The 2007 SABR Trivia Contest

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Actually, my first taste of the SABR trivia competition came at my first convention at Milwaukee in 2001. I took the qualifying test, not expecting much, then retired for the night and forgot all about it. The next morning, I found out that I had made the semi-finals. The top nine qualifiers were promoted to the semis, and I had finished fifth. Bill James, one of my baseball writing idols, was fourth. I lost to the eventual champion, Scott Flatow, a legendary SABR trivia competitor, but I was hooked. However, I wasn't able to compete again until 2005 due to work commitments.

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by David Fleitz

I made my first serious foray into the SABR individual trivia contest at the 2005 convention in Toronto. I finished a close second without doing any preparation at all, so I figured that with a little bit of studying that I could actually win the thing. The next convention was held in Seattle, and after a month of reading about the Pilots and the Mariners, as well as studying lists of players from the Pacific Northwest (such as Ron Santo and Dave Kingman), I managed to win the 2006 individual title. That made me the defending champion entering the 2007 convention, which was held in St. Louis at the end of July.

The qualifying test on Thursday was probably the hardest one they've ever had. There were 54 questions, and a score of 24 was the highest. I had 20 right, which was good enough for third place, with four people advancing to the finals.

I got some of the questions that others probably missed; for example, the 1957 St. Louis Cardinals team had two Hall of Famers on it. One was Stan Musial. Who was the other? The answer was Hoyt Wilhelm, who pitched for them for only one year. Another question asked for the three teams that have gone the longest since winning a World Series. Most everyone knows the Cubs (since 1908) are first on the list, but the other two are the Indians (1948) and the Giants (1954).

However, I missed some that I probably should have known. There were three players in baseball history who hit grand slams in their first time at bat in the majors; one did it in 1898, and the others in 2005 and 2006. I saw the game where a Cleveland Indian did it in 2006, but I couldn't remember the batter's name. (It was Kevin Kouzmanoff.) Also, we were asked the identify the current major league pitcher who set the Florida Tech record for homers and RBI in 1987. Okay, I figured, it was someone who was 21 or 22 in 1987, so it's a current pitcher who is more than 40 years old. I guessed Woody Williams, but it was Tim Wakefield.

Anyway, I made the finals, which were scheduled for Sunday morning. I read some notes for the next few days, but generally tried to keep my mind clear and enjoy the convention (despite the 90 degree sticky weather and the monsoon that stopped the ballgame between the Cardinals and the Brewers on Friday night). I watched a vintage baseball game, with home plate set directly under the center of the Arch, on Friday morning after the donor's breakfast. Maybe next year, when the convention is held in Cleveland, I can get my team to play at SABR.

On Sunday morning, I watched the team finals and then mounted the dais and took the same seat that I was in last year. The questions were so tough that some elicited groans from the audience, but I was fortunate that some could have come right out of my books. They asked which Hall of Famer founded the Aetna Insurance Company, and I knew it was Morgan Bulkeley, because I wrote a chapter on him in my first Ghosts in the Gallery book. They asked who broke Jake Beckley's record for games played at first base, and since Beckley also has a chapter in the first Ghosts book, I knew it was Eddie Murray.

I got lucky on one question. They asked which pitcher who appeared in more than 1,000 games struck out the fewest men, and I knew that there were only 10 pitchers on that list. I figured that the man who struck out the fewest batters wasn't Hoyt Wilhelm, Dennis Eckersley, or Goose Gossage, because they were all starters at one time or another and had more opportunities to strike people out. That left seven pitchers on the list. One of my competitors guessed John Franco, another suggested Mike Stanton, and the other tried Jesse Orosco. All were wrong, eliminating three more candidates and leaving only four possible answers. I guessed Kent Tekulve, and I was right.

I was all ready with information about the Cardinals and Browns, not to mention the large number of major league players and managers from St. Louis such as Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, Earl Weaver, and many others. If they had asked who led the world champion Cardinals in RBI in 1944, I was ready with Ray Sanders (more than Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, and all the rest). If they wanted to know the identity of the only St. Louis Brown to hit a homer in World Series play, I had the name George McQuinn at my fingertips.

However, they only asked a few St. Louis questions. One concerned the only Brown to win the Rookie of the Year award. It was Roy Sievers, who won it in 1949 and took part in a panel discussion at the convention. I had talked to him only two days before and had him sign a baseball card for me. They also asked who was the first Cardinal to throw a no-hitter. I had memorized the list (Jesse Haines in 1924, Paul Dean in 1934, Lon Warneke in 1941, and so on) so I was able to give Haines as the correct answer.

The last question I answered, after the finals had come down to me versus one other person (Joe Stanton, a veteran of SABR trivia competitions), was a lucky guess that probably sealed the win. The question concerned a Cardinal batter who grounded into four double plays in a game in 1975. I thought it might be Joe Torre, so I pressed the buzzer. Suddenly, I wondered if Torre had gone to the Mets by 1975, so I hesitated. I had to give an answer, so, lacking a better alternative, I decided to stick with Torre. I was right, and that answer gave me a lead I kept for the rest of the contest.

When the contest ended, I was interviewed by MLB.com, then grabbed a taxi to the airport to get on a 1:30 flight back home. I decided to enter the 2008 contest in Cleveland, and if I win for a third time in a row, I'll retire from competition and watch other people vie for the title.