally debuted with Cleveland in 1957 and hit 14 home runs as a rookie. Roger was traded mid-season 1958 to the Athletics and then became a Yankee in 1960 where he hit 39 home runs which was good enough to win the AL MVP.

The following season he hit 61 for the record and won the MVP Award again. In both seasons he made teammate Mickey Mantle take a backseat for the runner-up AL MVP.

The 'infamous asterisk' was because the great Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs during the 1927 season which was a 154-game season, while Maris hit 61 in a 162-game season. Mark McGwire later surpassed both of them with a new season home run record of 70 to supposedly squelch the controversy, but created new ones with performance enhancing drug allegations.

Answer: Paul Waner

The others were all career American League players and never won the MVP Award. In the season of Murderer's Row in New York in 1927 and watching Lou Gehrig win the award for the American League, Waner won the MVP for the National League. He played for 20 seasons which 15 were with the Pirates. Paul nicknamed "Big Poison" played in the Pittsburgh outfield alongside brother Lloyd who was nicknamed "Little Poison". Paul was also the MVP runner-up in 1934 to St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean. Shortstop Dick Groat was the next Pittsburgh Pirate to win the MVP but not until 1960.

Answer: Ichiro Suzuki

Wade popped for 200+ hits in every season from 1983-1989. Boggs also led the league in batting five times in his 18-season career from 1982-1999. Wade retired with a .328 career average and never won the MVP Award. He was a Hall of Fame inductee in 2005. Ichiro Suzuki was a Japanese-born player who came along and was a rookie in 2001 with the Mariners.

This began Ichiro's streak of 10 consecutive seasons of getting 200+ hits. Ichiro won the Rookie of the Year Award and then hit a plateau of 262 hits in a season in 2004 which broke the record of St. Louis Brown Hall of Famer George Sisler who hit 257 in 1920.

Answer: Ferguson Jenkins

The others listed did not meet the ethnic background criteria. 'Fergie', born and raised in Canada, broke into the Major Leagues in 1965 with the Phillies before being traded to the Cubs in the following season. It was with the Cubs where Ferguson blossomed into being in the top three balloting for the Cy Young Award while winning one in 1971.

He was also a Cy Young Award runner-up with the Rangers in 1974 when he took a backseat to Jim "Catfish" Hunter of the Oakland Athletics. From 1967-1974, Jenkins won 20+ games in a season seven times while topping out with 25 wins in 1974. Fergie retired after 19 seasons in 1983 with a 284-226 record.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991.

Answer: Mickey Mantle

The others listed never played in the American League or were not switch-hitters. The 'Commerce Comet' of the Yankees did it twice in 1955, twice in 1956, then once in 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, and again in 1964. Mantle had a storied career from 1951-1968 all with the Yankees.

He was the American League MVP winner three times while finishing runner-up for the MVP another three times. Mickey retired with 536 home runs after going to an amazing 12 World Series and winning seven. The Hall of Fame inducted him in 1974.

He died in 1995 at the age of 63 in Dallas, Texas.

Answer: Athletics

The Athletics didn't win just one but three, and all consecutive 1972-73-74. With an all-star cast including Bert Campaneris, Joe Rudi, Sal Bando, Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and others, Oakland defeated the Reds, Mets, and Dodgers. They would not win another World Series until 1989, the 'Earthquake Series' against the Giants. Before the Athletics three-peated in the 1970s, the Giants had not won a World Series since 1954, the White Sox in 1917, and the Cubs in 1908.