Trivia/History thread

YGIFS · January 16

There is no city there called “Washington.” There’s an urban area there we call “Washington” but the mayor, the council, the budget, the seal, the police and other services all fall under “the District of Columbia.” It’s a city in that it’s densely populated with lots of big buildings. But it is not an incorporated city. There is no “mayor of Washington”. There is no “Washington PD”. The Washington Nationals are not named for a city nor a state. They are names for DC. I don’t make the rules, some dead guys did.

WBT · January 17

There have been two >375 IP seasons since 1917 and they occurred in back to back years.

In what decade did they occur and who were the pitchers?

YGIFS · January 17

Growing up in Chicago, though well past his prime by the time I came of age with the game; I know him as an innings eater for the White Sox. One has to be Wilbur Wood. So if it had to be around that same time, without looking, I’ll venture somebody like Gaylord Perry or Steve Carlton.

WBT · January 17

Yeah Wilbur Wood is one

YGIFS · January 17

Again, his big innings seasons were before my time but he still played for them when I was a wee lad and my brother and middle sister were huge White Sox fans. But as stumped as I am on the second one, I’m freaking out that his innings mark hasn’t been equaled for like 60 years prior to that. That’s what’s fucking crazy to me.

im picturing the his manager and pitching coach like the two consultants in Office Space. “Say Wilbur, remember players from a century ago throwing over other day? What we’d like to do is go ahead and get as many as 375 innings under your belt as soon as possible. Great!”

Beau Vine · January 17

I remember Wood starting both games of a DH when I was a kid, which was an absolute fucking boss move. He'd also pitch frequently on 1 day's rest, so a team might see him twice in a 3-game series. Must've been fun to be his manager...

Scraps · January 17

31 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

I remember Wood starting both games of a DH when I was a kid, which was an absolute fucking boss move.

Lol just looked this up and it was July 1973 against NYY. He got 2 L's like a boss. Torched first game so only was in there for 6 batters without recording an out. Went 4 1/3 the 2nd game, but he wasn't much better giving up 5ER in each game.

YGIFS · January 17

Even still, to hear in the 1970's when the modern pitching staff was fairly close to what we have today: 4 starters, a long relief guy if shit got sideways, and an 1-2 inning closer. For the other guys in the locker room to say, "Hey Wilbur, which one of our games today are you starting?" And Wood to reply, "Yes."

I have a neighbor/LL coach who had his son pitch in both games of a double-header in middle school baseball, but he's a psychopath.

WBT · January 23

So we have the 1970s and Wilbur Wood. Any guesses on the other guy?

YGIFS · January 23

Well yeah, the guy that did it the season right before Wilbur Wood, or right after. Duh!?!? I'm not gonna cheat and look it up. I thought it would be a Carlton, Ryan, Perry, Sutton, or maybe Blyleven. But apparently it's somebody far more obscure. Which is, again, saying something, because it hadn't happened for over a half-century prior. Some scrub who somehow cobbled together 380 innings in an era when that was, and still is, fucking insane. I dunno. Pud Galvin's great-grandson, Armybrat maybe?

Scraps · January 23

I looked it up like a week ago and would never have guessed it but i don't have old saggy balls yet either

dcar00 · January 23

random 70's scrub guess Doyle Alexander

dcar00 · January 23

OK I looked it up. I was almost going to guess his teammate because it had to be someone with a lot of wins.

guy is not a scrub but what I would consider a very good pitcher.

YGIFS · January 23

Doyle's not a bad guess. He was a great contact pitcher (not a lotta walks or K's, just groundballs and basehits)...so he could certainly sustain that many innings on a low(ish) pitch count.

Dammit, I got nothing other than Wilbur. Can the quiz host give us a clue of some sort before we all run off to baseball-reference.com ?

WBT · January 23

I was about to put this out of its misery but...lefty for Detroit

shadow_operative2.0 · January 23

Tanana?

Ha, not close. Didn't read the fine print very well.

Edited January 23 by shadow_operative2.0

YGIFS · January 23

This question is fucking cruel! The gap between seasons is what's killing me.

