A Look Back to Major League Baseball: 1930-1939 Quiz

Answer: Boston Red Sox

The game was played at Griffith Stadium on April 14, 1930. Danny MacFayden was the starting pitcher for the Sox, and Firpo Marberry started for the Senators. The final score was 4-3, and the Sox closing pitcher, George Smith, got the W (win) for the game. Garland Braxton (pitcher for the Senators) got the L (loss) that day.

Answer: 1926

In the previous year's World Series, 1930, the Cardinals and the Athletics had also faced each other - the Athletics won 40-2.

The Cardinals were eager to win the 1931 "rematch", but lost the first game 6-2. The next game, the Cardinals won, shutting out the A's 2-0, and pitcher Wild Bill Hallahan only gave up three hits. Then they won game three 5-2. The Athletics won game 4, shutting out the Cardinals 3-0. The Cardinals took game 5, with a final score of 5-1, but then they lost game six 8-1. This forced a game 7, but the Cardinals won it, 4-2, winning the World Series title. There was no World Series MVP award because it did not exist. It was not created until 1955.

THe Cradinals won the 1926 World Series 4-3 vs. the NY Yankees.

Answer: 4

The Yankees swept the Cubs 4-0 that year to win the World Series. A sweep is when you win all the games in a series. For the World Series, you have to win four out of a possible seven games. Since they swept the series, only four games were needed.

The scores of the four games were as follows
Game 1 - 12-6
Game 2 - 5-2
Game 3 - 7-5
Game 4 - 13-6

The last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series was 14 years earlier, in 1908. They did not have another win another for more than 100 years, in 2016. This was known as the Curse of the Goat. Apparently, someone tried to bring a goat to that World Series and was not allowed in, and then it took them 108 years to win again.

Answer: 8

Hitting for the cycle is when one batter manages to hit a single, double, triple, and a home run during the same game. They do not have to be in that order. When they are hit in order, it is called "a natural cycle." Hitting for the cycle is very rare. During the 140 odd years between 1882 and 2025, it happened fewer than 400 times. In 2009, eight cycles were achieved.

Chuck Klein of the Philadelphia Phillies, who was one of the 8 men in 1933 to hit for the cycle, also achieved it two years earlier in 1931. The other seven players who hit for the cycle in 1933 were Pepper Martin, Arky Vaughan, Mickey Cochrane, Pinky Higgins, Jimmie Fox, Earl Averill, and Babe Herman.

Answer: Lou Gehrig

The batting triple crown is when a player leads their league in batting average, home runs, and RBIs (runs batted in). Lou Gehrig played first base for the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1939. In 1934, he had a batting average of .363, he scored 49 home runs, and had 165 RBIs.

He was the only triple crown winner for the American League that year, and the first since 1909. Lou Gehrig was also the first athlete to be on a Wheaties cereal box.

Answer: Cincinnati Reds vs Philadelphia Phillies

The first night game was played on May 24, 1935, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio. There was technically a trial night game in 1880, shortly after Edison invented the light bulb, but in modern baseball under MLB, the first was in 1935. The Reds won the game 2-1.

Answer: Bees

The Boston Braves were a National League team. In 1936, the Braves wanted a new image, and with that came a new name, the Boston Bees. The need to change the image came when new owner, Bob Quinn, noticed due to the poor performance of the team, the fans were losing interest. A contest was held to choose a new name, where fans could enter new team names, and Bees was one of over 1300 entries. This change only lasted until 1941, when they went back to the Braves.

Answer: Yankees had won the most World Series.

Between October 6 and 10, 1937, the New York Yankees played the New York Giants in the World Series. The Yankees won the first three games of the series. Then the Giants won game four. The Yankees took game five, winning the series (which is best 4 out of 7). After that win, the Yankees had six World Series wins, making them the team with the most wins in the majors. This has continued with them having far more than anyone else.
(Side note: As a Red Sox fan, this was painful to write).

Answer: First time a team had won three years in a row.

The New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs played in the 1938 World Series. The Yankees swept the Cubs 4-0. The score of game 1 was 3-1. Yankees pitcher, Red Ruffing got the win. In game 2, the final score was 6-3 with Lefty Gomez getting the win. The final score of game 3 was 5-2, with Monte Pearson getting the win. The final game 4 had a score of 8-3 with the win going to Red Ruffing.

Answer: Bucky Walters

The Triple Crown in pitching is given to a person who leads the league in three categories: wins, strikeouts, and earned run average (ERA). There is not a winner every year. For example, in 1939, the American League did not have a winner. This is because one most lead in all three categories.

Bucky Walters played with the Cincinnati Reds during the 1939 season. That year, he had 27 wins, 137 strikeouts (he tied with Claude Passeau), and an ERA of 2.29.