I consider Google.com and Baseball-Reference.com two of the greatest websites ever created.
I recently Googled Liz Sheridan, the actress who played Jerry Seinfeld’s mom on ‘‘Seinfeld.’’ I’m constantly learning things through obituaries and quizzes like this that I find. Ms. Sheridan died recently, and I learned that, when she was young, her childhood nickname was “Dizzy” and that she had a hot and heavy romance with the yet-to-be-discovered actor James Dean. One time, when they were traveling, they met a catcher from the Pirates. It was then that she realized that if she and Dean were to marry, she would be “Dizzy Dean,” just like the pitcher.
One more thing: If you’re Googling Cubs reliever Keegan Thompson, who recently (and oddly) was suspended, he shouldn’t be confused with Kenan Thompson of ‘‘Saturday Night Live’’ or Keegan-Michael Key, who co-starred alongside Jordan Peele in Comedy Central’s sketch series ‘‘Key & Peele.’’
Have some fun with the quiz, and no Googling the answers.
1. Doctor, doctor, give me the news, I’ve got a bad case of pulled muscles. In the White Sox’ first week of the season, three players headed to the injured list with ouchies. One had a strained abdomen, one had a strained oblique and one had a strained hamstring. Which player had which injury?
a. AJ Pollock strained his …
b. Lucas Giolito strained his …
c. Yoan Moncada strained his …
2. Who was the last Chicago player to wear Jackie Robinson’s iconic No. 42?
a. Ron Kittle
b. Bruce Sutter
c. Glenallen Hill
d. Scott Ruffcorn
3. The Dodgers recently had their home opener. Dodger Stadium opened on April 10, 1962, and is celebrating its 60th anniversary this season. Only Boston’s Fenway Park (1912) and Chicago’s Wrigley Field (1914) are older. Entering this season, the home team was 2,757-1,989 (.581) at Dodger Stadium. Entering this season, which Chicago team had a better home record?
a. The Cubs
b. The White Sox
c. The same (within 20 wins)
4. I was thinking about how the new Chicago favorite, Seiya Suzuki, started this season, and it got me wondering: Which Cub had the longest hitting streak to start a season?
a. Ron Santo
b. Glenn Beckert
c. Vance Law
d. Bryan LaHair
5. Hall of Famer “Goose” Gossage pitched for both the White Sox and Cubs. He wasn’t born with the first name of “Goose.” What is his real first name?
a. Grant
b. Pigeon
c. Richard
d. August
6. One formula for success in baseball is winning games, winning series, winning weeks and winning months. In 2021, the White Sox posted a winning percentage of .500-plus in all six months of the season. It marked the first time they did that since what season?
a. 2008
b. 2005
c. 1963
d. 1959
7. The brilliant first game of the season by Clayton Kershaw got me thinking about perfect games. Felix Hernandez threw baseball’s last perfect game. In this question, you have a chance to get four correct answers (I’m a glass-half-full kind guy). Did each of these major inventions launch before or after Felix’s perfecto?
a. The iPod
b. Netflix
c. Facebook
d. The self-emptying Roomba
8. Robert Lamm, the keyboard player and singer for “Chicago,” wrote “25 or 6 to 4,” with the title referring to the time of day: either 3:35 a.m. (25 to 4) or 3:34 a.m. (26 to 4). I always viewed it as 25 or “624.” With that in mind, which is the only franchise with a team that ended a season with a winning percentage of .624?
a. Cubs
b. White Sox
c. Giants
d. Braves
9. Everybody knows that Wrigley Field is the second-oldest MLB ballpark (honestly, how many times must I repeat that?). It was one of seven parks that hosted a game on Opening Day this season. Four of them are below. List them in order from oldest to newest.
a. Kauffman Stadium
b. Chase Field
c. Angel Stadium
d. Busch Stadium
ANSWERS
1. Fortunately, the Quiz Master strained nothing coming up with this question. Here are the injured Sox: Lucas Giolito (strained abdomen), Yoan Moncada (strained oblique) and AJ Pollock (strained hamstring).
2. The Cubs have gone 2,489-2,265 (.524) at Wrigley, and the Sox have gone 2,545-2,186 (.538) in their stadia.
3. Each of the players named wore No. 42 in Chicago. The last player to wear No. 42 for the Cubs was Glenallen Hill in 1993. But the last player to wear No. 42 for the Sox was Scott Ruffcorn in 1996. Robinson played 93 games at Wrigley Field and hit .295 (99-for-336) with 22 doubles, seven triples, five homers and 43 RBI.
4. In 1988, Vance Law had hits in the Cubs’ first 16 games of the season.
5. Gossage’s real first name is Richard (his family called him Rick), and scouts referred to him as Rich. A spring-training roommate, Tom Bradley, thought he looked like a goose when he peered in for signs, and the nickname was born.
6. In 1963, the White Sox finished 94-68, in second place in the American League, 10½ games behind the Yankees. There were no divisions, no wild cards — just golf.
7. On Aug. 15, 2012, Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez pitched the 23rd and most recent perfect game in MLB history. The iPod launched in 2010. Netflix launched in 1997 and started streaming movies in 2007. Facebook became a primary source of misinformation for hundreds of millions of people around the globe starting in 2004. In 2018, iRobot released the Roomba i7+ — the first robotic vacuum that “frees customers from every aspect of vacuuming, from start to finish, for weeks at a time,” claimed the company’s CEO.
8. Since 1901, two teams have finished with a winning percentage of .624. Each won the National League pennant, and each lost the World Series to the Yankees: the 1951 New York Giants and the 1962 San Francisco Giants.
9. Angel Stadium (1966), Kauffman Stadium (1973), Chase Field (1998) and Busch Stadium (2006).
