Baseball's Losers? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bob Feller

Feller was in his third season with the Indians in 1938 when he allowed 208 passes. It would be the only time in his career that he would hit the 200-mark. In 1940, Bob threw a Triple Crown but would still be runner-up for the MVP Award to Tiger Hank Greenberg.

He was in the top five for the MVP voting four times. Bob set a record for most modern-day strikeouts in 1946 when he struck out 348 batters. Sandy Koufax would later break that mark in 1965. Feller was a career Cleveland Indian over 18 seasons, and was inducted into the hall in his first year of eligibility in 1962.

Answer: Jim Thome

Thome began the 2011 season just five short of 2400, but came through shortly after the season began. He was a Minnesota Twin at the time, and they were his fifth team in his 21 seasons. He also started the season just 11 home runs short of becoming a member of the 600 Home Run Club.

Answer: Dodgers

The Dodger franchise went to nine World Series in Brooklyn, winning one in 1955. In Los Angeles after 1958, they went to another nine, winning five. The Giants were next with 11 losses: 5 wins and 9 losses in NY and two losses in SF. The Cubs found 10 World Series in the century, losing eight.

Their two victories were in 1907 and 1908, both against the Tigers. In the American League, the Yankees won 25 World Series in the century while losing 11. The Tigers and Athletics were next up in the AL by losing five each.

Answer: Lou Brock

Brock began his career in 1961 with the Chicago Cubs. He was the second player behind Maury Wills to steal 100 bases in modern-day history with his 118 in 1974 as a Cardinal. He stole 938 bases and was caught 307 times for a 67% success rate. Ironically, Brock retired in 1979, passing the torch to Rickey Henderson who was a rookie in 1979. Rickey retired in 2003 with 1406 stolen bases, being caught 335 times for a 76% success rate. Of those listed, only Brock and Henderson reached 300 embarrassments.

Answer: Herman Long

Long was a 16-season shortstop from 1889-1904. He played with five teams including the Kansas City Cowboys in the AA in his rookie season. Then it was 13 seasons with the Boston Beaneaters of the National League, then shared one season with the NY Highlanders, Tigers, and retired as a Phillie.

Herman led the league in 1893 by scoring 149 times, then in home runs with 12 with the Beaneaters in 1900. That was all he led the league in except for errors committed many times. Bill Dahlen, Deacon White, and Germany Smith were others to commit 1000 career errors, a milestone safe through time.

Answer: Jim Rice

Rice was a 16-season career Boston Red Sox outfielder. His record of 36 set in 1984 was almost surpassed by himself with 35 in 1985. While only a handful of players have grounded into 30 double-plays in a season, Jim did it three times. Although he hit 382 home runs, he was not known for his speed, averaging less than four stolen bases per season. Rice bagged the 1978 American League MVP, and was inducted into the hall in 2009.

Answer: Robin Roberts

In Roberts' great career, his only drawback was giving up home runs, and he gave up 30+ in a season nine times. He was the first to give up 40 when he allowed 41 in 1955 with the Phillies, then broke his own record the following season by giving up 46.

He gave up another 40 in 1957. Over Robin's 19 seasons retiring in 1966, he was also the first pitcher to give up over 500 career home runs (505), which was broken by Jamie Moyer in 2010 as a Phillie also. Bert Blyleven was the first pitcher to give up 50 home runs in a season. Blyleven did this in 1986 as a Minnesota Twin. Bert retired with giving up a career 430 home runs.

Answer: Detriot Tigers

It was the 1908 World Series which pitted the Chicago Cubs against the Detriot Tigers. It was the second consecutive World Series which saw these two teams go at it. The 5th and final game of the 1908 series in Detroit (Bennett Park) had an attendance of only 6210. Chicago won the series 4-1 to retain their WS title. The entire series attendance combined was also a record low of only 62,232 fans.

In the 20th century, only two World Series broke the 400,000-attendance mark with the 1959 series that saw the Dodgers and White Sox (420,784), and the 1997 World Series with the Marlins and Indians (403,617).

Answer: Pete Rose

One might figure that the one with the most games played, most at-bats, and most hits might have been called out the most. Rose, nicknamed "Charlie Hustle", was the only player in 140 seasons of professional baseball to hit the 10,000-mark. In that same time frame, only Hank Aaron (9136) and Carl Yastrzemski (9126) would even reach the 9000-mark for being called out.

Answer: Jim Palmer

It was the 1971 World Series which pitted the Orioles against the Pirates. The 1971 Oriole season was one that saw the team have four 20-game winners, the second-ever in MLB history (the first were the 1920 Chicago White Sox).

In the 8th inning of game two (the Orioles were leading 11-0), Palmer walked in two base-loaded RBIs - the first-ever in a WS game. The Orioles went on to win 11-3. The Pirates won the series four games to three.