Oxygen Mask Baseball Trivia Quiz

Answer: Federal League

The first southpaw 300-game winner was Eddie Plank. Eddie, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1946, made a name for himself with the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League for 14 of his 17 seasons beginning in 1901. With the new Federal League having one season under its belt in 1914, Plank was lured into a big contract to jump ship to the new league, which was trying to become the third Major League of baseball.

In 1915 with the St. Louis Terriers, Eddie went 21-11, topping the 300-win plateau.

He helped the Terriers to the Federal League pennant. When the Federal League folded after the 1915 season, Plank went from the famous to the unknown when he joined the lowly St. Louis Browns of the American League. Eddie retired in 1917 with a career record of 326-194.

He died only nine years later, then was a 1946 Hall of Fame inductee, 20 years after he passed.

Answer: Doc White

White pitched in 11 of his 13 seasons for the Chicago White Sox, in a career that spanned from 1901-1913. In 1904, Doc threw five consecutive shutouts in the season, finishing it out with a 16-12 record. Three seasons later, he led the AL in wins with his 27-13 season. White threw 45 shutouts in his career, heavily shadowed by Walter Johnson's record-setting 110.

In addition to Drysdale's record of six consecutive shutouts in 1968, he also set a record by pitching 58 consecutive scoreless innings, a record later broken by Dodger Orel Hershiser in 1988.

Answer: The Giants owner refused to let his team play in it

It was Giants manager John McGraw and Giants owner John Brush who were to blame for the absence of the World Series in 1904. In fear of their crosstown rival Highlanders (later Yankees) winning the AL pennant, McGraw and Brush did not want to give up the team's 'superiority' hold for New York.

This refusal was made in July when the Highlanders were leading the American League. Ironically, the Highlanders' Jack Chesbro wild-pitched the game-winning run for Boston in the last game of the season, giving the Boston Americans the AL pennant.

The first time that the Giants and Yankees faced each other in a World Series was in 1921, and the Giants were victorious, five games to three. The Giants won it again in a repeat against them in 1922, then the Yankees were finally victorious in 1923 for the franchise's first World Series crown.

Answer: Jim Russell

Russell was a Brooklyn Dodger in 1950, hit only 10 home runs in the season, and 67 over his 10-season career with the Dodgers and Pirates. Mantle duplicated the feat six seasons later in 1956 for the Yankees, and did it three times in the season. Mickey won the American League MVP in 1956.

Answer: Frank Ernaga

Ernaga was a 1957 Chicago Cub rookie. On May 24th, Frank faced the great Warren Spahn of the Braves, and took his two big clouts off Warren. The Cubs won the game 5-1 while Moe Drabowsky took the win. Ernaga amazingly played in only 29 games covering two seasons, then retired.

Answer: Eddie Smith

Smith was a Chicago White Sox pitcher, and Joe could only get one single off him in the game on May 15, 1941. Two months later on July 16th, Joe had a double and two singles off Al Milnar and Joe Krakausas of the Indians to make it 56 games. The following day, July 17th, he was roadblocked by Al Smith and Jim Bagby of the Indians to stop his streak. Actually, it was the defensive plays of third baseman Ken Keltner and shortstop Lou Boudreau who robbed DiMaggio of two hard line drives in the game. During his streak, Joe batted .408 and won the AL MVP for the season. Ted Williams of the Red Sox batted .406 for the entire season, yet did not win the MVP.

Answer: Hoyt Wilhelm

All these pitching greats won 100 games in relief, but it was the specialist in the name of Hoyt Wilhelm who did it first. Wilhelm's career spanned from 1952-1972. He pitched in six full seasons before even given the go ahead to start a game, and had been used from the bullpen prior.

In 1963, he appeared in 55 games for the White Sox, while starting only three. It would be his last starting appearance, and finished out his remaining nine seasons from the bullpen. Throughout Hoyt's career, he appeared in 1070 games, and only started 52.

His career record was 143-122. He was a 1985 Hall of Fame inductee.

Answer: Chicago White Sox

In 1960, it was the owner of the White Sox, Bill Veeck, who had the names placed on the jerseys. In the same season, he was also unveiled his exploding scoreboard at Comiskey Park. Veeck was also known for a publicity stunt with the pinch-hitting fiasco of little Eddie Gaedel in 1951 with the St. Louis Browns.

Answer: Mickey Mantle

Although they all batted for the Triple Crown, Mantle of the Yankees was the only switch-hitter. He batted for the Triple Crown in 1956, winning the AL MVP Award. Hines batted for a Triple Crown in 1878 with the Providence Grays of the National League. O'Neill hit for the Triple Crown in 1887 with the St. Louis Browns of the American Association. Lajoie won his Triple Crown in 1901 with the Philadelphia Athletics in the American League.

Answer: Snuffy Stirnweiss

Stirnweiss was a New York Yankee in 1945, and batted .30854 in the season. He won the title by less than 1000th of a point over the White Sox slugger Tony Cuccinello who batted .30845. After the season, Cuccinello quit baseball. Kell's batting title was more famous in 1949, beating out Ted Williams by .00016, which would later prevent Williams from winning five consecutive batting crowns.

In 2003, Pujols of the Cardinals topped Todd Helton of the Rockies by .00022. Minoso, whose career touched five decades, never won a batting title.