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Quiz about Literature About Baseball
Quiz about Literature About Baseball

Literature About Baseball Trivia Quiz


Some highlights from the wonderful world of baseball literature, with special emphasis on Roger Kahn's 'The Boys of Summer'.

A multiple-choice quiz by chessart. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
chessart
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
18,175
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
25
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
16 / 25
Plays
2012
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 209 (21/25), Guest 216 (19/25), Lizbetha (11/25).
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Question 1 of 25
1. Jim Bouton's groundbreaking bestseller, 'Ball Four', is about his experiences with which expansion team? Hint


Question 2 of 25
2. Bouton writes about his efforts to get back to the Majors using what pitch? Hint


Question 3 of 25
3. Who described some of the bizarre plays during the Mets' first season in his book entitled 'Can't Anybody Here Play This Game'? Hint


Question 4 of 25
4. Many of the most entertaining books are written by ex-catchers. Which former catcher wrote about the humorous side of baseball in his bestseller 'Baseball Is a Funny Game'? Hint


Question 5 of 25
5. Whose biography is entitled, 'The Catcher Was a Spy?' Hint


Question 6 of 25
6. Which catcher-turned-broadcaster wrote 'The Catcher in the Wry'? Hint


Question 7 of 25
7. Which catcher-turned-broadcaster wrote 'Baseball for Brain Surgeons'? Hint


Question 8 of 25
8. Which writer spent the last year of Ty Cobb's life with him, and later wrote a 420-page biography of Cobb? Hint


Question 9 of 25
9. Which colorful former umpire wrote about his umpiring experiences in the entertaining book, 'The Umpire Strikes Back'? Hint


Question 10 of 25
10. Who wrote 'It is said that baseball is 'only a game'. Yes, and the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona.'? Hint


Question 11 of 25
11. Who wrote a magazine article entitled '99 reasons why baseball is better than football'? Hint


Question 12 of 25
12. The well-known poem 'Casey at the Bat', written by Ernest Thayer, was first published in which newpaper? Hint


Question 13 of 25
13. Who wrote the almost-as-well-known poem 'Tinker to Evers to Chance'? Hint


Question 14 of 25
14. Managers have written some good baseball books. Which former manager wrote 'Nice Guys Finish Last', chronicling his days as a player and manager over a period of six different decades? Hint


Question 15 of 25
15. Which erudite baseball observor wrote this nugget in his bestselling book: 'Baseball exemplifies a tension in the American mind, the constant pull between our atomistic individualism and our yearning for community'? Hint


Question 16 of 25
16. In what work does the main character bare his soul to his therapist, at one point telling him: 'For in center field, if you can get to it, it *is* yours. Oh, how unlike my home it is to be in centerfield, where noone will appropriate unto himself anything that I say is mine.' Hint


Question 17 of 25
17. Who, while President of Yale, wrote this poetic masterpiece: 'It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the Spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the Fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.'? Hint


Question 18 of 25
18. Whose beautiful eulogy at Mickey Mantle's funeral, entitled 'The Ninth Inning', included the observation that 'We knew there was something poignant about Mickey Mantle before we knew what poignant meant'? Hint


Question 19 of 25
19. Speaking of poignancy, Roger Kahn's bestseller 'Boys of Summer' tells the stories of what happened to the players on the Brooklyn Dodger teams of the early 1950's after retirement. Which old Dodger moved back to Anderson, Indiana after his fourth child was born mongoloid? Hint


Question 20 of 25
20. Which Dodger became an agnostic after his son lost a leg in Vietnam? Hint


Question 21 of 25
21. Which 'boy of summer' sued the Dodgers because they released him while he was hurt, without paying him for the rest of the year as required by the standard player contract? Hint


Question 22 of 25
22. Which Dodger became a broadaster, teaming with Dizzy Dean on NBC's Game of the Week? Hint


Question 23 of 25
23. Which Dodger became a bartender in Newport, Pennsylvania? Hint


Question 24 of 25
24. Which Dodger became the manager of the Mets? Hint


Question 25 of 25
25. Which Dodger was crippled in a car accident? Hint



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Most Recent Scores
Mar 17 2024 : Guest 209: 21/25
Feb 16 2024 : Guest 216: 19/25
Feb 15 2024 : Lizbetha: 11/25
Feb 06 2024 : Guest 24: 19/25
Feb 01 2024 : Guest 68: 14/25
Jan 29 2024 : clip4you: 7/25

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Jim Bouton's groundbreaking bestseller, 'Ball Four', is about his experiences with which expansion team?

Answer: 1969 Seattle Pilots

After one year the team moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers.
2. Bouton writes about his efforts to get back to the Majors using what pitch?

Answer: the knuckleball

Bouton won 39 games for the Yankees during the 1963 and 1964 seasons, but won only 16 games total during the 7 years he played after that. His decline is representative of the decline of the Yankee franchise after the 1964 season.
3. Who described some of the bizarre plays during the Mets' first season in his book entitled 'Can't Anybody Here Play This Game'?

Answer: Jimmy Breslin

4. Many of the most entertaining books are written by ex-catchers. Which former catcher wrote about the humorous side of baseball in his bestseller 'Baseball Is a Funny Game'?

