I Didn't Do That, So What? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Juan Samuel

Samuel played in the 1980s and 1990s mostly at second base and mostly with the Phillies. He hit 161 career home runs including two grand slams. Ramirez hit 555 home runs over 19 seasons with 21 of those being grand slams. The great Lou Gehrig hit 493 four-baggers with 23 grand slams. Rodriguez topped this list with more than Gehrig.

Answer: Hal Newhouser

All the others died in 1984. Alston was a Dodger manager for 23 seasons until 1976. Alston was 72. Cronin was mostly a Senator and Red Sox shortstop, then went on to manage both teams, two with the Senators and 13 with Boston until 1947. Cronin was 77. Hoyt pitched for 21 seasons and mainly with the Yankees.

He retired in 1938 and died in 1984. He was 84 years old. Newhouser was the first pitcher to win the MVP Award in consecutive season when he won them for the Tigers in 1944 and 1945. He died in 1998 at the age of 77.

Answer: Jim Maloney, Reds

Maloney was a pitcher of 12 seasons, 11 with the Reds from 1960-1970. He hit a career 21 doubles but was more dangerous on the mound. Seven times he won in double-figures and retired with a 134-84 record with the Angels in 1971. Medwick hit 64 with the Cardinals in 1936, Greenberg hit 63 in 1934 with the Tigers, and Waner hit 62 in 1932 with the Pirates.

Answer: Juan Marichal, Giants

Berkman played the entire 2000s decade for the Astros with the 17 on his jersey. Dean pitched mostly for the Cardinals with a career that spanned the 1930s and 1940s. McLain shined in the late 1960s with the Tigers while wearing the 17, but his career fell apart after that due to gambling allegations. Marichal was a San Francisco Giant pitcher from 1960-1973.

He wore the 27 as a Giant. Marichal never won a Cy Young Award, placed only once in the MVP voting top five, yet was a six-time 20-game winner from the mound including three seasons of winning 25+ games.

He retired as a Dodger in 1975 and was inducted into the Hall in 1983.

Answer: Minnesota Twins

Both the Tigers and White Sox started their AL franchises in 1901, while the Royals were an expansion team in 1969. The Twins were originally the Washington Senators in 1901 and experienced some great players in the names of pitchers Walter Johnson and Dutch Leonard, and some bats in Heinie Manush and Sam Rice. The franchise moved to the Twin Cities in 1961.

Answer: Warren Spahn

Clemens leads this group with an amazing seven Cy Young Awards. He won three with the Red Sox, two with the Blue Jays, one with the Yankees, and one with the Astros. Johnson won five in total. He won his first with the Mariners, then another four in consecutive seasons with the Diamondbacks. Maddux won four consecutive Cy Young Awards from 1992-1995. On the other side of the coin is Warren Spahn.

He won only one Cy Young Award in the second presentation of the award in 1957 as his career was starting to wind down.

He was still a Cy Young runner-up three times after winning his only Cy Young. Spahn pitched for 20 seasons in a Braves uniform while leading the league in strikeouts four times, and being a 20-game winner an amazing 13 times. Warren retired in 1965, was inducted into the Hall in 1973, and died in 2003.

Answer: Jamie Quirk

The others listed never played catcher at all. Jamie played for eight teams between 1975-1992. The Indians bought his contract from the White Sox on September 24. Jamie batted only once for them and hit the bottom-of-the-ninth inning home run on September 27.

The Indians then released him. He signed on as a free agent in February 1985 with the Royals. Quirk retired in 1992 after playing with the Athletics with a career .240 batting average and 43 home runs.

Answer: Al Spalding

The others all pitched more than 25 years later in the 20th Century and won the MVP Award. Spalding pitched his first five seasons with the Boston Red Stockings of the National Association from 1871-1875 when the league was in existence. In 1876 he joined the Chicago White Stockings of the National League.

He only pitched in one game in 1877 with the White Stockings because he wanted to focus on managing the team. In Al's first six of seven seasons he won 19, 38, 41, 52, 54, and 47 games in a season.

He retired from baseball totally in 1877 with a 252-65 record.

Answer: Don Sutton

Barker pitched for 11 seasons and retired in 1987 with a 74-76 record. Len threw his perfect game for the Indians on May 15, 1981 against the Blue Jays. Philip Humber pitched for only eight seasons and retired in 2013. He threw his perfect game on April 21, 2012 while with the White Sox against the Mariners. Humber went only 5-5 in the season. Larsen threw his historical perfect game as it came in a World Series in 1956. Larson pitched for 14 seasons but never won more than 11 games in a season.

He retired in 1967 with a 81-91 career record. There was no perfect game in Don Sutton's portfolio, but you could not find more of a consistent pitcher over 23 seasons. He won in double-figures an amazing 21 times during his career while winning 20 games in a season only one time. Don retired with a 324-256 career record, played mostly with the Dodgers.

Answer: Tony Cloninger

All the other pitchers won at least 300 games in their careers. Cloninger pitched for only 12 seasons and mostly with the Braves in the 1960s. The only award that Tony was up for was the MVP Award in 1965 when he placed 28th in the voting. On July 3, 1966, the Atlanta pitcher hit his two grand slams against the San Francisco Giants' Bob Priddy and Ray Sadecki. Cloninger pitched a complete game with five strikeouts and won it 17-3.

He had nine RBIs in the game. Tony retired in 1972 with a 113-97 career record.