The Era of Records That Don't Count (1800s)
When was Major League Baseball founded (according to itself)?
1869
What former pitcher hit 714 home runs, setting a record that would stand until it was hammered flat in 1974?
Babe Ruth
What player broke the color barrier in 1947?
Jackie Robinson
What player pitched so well in 1968 (1.12 ERA) that MLB decided to lower the mound to offset his dominance?
Bob Gibson
What team has made up for lost time after breaking a longstanding World Series drought in 2004?
Boston Red Sox
What team lost 134 games in a single season before shutting down for good in 1899?
Cleveland Spiders
This player believed reading books would hurt his plate vision, but he hit .424 to set the modern single season batting average record, so he may have been on to something.
Rogers Hornsby
These two teams packed up and headed west in 1958 after being displaced by their juggernaut of a northern neighbor.
San Francisco (New York) Giants and Los Angeles (Brooklyn) Dodgers
This player got exactly 3000 hits before becoming an icon in tragic fashion in 1972.
Roberto Clemente
This ace for the sport's most pennant-challenged team threw the most recent perfect game in 2012.
Felix Hernandez
This 1888 poem about the dangers of overconfidence was a hit among baseball fans the nation over.
Casey at the Bat
This was the last World Series the Red Sox would win until 2004. You'd almost think they were cursed.
1918
How many World Series did the Yankees win between 1930 and 1959?
15
How many currently existing teams were created in this timeframe?
10
This team flew under the radar when the victim of its cyberattack was caught with trash cans at the ready in 2019.
St. Louis Cardinals
Who was the very first MLB player to be born?
Pioneer Hall of Famer Harry Wright (born January 10, 1835 in Sheffield, England)
These two opposite league teams won the first World Series three years apart. They would combine for 38 over the next 100 years.
New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals
What player-manager from the dawn of this era is known for corruptly helping his friends into the Hall of Fame via the Veterans' Committee?
Frankie Frisch
Who are the two teams that have only won a World Series during this timeframe?
New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles
How many unique teams have won a World Series in this period?
18
"Excuse me, Mr. Foolish Baseball, but actually this player was better than Pedro Martinez."
Tim Keefe (293 ERA+ in 1880)
You'd probably be unsurprised to learn Babe Ruth led the Yankees in bWAR for all but two years in the 1920s. In what year did he finish sixth on the team?
1925
This out-of-sorts sounding pitcher is known for the line, "It ain't bragging if you can do it."
Dizzy Dean
What city has the dubious honor of watching its team leave, be replaced, and then have the replacement leave during the modern era?
Washington, DC (Senators)
What mid-2000s World Series prediction went hilariously wrong as the Series itself turned into a carnival of fielding errors that allowed a scrappy career journeyman-led 83-win squad to win it all?
"Tigers in three," 2006