Detroit? Was gonna say Niekro then since he could pitch every 7 hours, but he wasn't a lefty.

Fuck it. As Kramer said when he slammed the $100 bill on the counter, "I'M OUT!"

WBT · January 23

Mickey Lolich, 376.0 innings in 1971

Wilbur Wood, 376.2 innings in 1972.

I was reading Kepner's K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches and he had the bit about Wood having the most innings pitched since 1917 and so I looked it up and noticed Lolich's season the year before. So Lolich had the most innings in 54 years and the next year Wood beats him by 2 outs. Baseball is weird.

Baseball reference has the top 500 seasons by IP, which goes down to 330 IP. 473 of them were before 1920. Here are the ones since 1920:

So, 8 in the 20s, none in the 30s, 3 in the 40s, 3 in the 50s (all Robin Roberts), 2 in the 60s, and 11 in the 70s. No one has hit 330 IP since Niekro in 79. So what happened in the 70s to reverse a decades long trend and then why did it stop again?

I guess 8 of the 11 were Wood and Niekro throwing knuckleballs and Perry throwing KY balls but it's still weird. Candiotti topped out at 252 and Wakefield and Dickey never got close to 250 throwing knucklers.

WBT · January 23

21 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Well yeah, the guy that did it the season right before Wilbur Wood, or right after. Duh!?!? I'm not gonna cheat and look it up. I thought it would be a Carlton, Ryan, Perry, Sutton, or maybe Blyleven.

Good guesses

It's amazing Nolan went over 330 with as many BBs and Ks as he had. He was never very efficient.

Edited January 23 by WBT

YGIFS · January 23

Mickey fucking Lolich, eh? That guy still owes me money. Wow. Blast from the past name. I have a Mets card of his somewhere.

Wow, I knew his name but nothing much about him. Guy threw 4 seasons over 300 innings in the 1970s. Not the 1870s. And did it consecutively. I never knew anything that. This game is a strange beast. 6 straight seasons of double-digit Complete Games in the 1970's. Also not nothing.

How's this? 1968 World Series MVP. Starts 3 games, finishes all of them, goes 3-0, 1.67 ERA over 27 innings, only 6 walks, hits .250 with a HR and 2 RBI and a walk. Fucking beast mode. All due respect to Toni Kukoc, Lolich shoudla been called "The Croatian Sensation"

Here's a "What the Fuck" fact. His record for most strikeouts by an AL lefty didn't fall until 2017 when Sabbathia passed him. After baseball, he got a bit part in a horror movie and grew a donut franchise.

What a game...

WBT · January 24

11 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

How's this? 1968 World Series MVP. Starts 3 games, finishes all of them, goes 3-0, 1.67 ERA over 27 innings, only 6 walks, hits .250 with a HR and 2 RBI and a walk. Fucking beast mode. All due respect to Toni Kukoc, Lolich shoudla been called "The Croatian Sensation"

That's the year Denny McLain won 31 games in the regular season...and lost Game 1 and Game 4 of the WS, both to Bob Gipson. He did come back and win Game 6 on 2 days rest...CG and 1 run allowed. The Cardinals saved Gibson for Game 7 and Lolich beat him.

I would have liked to have been alive to watch that WS.

YGIFS · January 24

After he got out of the Navy before that series, my father met up with some Navy buddies for one of those games. Years later, I watched the Tigers win the World Series in 1984 and the news coverage cutaway to Detroit basically burning itself to the ground. And my little confused ass was like, "Why would they burn their own city? They won the series, Dad." And he basically just shrugged like, "You shoulda seen what the fuck they did in '68."

McClain and Lolich, just the two of them, pitched 70% of the innings of that series for Detroit.

Gibson & Lou Brock for STL and Al Kaline (one of dad's favorites) for DET were straight fire in addition to Lolich.

5 games in which the losing team scored 0 or 1 run only. Even for that era, that's fucking insane over a 7-game series. Yeah, that woulda been a great one to witness in person. Save for the car bombings.

