Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. 2007 belonged to the Boston Red Sox. After going 20-7, Josh Beckett took the Cy Young award, and from the bats on the team, they had David Ortiz and Mike Lowell, who both finished in the top five of the MVP voting. After defeating the Angels and the Indians in the ALDS and ALCS, the Red Sox skunked the Colorado Rockies four games to none in the World Series. It was Boston's second World Series crown in four seasons.
2. After much success with the New York Yankees from 1949-1960, along with 10 World Series appearances, Casey Stengel took on a lot of heat in 1962. In three consecutive seasons, his Met's team lost more than 100 games each time. He was replaced before the end of the 1965 season with the Mets. This was not his last managing assignment. He helmed the Tigers for one season in 1966, and that didn't work out either. Casey then retired from baseball. In the Mets' first seven seasons, they could not finish better than 9th place of 10 teams. In 1969, it was worst to first, as the Amazing Mets won the World Series against the Orioles, four games to one. Casey Stengel, who played for 14 seasons, then managed for 25 seasons, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966. Stengel died in 1975.
3. As baseball records have shown, it is consistent that pitching Triple Crowns are accomplished almost twice as much as batting Triple Crowns. Some of the big arms in baseball who won three pitching Triple Crowns were Walter Johnson, Pete Alexander, and Sandy Koufax. Paul Hines hit for the first Triple Crown in 1878. In the 1930s, four batting Triple Crowns were hit, with Babe Ruth hitting two, and Rogers Hornsby hitting the other two. The last batting Triple Crown winner that the century saw was Carl Yastrzemski of the Red Sox in 1967.
4. The Los Angeles Dodger franchise began in Brooklyn in 1884 in the American Association. After seven decades, the team finally moved to the west coast in 1958, leaving behind six World Series championships. Wasting no time, the Dodgers won the World Series in 1959, 1963, and 1965, with the base of their pitching staff in Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, and Johnny Podres.
5. The first Major League baseball icon had to be the great Babe Ruth. Starting his career with the Boston Red Sox, the famous selling of his services came at the end of 1919 to the Yankees. Not only smashing almost every home run record, he was the first to hit 60 home runs in a season three times. Ruth retired with a career .342 average along with his 714 home runs. After being inducted as one of the first five into the Hall of Fame in 1936, he died in 1948.
6. The Atlanta Braves dominated the National League in the 1990s, going to five World Series in the decade. Unfortunately, they could only muster one title against the Yankees in 1996. They faced the Twins, Blue Jays, Indians, and Yankees twice in the 1990s. The Braves had two MVP winners in Terry Pendleton and Chipper Jones.
7. Baseball has seen some great pitching arms throughout its history. Cy Young became the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter in both leagues, to Walter Johnson throwing a record 180 shutouts, to Cardinal great Dizzy Dean, to Warren Spahn who won 20+ games in a season 13 times, to Nolan Ryan's 5714 career strikeouts. The Hall of Fame took all these great pitchers and more.
8. The Boston Red Sox is a storied franchise. From their inception to the new American League in 1901, the team has had their share of baseball greats. Their first fireballer was Cy Young, who retired with a record 511 career wins. Their bats seemed to begin with the great Jimmie Foxx, who won Boston's first AL MVP. Foxx retired with 534 home runs. The team won baseball's first World Series in 1903 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
9. The 1951 season was a historical one. It saw the New York Giants with rookie Willie Mays, come from behind to tie the Brooklyn Dodgers for the NL pennant, which forced a playoff. The result was a Bobby Thomson home run, who provided the "shot heard around the world" to defeat the Dodgers. The Giants met the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.
10. 1969 saw Major League baseball expand with four new teams. They were the Royals and Blue Jays of the American League, and the Expos and Padres of the National League. It also saw both leagues split into two divisions for the first time in history. Under the new format, the Mets took the NL pennant, and the Orioles won the AL title. 1969 was also the year of the "Amazing Mets", who won the World Series.
Source: Author
Nightmare
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