The Washington Nationals! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Montreal Expos

The Expos were an expansion team in 1969 in the National League along with the San Diego Padres. The Expos moved to become the Nationals in 2005. In their first season in the Washington area, they went 81-81. The Expos went 67-95 in the previous season.

Answer: Frank Robinson

After playing for 21 seasons in the big leagues, retiring after the 1976 season, Robinson tried his hand as a permanent manager. The franchise hired Frank in 2002 in Montreal to helm the team and he made the franchise move to Washington in 2005. He also won a Manager of the Year Award with the Orioles in 1989. Robinson's managerial record was 1065-1176 over 16 seasons.

Answer: Andre Dawson

Staub began his career in 1963 with six seasons for Houston. The Astros sent Staub to Montreal in 1969 via a multi-player trade and he spent four seasons there. Staub retired as a New York Met in 1985. Dawson was an Expo from 1976-1986. He won the Rookie of the Year Award and was MVP runner-up twice in 1981 to Mike Schmidt of the Phillies, and in 1983 to Dale Murphy of the Braves. Dawson signed as a free agent with the Cubs in 1987 and won the MVP for his efforts. Dawson was a Hall of Fame inductee in 2010. Gary Carter had the number 8 retired in his honor and the number 30 of Tim Raines was retired also.

Answer: 8th

Robert F. Kennedy Stadium ranked number 8 of 16 National League teams in 2005. In contrast, the Expos of 2004 finished 16 out of 16 NL teams at Stade Olympique & Estadio Hiram Bithorn. In their final game on September 24, only 31,000 fans showed up to watch the Expos lose to the Marlins.

In 2006, the Nationals dropped to 11 of 16 teams, then in 2007 dropped even further to 14th place while the Dodgers took the top spot and the Marlins finished 16th in attendance.

Answer: Alfonso Soriano

In December 2005, the Texas Rangers traded Soriano to the Nationals for Armando Galarraga, Terrmel Sledge, and Brad Wilkerson. Soriano played in only one season for the Nationals in 2006 and blasted out 46 for Washington. He finished third in the National League for home runs. From there it was on to the Cubs, then went back to the Yankees after that. Sorianoo retired after 16 seasons in 2014 with 412 home runs.

Answer: Brad Wilkerson

Wilkerson hit for the cycle on April 6, 2005, against the Phillies in a 7-3 Nationals win. Cristian Guzman also hit for the cycle in a Nationals' uniform on August 8, 2008. After the 2005 season, Wilkerson was traded to the Rangers in part of a trade for Alfonso Soriano. It was the second time in his career that Brad hit for the cycle as he first did it for the Expos in 2003.

Answer: 2012

The Nationals won a franchise high of 98 games in 2012 under the management of Davey Johnson. Washington faced the Cardinals in the NLDS who had won 10 games less in the season, but lost to St. Louis three games to two. The 2012 Giants downed the Cardinals in the NLCS and won the World Series over the Tigers.

The Nationals would also make it to the NLDS in 2014 against the Giants but lost three games to one. The Giants again would go to the World Series and defeat the Royals.

Answer: Gio Gonzalez

Grimsley was a 20-game winner in 1978 with the Expos. Gonzalez came out firing in 2012 as a National and finished the season with a 21-8 record from the mound. After playing in four seasons with the Athletics, Oakland traded him to the Nationals in December 2005. Gio fit right in after his 16-12 previous Oakland season.

He finished in third for the Cy Young Award in his first Nationals' season behind R.A. Dickey and Clayton Kershaw.

Answer: Manny Acta

The Nationals had two consecutive 100-loss seasons at the hand of Manny Acta. In 2007, Acta took over the reins from Hall of Fame great Frank Robinson. In 2008 the team went 59-102 for their worst season since moving to the D.C. area. Manny didn't change his ways in 2009 after his start of 26-61, so the bosses fired him and replaced him with Jim Riggleman who finished the season at 33-42 himself but still found the team with a 59-103 season record. Under Riggleman all by himself at the helm in 2010 they went 69-93.

The upper levels of the team were fed up the Nationals' leadership, and in 2011 had three different managers with Riggleman, John McLaren, and Davey Johnson. Johnson kept the team in 2012 and turned them around with a 98-64 record and a ticket to their first post-season.

Answer: Jordan Zimmermann

No runs, no hits, no errors, but one base on balls stood in the way of Zimmerman. He had his stuff on September 28, 2014 against the Miami Marlins. His only blunder was walking Marlins first baseman Justin Bour. The Nationals combined for 11 hits in the game, but their solo run came from a home run by shortstop Ian Desmond in the second inning off Miami's Henderson Alvarez.

The Nationals squeaked the win 1-0.