I Was the First One! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ned Williamson

Of the others, only Ruth ever 25 in a season, but Williamson beat the Babe to the punch. Ned hit 27 in 1884 with the National League Chicago White Stockings. It would be the only time that he hit in double-figures over his 13 seasons. Ironically, 1884 had some major pitching rule changes, resulting in the game being controlled by pitchers.

For example, Charley Radbourn of the Providence Grays went 59-12 in 1884.

Answer: Ross Barnes

Barnes hit .429 in the National League's first season in 1876. This helped his Chicago White Stockings to the NL Championship. Ross hit over .400 three times prior with the Boston Red Stockings of the National Association.

Answer: Cap Anson

The others didn't reach the 3000 hit mark. Anson put himself on this podium before the 20th century even began. He reached the mark in 1894 while playing for the Chicago Colts (later Cubs) of the National League. Anson was a player-manager much of his career. Adrian Constantine "Cap" Anson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1939.

Answer: Pete Rose

The others had a tiring number of plate appearances also, but Pete Rose was the first and retired with 15,861 appearances. Hank Aaron left baseball just shy of 14,000, more than the others listed.

Answer: Rickey Henderson

The others did not reach the 1000 stolen base mark. Henderson played for many teams in his career, and was the first to reach 1000 in 1992, and the first to reach 1100 in 1994, both with the Oakland Athletics. Rickey reached 1300 in 1999 as a Met, and 1400 in 2002 with Boston.

He retired with 1406 in 2003, while nobody else had still reached the 1000 mark in history. Unfortunately and on the other side of the coin, the speedster Lou Brock was the first to ever be caught stealing 300 times.

Answer: Hughie Jennings

Jennings played for 17 seasons, but only seven seasons saw him play in over 100 games. His HBP percentage was tremendously high. He retired with 287, including a season record of 51 set in 1896 with the National League Baltimore Orioles. In 2007 at the All-Star break, Houston's Craig Biggio was only two bruises behind Hughie lifetime.

Answer: First

Batting third or in the clean-up spot most of his career, he came through in the first innning of a game 111 times. The sixth inning was the second largest output, hitting 93. Hank hit 47 ninth inning home runs also. The pitcher that he hit the most home runs off was Dodger Don Drysdale, who dished up 17 to the Hall of Fame great.

Answer: Sam Crawford

Seeing Major League baseball through its first 100 seasons, Sam was still the only player to have reached 300, retiring with 309 in 1917. For more than a decade, Crawford shared the outfield of the Tigers with Ty Cobb, and quite a non-friendly rivalry it was. Cobb fell short of 300 career triples, retiring in 1928 with 295.

Answer: Reggie Jackson

Jackson was the first to reach 2000, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2400, then 2500. He finally retired with the grand strike-three total of 2597. Those strikeouts helped to overshadow Reggie's 18 postseason home runs.

Answer: Babe Ruth

Ruth had 1681 RBIs in his big season of 1921 with the Yankees. In that season, the Babe banged out 204 hits, 59 of those being for home runs. When Ruth hit his 60 home runs in 1927, he finshed with 165 RBIs. Gehrig reached 160 in 1927 (finished with 173), Wilson in 1930 (with 191), and Greenberg in 1935 (with 168).