Huh? They Led the League? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ty Cobb

The other Hall of Fame greats never batted for the Triple Crown Award. Cobb played from 1905-1928. All but two seasons were with the Tigers and the latter two with the Athletics. In 1909 Cobb hit only nine home runs and 107 RBIs, with 216 hits and batted .377.

He won the Triple Crown for his efforts. Three times in his career he batted over .400 in a season. The "Georgia Peach" won the AL batting title 12 times and won the 1911 AL MVP.

Answer: John Smoltz

The others weren't pitchers. Smoltz shared the 2006 pitching title with Aaron Harang, Derek Lowe, Brad Penny, Brandon Webb, and Carlos Zambrano who all won 16 games. It was the lowest win total for a pitching title that any pitcher had in over 100 seasons that wasn't shortened by a walk-out.

In comparison, "Hoss" Radbourn won the NL pitching title with 59 wins for the Providence Grays in the 1880s. Smoltz went 16-9 for the Braves in 2006. John retired after 21 seasons in 2009. He was inducted into the Hall in 2015.

Answer: Willie Mays

The others never stole more than 20 bases in a season. Aparicio won nine stolen base crowns from 1956-1973. Mays of the Giants won four stolen base titles including stealing 27 in 1959. Willie was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1951 and then won a batting title in 1954.

He won two NL MVPs a decade apart in 1954 and 1965. Along with his 660 career home runs, Mays was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979.

Answer: Boston Red Sox

The other teams were all National League teams. The Red Sox along with Hall of Fame great Babe Ruth on their roster in 1918 went only 75-51, 2.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians. Ruth went 13-7 from the mound and also was the only fielding starter in the outfield who batted .300 in the season. The Red Sox met the Chicago Cubs in the World Series and put them down with a four games to two crown.
The season was shortened due to World War 1.

Answer: Maury Wills

The others listed were all pitchers. Rice stole 63 bases in the season but was caught an embarrassing 30 times. It took another 40+ seasons for someone to get caught more than 30 times. That speedster was Maury Wills of the Dodgers who set a season record for stealing 104 in 1962. Wills was the first in modern-day history to reach the 100-mark.

In 1965 Maury stole 94 bases but was caught 31 times. St. Louis Cardinal Lou Brock later broke both season records. Lou stole 118 bases while being caught 33 times in 1974.

Answer: Cy Young

The Hall of Fame great Young was with the AL Boston Americans in 1901 after spending nine tremendous seasons with the Cleveland Spiders of the NL in the 1890s. Young struck out 158 batters in 1901. In all of his Hall of Fame seasons, he struck out 200 batters in a season only twice.

He retired after 22 seasons with a career record of 511-316 in 1911. Noodles Hahn of the National League Cincinnati Reds led his league with 239 strikeouts in 1901.

Answer: Philadelphia/Oakland Athletics

The others listed were all National League teams. The Athletics were the runner-up franchise by having eight seasons. In Philadelphia, they first topped the 100-mark in 1910, then again in 1911. They had three consecutive 100-win seasons 1929-30-31.

They also hit the mark in Oakland in 1971, 1988, and 1990. The Athletics topped out at 107 season wins in 1931. Both the Braves and Giants were tied for third with six 100+ win seasons each in the century.

Answer: Cleveland Spiders

The other teams listed were never in the National League. In a record almost impossible to duplicate, the Spiders were a very poor team in 1899 after trading all their good players before the season began to the St. Louis Perfectos. The Spiders went 20-134 under the so-called guidance of managers Lave Cross and Joe Quinn in the National League. With 12 teams in the league, Cleveland finished the season 84 games behind the NL pennant-winning Brooklyn Superbas.

The 11th place Washington Senators finished 'only' 49 games behind.

Answer: Mark Reynolds

The others never struck out more than 100 times in a season. Reynolds was in his second season of baseball in 2008. He hit the 200-strikeout mark for the Diamondbacks in the season but wasn't done yet. He led the league in the next three seasons also while hitting the 200-mark twice including 223 in 2009. Mark played for seven teams in his first 10 seasons.

Answer: Gene Mauch

The others managed for less than 20 seasons but all took a team to a World Series. Between 1960 and 1987 Mauch managed four teams over 26 seasons. He started it all off with nine seasons with the Phillies, then seven with the Expos, five with the Twins and five with the Angels. Gene retired with 1902 wins against 2307 losses. Nicknamed "Skip", Mauch died in 2005 at the age of 79.