Answer: Joe Garagiola

5. Whose biography is entitled, 'The Catcher Was a Spy?'

Answer: Moe Berg

Berg played for 16 years in the Major Leagues, then embarked on a second career as a spy dring World War II. Fluent in a dozen languages, he became the chief atomic spy for the U.S., assigned the crucial task of determining how close Hitler's scientific corps was to perfecting the atomic bomb.
6. Which catcher-turned-broadcaster wrote 'The Catcher in the Wry'?

Answer: Bob Uecker

Uecker's wry humor earned him numerous appearances with Johnny Carson on 'The Tonight Show', where Johnny would introduce him as 'Mr. Baseball'. He sums up his career like this: 'Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues. But to be able to trick people year in and year out the way I did, I think that was a much greater feat.'
7. Which catcher-turned-broadcaster wrote 'Baseball for Brain Surgeons'?

Answer: Tim McCarver

McCarver has been widely recognized for years as one of the best baseball broadcasters.
8. Which writer spent the last year of Ty Cobb's life with him, and later wrote a 420-page biography of Cobb?

Answer: Al Stump

Initially Stump and Cobb collaborated on a biography. But after Cobb's death, Stump wanted to write a biography that was more objective and less self-serving that the one Cobb had authorized.
9. Which colorful former umpire wrote about his umpiring experiences in the entertaining book, 'The Umpire Strikes Back'?

Answer: Ron Luciano

A very entertaining book.
10. Who wrote 'It is said that baseball is 'only a game'. Yes, and the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona.'?

Answer: George Will

Written in a newpsaper column. Will tries to write at least a third of his columns on subjects other than politics, and sometimes writes about baseball, of which he is an avid fan.
11. Who wrote a magazine article entitled '99 reasons why baseball is better than football'?

Answer: Thomas Boswell

Boswell's books, including 'Why Time Begins on Opening Day' and 'How Life Imitates the World Series', show him to be one of the best writers around.
12. The well-known poem 'Casey at the Bat', written by Ernest Thayer, was first published in which newpaper?

Answer: San Francisco Examiner

Published in 1888.
13. Who wrote the almost-as-well-known poem 'Tinker to Evers to Chance'?

Answer: Franklin Pierce Adams

Adams was a New York newspaperman who in 1910 write this short poem about the double-play combination of the Chicage Cubs: 'These are the saddest of possible words, Tinker to Evers to Chance. Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, Tinker and Evers and Chance. Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble, Making a Giant hit into a double, Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble, Tinker to Evers to Chance.'
14. Managers have written some good baseball books. Which former manager wrote 'Nice Guys Finish Last', chronicling his days as a player and manager over a period of six different decades?

Answer: Leo Durocher

Durocher started in the '20's as a teammate of Babe Ruth on the Yankees, and ended as the Astros manager in the '70's, disillusioned about what he perceived as the pampered attitude of today's players.
15. Which erudite baseball observor wrote this nugget in his bestselling book: 'Baseball exemplifies a tension in the American mind, the constant pull between our atomistic individualism and our yearning for community'?

Answer: George Will

From 'Men at Work'. Will is making the point that although baseball is ostensibly a team game, it is in reality a series of individual events, making it a fertile field for statistical analysis.
16. In what work does the main character bare his soul to his therapist, at one point telling him: 'For in center field, if you can get to it, it *is* yours. Oh, how unlike my home it is to be in centerfield, where noone will appropriate unto himself anything that I say is mine.'

Answer: Philip Roth's 'Portnoy's Complaint'

17. Who, while President of Yale, wrote this poetic masterpiece: 'It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the Spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the Fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.'?

Answer: Bart Giamatti

18. Whose beautiful eulogy at Mickey Mantle's funeral, entitled 'The Ninth Inning', included the observation that 'We knew there was something poignant about Mickey Mantle before we knew what poignant meant'?

Answer: Bob Costas

19. Speaking of poignancy, Roger Kahn's bestseller 'Boys of Summer' tells the stories of what happened to the players on the Brooklyn Dodger teams of the early 1950's after retirement. Which old Dodger moved back to Anderson, Indiana after his fourth child was born mongoloid?

Answer: Carl Erskine

20. Which Dodger became an agnostic after his son lost a leg in Vietnam?

Answer: Clem Labine

21. Which 'boy of summer' sued the Dodgers because they released him while he was hurt, without paying him for the rest of the year as required by the standard player contract?

Answer: Carl Furillo

Furillo died in 1989 at the age of 66.
22. Which Dodger became a broadaster, teaming with Dizzy Dean on NBC's Game of the Week?

Answer: Pee Wee Reese

Pee Wee was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee in 1984. He died in 1999 at the age of 81.
23. Which Dodger became a bartender in Newport, Pennsylvania?

Answer: Billy Cox

24. Which Dodger became the manager of the Mets?

Answer: Gil Hodges

Hodges died suddenly on April 2, 1972, two days before his 48th birthday. As of 2002, there remains a concerted attempt by his fans to get Hodges electd to the Hall of Fame. Hodges' fate now rests with the Veteran's Committee, which has shown some willingness to rectify unfair slights by the baseball writers by its election in recent years of Bill Mazeroski and Richie Ashburn.
25. Which Dodger was crippled in a car accident?

Answer: Roy Campanella

Early in the morning of January 28, 1958, Campanella was driving home from a charity appearance when his car hit a patch of ice and rammed into a telephone pole, leaving him paralyzed. Campy was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1969. He died in 1993 at the age of 71.
Source: Author chessart

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
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