Sporcle Saturday: Pitchers and catchers
This past week saw the first signs of the offseason hobbling (gingerly, ever so gingerly) towards its terminus: pitchers and catchers officially reported to Spring Training this past Tuesday. Of course, in today’s baseball environment the date is pretty much in name only, as most pitchers and catchers are already in camp by the deadline, not to mention a fair number of position players, too. Still, though, it remains the first milepost in my head on the road to a long-awaited spring thaw. Let the BSOHL articles commence!
As you’ve no doubt guessed by now, pitchers and catchers are the theme of today’s Saturday Sporcle, namely: how many of the opening day starting pitchers and starting catchers can you name since 1980? We’ve covered opening day starting pitchers before, but catchers will add a twist to that. Still, my hope is that you’ll all improve on your scores from last time, at least as it relates to starting pitching. Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- As always, last names accepted in addition to both first and last. A couple of trickier spellings warrant just the first name of the player accepted as well.
- You’ll have ten minutes to attempt completion.
- For hints, I’ve provided the season and the position: I’ve also (at least on Sporcle’s website) arranged it to display in columns in the hope that it will help you to keep track of where you’re at. If you’ve having difficulties doing the quiz on this site, I’d recommend clicking the direct link.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confound, and/or confuse your friends:
- .354: the highest WPA logged by a catcher on this list. (2-4 with a home run and 3 RBI in a 5-3 win against the Red Sox, in 1981…probably no surprise who this is)
- -.157: the lowest WPA logged by a catcher on this list. (0-5 with 5 Ks in a 3-2 loss to the Mariners in 1996)
- For pitchers: the highest WPA logged was .584 in 2005 (8 IP, 2H, 5 K, 0 R in a 1-0 win), while the lowest was by the same player in 2008: -.517 (1 2/3 IP, 7 runs on 7 hits in a 10-8 loss)
All data from baseballreference.com
Perfect score 76/76. I got all of them pretty fast but the 1980 guys threw me for a bit- I pulled it out w 55 ticks to spare! What heroics!
Very impressive. Well done
Boomer got 69! I’ve opened up quite a big lead now! Yeah baby!
Do you guys have a spreadsheet, haha?
Hell of an idea. Our scores have been close but the last two weeks I dominated
I actually thought about this. It might be fun to do a leaderboard. We all know asinwreck and Ken will win, but I like scoreboards.
A leaderboard would be fun. I’ll keep it in mind. With almost a full year of these, it’ll take a bit of time to compile; something for me to simmer on a back burner, though.
65. Should have had 69 had not forgotten the 2001-2004 catcher. The others had long escaped memory—the catchers of 1980, 85, 86, the 88 and 89 pitchers, and handful of others. Good sporcle.
68/76
Not bad.
I have no memory of the 1998 catcher
I agree. The 1998 catcher was the one name that didn’t ring any bells at all when I saw what I missed. I looked him up. He had a 15 year major league career playing for 8 different teams with only one year with over 300 ab’s (not 1998 with the Sox).
Looks like the Sox traded him at the deadline of that year to the Angels for a couple of guys who never made it out of the minors. I took a look at the Daily Herald to see what was said when they signed him as a free agent (2 yrs, 1.25 mil), looks like it was just to be a cheap number one.
He had a reputation as an excellent handler of pitchers, possibly inflated by being with the Braves at the peak of their 90s dominance.
Interesting. Didn’t notice the two years with the Braves. Plus he got to work with Clemens in Toronto which probably helped.
I got 60, but a few familiar names I didn’t remember. The 1988 pitcher I don’t remember at all.
66/76, including everybody from 2000 on. Got all of the 90s except the 98-99 catchers and the 90 pitcher. Wouldn’t have ever guessed the ten I missed.
66, with the standard perfect score in the Era That Matters
72. Should’ve gotten 73. That 1988 pitcher is a helluva pull.
I feel accomplished now because I beat Jim. (73). I pulled 1988 out of a hat with 5 seconds left. Never heard of the 1980 catcher, blanked on 1982 pitcher, and couldn’t come up with the 1999 catcher. Tried
I remember the 1988 pitcher because the Sox had traded Jose Deleon for him. There were high expectations for the 1988 pitcher and he got off to an ok start of the season but by the end of the year was a pitcher you were afraid to see warming up as a reliever. The trade was saved when Lance Johnson who had also come over in that trade developed into a good major league center fielder.
63. Shamed that I completely spaced a guy that alone would have brought me to 67.
Thanks, Ted. These are a highlight of Saturday mornings.
Try as I might, I will never remember that
have his score baseball card. Extensive baseball card collections go a long way in these quizzes.
Agreed…I have the entire Topps Sox run from 1959 to now, and it definitely helps, especially with some of the randos.
Thanks
The more I do these the more I feel like I have dementia.
58/76
I can’t believe I forgot about
You know, just typing the latter’s last name would have gotten you both him and a catcher.