As we all have heard by now, Ed Farmer passed away on Wednesday night. For many of us, the White Sox' color and later play-by-play man was what we listened to growing up, and he inspired a lot of wonderful memories.
I've mentioned this before, but I came to baseball later than many: I didn't get into the sport until my mid-teens, right around the 1998 and 1999 seasons, thanks almost entirely to my best friend and his family, who were all White Sox fans. At that particular point in time, my family had one tv --in the living room, on the first floor-- and, being the only member of said family who developed a liking for sports, suffice to say it wasn't often that I could tune into a broadcast on WGN or FSN Chicago. So, to the radio it was: long summer nights sitting in my bedroom, listening to John Rooney and Ed Farmer call out the games. I learned to keep score that way, too, listening to the descriptions by radio. I probably drove my non-sports-loving parents crazy, making them photocopy blank scorecards at their respective workplaces so that I would have enough to get me through the season.
Through the years --college, graduate school, getting married, moving away from Chicago for my first professional job, and ultimately buying a house-- Ed Farmer has been the steady voice of White Sox baseball for me. I didn't buy my first subscription to MLB TV until 2016, so the radio continued to be my way of listening to the Sox to that point. Even after that, radio broadcasts were (and will continue to be) common as the wifi signal isn't quite strong enough to extend out to our gardens and allow for reliable video. As I said to my wife yesterday, the gardening will be the same, but the radio broadcasts will be just a bit different. I'll miss you, Farmio.
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That was a long introduction to today's Sporcle, but as the title suggests: in honor of Ed Farmer, you'll be tasked with identifying the saves leaders in franchise history. Farmer saved 30 games for the team in 1980, the most by a Sox reliever to that point, and the best season of his career. 30 saves doesn't quite make a good cutoff point, so I've backed it off to 20 saves in a season. In all, there are 37 entries with 20 saves or more in a season: how many can you name? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I've allotted 10 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, I've provided the number of saves, and ordered seasons chronologically.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- The average triple-slash against of the pitchers on this list: .225/.296/.330
- The highest ERA on this list is 4.75 and happened twice: 2012 and 1992.
- The lowest ERA on this list is 1.81, in 1965.
All data from baseballreference.com
