Our trivia questions for our SABR Day 2022 meeting cover Jim Kaat, Black baseball, and the Detroit Tigers. (Scroll down for the answers.)
1. Which Michigan college did Jim Kaat pitch for before joining the Washington Senators?
2. Jim Kaat jointly held the record for most career Gold Gloves with Brooks Robinson. Which pitcher broke that mark?
3. With Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva going into the Hall of Fame, how many total players on the the 1965 pennant-winning Twins will be enshrined in Cooperstown?
4. What awards rule kept Kaat from winning the Cy Young award in 1966?
5. With what team did Kaat finally win a World Series ring?
6. What year was the first Black player inducted into the Hall of Fame?
7. Which white player spoke out about the lack of Negro Leagues players in Cooperstown in his induction speech in 1966?
8. What year was Detroit Stars player Norman “Turkey” Stearnes posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame?
9. What famous Tiger was also inducted into the Hall along with Turkey Stearnes?
10. For more than a century, Toledo’s catcher in the big-league American Association of 1884, Moses “Fleetwood” Walker, was believed to be the first Black player in the major leagues. Where did he play baseball in college? (2 possible answers)
11. Where in Michigan did new Hall of Famer Bud Fowler play in 1895 for a white minor-league team?
12. How many members of Adrian’s famed 19th century Page Fence Giants have been called to Cooperstown?
13. Who finally broke the color barrier for Walter Briggs’ Tigers in 1959, 12 years after the debut of Jackie Robinson?
14. Which Tiger holds the MLB record for inside-the-park home runs in a season, with 12?
15. During the 1972 division race, Tigers manager Billy Martin drew the batting line-up out of his ball cap, in an effort to end a four-game losing streak. It worked as the Tigers defeated Cleveland 3-2 in Game 1 of a doubleheader. Which light-hitting shortstop was placed in the clean-up spot and knocked in the game’s tying run?
16. Which future Detroit Tiger had his 1969 Topps baseball card picture his team’s bat boy instead of himself?
17. On September 14, 1968, Denny McClain posted his 30th victory over the Oakland A’s. In that game, Wille Horton hit a ball over the left fielder’s head in a walk-off win at Tiger Stadium. The Tigers’ player who scored the winning run and the left fielder for the A’s who couldn’t catch the ball were both Michigan natives who were born and raised in the state and still reside here. Who are they?
18. On the infamous 119-loss Detroit Tigers 2003 squad, which player led the team in WAR at 3.4, which was twice the number of runner-up infielder Warren Morris?
19. Which Tigers pitcher set 2 team records for a rookie in 2021: 164 strikeouts but also 35 home runs allowed?
20. Miguel Cabrera hit his 500th career home run in 2021. He has hit 364 home runs as a Tiger. Which two players does he trail on the Tigers’ all-time home run leaderboard?
Answers below.
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Answers: [Back to Top}
1. Hope College
2. Greg Maddux
3. 3 (including Harmon Killebrew. Rod Carew joined the Twins in 1967)
4. Only one Cy Young was awarded for all of MLB. It went to Sandy Koufax.
5. 1982 St. Louis Cardinals
6. 1962: Jackie Robinson
7. Ted Williams
8. 2000, 21 years after his death
9. Sparky Anderson
10. University of Michigan. Walker also matriculated at Oberlin College in Ohio, playing baseball there as well before transferring to U-M.
11. Fowler played briefly for the Adrian Demons and the Lansing Senators, both in the Class B Michigan State League, as well as for the Page Fence Giants.
12. Two: Sol White in 2006 and Bud Fowler in 2021. Both White and Fowler played for Page Fence in 1895, but neither returned to the club in its final three years.
13. Ozzie Virgil Sr.
14. Sam Crawford
15. Ed Brinkman
16. Aurelio Rodriguez, with the Angels
17. Mickey Stanley, Tigers, from Grand Rapids, and Jim Gosger, A’s, from Port Huron.
18. Dmitri Young
19. Tarik Skubal
20. Al Kaline (399), Norm Cash (373)
