Baseball's Mixed Nut Challenge Quiz

Answer: Kansas City Royals

Kansas City was not marked as any royalty. In decades past all the Kansas City baseball teams had their name related to cowboys. The new franchise in 1969 had the public submit suggestions and it was voted on "Royals" to depict and show off the fine beef in cows and horses from the cattle industry in Kansas City.

Answer: Harry Davis

Hank Greenberg played in just one game in 1930 with the Tigers and then quit. He came back in 1933 with Detroit and surprised the franchise with his new power. Harry Davis, who was nicknamed 'Stinky,' played first base in 1932 for the Tigers and was forced to step aside to the new Greenberg. Davis retired after the season and then came back with the St. Louis Browns in 1937, then called it quits again. Greenberg went on to a Hall of Fame career including hitting 58 home runs in 1938. Hank won the AL MVP Award in 1935 and 1940.

He retired in 1947 after a solo season with the Pirates. Greenberg was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1956. He died in 1986.

Answer: Al Simmons

Born Aloys Szymanski, Simmons was a Philadelphia Athletic in most of his 20 seasons from 1924-1944. In his second season in 1925, he finished runner-up for the AL MVP behind Roger Peckinpaugh of the Senators. Other players made fun of him as to how he fielded balls in the outfield and they came up with "Bucketfoot Al", which he never much cared for.

After retiring in 1944, the Hall inducted him in 1953.

Answer: 5

Throughout the entire century there were a total of five with three in the National League and two in the American League. The NL had the St. Louis Cardinals from 1900-1999, the Boston Doves (later Braves) from 1907-1910, and the Brooklyn Robins (later Dodgers) from 1914-1931. Over in the American League were the Baltimore Orioles from 1954-1999 who used to be the St. Louis Browns, and the Toronto Blue Jays who became a franchise in 1977.

Answer: John McGraw

As a player Cox was initially signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers but never played and was traded to the Braves but never played in a game for them either. The Braves traded him to the Yankees in 1967. He retired in 1970 because of poor knees. After the Braves finishing in last place for two consecutive seasons, Cox took over the Braves in the 1978 season.

He walked away from the Braves' podium in 1981. From 1982-1985 Cox was at the helm of the Toronto Blue Jays. He came back to manage the Braves from 1986-2010. During the 1990s he took the Braves to five World Series while winning only one in 1995. McGraw with mostly being manager of the New York Giants from 1899-1932 was ejected from 116 games. Durocher and Weaver both tied with 94 ejections while Martin was ejected 46 times.

Answer: Pittsburgh

The player was named Lou Bierbauer and from 1886-1889 he played with the Phillies. In 1890 Bierbauer went to the Brooklyn Ward's Wonders of the Players League. After the league shut down at the end of the season, the Pittsburgh Alleghenys of the NL signed Lou.

However, the Phillies organization claimed that they still had the rights to Bierbauer and a legal battle ensued. Other National League teams were joining the Phillies in calling the Pittsburgh Alleghenys "pirates" because they "stole" Bierbauer away from Philadelphia.

The Pittsburgh franchise strongly resented any wrong doing and it was settled by a court that Pittsburgh did nothing wrong. After the court decision the Pittsburgh franchise was still seething over the accusations against them and changed their name from the Alleghenys to the Pirates beginning in the 1891 season to rub it all in.

The name held even though they finished in last place in the 1891 season.

Answer: Sam Jethroe

Jethroe was nicknamed 'The Jet' and was a prodigy of the Negro Leagues of Baseball. From 1942-1948 he played for the Buckeyes of the Negro American League. On April 18, 1950, Sam became the first African-American in a Boston Braves uniform. Jethroe was 32 years old as a rookie and batted .273 with 18 home runs, 100 runs scored, 159 hits, and had 35 stolen bases.

He won the ROY over Bob Miller of the Phillies and Danny O'Connell of the Pirates. Sam played in only four seasons with the Braves before he retired.

The first Rookie of the Year Award was presented in 1947 to Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson who was 28 years old. Newcombe of the Dodgers was 24 when he won the award and Paige never won it.

Answer: Billy Williams

The Cubs retired the number 14 of Hall of Famer Ernie Banks in August 1982 as the inaugural Cub honored. Outfielder Billy Williams was next in August of 1987 with the franchise retiring number 26 of Williams in front of a packed house at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Billy played from 1959-1974 with the Cubs and then two seasons with the Oakland Athletics before retiring.

Born in Whistler, Alabama, Williams hit 426 home runs in his career. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1987. Cubs third baseman great Ron Santo's number was retired in 2003 and Ryne Sandberg's number 23 was retired in 2005.

Answer: Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox scored a league-high 878 runs for the franchise. The runner-up were the Rockies with 845, then the Cubs with 808. The Cubs finally spoiled the curse of the goat in the World Series by defeating the Cleveland Indians. On the other end of the stick were the Phillies with a league's worst 610, the Braves scoring 649, then the Athletics scoring 653.

Answer: Ted Breitenstein

On October 4, 1891 Breitenstein of the St. Louis Browns in the American Association threw a no-hitter in his first start against the Louisville Colonels in a 8-0 win at Sportsman Park in St. Louis. He threw another no-hitter as a Cincinnati Red in the National League on April 22, 1898 against the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 11-0 win. Ironically, rookie Jim Hughes of the NL Baltimore Orioles tried to overshadow Breitenstein with a no-hitter of his own on the same day but not in his first start. Breitenstein retired in 1901 after 11 seasons with winning 20+ games in a season three times. Ted died in 1935.