TDG: Sporty Trivia Answers!

Good morning, Persephoneers! How is everyone’s Wednesday?  I’m here to deliver the answers for this week’s Tuesday Triva, or the one that made Selena realize she knows nothing about baseball.   BaseballChica, resident sports fan and (trivia alert!) one of the first women to sign up to write for us, was kind enough to provide this week’s Qs and As.  Answers after the break!

1) We’ll start off with an easy one so that the Persephoneers who are not sports fans can join in the fun. What 1955 Broadway musical features a story about a middle-aged man who sells his soul so his beloved Washington Senators will beat a well-known and much-hated team in a pennant race? (Damn Yankees. If you haven’t seen the movie version from the late 1950s with the delightful Ray Walston as the devil, it’s worth a spot on the Netflix queue. I think the Six Months overture must be my poor Mister’s anthem.)

2) Which left-handed pitcher won more games than any other lefty in the history of Major League Baseball and now has a pitching award named in his honor? (Warren Spahn! He’s one of my favorite players of all time. I may be a little biased because he was born in my hometown. But 363 wins in 21 years is nothing to sneeze at!)

3) “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” is a poem written from the point of view of a New York Giants fan, lamenting this famous infield team. (Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance, the shortstop, second baseman, and first baseman respectively for the Chicago Cubs around the turn of the 20th century. The poem, which recounts the trio’s consistent ability to turn double plays, is also known by its refrain, “Tinker to Evers to Chance.”)

4) According to legend, which US President accidentally invented the seventh inning stretch? (William Howard Taft. It may or may not be true, but it’s a fun story to tell. Taft is well-known for being a little on the rotund side, to say the least. It’s said that in the middle of the seventh inning at a baseball game he attended, he stood up to stretch his legs. Everyone around him stood up out of respect – you stand when the President stands! – which extended to the rest of the ballpark, and lo, the seventh inning stretch was born.)

5) Which player has the longest recorded career in Major League Baseball? (Nolan Ryan. He played for 27 years in the majors and also holds the records for most career strikeouts [5,714] and no-hitters [7]).

6) Who was the oldest rookie to play for Major League Baseball? (Stachel Paige. He had a long, impressive career in the Negro Leagues before signing with the Cleveland Indians in 1948. Paige was the first player from the Negro Leagues to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.)”