Baseball Quiz: We’ve got quite the quiz maker

Welcome to another fabulous baseball day in 2022. The Sox are playing the Rays at home and the Cubs are in Colorado. Today we have a fun quiz that will have you knowing (and learning) about baseball while we talk about movies, TV and basketball. I brought some Dinkel’s biscuits for you and our guest. So have fun and let me know how you go.

1. I recently realized that I neglected to ask you any questions about the Oscars. My fault, but please don’t hit me for my omission. Speaking of which, there are two Will Smiths in the big leagues, a pitcher in the Braves, and a catcher in the Dodgers. The two faced each other three times in the regular season. What are the results?

a. Will Smith, the batter, played 3-for-3

b. Will Smith, the batter, played 2-for-3

c. Will Smith, the batter, played 1-to-3

d. Will Smith, the batsman, lost 0-3

2. “CODA” is a great film about a deaf fisherman family in Gloucester, Massachusetts. While there are a number of players in major league history who were deaf or suffered from profound hearing loss, can you give me the name of the former outfielder who played 11 seasons with the majors and has been baseball’s head coach since 2009 on at Gallaudet University, the country’s only liberal arts college for the deaf?

a. Charly Stolz

b. Curtis Stolz

c. Curtis Granderson

d. Chone Figgins

3. Congratulations to Kansas and South Carolina on winning the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball championships, respectively. It was UConn’s first loss in a national title game, men or women. The women were 11-0 (all under Geno Auriemma) and the men 4-0. Which of these MLB teams has never lost a World Series?

a. sailors

b. diamond markers

c. rays

d. Marline

e. all of the above

4. Speaking of Kansas, which of the following Kansans played for a Chicago team (there could be more than one)?

a. Ron Schueler

b. Enos Kabell

c. Joe Tinker

d. Brian Duensing

5. AJ Pollock initially joined AJ Pierzynski as “AJ” in White Sox history. One is Anthony John and one is Allen Lorenz (yeah, I think that’s weird too). Which is which (choose two)?

a. Anthony John Pollock

b. Anthony John Pierzynski

c. Allen Lorenz Pollock

d. Allen Lorenz Pierzynski

6. Which Chicago team did better on opening day in the five seasons from 2018 to 2022?

a. Boys

b. White socks

c. The same

7. We have a guest this week: Bill Leff, known to me and many others as “Bill the Cartoon Curator” on Toon in With Me, appears at 6am weekdays on MeTV. Bill has hosted several Chicago radio shows and appeared in the film Major League. While I’m a fan of both Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Leff is a fan of both the Cubs and White Sox. Here’s his question: Bugs Bunny really swung around the fences and played all nine positions in the 1946 Warner Brothers Looney Tunes classic “Baseball Bugs.” What was the name of his team?

a. The rabbit brain

b. The Teetotalers

c. The gas house gorillas

d. The Frizzy Frelengs

8. Catcher Yasmani Grandal has played for three teams in the postseason, the Dodgers, Brewers and White Sox. He has played against nine teams. Do they include any or all of the following?

a. Brauer

b. Boys

c. pirates

d. cardinals

e. Rot

f. all of the above

g. None of the above

9. Closing time. “No one lives forever,” Norman Dinkel said of the decision to close Dinkel’s Bakery after 100 years north of the city. Dinkel’s opened in 1922. What happened to baseball in 1922?

a. The Cubs beat the Phillies 26-23

b. George Sisler traf .420

c. Babe Ruth scored .118 in the World Series

d. The White Sox’s Charlie Robertson threw a perfect game

e. all of the above

REPLY

1. Will Smith, the batter, played 0-to-3 and hit twice.

2. Curtis Pride was born 95% deaf in both ears because his mother contracted rubella, German measles, during pregnancy.

3. The series has the D-Backs 1-0, the Marlins 2-0 despite never winning their division, and your tricky quizmaster has locked in the Mariners, who have never played in the series.

4. Ron Schueler (Catherine, Kansas) pitched for the White Sox in 1978 and 1979 and was their pitching coach and then their GM. HOF-er Joe Tinker (of Muscotah, Kansas) spent his entire career with the Cubs and made famous DPs. Brian Duensing (Marysville, Kansas) retired as a pitcher for the Cubs in 2017-18. And Walter Johnson of Humboldt was the first Kansaser to receive a HOF vote.

5. Welcome Allen Lorenz (AJ) Pollock IV to the White Sox. May I introduce Anthony John Pierzynski, who played eight seasons with the Sox and is now a successful broadcaster?

6. With their loss this season, the Sox are down four straight and are 1-4. With their win, the Cubs are 4-1.

7. Bugs starred in Friz Freleng’s film for the Tea Totallers versus the Gashouse Gorillas and that’s my crazy answer.

8. In the postseason, Grandal has played against the Cubs, Brewers, Mets, Nationals, Diamondbacks, Astros, and Red Sox.

9. Well, of course they are all true.

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