Bill Mueller Trivia Quiz

Answer: 15th

Bill Mueller was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 15th round of the 1993 amateur draft, the 414th overall pick of that draft. He was one of only four of the players from the 15th round of that draft class to make the majors, and the only to lead the league in any offensive or defensive categories.

Answer: First Base

Mueller was almost exclusively a third baseman with 1030 starts at the position in his career, 43 starts at second, and just one inning played at shortstop in 2003. Season 2004 was the year where he had the highest proportion of his starts at a position other than third base, with 14 of his 110 starts coming at second.

Answer: Silver Slugger

Bill Mueller won the silver slugger in his 2003 campaign, where he also won a batting title and had career highs in doubles (45), triples (5), home runs (19) and RBI (86). He also received MVP consideration in the same year, finishing in 12th place overall

Answer: Mark Lewis

In 1997, Bill Mueller platooned with Mark Lewis for most of the year, though as Mueller heated up down the stretch, he began to receive a majority of the starts. Charlie Hayes and Russ Davis both played on the Giants with Mueller, but Mueller received nearly all of the starts at third base in those years. Pedro Feliz only had a cup of coffee (2 for 7) in 2000, Mueller's last year with the Giants.

He moved to the Chicago Cubs in 2001.

Answer: 2004 World Series

While some may have seen Mueller's biggest accomplishment as a game-tying single in the first of four straight games the Red Sox won to make up for a 3-0 deficit in the 2004 ALCS, his 2004 World Series performance was the strongest. He went 6-14 with two doubles, four walks, and did not strike out at all.
His 1997 NLDS performance had his only post-season home run.

Answer: Knees

Bill Mueller injured both of his knees, the first time occurring when sliding to catch a pop foul in 2001 with the Cubs. His 2006 campaign (playing for the Didgers) was easily his shortest, as he only managed to play 32 games before going on the DL and officially retiring after the season.

Answer: Two Grand Slams in one game from different sides of the plate

Bill Mueller never hit for the cycle or hit an inside the park home run. He did hit two grand slams in one game in a 14-7 Red Sox win over the Rangers on July 29, 2003. Fernando Tatis hit two grand slams in one inning.

Answer: 5

Shawn Estes was the starting pitcher in 5 of his 7 1997 home runs game. Assuming that Estes would start 20% of the Giants games, then 71.4% of Mueller's home runs that came during Estes's start displays a statistically significant difference compared to the expected percentage of Mueller's home runs that would come during Estes's starts.

Answer: Tim Worrell

The Giants had a one-for-one trade with the Chicago Cubs on November 18, 2000, trading Bill Mueller for Tim Worrell. Out of the respect for Mueller, the Giants delayed the trade for several days so he could attend the Cal-Stanford football game as a local star.

Answer: Hitting Coach

Mueller became the interim GM after the Dodgers fired Eddie Murray. After a month, manager Grady Little announced that the "interim" tag would be removed and Mueller would remain the hitting coach for the duration of the season. After the 2007 season, he returned to a front office position.