Quiz – Baseball Matching Game

In this quiz, we have two lists of players. 

  • Each player on the first list is related to exactly one player on the second list.
  • Each player on the second list is related to exactly one player on the first list.
  • A particular feat connects each pair of players. It is the same feat for all pairs.
  • No other pairs of players have accomplished this feat.

Congratulation to Tristram12 who identified that in the pairs of players below (the lists are matched up now) each player homered in his first WS game, and both in the same game. Those games are here.

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Neil L.
Neil L.
12 years ago

Doug, you know these quizzes become addictive, but, at first blush, you have outdone yourself this time!

Are we allowed 20 questions? (Not counting this as one.) 🙂

Insert Name Here
Insert Name Here
12 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Are the feats all “sabermetric” feats (eg WAR, OPS+, etc) or “traditional” stat feats (AVG, HR, RBI, etc)? Or is it an even mix?

Neil L.
Neil L.
12 years ago

Hey, insert, how are you? I’ll speak for Doug. Too many questions.

Insert Name Here
Insert Name Here
12 years ago
Reply to  Neil L.

I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “how are you”?

Anyways, the chat function disappeared from my computer screen a few weeks ago. Is it my computer or did the site shut it off?

Neil L.
Neil L.
12 years ago
Reply to  Neil L.

Insert, just meant I hadn’t talked to you in a while.

richard chester
richard chester
12 years ago

Are the matching pairs contemporaries?

John Nacca
John Nacca
12 years ago

Was the feat something accomplished in the regular season or postseason?

Insert Name Here
Insert Name Here
12 years ago

Joe Harris and Pie Traynor were contemporaries, and were each hit by exactly 31 pitches in their careers. They were also Pirates teammates in the late 1920s.

Tristram12
Tristram12
12 years ago

Dumb luck, but I’ve got it, thanks to Joe Smith. Each player hit a HR in their first World Series game, during which their matched pair also hit a HR in their first World Series game. The matched pairs are:
Joe Smith – Pie Traynor
Hank Greenberg – Joe Medwick
Roger Maris – Bill Mazeroski
Dick Bartell – George Selkirk
Don Micher – Zoilo Versailles

Insert Name Here
Insert Name Here
12 years ago
Reply to  Tristram12

“Joe Smith”? You mean Roger Maris, correct?

Insert Name Here
Insert Name Here
12 years ago

Whoops… I mean Joe Harris, not Roger Maris. Rhymes are messing with my mind.

Tristram12
Tristram12
12 years ago

Yes,I meant Joe Harris. Don’t know where the Smith came from.

Insert Name Here
Insert Name Here
12 years ago
Reply to  Doug

Perhaps the excitement of the World Series makes guys forget to take their steroids?

Neil L.
Neil L.
12 years ago

Wow! ~bows in awe to Tristam~

Tristram12
Tristram12
12 years ago
Reply to  Neil L.

Thanks! Got lucky on this one.

Neil L.
Neil L.
12 years ago

You are being too modest, Tristram. Was it Roger Maris that was your key to solving the puzzle?

Tristram12
Tristram12
12 years ago
Reply to  Neil L.

Well, Joe Harris was the only player on either list that I wasn’t familiar with, so I started with his bio page in the bullpen section of BB-Ref. He hit the first back-to-back HR in WS history with Goose Goslin. As a two-player feat, that felt right so I looked 3 times to make sure Goose wasn’t on the second list. As part of that, I looked at the game log and saw that Pie Traynor hit a HR in that game as well. Going to his post-season gamelogs showed it was his first WS game as well. Then I… Read more »

Hartvig
Hartvig
12 years ago
Reply to  Tristram12

Tristram12- Thanks for the heads up on Harris. I had heard of him but if I ever knew how good he was I had forgotten. But he seems to have all kinds of fascinating stuff going on. As a 23 year old he got 6 plate appearances in 2 major league games without getting a hit and yet managed an OBP of .800- 3 walks, 1 HBP, 1 sac & 1 out. Then, in spite of tearing up the minor leagues (especially when you consider the era in which he played) he has to wait 2 years for another chance… Read more »

Tristram12
Tristram12
12 years ago
Reply to  Hartvig

Adding to the legacy, when he joined the independent league, he received a lifetime ban from Judge Landis. Subsequently, he was the first to have such a ban overturned. Landis cited his impressive war record and implied that the gassing/head injury impaired his thinking.

John Autin
Editor
12 years ago

I’m sorry I missed this one — it sounds fiendishly good!