Not-So-Basic Nightmare Baseball [8] Quiz

Answer: Tommy Brown

In 1944, Tommy Brown played a total of forty-six games as shortstop for the Dodgers while being no more than a sixteen-year-old high school student. The aforementioned record occurred on August 20, 1945 when he banged one off a pitch made by Preacher Roe of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was just 17 years, 4 months, and 14 days old at the time.

Though it might seem like the type of record to get beaten, MLB rules have since been updated to require a minimum age of 21 before a player can be drafted to a team.

Answer: Mexico

In an effort to foster a growing enthusiasm for baseball in Mexico and widen their fanbase south of the border, the San Diego Padres organized a three-game series for August 16th, 1996, holding it at Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico. The Padres faced off against their scheduled opponents, the New York Mets, beating them in the end with a score of 15-10.

The next game in Monterrey wouldn't be held until 1999 and the next nation to host the MLB would be Japan in 2000; it was the Cubs and the Mets at the Tokyo Dome.

Answer: Their forties

Going way back to 1894, Cap Anson held the record for nearly a century when he hit a Grand Slam at the age of 42, doing so as both the manager and a key player for the then-Chicago Colts. He was beaten out in 1991 when Carlton Fisk, then for the Chicago White Sox, hit a Grand Slam on October 3, 1991. Both of them would be blown out of the water by Julio Franco who, at 45, hit a Grand Slam in 2004 playing for the Braves.

Though, historically, MLB players have occasionally (and rarely) played into their 50s, the 40s is usually an upper limit for all-star baseballers as they retire shortly after their physical peak.

Answer: False

Nuxhall was a month and a half shy of his 16th birthday when he pitched two-thirds of an inning for the Cincinnati Reds in June 1944, joining the team for the one occasion due to a player shortage brought on by WWII. The Reds would lose the game to the Cardinals by a score of 18-0.

Interestingly, Nuxhall would return to the Major Leagues in 1952, rejoining the roster with the Reds for nine seasons, flipping to other teams in the early 1960s before returning to the Reds for five more years.

Answer: Eddie Yost

Then a player for the Washington Senators, Eddie Yost played 576 consecutive games for the team from July 1951 through May 1955 (the most by any third baseman during the twentieth century). Yost would be with the Senators for fourteen total years as a player (and one as a manager many years later); he was also a player for the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Angels. Throughout the late '60s and early '70s he was the third base coach for the New York Mets and, as a result, he would contribute to the 1969 World Series win for the 'Miracle Mets'.

Answer: 10-22

After eight seasons with the Detroit Tigers and a stellar track record for pitching, threw a massively poor season the minute he left the team, going from a 31-6 record to 10-22. Preceding this low point, McLain was a three-time All-Star, a World Series Champion (in 1968), and a two-time Cy Young winner. Notably, McLain's private life overshadowed his career in many regards as it was determined that he was in deep with organized crime, going to jail a number of times in the '80s and '90s for a multitude of charges.

Answer: Two

Before the year 2000, only six instances of plus-twenty consecutive losses occurred, and four of those were before 1900. The two outliers were the Baltimore Orioles who, in 1988, lost twenty-one total games in a row. Their record wasn't the worst either-- the Philadelphia Phillies 1961 season had twenty-three consecutive losses, the most for any team in the century.

Baltimore would come close to revisiting the nightmare streak in August 2021, taking nineteen consecutive losses then in one of the worst loss records of the twenty-first century.

Answer: Super Bowl

Though it is quite rare, some MLB players manage to cross over quite smoothly into the NFL, becoming valuable players in both sports. Tom Brown is amongst those rare few, having played as an outfielder with the 1963 Washington Senators before going on to join the Green Bay Packers in 1966.

The Packers would win the very first Super Bowl that year. They'd win the second one as well, with Tom on the team.

Answer: National League

Alston is an interesting case in baseball. Having played a single game in the MLB in 1936 (with St. Louis), the rest of his career was spent managing the Dodgers as they transitioned out of Brooklyn and into Los Angeles. He would retain the role for twenty-three years, ending off with four World Series wins between the 1950s and 1960s.

He won the National League pennant for the Dodgers seven times, retiring in 1976.

Answer: Early Wynn

An accomplished all-star MLB player for the Senators, Indians, and White Sox, between 1939 and 1963, Early Wynn wouldn't win a World Series but he would rack up a hearty record of wins, ending his career with a score of 300-244 games as a pitcher. The 300-win total is one he would share with Lefty Grove, who retired from the sport more than two decades earlier. Wynn passed away in 1999.