WBT · January 24

16 minutes ago, WBT said:

Gipson

*Gibson

Christ

dcar00 · January 24

7 hours ago, WBT said:

Mickey Lolich, 376.0 innings in 1971

Wilbur Wood, 376.2 innings in 1972.

I was reading Kepner's K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches and he had the bit about Wood having the most innings pitched since 1917 and so I looked it up and noticed Lolich's season the year before. So Lolich had the most innings in 54 years and the next year Wood beats him by 2 outs. Baseball is weird.

Baseball reference has the top 500 seasons by IP, which goes down to 330 IP. 473 of them were before 1920. Here are the ones since 1920:

So, 8 in the 20s, none in the 30s, 3 in the 40s, 3 in the 50s (all Robin Roberts), 2 in the 60s, and 11 in the 70s. No one has hit 330 IP since Niekro in 79. So what happened in the 70s to reverse a decades long trend and then why did it stop again?

I guess 8 of the 11 were Wood and Niekro throwing knuckleballs and Perry throwing KY balls but it's still weird. Candiotti topped out at 252 and Wakefield and Dickey never got close to 250 throwing knucklers.

I was gonna guess Denny McClain originally but it seemed everyone assumed it was a scrub and then it was 70's which I knew wasn't his 31 win season.

Lolich was a damn good pitcher. He was 25 and 14 that year. 39 decisions out of 45 starts. 29 complete games.

post 1920 the most complete games in a season is Robin Roberts in 1953. 33 complete games in......41 starts. ridiculous

Hornius Emeritus · January 28

Bob Uecker turned 90 yesterday. I love this old commercial with him and John Goodman.

WBT · February 17

There have been 15 240+ hit seasons in MLB history. Who is the only player to have one without any other 200+ hit seasons?

YGIFS · February 17

Man, you throw out some fucking doozies. My first inclination was the record holder for decades, George Sisler. But he got into the HOF so surely had more productive seasons before/after.

Not gonna cheat, but I'm assuming it's probably somebody from the 30/40/50s era who didn't match it before/again only because of war service.

But this is a weird one because if you knock out 240 hits, you can knock out 190. Obviously an injury-truncated career. But Imma go with war service. Shit, this is gonna bug me all day.

Beau Vine · February 17

That has to be the former punter...

WBT · February 17

Billy Spiers? I don't think he ever broke 150

Scraps · February 17

My first guess was Robin Yount. He only has 1 200+ hit season, but it was only 210

YGIFS · February 19

This question is bugging the shit outta me. I'm going with two guesses and fuck anybody with an issue with that.

Lefty O'Doul or Rod Carew?

WBT · February 20

On 2/17/2024 at 1:03 PM, Beau Vine said:

That has to be the former punter...

Spoiler

Beau was correct. Darin Erstad in 2000 had 240 hits. His next highest total was 177.

YGIFS · February 20

A 63-hit differential? This fucking game. Wow. No idea on that one.

In honor of my uncle's 95th birthday recently. He played minor league ball for Cleveland after WWII.

Which pitcher threw for Cleveland and won 40+ games for the Indians -AND- two other MLB clubs and also saved 60+ games for two teams -NOT- in Cleveland?

Scraps · February 20

A 63-hit differential? This fucking game. Wow. No idea on that one.
In honor of my uncle's 95th birthday recently. He played minor league ball for Cleveland after WWII.
Which pitcher threw for Cleveland and won 40+ games for the Indians -AND- two other MLB clubs and also saved 60+ games for two teams -NOT- in Cleveland?

This question seems confusing as fuck but....Eck?

YGIFS · February 20

It's that confusing man, but yeah I should have spelled out over multiple seasons in case the implication was all in one season. Which of course is impossible unless we're talking about the deadball era when you could throw 8 games a week between cigars and whiskey.

Yep, the Eck man won 40+ games for three franchises-Cleveland, Boston, and Oakland. And did well for the Cubs for a short stint. And saved over 60 games for the Cardinals and Oakland to boot. Even in this age of free agency and prolonged careers due to medical advancements. Nobody will ever match that ever again.

