Heritage Trivia - The Rest of the Cubs

As promised, here are the back of the remaining six Cubs Heritage cards with a focus on the trivia questions.

#127 Edwin Jackson

"What's the most games played in one World Series?"

Long ago, at the beginning of the World Series as we know it, it was a best of 9 series. In 1903, the first of the modern World Series, Boston defeated Pittsburgh Pirates 5 games to 3 for a total of 8 games. Nobody ever made it to 9 games.

In a trick I learned from today's Wrigley Wax post, I found the black Venezuelen back of the cards so I didn't have to scratch off the answer:

#191 Anthony Rizzo

"Who leads active players with 54 HRs leading off games?"

I knew this one was Alfonso Soriano but it took me a little bit to find a list of some sort. Its a shame he doesn't bat leadoff anymore (as far as catching Rickey goes anyway) but he probably doesn't have enough left in the tank to catch him anyway.

Cubs connection? Obviously, Soriano is a Cub. Of Soriano's 54 leadoff home runs, 22 of them have come with the Cubs.

#220 Matt Garza

"Which Hall of Famer won the 1st Award for top DH?"

I'm a Cubs fan. Which means, in general, I follow National League baseball a whole heck of a lot more than the American League. So much so that I didn't even know there was such an award for the DH. I mean it makes sense and all, I just never even thought about it.

Apparently it was called the Outstanding Designated Hitter Award (real creative there, guys) but was renamed the Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designate Hitter Award because he won it five times. That has since been matched and beaten by the the Boston's David Ortiz, who currently has six.

But the question doesn't ask for most, it asks for first. That award went to Orlando Cepeda of the 1973 Boston Red Sox.

Cubs Connection? Unless a Cubs player bats 1.000 which a gajillion home runs in interleague play, they probably shouldn't have a connection to this. Although former Cubs players Dave Kingman and Rafael Palmeiro went on to win it after leaving Chicago. Former Cubs skipper Don Baylor also won it as a player.

"What's the 1st word of the 1st rule in the rule book"

Which rule book? Fight Club? I didn't even know where to search for this so this is straight up cheating. Night Owl actually scratched off the answer to this question a few posts ago so I knew it was Baseball.

Cubs connection? Sometimes the Cubs play baseball. Hopefully they play more of it this year than they did in 2012.

"Who in 2012, hit the 1st ever HR in a Wild Card game?"

This one was a little easier than I thought it was going to be.I knew the two Wild Cards games were played on the same day so I thought it migt have to come down to finding a time stamp or something. But as luck would have it, there were no home runs in the Texas Rangers-Baltimore Orioles game. Each team hit one in the NLWC game. Matt Holliday of the Cardinals hit a solo shot in the top of the 6th inning, but by that time, history had already been made by Atlanta's David Ross, who hit a 2-run shot in the bottom of the 2nd inning.

Cubs Connection? HAHAHAHAHA, Cubs in the playoffs? No. And no former Cubs played in the game although there were some on the rosters.

"Which pitcher lost a game after he retired in 1959?"

Statistical leaders and first are all fine and dandy but this is my kind of trivia. I love these little anecdotal stories and look for them to include when I write my own blurbs for my customs. This link I found gives a pretty good account of what happened. I figured it would be weather or, in that era, maybe darkness that caused a delayed game to be finished later in the season, but the real cause was funnier.

Anyway, the answer is Jim Hearn of the Philadelphia Phillies. I recommend the link for the back story. Don't worry, its not too long.

Cubs connection? With the Cubs not involved in the game, there wasn't anything I could see from the boxscore other than a couple of future and/or former Cubs in the lineups.

I couldn't find a Venezuelan black back card of Castro on eBay so I'm going to trust the article as accurate without being able to show he proof.

And there you have it, the Cubs 2013 Heritage Trivia challenge. Hope you enjoyed the extra baseball knowledge!