Horsehide Trivia
Every day, for more than two decades, Scott Brandon and Bruce Brown have entertained thousands of baseball fans with baseball trivia questions. There is no cost and there are no prizes. We are both members of SABR, but this is not just for SABR members. It is a separate, not-for-profit organization and it’s called “Horsehide Trivia”.
We believe that “trivia” is a misleading word. Good trivia is never trivial! It’s meaningful, instructive, symmetrical, unique, even poetic where possible, but most of all—good trivia is interesting. We might not do that well every day, but our readers seem to have lots of fun. We have been operating continuously since March of 1997 and have sent an average of 10 baseball questions per week since then. Our family of “subscribers” now number more than 3,000. We would love to have you join us.
The questions are e-mailed daily, or if you’d rather—just follow Horsehide Trivia on Facebook, where readers not only answer, but discuss the questions. (See if you can identify the daily photo in the heading.)
Click here to view our blog. It gives you access to months and months of previous questions and answers.
You may reply to the e-mailed questions if you like. They’ll come from horsehidetrivia@aol.com (via Constant Contact) and that’s where you'd respond if you like. We can’t always answer every person who guesses, but we do recognize the First Correct Respondent (FCR). The FCR has come to be a coveted acknowledgement—far more than we ever intended.
Note: The questions increase in difficulty as the week progresses and every week there is a theme. (See if you can guess it).
If you would like to receive these questions via email, send a message with "Subscribe" in the subject line to horsehidetrivia@aol.com. When you do, please tell us your name, the city you live in and how you found out about us.
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To give you an idea, here are the questions and answers from a week in 2010:
08-Mar-2010
MONDAY
Q. Which Oriole is widely considered the best fielding third baseman ever?
Hint: He won 16 consecutive Gold Glove awards.
Twint: Really? You needed to check this?
A. Brooks Robinson (GGs 1960-75)
TUESDAY
Q. Who was the last player-manager to win a World Series for the Tigers?
Hint: Bump Hadley threw the pitch that ended his playing career.
Hint: Hall of Fame umpire Billy Evans called him “…a shortstop with shin-guards and a chest protector.”
Twint: Others called him “Black Mike”.
A. Mickey Cochrane (WS 1935; Hadley pitch 25-May-1937)
WEDNESDAY
Q. Who was the first player to hit 200 home runs for two different teams?
Hint: It was not done again until Mark McGwire did it for the A’s and Cardinals.
Hint: He was the first player to hit a home run in each of the first two games of a World Series.
Twint: He is the only player to win multiple MVP awards for the A's.
A. Jimmie Foxx (302 HR for the A’s, 222 HR for the Red Sox. Rafael Palmeiro, Ken Griffey, Jr & Manny Ramirez have since accomplished the feat; WS HRs 1929; MVPs 1932-33)
MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. Who is the only National League player to win a league Most Valuable Player award for a team that finished in last place?
Hint: He had 18 sacrifice flies in one season for the Expos. No other Expo ever had more than 12.
Hint: He won six consecutive Gold Glove awards.
Twint: He prefers not to be called “Hawk”.
A. Andre Dawson (MVP 1987 for the Cubs; SF 1983; GGs 1980-1985)
THURSDAY
Q. Who hit more doubles in a season than any other National Leaguer?
Hint: His parents were born in Hungary.
Twint: He is the last National League player to win a Triple Crown.
A. Joe Medwick (64 2b 1936; TC 1937)
FRIDAY
Q. What MLB All-Star set a national high school record with four kickoff returns for touchdowns in a game?
Hint: He played with four teams during a 12-year career, appearing in seven World Series winning three World Championships with two different teams.
Twint: He is one of only two players with consecutive MVPs who are eligible for, but not elected to the Hall of Fame.
A. Roger Maris (MVPs 1960-61 [Dale Murphy 1982-83])
SATURDAY
Q. Who was the last player to collect 200 hits in a season without hitting a home run?
Hint: He moved from shortstop to third base to make room for an All-Star teammate.
Twint: He is a Pole and has a pole.
A. Johnny Pesky (207 H in 1947; AS Vern Stephens; of Polish descent, Pesky Pole at Fenway)
WEEKEND BONUS
Q. Who began his career in the majors as the 4th youngest player that season and ended it 23 years later as the oldest?
Hint: His tag at second sealed his first team’s first World Series championship.
Twint: He is not really two people, but his play and his first name might make you think so.
A. Rogers Hornsby (19 in 1915, 41 in 1937; tagged out Babe Ruth attempting steal to end the 1926 WS giving the Cardinals their first of 10)
SUNDAY
Q. What former Gael became the producer of Major League films?
Hint: Over a 12-year period, he skyrocketed from 0.8% of the Hall of Fame vote all the way to 1.1%.
Twint: He once hit over .360 to win the American League batting title.
A. Lew Fonseca (1948 he received 1 vote of 121 possible, in 1960 he received 3 of 269 possible votes; .369 in 1929)
WEEKLY THEME – Select players whose uniform numbers matched their position on the field, as traditionally scored.
Pitcher = 1 Fonseca 1933 White Sox
Catcher = 2 Cochrane 1931-33 A’s
First Base = 3 Foxx 1931-34 A’s, 1936-42 Red Sox
Second Base = 4 Hornsby 1933 Cardinals, 1936-37 Browns
Third Base = 5 Robinson 1958-77 Orioles
Shortstop = 6 Pesky 1942-52 Red Sox
Left Field = 7 Medwick 1933-40 Cardinals, 1940, 43 Dodgers
Center Field = 8 Dawson 1987-92 Cubs, 1995-96 Marlins
Right Field = 9 Maris 1960-66 Yankees, 1967-68 Cardinals
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Privacy Policy
We are committed to keeping your e-mail address confidential. We do not sell, rent, or lease our subscription lists to third parties, and we will not provide your contact information to any third party individual, government agency, or company at any time. We will use your e-mail address solely to communicate Horsehide Trivia information.
Horsehide Trivia conducts daily and weekly trivia contests. In the event that you are the First Correct Respondent (FCR) for a question or theme, we may ask for your name and hometown. This information is optional, and if provided will be included in the answers section of the next question and/or the weekly answers email. You are not required to provide this information, and if you no longer want your name and hometown to be shown when you are the FCR, you can opt out by sending an email to horsehidetrivia@aol.com with "FCR opt-out" in the subject line.
SABR Finals Trivia
Starting in 2009, Horsehide Trivia has created the questions for and hosted the SABR Trivia Finals, held at the SABR annual national convention. There are separate trivia contests for individuals and four-player teams. SABR Finals Trivia, as hosted by Horsehide Trivia, is divided into four rounds for individuals and four rounds for teams. The first two rounds in each competition are paper-based, and contestants are asked to answer a series of multi-answer questions. The highest scorers advance to the next round. Horsehide Trivia has developed a proprietary game board, and full multimedia display for the last two (semi-final and final) rounds. Questions in these rounds are ranked by difficulty, with easier questions being worth 1 or 2 points, average (for SABR Finals-level contestants) worth 3 points, and the most difficult questions being worth 4 points. As with earlier rounds the highest scorers in the semi-finals advance to the final round. The highest scorer in the final round is crowned SABR Trivia Champion.
At SABR 41, Bill Carle repeated as individual trivia champion, and Ross's Raiders, consisting of Steve Krevisky, Ty Waterman, Mike Caragliano and Joe Stanton, won the team championship.
Some sample questions (with answers) from the 2011 semi-final and final rounds are shown below.
