Experiment time

Posted: March 15th, 2009 | Filed under: Baseball | 83 Comments »

OK, we’re going to try something here. I’ll have more to say about it if it actually works.

We’re going to try and have a baseball quiz. If we can pull this off, well, there are so many possibilities. But at this point, I would say that our technical ability to pull this off is, maybe, 5-1 against.

Let’s give it a try:

How many times was Roger Maris intentionally walked in 1961, the year he hit 61 homers?






Which of the following pitchers is NOT among the Top 10 all-time in strikeouts?






I hold the record for left-handed batters for grounding into double plays. Who am I?






What pitcher has the most complete games over the last 40 years?






How many different closers led the Atlanta Braves in saves during their 15-year playoff run?






Which of these players has 500 home runs for his career?






Who was the last switch-hitter to win the MVP Award?






Which of the following players received more than one Hall of Fame vote?






Who led the remarkable 1976 California Angels with 10 home runs?






Who is the all-time leader in "Joe" hits?








83 Comments on “Experiment time”

  1. 1: Jeff said at 9:14 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Second last sentence: It’s your, not you’re.

    And yes, I’m a newspaper editor.

  2. 2: Paul White said at 9:17 am on March 15th, 2009:

    I got nothin’ on the whole red/green/bolded answer thing. All of them appear in standard black text. Is that a browser-specific thing? I’m using Firefox.

  3. 3: Jersey Joe said at 9:19 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Sorry. No green; no red.
    Anyone else?

  4. 4: Jersey Joe said at 9:20 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Also using Firefox.

  5. 5: Jason said at 9:21 am on March 15th, 2009:

    It said I got 4 of 10 right but the results page showed I only missed two of the questions.

  6. 6: Randy M said at 9:26 am on March 15th, 2009:

    I got 5; program said I got 3. I’m embarrassed either way.

  7. 7: B.E. Earl said at 9:28 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Kinda worked for me. I got the Brave’s closer question wrong and it’s missing the red X, but everything else showed up correctly. And I’m also using Firefox.

  8. 8: WillClark4HOF said at 9:29 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Hmmm… I got five right, but it tells me three. Also, bold/red/green didn’t work correctly starting with the Braves question, which I missed with “11″ but shows me getting correct with “9″.

  9. 9: Matt S said at 9:29 am on March 15th, 2009:

    It worked just fine for me, except for the question on the 1976 Angles (sic); there’s no red X next to the selection I made, just the green check next to Bobby Bonds. I got four out of ten, and yeah, I did fall for it by picking Chipper Jones as the last switch hitting MVP.

  10. 10: WillClark4HOF said at 9:29 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Using IE7…

  11. 11: Ed said at 9:32 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Mostly works for me, using Firefox. Starting with the MVP question and the ones after, it doesn’t show the bolded text or red X. It does both for all of the previous questions.

  12. 12: KingOfTheBritons said at 9:44 am on March 15th, 2009:

    “Cuz 6 out of 10 ain’t bad.” For winging it, guess that’s not too sucky.

  13. 13: Grunthos said at 10:03 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Everything worked fine for me with Firefox.

  14. 14: Briggs said at 10:06 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Ya – worked great for me on Firefox

  15. 15: sansho1 said at 10:09 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Worked fine for me on Firefox. And I actually did fall for the switch-hitter question, or I’d have gotten 7 of 10.

  16. 16: Bill C said at 10:13 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Everything worked perfectly for me. All the green checks and red X’s are where they’re supposed to be. There’s no place where it says my total though. I just have to count it up to discover I only got 3/10. Pathetic.

    I knew Gibson, Jay Bell and Jim Thome. Thought Maris got IBB’d once. Thought Harold Baines had the mose DPs. Thought Seaver had the most CGs, although I thought the question was meant to include the entire careers of the choices (I would still have been wrong if you included 67 and 68 for Seaver, but I would have been less wrong). Forgot McMichael and Berenguer so only guessed 7 Braves closers (also forgot Reitsma but 6 wasn’t a choice). Fooled by the trick question, didn’t realize Rollins was a switch hitter anyway. I thought he was just a righty. Figured Bill Melton for the 10HRs and thought Ducky Medwick had the most Joe hits.

