Hot Peppered Baseball Trivia Quiz

Answer: James Edward "Tip" O'Neill

Major League Baseball had an inaugural induction in 1936 with Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, and Honus Wagner. The Canadian hall inducted five of their own in 1983 with the names of Frank Shaughnessy, George Selkirk, Tip O'Neill, John Ducey, and Lester B. Pearson. O'Neill began his career with the 1883 New York Gothams (later Giants) of the National League.

In 1887, he became the first player in history to bat for the Triple Crown, including batting .435 in the season. He did it with the St. Louis Browns of the American Association. Tip retired after only 10 seasons in 1892 with the Cincinnati Reds. Both Ford and Jenkins were inducted in 1987, then Robinson in 1991.

Answer: Detroit Tigers

The 1996 Tigers went a dismal 53-109 for the season. Omar Olivares 'led' the team with a 7-11 record. Felipe Lira went 6-14, Greg Gohr 4-8, and to complete their starting rotation, Justin Thompson went 1-6. The Tigers finished last in batting average, last in on-base percentage, and last in hits. They finished 39 games behind the winning AL East Yankees.

Answer: Pedro Martinez

Pedro went 23-4 with Boston in 1999 along with 313 strikeouts. For his efforts he won the AL Cy Young Award over Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera. It was his second Cy Young Award and he would win a third in 2000, then be the runner-up in 2002. Although winning 511 games, the great Cy Young never struck out more than 225 batters in a season. Lonborg peaked at 246 in 1967. Clemens never threw 300 strikeouts for any of his teams.

Answer: Roger Peckinpaugh

Roger was in the middle of his playing career in 1914 when the Yankees fired manager Frank Chance with only 20 games left in the season. Peckinpaugh was only 23 years old. Seeking a rebuild under Peckinpaugh, he managed only a 10-10 end of the season record and the Yankees fired him also.

He was the youngest manager in all the century. Roger retired from playing in 1927, then took over the Cleveland Indians for seven seasons before hanging it all up. Donovan replaced Roger with the Yankees in 1915 at the age of 39. Huggins was 35 when he initially took over the Cardinals in 1913, but was 40 when he took over the Yankees. Harris was 28 years old when he took over the Senators in 1924, and was 51 when he first took over the Yankees.

Answer: St. Louis Cardinals

The 1949 St. Louis Cardinals had ball and chains attached to their legs. Red Schoendienst led the team with eight, then Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter each stole three. Even with no speed on the basepaths, the Cardinals somehow still won 96 games, and finished one game out of the NL pennant to the Dodgers.

Answer: Dutch Beck

Erve "Dutch" Beck was a rookie Brooklyn Superba in 1899. He was out of baseball by season's end, but then came back two seasons later with the Cleveland Blues (later Indians) in the new American League in 1901. On April 25, 1901, Beck hit a HR to put his name in the history books.

He would hit only two more in the season, and that would be his career high. He hit a total of nine over three seasons in his career. He also played for the Reds and Tigers.

Answer: Guy Hecker

Hecker was a Louisville Colonel in 1886 in the American Association. Going 26-23 from the mound, Hecker won the batting title with his .341 batting average. He won the batting crown over teammate Pete Browning by .001 of a point. Hecker died in 1938 at the age of 82.

The Colonels moved from the American Association in 1892 to join the National League, then closed their franchise doors in 1899.

Answer: Philadelphia Phillies

The 1915 Phillies won the National League pennant by seven games over the Boston Braves. They met the Boston Red Sox in the promised land. Although Babe Ruth went 18-8 in the season for Boston, he did not pitch in the series against the Phillies. After Philadelphia won game one, the Red Sox then pulled off four straight, winning 2-1, 2-1. 2-1, and 5-4 for the World Series crown.

Answer: 1946

In 1946 after the 154-game season, the Cardinals and Dodgers tied with identical 96-60 season records, 14.5 games over the third place Cubs. It was on to a three-game playoff between the two, but the Cardinals needed only the first two games to take the NL crown. St. Louis would go on to win the World Series over the Red Sox, four games to three.

Answer: Bob Groom

Groom did not begin his career well as a 1909 Washington Senator rookie. He went 7-26 while losing 19 straight. His following two seasons did not fare well either, going 12-17 and 13-17. He retired in 1918 after 10 seasons with a 119-150 career record.