Ask Joe! The Popeye Edition

Before we get to your questions, here’s a quick recap of our first Trivia Thursday… it’s possible I made the questions a bit too hard this time. I’ll try to ease it up. But all in all, I still think it was a success!

Question 1: In 1961, Roger Maris famously hit 61 home runs and was not intentionally walked all season. Who hit the second-most home runs without being intentionally walked?

Answer: Marcus Semien in 2001, when he hit 45. He hit ahead of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for most of the year. Vladdy finished second in the MVP voting and had a 1.000 OPS.

How you did: 21.3% of you got it right. The top answer on the board was Andruw Jones. I was particularly proud of putting Eric Karros as one of the choices. I’m pretty sure I would have chosen Eric Karros.

Question 2: Which Hall of Famer set the record for most intentional walks over a career for a starter?

Answer: Greg Maddux with 177. Surprised me too.

How you did: 22.2% of you got it right. Your top answer was Gaylord Perry, who did indeed seem like the kind of guy who would intentionally walk the most people. And he probably would have, except he spent a good chunk of his career in the American League post-DH.

Question 3: Which starting pitcher (at least 3,000 innings) has the fewest intentional walks over a career?

Answer: Zack Greinke with just 25.

How you did: 15.7% of you got it right. The top answer was actually part of an experiment. I listed Bob Gibson as a choice for BOTH the most and the fewest intentional walks to see how you view him. I wanted to see which way people would vote. Gibson is actually much closer to the top of the list than the bottom — as you might expect for someone who pitched when intentionally walking to face the pitcher was a big part of baseball strategy. But I did suspect that Gibby’s enduring reputation as the toughest pitcher who ever lived would get him a lot of votes on this side. It did. More than half of you guessed Gibson.

Question 4: Who holds the record for being intentionally walked the most time in a single game?

Answer: Andre Dawson with 5.

How you did: All right, this was a bit cruel on my part. I not only included Barry Bonds among the choices, but I even prepped the question by saying the answer was pretty obvious, trying to bait people into voting for Bonds. Some of you saw through the ruse, but 78% of you chose Bonds. Only 4% of you saw went with the Hawk.

Question 5: Which 1970s reliever actually holds the record for most intentional walks in a career?

Answer: Kent Tekulve with 179.

How you did: Pretty well — 27.6% of you got it right, and it was the top answer on the board.

Thanks for playing, everybody. We’ll keep doing these if you like. Now, let’s dive into your questions.

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