Fascinating and Obscure Baseball Trivia, Part 4 Quiz

Answer: Ned Yost

Maddox, Strawberry and Sudakis were all New York Mets so they obviously hit home runs while playing on the Mets in their home stadium at Shea. Maddox and Sudakis became New York Yankees in 1974 and the home runs they hit were in Shea Stadium because in that season and the '75 season the Yankees played their regular season home games in Shea because Yankee Stadium was being renovated.

In 1998, Strawberry was playing for the Yankees, and on April 15th that season, their home game against the Anaheim Angels was moved to Shea Stadium because the day before a chunk of metal had fallen onto some empty seats at Yankee Stadium, so the stadium was being checked out as a safety precaution. On that particular day, Strawberry hit a home run off Omar Olivares of the Angels. Ned Yost never played for the Mets or Yankees.

Answer: Denis Menke

Denis Menke played at least 100 games as short stop for the Atlanta Braves in each of the seasons 1964, 1966, and 1967. Then he played at least 100 games at short stop for 1969 and 1970 Houston Astros. In the 1968 season he played at least 100 games as second baseman for the Astros. In his final Astros season, 1971, he played at least 100 games as their first baseman. Finally, for the 1972 and 1973 Cincinnati Reds he played at least 100 games as the third baseman. Menke was traded to the Reds in 1972, and since the Reds had HOF Tony Perez at first base, the team moved Menke to third base.

Answer: Dale Murray

Since the 1950 MLB season, Dale Murray pitched 111 innings in the 1975 season without giving up a home run. The rest of the stingy pitchers in the top 10 since 1950 include: Terry Forster (111 1/3 innings in 1975); Greg Minton (91 1/3 innings in 1980, 84 1/3 innings in 1981, and 79 2/3 innings in 1979); Warren Brusstar (88 2/3 innings in 1978), Jim Crawford, Greg Minton again, John Buzhardt, Greg Minton again, Tippy Martinez, and Gary Wagner.
Spahn, Roberts, and Jenkins are among the pitchers who have given up the most home runs since 1950.

Answer: Zach Greinke

Greinke did it in 2012 for the Milwaukee Brewers. His streak began on Saturday, July 7, 2012 when he was ejected from the game after throwing just four pitches; he had spiked the baseball in anger after there was a close play at first base. Not too tired of course after only four pitches he was able to start the following day's game. He lasted only until the third inning, before being pulled. This outing was followed by the All-Star break whereby the entire league got some extra rest (except said All-Stars), so the next time the Brewers had a game wasn't until July 13, 2012. Greinke was chosen again to be the starting pitcher.

Red Faber was the previous pitcher to have started in three straight games in the same season, but that was way back in 1917. Faber started both games of a doubleheader on September 3, 1917. He only pitched 6 innings of both those games combined, so the next day he also started and completed a game.

Sudden Sam McDowell was a starter of three straight games for the Cleveland Indians 1965-1966. He started the last game of the 1965 season on October 3rd for them and then the first two games of the following season in 1966, on April 11th and 15th.

Sergio Romo started two consecutive games in May 12th and 13th, 2018 for the Tampa Rays, and had actually pitched in the game before those two games, when he made a late game appearance as a reliever.

Answer: New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners

The Yankees had 3 such teams and the Mariners had two. In 1995 the NY Yankees had Wade Boggs, Don Mattingly and Paul O'Neill on the team, all former batting champs. In 2004, they had Bernie Williams, Alex Rodriguez, and Gary Sheffield on the squad and in 2005 they again had those same three former batting champs on the team.
In 2000, the Seattle Mariners had Edgar Martinez, John Olerud and Alex Rodriguez on their team, and in 2003, the Mariners they had Edgar Martinez, John Olerud and Ichiro Suzuki.