  17. 17: Kevin said at 10:13 am on March 15th, 2009:

    I’m still in school, so I know…if there’s a “none of the above” or “all of the above” choice, it’s right 95% of the time.

  18. 18: Devon Young said at 10:17 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Nice test, I missed 4, but I misunderstood one question so I actually only missed 3. Check your e-mail for why I misunderstood the one question. I don’t want to put here, in case someone reads comments before the quiz.

  19. 19: Jeremy G said at 10:29 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Everything seems to work fine, I continue to learn how little I know about my favorite sport, I only got 3 of them right, and I guessed at all of them except the 2 hall votes question. I did have to count up my total myself though.

  20. 20: Nate (CA) said at 10:47 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Man, I did really bad on that. I knew Jim Thome had over 500 but I thought Musial did too – shows you how much I really pay attention.

    Anyways, this is a cool idea and it seemed to work fine for me. I’m a huge fan of random quizzes so quiz away.

  21. 21: Justin A said at 10:55 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Worked fine for me. I’m using opera on my phone. Stupid Braves closers. And MVP. And K leaders. And most of all, guys named Joe!

  22. 22: Andy L said at 11:02 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Everything worked for me, except that I don’t know what hand batters are. I can blame you for that, right Joe?

    I had no idea that Jimmy Rollins was a switch-hitter, or Chipper for that matter, or whether Jim Rice or Yaz were lefties.

  23. 23: David in Toledo said at 11:06 am on March 15th, 2009:

    A for technical operation (using Firefox). A for stimulating content, crisply delivered. No way I got a good grade for my part in the exercise, though I may have passed if you apply a generous curve.

  24. 24: Steele said at 11:07 am on March 15th, 2009:

    Worked fine for me although my score was awful.

  25. 25: Adam said at 12:26 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Interestingly:

    1) Picked 0 because of Mantle. Though debated if he was walked once.

    2) I did pick Maddux

    3) Yep – picked Rice

    4) Bert Blyleven – didn’t realize how close Perry was though

    5) I knew it was a lot, but picked 11

    6) It was between Stargell and Thome – but I went with Stargell

    7) Got this one – none of the above

    8) Thought it would have been Dykstra. Nope.

    9) Bobby Bonds – a guess but got it right.

    10) It was between DiMaggio and Morgan and I guessed wrong here too

    All in all a pretty lousy 4/10, but I was amused that I picked Maddux and Rice…

  26. 26: Adam said at 12:26 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Note to self:
    8 and ) = 8)

  27. 27: Rocketman said at 12:33 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Using Firefox. Checks and X’s all came out okay. Sidebar won’t hide and I don’t know if it was you or me, but Firefox crashed about halfway through my first attempt. I made it through the second time without problem.

  28. 28: Tod said at 12:35 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    6 out of 10 and worked on Firefox. And I don’t know why I didn’t pick none of the above on the switch hitters – Kevin is exactly right.

  29. 29: Keith said at 12:37 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    I got 8 too! I knew some of them like Jay Bell, Yaz, Thome and Maris, and got a lucky guess on the Braves relievers. I guessed Blyleven and Joe Morgan would be right because Pos talks about ‘em all the time, ha.

  30. 30: Keith said at 12:38 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    And Kevin (#17) is exactly right about ‘none of the above’, and I’m kicking myself for missing that one.

  31. 31: ajnrules said at 12:47 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    6 out of 10…wow, I suck. I fell for the complete games question because I didn’t account for the fact Perry had been pitching since 1962. I’m pretty shamed I missed the Jay Bell question, though. :(

  32. 32: Chad said at 12:55 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Damn, I could of sworn Yaz was a switch hitter :)

  33. 33: Joel A said at 1:10 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Rats, I missed a couple. I cheated on one — I figured it was one of two Joe’s so I looked the two Joe’s up! I was going to guess Morgan but was not sure.
    I use Opera and the quiz worked fine. Colors were good.

  34. 34: Marco said at 1:31 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    I’m running Chrome and it works fine.

  35. 35: Dave B. said at 2:01 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Came out great. Once I figured out the Joe slant on the quiz (I missed Maris) I got 9 out of 10. It pays to know who Joe’s pets are! (I didn’t bite on the Kuiper ones, though.)

