Dave's Dungeon of Baseball 3 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles)

The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn along with the Giants from New York in 1958. Dodger Stadium was not ready to be played in until the 1962 season. Until then the Dodgers played in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The American League Los Angeles Angels also shared Dodger Stadium in the franchise's early days. Later it was found by MLB that the Dodger Stadium foul poles were not in accordance within the field dimensions required and were in fair territory by almost two feet on each side of the field.

The franchise adjusted the issue with the fan seating and the poles. It was also later found by MLB in 1965 that the pitcher's mound was too tall, giving an advantage to pitchers to get more speed off their fastballs in the likes of Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax.

This was also corrected by the organization but their winning ways had already been accomplished.

Answer: Montréal Expos

The Expos were a better-than-average team in the 1990s but just never had the fan support. In 1999 to top off the decade, the franchise had a Major League leading low attendance of 773,277. For the decade they covered only 13,008,000 seats with fans in them.

The Expos never saw a postseason game in the 1990s. The franchise moved to Washington to become the Nationals and immediately drew almost three million fans in their first season, even finishing with a 81-81 record.

Answer: An elephant balanced on a baseball

The franchise settled unanimously on the elephant symbol. This dated all the way back to 1901 when manager John McGraw of the New York Giants referred to Mack and the Philadelphia franchise as "white elephants". Mack had the patch initially worn in the 1928 season and Major League Baseball didn't care for it so it was removed.

The franchise resurrected it in 1955 in Kansas City in honor of Mack who never forgot the derogatory term of "white elephant" which bothered him throughout his entire career with the Athletics.

Answer: Jim Devlin

Devlin was in his second season in the National League in 1877 with the Louisville Grays. After the Grays were blowing away the league with only 20 games left in the season, Devlin (allegedly) began tanking games, along with shortstop Bill Craver and backup player Al Nichols.

The Grays finished seven games behind the league-winning Boston Red Stockings. After an investigation found that Devlin was pitching almost perfect in exhibition games after the end of the season, found to be having ties with New York gamblers, and in possession of a ton of new jewelry items on his body, the league banned him and the other two players for life.

This was called "The Louisville Scandal".

Answer: Ewell Blackwell

On June 15, 1938, Vander Meer no-hit the Dodgers along with no-hitting the Boston Braves just four days later. Blackwell, who also was wearing a Reds uniform, no-hit the Braves on June 18, 1947. Four days later, in the back end of a doubleheader against the Dodgers, he faced the Brooklyn team and took them into the ninth inning with one out before second baseman Eddie Stanky singled to spoil Blackwell's limelight. Blackwell and the Reds still won the game 4-0. Blackwell went 22-8 in the season, good enough for a NL runner-up MVP finish. Vander Meer ended his 1938 season with a 15-10 record and finishing 18th in the voting for the MVP.

Answer: Yogi Berra

Berra joined the infamous New York Yankees in 1946. He took the number 38, then the number 35 with the team in his first season. Another future Hall of Fame catcher in the name of Bill Dickey was wearing the number 8 in 1946. When Dickey retired at the end of the 1946 season, Berra took the number 8. Both of their numbers 8 were enshrined and retired in both the Hall of Fame catchers' name.

In Yogi's final season of baseball with the Mets in 1965, he still donned the number 8. McCovey who played mostly for the San Francisco Giants wore the number 44 during his entire 22-season career. Winfield wore the numbers 31 and 32 during his 22 seasons.

The Hall of Famer Maddux wore the number 30, 31, and 36 during his 23 seasons.

Answer: Ed Doheny

Doheny had pitched for nine seasons when he found himself with the NL pennant-winning Pittsburgh Pirates in 1903. It would be the first World Series played between the American League and the National League. After going 16-8 in the season, Doheny 'came apart' just shy of 30 years old and was committed to a mental institution.

This left the Pirates with only Deacon Phillippe and Sam Leever as the only two legitimate starters in the World Series. Phillippe showed himself as a workhorse and pitched five complete games and won three of them.

The Pirates with an all-star roster would lose the series five games to three against the Boston Americans. Doheny never pitched again and died in 1916 at the age of 43.

Answer: 1990's

With three being thrown in the 1960's by Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, and Catfish Hunter, the 1970's never saw a perfect game. The 1980's also saw three thrown by Len Barker, Mike Witt, and Tom Browning. The 1990's came out with Dennis Martinez of the Expos in 1991, Kenny Rogers of the Rangers in 1994, David Wells of the Yankees in 1998, then David Cone of the Yankees in 1999.

Answer: Kirby Higbe

For 12 seasons, Higbe played from 1937-1950 for five different teams as a pitcher. His best season was going 22-9 as a Brooklyn Dodger in 1941. He retired as a New York Giant. After baseball, he fell on hard times and wrote numerous bad checks. As a result he was sentenced to 60 days in Richland County Jail in South Carolina. Known by the warden from his earlier baseball career and after his sentence was served, Higbe was given a job as a prison guard at the prison that the warden was in charge of also.

Not much time had passed as a free man and a prison guard when Kirby began hiding drugs in baseballs and throwing them over the fence to inmates. He was caught and found guilty then given three years probation. Higbe died in 1985 at the age of 70.

Answer: 33

There were 33 players on the list with a voting requirement of two-thirds of the writers' ballots to get in. The five inaugural inductees were Ty Cobb with 222 votes, Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner with 215, Christy Mathewson with 205 ballot votes, and Walter Johnson with 189. National League President Ford Frick was the driving force to create the baseball Hall of Fame.