Oh My Gosh! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Grounding into the most double-plays

Lombardi hit into 30 double-plays in the season (a record since broken). This did not overshadow him from winning his only MVP Award in 1938. His second batting title came in 1942 with the Boston Braves when hit .330 in the season. Ernie was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986.

Answer: Frank Robinson

The MVP Award began presentations in 1911. Robinson was the first to win the MVP Award in both leagues. His first came with the Reds in 1961, then after they traded him to the Orioles in 1966, he won another one with Baltimore. Frank played in 21 seasons from 1956-1976 with the Reds, Orioles, Dodgers, Angels, and Indians also. He was a 1982 Hall inductee.

Answer: Ty Cobb

While Cobb was smiling with his 222, both Ruth and Wagner took a backseat with 215. Christy Mathewson of the Giants was the fourth inductee in 1936 and received 205. Johnson of the Senators received 189 votes as the fifth and final inductee in the year.

Answer: Billy Southworth

Southworth was a player for 13 seasons before he took a hand at managing. From 1942-1944 he took the Cardinals to three consecutive NL pennants and two World Series crowns. In 1948, Billy took the Boston Braves to the National League pennant but lost that World Series to Bob Lemon and Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians. Southworth finally made it into the Hall of Fame in 2008.

Answer: Walter Johnson

Johnson was a career Washington Senator from 1907-1927. Amongst all his Hall of Fame accomplishments, he won two MVP Awards in 1913 and 1924. "The Big Train" retired with 110 shutouts, 3509 strikeouts along with 417 wins.
Cy Young ended his 21-year career in 1911 with 511 wins.

Answer: New York Giants

All four teams were very noteworthy in that page of history. The Orioles' starters led by Dave McNally won an amazing 81 games between them in 1971. The White Sox pitchers led by Red Faber won 87 in the 1920 which followed the Black Sox Scandal. The Giants pitching staff went nuts in 1904 by winning nearly everything in sight. Led by Joe McGinnity's 35, Christy Mathewson won 33, Dummy Taylor 21, and Hooks Wiltse with 13.

This totaled for a Major League record of 102 wins in a season. The Giants did win the National League pennant by 13 games ahead of the Cubs, but there was no World Series held in that season.

Answer: Los Angeles Dodgers

The Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958. In their first four seasons, the Dodgers played at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before moving into Dodger Stadium at Chavez Ravine in 1962. The Dodgers played a preseason game in 1959, their second season, at Memorial but what made the game special was that it was Roy Campanella Day.

It was May 9, 1959, and the Dodgers drew 93,103 fans to the game. Campanella was a Dodger catcher who won three NL MVP Awards in the 1950s. In January 1958, Roy was involved in an automobile accident which left him paralyzed and in a wheelchair for life.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1969, then died in 1993 at the age of 71.

Answer: Juan Marichal

Marichal of the San Francisco Giants won 25 games both in 1963 and 1966, then another 26 in 1968. He wasn't even in the top five for the Cy Young Award voting for any of those seasons. He did make a top 10 Cy Young vote in 1971 for going 18-11. He finished eighth in that voting. Juan pitched for 16 seasons before retiring in 1975. He was inducted into the Hall in 1983.

Answer: 1903

This rule made baseball go faster, and since another rule change in 1887, batters were only allowed three strikes instead of four. The new foul ball/strike rule gave more power to the pitching. This was evident with Athletics pitcher Rube Waddell who led the American League in strikeouts from 1902-1907.

In 1902 before the new rule, Waddell struck out a league-leading 210 batters. After the rule change for 1903 Rube struck out 302, then 349 in 1904.

Answer: Satchel Paige

Although most think that Dan Bankhead was the first, he was first pitcher to play but was not the first pitcher to pitch. Playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers ahe ppeared as a pinch-runner and scored a run in a game in the 1947 World Series. Paige appeared the following season on the mound in the 1948 World Series with the Cleveland Indians and pitched 2/3 inning against the Boston Braves in relief.