  36. 36: James said at 2:04 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Works for me, except the “Sidebar” opener-closer thing doesn’t work anymore, and since I like to increase the font size a lot, it makes reading the text impossible, so I have to strain my eyes now…

  37. 37: ceolaf said at 2:24 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Wasn’t this an ad for baseball-reference?

    The only things that I could not find there were the hall of fame votes.

  38. 38: jeremy said at 2:34 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    I got 5, should have been 6. i swear i clicked zero for the amount of walks Maris had, but oh well. This did work for me, and it was quite enjoyable as well

  39. 39: Dan said at 2:42 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    It pays to read, not just scan…

    “last switch-hitter…MVP…..oh, it’s that Vida Blue question…”

    (I am so dumb)

  40. 40: Melody said at 3:01 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Worked great for me on Firefox… as for my score, I plead the Fifth :)

  41. 41: jjcole said at 3:30 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    quiz worked fine with Camino on a Mac. six out of ten isn’t bad, right? right?

  42. 42: Brett said at 3:46 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Works great on Safari

  43. 43: Spud said at 3:50 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Can’t even get the sidebar to move out of the way. I hate that thing.

  44. 44: EdB said at 5:08 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Used Firefox, it looks great.

    And if the Braves had had some better arms out of the bullpen, perhaps they’d have more than one World Series title.

  45. 45: ryan said at 5:12 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    i enjoyed that. what i dont enjoy is that the first comment is correcting a grammatical error. i apologize for all of the idiots who have nothing better to do than correct other peoples errors at all times. jeff, i know im not capitalizing and using apostophres here so go easy on me.

  46. 46: Andy said at 6:03 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    The 500 homers question is a bit confusing. I seriously thought it was asking who had exactly 500 HRs. It should say who has at least 500 home-runs or who is in the 500 home-run club or whatever.

  47. 47: Josh in Hadley said at 6:08 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    I got three wrong. I was going to guess Bobby Bonds but thought is was a trick question. The red and green thing worked for me.

  48. 48: Mike in Hawaii said at 6:26 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    6/10. But since it’s based on a sport where 40 percent success makes you a Hall of Famer, I’ll take it.

    1 – Knew that about Maris, people always bring it up when touting Mantle. Right.

    2 – Bob Gibson is known for striking people out, so I figured this was a counter intuitive question. Right.

    3 – I thought Yaz had the longest career, there’s the entire thought process on that. Right.

    4 – I picked Carlton, but should’ve realized Joe’s Bert love. Wrong.

    5 – I picked 11 Braves closers, figured they had a new one just about every year. Wrong.

    6 – Am a White Sox fan, knew that about Thome. Right.

    7 – Picked Chipper, should always go with All/None of the above.
    Wrong.

    8 – Picked Dykstra, figured his WS run with the Phillies would get him some HOF love. Wrong.

    9 – Barry Bonds is the all time leader, I figured his Dad being such a poor HR team leader for one year would be an interesting angle. Right.

    10 – I picked Joe Morgan because he’s so maligned as a broadcaster(you know, they ought to start a website about firing that guy). Right.

    There, as you can see, my thought process makes total sense, and absolutely no sense. Simultaneously.

  49. 49: Mikey said at 6:40 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    That was really fun. Thanks.

    I got 8 and I’m not ruling out Gaylord Perry coming back to throw a couple more complete games to get me that ninth correct answer.

  50. 50: DJ said at 6:57 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    That was a fun quiz. 6/10, and two of the others were my second guess (I knew it had to be nine or eleven saves leaders for the Braves and Joe Morgan was my second guess too).

    And yes, I did pick Rice, though that’s because he was before my time and therefore didn’t realize it was a trick question in his case.

    The “who has the most GIDPs” is possibly my favorite sports-trivia question, because it in itself is almost a trick question. It is a negative stat category, but in order to get a lot you have to really have three factors:

    1) Be fairly slow (obvious, but the least-important factor)
    2) Be the kind of player who puts a lot of balls in play
    3) Be in a position where you always have men on base in front of you

    That’s why of the top 21 leaders in the category, 13 are already in the Hall of Fame, one (Ivan Rodriguez) is a sure thing, and there are cases generally made for two or three others.