Fun factoid---which pitcher has the highest batting average in the post-season?

Beau Vine · February 20

In 1957, 3 NL franchises applied for permission to relocate. We know two of them were accepted. What other club applied to relocate and where did they ask to go?

Scraps · February 20

15 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

In 1957, 3 NL franchises applied for permission to relocate. We know two of them were accepted. What other club applied to relocate and where did they ask to go?

I have absolutely zero clue so just throwing out a dumb random ass guess

Cincy to New Orleans

Beau Vine · February 20

10 minutes ago, Scraps said:

I have absolutely zero clue so just throwing out a dumb random ass guess

Cincy to New Orleans

You're half right!

Scraps · February 20

Just now, Beau Vine said:

You're half right!

Well damn....don't even know which half lmao

TxTower · February 21

Fun factoid---which pitcher has the highest batting average in the post-season?

Greg Maddux?

Beau Vine · February 21

18 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

In 1957, 3 NL franchises applied for permission to relocate. We know two of them were accepted. What other club applied to relocate and where did they ask to go?

Spoiler

Reds asked to relocate to New York City.

WBT · February 21

Interesting. Wonder if Shea had already paid someone off.

dcar00 · February 22

On 2/19/2024 at 9:33 PM, YGIFS said:

It's that confusing man, but yeah I should have spelled out over multiple seasons in case the implication was all in one season. Which of course is impossible unless we're talking about the deadball era when you could throw 8 games a week between cigars and whiskey.

Yep, the Eck man won 40+ games for three franchises-Cleveland, Boston, and Oakland. And did well for the Cubs for a short stint. And saved over 60 games for the Cardinals and Oakland to boot. Even in this age of free agency and prolonged careers due to medical advancements. Nobody will ever match that ever again.

Fun factoid---which pitcher has the highest batting average in the post-season?

Is there a min number of AB's?

I;m sure this isn't it but Early Wynn?

since we were talking about the 68 series and Gibson. Gibson started 6 games total in the 67 and 68 series and had only 2 hits. Both were HR's.

Beau Vine · February 26

WBT · February 27

I heard a good one on a podcast today. The Rockies lost 100 games for the first time last season. Which is now the only franchise that has never lost 100?

YGIFS · February 27

Okay, I like your stumpy questions. But is this some kinda trick because the number of games has changed so much over the years? On the face of it, it'd have to be, like the Rockies, a relatively "recent" franchise which has only played 30-50 seasons and as such their odds are lower they'd have dropped 100+ games. I know it's not the Astros/45s or the D-Backs. DAMN YOU WOMAN!

WBT · February 27

I meant to include current franchise...I don't think they were including any defunct teams. Which of the current 30 mlb teams has never lost 100 games in a season?

Huckleberry · February 27

On 1/16/2024 at 1:13 AM, YGIFS said:

There is no city there called “Washington.” There’s an urban area there we call “Washington” but the mayor, the council, the budget, the seal, the police and other services all fall under “the District of Columbia.” It’s a city in that it’s densely populated with lots of big buildings. But it is not an incorporated city. There is no “mayor of Washington”. There is no “Washington PD”. The Washington Nationals are not named for a city nor a state. They are names for DC. I don’t make the rules, some dead guys did.

There is a City of Washington. It is coterminus with the District of Columbia but that was not always so, as I said. It also combined with the District governmentally but is still a city (much like Anchorage, Denver, Honolulu and others are both cities and counties). Multiple federal sites can confirm this for you.

YGIFS · February 27

That's exactly what the Russians said you would say, you anti-baseball bastard! And there is no such city as Tampa Bay! So fuck the Rays!

And the capital of Nebraska, is Lincoln/bigjimslade

Dnaguy · February 27

15 hours ago, WBT said:

I meant to include current franchise...I don't think they were including any defunct teams. Which of the current 30 mlb teams has never lost 100 games in a season?

I’ll take a stab….

The Cardinals.

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