EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED IN A QUIZ ... AND LESS
ENJOY THIS BASEBALL TRIVIA WHILE MOURNING BUTKUS, A STAR FOOTBALL PLAYER — AND ACTOR
While many of you have memories of Dick Butkus on the gridiron, I think about him in his terrific commercials for Lite Beer from Miller. He was a natural. OK, he was really good, but not as great as he was during a game. My favorite spot of his was “The First Lite Beer Bowling Tournament” or maybe the one when he and Bubba Smith just came from the opera but couldn’t understand a word of it. They were going next to the ballet (and hoping it was in English). The premise of all these ads was the argument as to whether the best part of Lite was that it tasted great or was less filling. It’s kind of like watching the baseball postseason after your team has been eliminated. Is it simply more fun or less aggravating? Think about that after you finish today’s quiz. Have fun and learn a lot.
1. The Twins, who had an 18-game, 6,937-day postseason losing streak, won in Game 1 of the wild-card series, The Twins’ last win in the postseason had been on October 5, 2004. Since that time, the White Sox and what other AL Central team won the World Series?
a. Cleveland Guardians (née Indians)
b. Kansas City Royals
c. Detroit Tigers
2. Speaking of the Twins, their third baseman Royce Lewis hit four grand slams this season all by himself. The Cubs as a team, hit six slams. How many grannies did the White Sox have?
a. 1
b. 3
c. 5
d. 7
3. Major-league teams had a homewinning percentage of .521 this season. The Cubs, Giants and Mariners each had a home won-loss record of 45-36 (.556) and none of them made the postseason. But their home record was better than one playoff team. Which one was it?
a. Brewers
b. Orioles
c. Phillies
d. Astros
4. Mark Reynolds, Kyle Schwarber, Adam Dunn, Chris Davis and Joey Gallo, each had at least one season in which they hit over 40 homers and struck out over 200 times. However, only one also hit under .200. Who is this unusual hitter?
5. Ronald Acuna Jr. led all of baseball with 54 hits in the 1st inning. Before you just throw that out as a “only the Quizmaster cares stat,” might I point out that he also led the majors scoring 41 runs in that inning alone. If you don’t appreciate that, the Mets scored only 58 runs as a team in the 1st inning. Here’s the question (finally): Who led Chicago in 1st-inning hits?
a. Nico Hoerner
c. Tim Anderson
b. Luis Robert Jr.
d. Ian Happ
6. To answer this question, you need 20-20 vision. You know that when someone says that ‘‘a player had a 20-20 season’’ that means they had at least 20 in each of two categories. Well, there is one guy who played in Chicago this year who finished a season with exactly 20 homers and exactly 20 steals while playing for another team. Who is this true 20-20 guy?
a. Cody Bellinger
b. Dansby Swanson
c. Andrew Benintendi
d. Elvis Andrus
7. Oct. 14 is the anniversary of the Steve Bartman game. It is also the anniversary of the error by shortstop Alex Gonzalez on a potential doubleplay grounder that opened the floodgates that led to an eight-run inning for the Marlins. Who hit that grounder to Gonzalez?
a. Mike Lowell
b. Ivan Rodriguez
c. Miguel Cabrera
d. Derrek Lee
8. In Game 1 of this season’s NLDS, future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw gave up six runs in one-third of an inning. Really not that much fun to watch but it was less aggravating than when a Chicago pitcher did it. Which of these Chicago pitchers was the only one to not have a start in which he allowed 6+ runs in 0.1 inning pitched?
a. Kyle Farnsworth
b. Rick Reuschel
c. Joel Horlen
d. Steve Trachsel
e. Tommy John
9. My walk-off question this week is a little different: Who is the oldest Cub to ever homer? In the mode of walk-offs, it was the final homer of his career (I know I’m stretching it here).
a. Ernie Banks
b. Charlie Root
c. Davey Lopes
d. Gary Gaetti