    You should do this again.

  51. 51: JojoBebop86 said at 7:22 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    7 out of 10. That was fun and everything showed up correctly.

    1. correct- the whole mantle thing
    2. correct- Figured that he didn’t have the longevity to get to 300, so he wouldn’t be top 10 in strikeouts either even though he was better at it just about anyone on the list.
    3. correct- was about to choose Jim Rice out of habit but then remembered he was right handed.
    4. correct- after reading all the HOF arguments it stuck in my head.
    5. wrong- chose 7. i had reitsma, lightenberg, rocker, pena, smoltz, stanton, and for some reason i thought about kent mercker.
    6. correct- watched the game where he did it.
    7. corect- Rollins is my favorite player, but there were other better choices.
    8. correct- it stuck in my mind cuz it was so damn absurd.
    9. wrong- chose Melton from a complete guess
    10. wrong- chose Joe Torre because he’s the only one not in the Hall of Fame.

  52. 52: Tim Lacy said at 7:28 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    I was so afraid the Brett was going to be the leader on grounding into DPs. I’m glad I got my answer right. – TL

  53. 53: Pete said at 7:48 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Worked for me.

    One thing to take out of this on a less technical note…Blyleven and Thome are Hall of Famers.

  54. 54: Jerry-NJ said at 8:29 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    “Jeff | March 15th, 2009 at 9:14 am [#1]

    Second last sentence: It’s your, not you’re.

    And yes, I’m a newspaper editor.”

    –
    Then what’s the “second last sentence”?

  55. 55: Hugh said at 8:40 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    Worked fine for me

  56. 56: Matt said at 9:34 pm on March 15th, 2009:

    got ‘em all, though I couldn’t believe that with a name as common as Joe, the highest hit total for men with that name belongs to Morgan, who has barely over 2500.

    FYI Joe … the local news here in RI did a story on how the Snuggie is flammable and dangerous to own. They showed it burn up if you put your laptop on it because it has a high concentration of plastic.

  57. 57: kevinM said at 12:15 am on March 16th, 2009:

    I got the first question wrong because I thought Maris might’ve been IBBed since Mantle got hurt before the season ended. However, Mantle played more games than I realized (153). I guess no one wanted to walk Maris with the record within grasp.

    BTW, Elston Howard hit .348 in 482 PAs in 1961.

  58. 58: Geoffrey said at 5:30 am on March 16th, 2009:

    If we chose Jim Rice can we not have abonus point just for picking him anyway?

    I picked Stan the Man for the 500hr question as I thought you meant who has exactly 500hrs (Doh!), I know that Thome has more than that so went for Stan.
    I did get the Gibson & Joe ones right as I knew they were “trick” questions. Also got the switch hitting MVP one although I couldn’t remember who won it recently (it was obviously Rollins when I really think about it).

    Got the zero IBB for Maris as I remember you mentioning it on here several times Joe. I think it shows how great Mantle was as well that heres Roger Maris hitting homers left and right but they would still racther face him then Mick.

  59. 59: Fray said at 7:45 am on March 16th, 2009:

    I think this experiment was great! Got 5 out of 10.

  60. 60: TangoTiger said at 8:00 am on March 16th, 2009:

    Only 3.

    Can I presume the purpose of this experiment is a Wisdom of Crowd approach, that while everyone will get 2 to 6 correct, that the overall crowd picks will come in at 10 out of 10?

  61. 61: Kyle Litke said at 8:50 am on March 16th, 2009:

    5 out of 10, and yes, I picked Rice.

  62. 62: Edward OP said at 9:22 am on March 16th, 2009:

    Wasn’t 1976 the year Bobby Bonds played on four different teams?

    Frankly, I had forgotten that Jimmy Rollins was a switch-hitter. I don’t watch the NL all that much.

    (Oh, and 7/10. Not bad for the first sip of coffee today.)

  63. 63: Bob Tholkes said at 10:05 am on March 16th, 2009:

    8 of 10, not bad for a specialist in 19th century base ball (two words). Definitely designed for regular readers.

