The Decade with Nine Champions Quiz

Answer: Wade Boggs

Boggs hit .352 for the decade, twenty points ahead of second-place Tony Gwynn. After eleven season with the Red Sox, he left after the 1992 season and spent five seasons with the Yankees, then finished up with two seasons for the Tampa Bay Rays (then known as the Devil Rays). Boggs was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005 in his first year of eligibility.

Answer: George Brett

Brett's 1980 season was legendary. He hit .390, the highest average since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, leading the Royals to the World Series and winning the American League MVP.

Answer: Mike Schmidt

Schmidt's total of 313 homers was five more than second-place Dale Murphy.

Answer: true

Andre Dawson and Mark McGwire came close, with 49, but no player hit 50 in a season during the 1980s. This changed in the next decade, when seven different players hit 50, headed by Mark McGwire's record-setting 70 in 1998.

There were ten members of the 50 home run club prior to 1980: one (Babe Ruth) in the 1920s, three (Hack Wilson, Jimmie Foxx, and Hank Greenberg) in the 1930s, two (Johnny Mize and Ralph Kiner) in the 1940s, two (Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle) in the 1950s, three (Mantle, Mays and Roger Maris) in the 1960s, and one (George Foster) in the 1970s. By 2001, when Barry Bonds set a new record with 73, membership in this club had doubled to twenty.

Answer: Eddie Murray

Eddie Murray sort of flew under the radar during his 21-year MLB career. He was a quiet, soft-spoken guy who simply went out every day and did his job, as his nickname of "Steady Eddie" would suggest. His 996 RBIs in the 1980s led the majors, 67 ahead of second place Dale Murphy. Eddie played most of his career with the Baltimore Orioles, but also played for the Dodgers, Mets, Indians and Angels.

Answer: Jack Morris

Morris's total of 162 wins was 22 more than second-place Dave Stieb. Morris led the Tigers to a World Series win in 1984 and later won World Series with the Twins in 1991, and the Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993.

Answer: New York Yankees

The Yankees were first in wins with 854. Despite this, they never won a World Series in the 1980s, the first decade since the 1910s that the Yankees failed to win a World Series.

Answer: Roger Clemens

Clemens had a monster season pitching for the Red Sox in 1986, going 24-4, with a 2.48 ERA. His performance earned him the 1986 American League MVP over second-place Don Mattingly and third-place Jim Rice.

The wrong choices are all relief pitchers who won MVPs. Many analysts criticize giving an MVP to a relief pitcher, who typically pitches far fewer innings than starting pitchers. For example, Dennis Eckersley pitched only 80 innings during his 1992 MVP season, less than a third of the 254 innings pitched by Clemens in his MVP season.

Answer: Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers won in six games over the Yankees in 1981 and won in five games over the Athletics in 1988. The other World Series winners in the 1980s, in chronological order, are the Phillies, Cardinals, Orioles, Tigers, Royals, Mets, Twins and Athletics.

Answer: true

All teams were over a million in 1986. Three teams had under a million the year before, these being the Indians, Pirates, and Giants. Especially noteworthy is the Indians, who more than doubled their attendance from 1985 to 1986, thanks to a winning team which featured rising stars like Joe Carter, Julio Franco, and Cory Snyder.