Answer: Derek Jeter, Willie Mays, and Alex Rodriguez

Derek Jeter, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez are the only three that meet all the criteria. Rickey Henderson fell short in the RBI department with "only" 1,115. Barry Bonds had 2,935 hits, 65 fewer than the required 3,000. And Hammerin' Hank had 240 stolen bases. Babe Ruth had only 123 stolen bases, and 2,873 hits. Ty Cobb had only 117 home runs, Pete Rose had only 198 stolen bases, and 160 home runs. Stan Musial had only 78 stolen bases, Ted Williams had only 2,654 hits and 24 stolen bases. Joltin' Joe DiMaggio had only 2,214 hits and 30 stolen bases.

Answer: Will Clark

The San Francisco Giants had the second overall pick in the 1985 amateur draft and they selected Will "The Thrill" Clark (B. J. Surhoff was first). On June 21st that summer, Clark debuted in the pros with the minor league Fresno Giants and hit a home run in his very first at bat on the very first swing. In his MLB debut with the Giants on April 8, 1986, Clark went up to bat, facing Nolan Ryan, the future Hall of Fame fireball pitcher. And again, with his very first swing of the bat he belted a home run.

That same 1985 draft class by the way, was one of the most impressive ever. In addition to the three players listed as wrong answers, that draft had first round selections Bobby Witt (3rd pick), Larkin 4th pick), Bonds (6th), Pete Incaviglia (8th), Walt Weiss (11th), Brian MacRae (17th), Gregg Jeffries (20th), Palmeiro (22nd). In later rounds Randy Johnson, Dave Justice, Brady Anderson, John Smoltz, and Mark Grace were all chosen.

Answer: Bobby Pfeil

Bobby Pfeil was a utility infielder, but in an emergency situation in 1971, the Philadelphia Phillies needed him to move to catcher. In his first start as catcher, he hit two home runs. Those two home runs would be the only two home runs he ever hit in his two-season, 106 game career, one season of which was with the 1969 Miracle New York Mets.

Thirty nine years later, catcher J. P. Arencibia hit two round-trippers in his debut with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2010. The following year, Ryan Lavarnay joined the Boston Red Sox in midseason, playing designated hitter in seven games before he debuted as a catcher for the team. In that game he hit two homers. Then in 2012 catcher Yasmani Grandal became the first player in MLB history to hit home runs as a lefty and as a righty for his first career hits in the same game (against the Colorado Rockies).

Answer: New York

It's not really a trick question in case you suspected that. Consider this:
In 1949 the New York Yankees beat the BROOKLYN Dodgers (not Los Angeles Dodgers) 4 games to 1. So that's five games in a row right there that were won by a baseball team from NYC. The streak continued the next year, 1950, when the Yankees swept the Philadelphia Phillies 4-0. So, add those 4 games onto the streak because the city of Philadelphia won no games in that World Series. 1951: The NY Yankees beat the NEW YORK Giants (not San Francisco Giants) 4-2, adding six more consecutive World Series winning games. 1952: Yankees again beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 4 games to 3.

Okay so you see where and why this is going. 1953: A repeat as the Yankees beat the Dodgers, 4-2. 1954: No Yanks in this one, but the New York Giants swept the Cleveland Indians 4-0. The streak is now up to 32 consecutive New York City wins. 1955: The Brooklyn Dodgers finally beat the Yankees, winning 4-3. 1956: But then the Yankees return the favor beating the Dodgers 4-3. In 1957, The Yankees win the first game of that World Series against the Milwaukee Braves, but then lost Game two. So that's another game to add to the streak but it ended there...at 47 consecutive World Series games won by teams from NYC.

Answer: Paul Goldschmidt

Paul Goldschmidt is not a pitcher, but is instead a first baseman who has one of the most dominant career hitting performances against a great pitcher, the two time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum.

In 1989, Bruce Hurst of the San Diego Padres became the first pitcher to beat both the current Cy Young winners in one season; he beat the 1988 American League Cy Young winner Frank Viola of the Minnesota Twins and the 1988 National League Cy Young winner Orel Hershiser of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2003, the Atlanta Braves' Shane Reynolds was the next to achieve this when he
defeated Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Barry Zito of the Oakland Athletics. And then it was The Cleveland Indians' Justin Masterson's turn. In 2013, in his very first two starting assignments of the season, he bested R. A. Dickey (Toronto Blue Jays) and David Price (Tampa Bay Rays).