  64. 64: Josh said at 10:12 am on March 16th, 2009:

    I probably fell for it because Rollins was a terrible MVP choice.

  65. 65: rodg12 said at 10:33 am on March 16th, 2009:

    7/10. Worked perfectly. Yeah, I fell for the Rollins question. Stupid!!

  66. 66: David Dubbert said at 11:19 am on March 16th, 2009:

    I suck, but this was fun.

  67. 67: Creston said at 11:59 am on March 16th, 2009:

    I only got 4 out of 10. I suck.

    But your HTML skills are growing, Joe!

  68. 68: River Otter said at 12:07 pm on March 16th, 2009:

    Fun quiz. But for Baseball Reference, I’m not sure I would have gotten more than three right. Hard to believe Gibson isn’t in the top 10 in strikeouts.

  69. 69: Aaron said at 12:15 pm on March 16th, 2009:

    I got 4/10, but should have been 5. I hit the “zero” button for question 1, but when the answers came it said I hit “one.”
    Great quiz! I enjoyed it.

  70. 70: James said at 12:33 pm on March 16th, 2009:

    7/10, and I hope to see more of these.

  71. 71: mojo nixon said at 1:07 pm on March 16th, 2009:

    8 out of 10—-missed the switch-hitter and ‘76 Angels questions.

    Hey Joe, great SI cover story.

    Any chance of giving us a sneak peak of the cover photo on “the book”? (09/09/09)

  72. 72: Motherscratcher said at 1:28 pm on March 16th, 2009:

    Wow. Just wow.

    I got 1 right.

    If I was a monkey flinging poo at a wall with numbers 1-5 painted on it I would have done better.

  73. 73: Max said at 2:16 pm on March 16th, 2009:

    At .400, terrible on these question but great for getting on base.

  74. 74: Bellylard said at 4:30 pm on March 16th, 2009:

    I only did 4 of 10, but this reminded me of those Baseball Digest quizes, except I did better 25 years ago when I subscribed.

  75. 75: Saburo said at 4:36 pm on March 16th, 2009:

    Ack, 5/5. But everythiing worked OK.

    Totally forgot about Rollins.

  76. 76: GaryW said at 4:37 pm on March 16th, 2009:

    8/10, but you’ll be happy to know that I got both the switch hitter and Rice/Yaz wrong.

  77. 77: P Bu said at 10:12 am on March 17th, 2009:

    I’d take the quiz, but I can’t get the sidebar to minimize.

  78. 78: Richard Aronson said at 1:49 pm on March 17th, 2009:

    First, the editing. In your explanation of Maris, you have “was waked”, not “was walked”. Merry Christmas (no el). No, I’m not a professional editor. Yes, I *have* been a professional editor. If you want somebody to help copyread any books you might have coming up (09/09/09) I’ll volunteer.

    Interesting note on language. If you earned a walk, you walked. If you were given a given a free pass, you were walked. I guess I only amuse myself. Also worth noting is that Maris batted only .269 in 1961, OBP well under .400. There were reasons why he was never walked, even though Mantle missed 8 more games. Three players tied for that team’s lead in IBB with nine; Mantle, Skowron, and Johnny Blanchard. I think I know which of them batted in front of the pitcher.

    I got 5/10. As a pitcher, if you only get 5/10 batters out, you’re doing a terrible job. Got the first four, and then tanked except for Thome. The downside of the internet is memorizing trivia is no longer as valuable.

  79. 79: Q said at 2:15 pm on March 17th, 2009:

    I got a surprising 9 out of 10 correct! Not bad with some of those guesses. But everything seemed to work just fine for me, so good times!

  80. 80: per14 said at 3:02 pm on March 17th, 2009:

    Not bothered by Bell getting two votes. Is he that worse than Omar?

  81. 81: Bill said at 8:09 pm on March 17th, 2009:

    Late to the party and terrible at baseball history but since feedback is sought for:

    Everything was fine for me using
    Firefox 2.0.0.14 Windows Vista Home

  82. 82: Fezzik said at 6:04 pm on March 18th, 2009:

    Got 8 of 10 and the red/green thing worked. Firefox 3.

  83. 83: Rusty said at 1:19 am on March 23rd, 2009:

    Did Joe ever explain what the experiment was?

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