Sporcle Saturday: Clutch hitters
Over on Fangraphs’ Effectively Wild Podcast, Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller marveled at Jose Abreu’s large RBI total this season, particularly given the lineup wasn’t exactly a world-beater.
As we’ve noted on this site before, however, Abreu consistently expanded his zone to drive in runs, so it isn’t as much of a surprise to Sox fans that he logged such a large total. And, indeed, the numbers bear that out: whether one goes with runners in scoring position and any amount of outs, or runners in scoring position with two outs, Abreu finished second in baseball in the former category (87) and third (36) in the latter. (Anthony Rendon beat Abreu both times, and DJ LeMahieu finished first with RISP and two outs)
For today’s Sporcle, we’ll be looking at other Sox players throughout franchise history who were equally as clutch. I decided to go with two outs and RISP for the split: that gives us 109 player seasons to fill in. How many can you get? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- To qualify, a player must have logged at least 25 RBI in a season with runners in scoring position and two outs.
- I’ve allotted 15 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, I’ve provided the season, RBI total, and position of the player in question.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- The average triple-slash from the players on this list: .309/.402/.524.
- The player with the most home runs from this split finished with 9, coming in 2004.
- The player with the most walks finished with 25, coming in 1991.
- The player with the worst average? .200, coming in 1992. (That same player also logged a .248 OBP in the split)
All data from baseballreference.com
Author
101/109. I think I always forget about
80/109. I gave up with about 5 minutes left and should have had a few more. I actually didn’t get
92/109. I only missed one that I should have gotten from the 1930s. I don’t know my 1950s Sox as well as I should.Â
Oh, and hello from New Mexico
More like NMChisox. Enjoy the weather!
104/109. All misses were 1957 or earlier.
78/109. Got all in my lifetime except for the 2004 guy.
And wow, that 1977 team must have been fun to watch. I went to one game in ’77, but I was only 1 year old.
Also, thanks for posting these quizzes. I don’t comment much, but these have become part of my Saturday morning routine.
The ’77 team was a lot of fun. They couldn’t pitch, they couldn’t catch the ball, but they sure could hit. That team was never out of a game. And if KC hadn’t gotten so incredibly hot (35-4 from mid-Aug thru late Sept), they might have won the division.
I attended a home doubleheader in ’77 that iirc Royals swept. K.C. players were lighting sparklers in the dugout. I think the Sox were out of it after that day.
The end of July DH against KC was great. The Sox were in first place by several games. There were 50,000 people there. That was when Nancy Faust started the “Na Na Hey Hey” song when the Sox hit homers. That really pissed the Royals off.
That’s funny–my dad told me stories about going to that double header! I remember he told me about 50,000 some people attending.
I just looked it up to make sure. The attendance was just over 50,000. The Sox won game one 5-4 in 10 innings. Steve Stone pitched 9 1/3 innings and gave up 2 runs in the 10th. The Sox got 3 in the bottom of the 10th to win. Comiskey Park only held about 46,000 back then, so it was a standing-room only crowd. The place was rocking!
When I think of 1977, I think of Nancy Faust pumping the crowd up and (what at the time seemed like) SO MANY HOMERS. It was such a fun, exciting season.
71/109. Couldn’t think of the 1996 OF’s name, though I kept thinking “former Royals star”.