At first blush, this may seem like an odd category around which to center a Sporcle. After all, it’s not exactly a sexy stat these days, and starting pitchers on the whole are seeing their outings limited. This post was inspired, though, by the passing of Phil Niekro,
Niekro, of course, is famous for the late start to his career, the sheer number of innings pitched (4th all-time, with 5,404), and the knuckleball that helped him achieve that. Thinking about Niekro reminded me of a contemporary knuckleballer of his, whose photo graces the top of the page. While I won’t spoil the answer (he appears in the Sporcle!), he had an insane IP total from 1971-1974 of 1,390.1, most in that span, each year throwing 300+ innings (for reference, Niekro was 10th in that span with 1098.1). Moreover, his 1972 season saw him throw 376.2 IP, just one of 25 instances a pitcher has logged 375+ innings in a single season in the modern era. (I’ll note here that Detroiter Mickey Lolich just about matched the feat with 376 innings of his own the year before, 1971).
So, innings pitched is today’s theme. Specifically: who has logged at least 200 innings in a season going back to 1945? That’s 141 entries: how many can you fill in? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I’ve allotted 15 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, you get the year, and the innings pitched.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- The lowest ERA from the pitchers on this list is 1.88, in 1964…
- …While the highest is 5.79 in 1997.
- The highest ERA+, though, came in 1955: a nice round 200.
All data from stathead.com
129/141, with my misses all coming in the years 1945-57 save for one guy in 1970. The biggest miss bringing my score down was
Ted, thank you for having a quiz where a correct answer is my old favorite
It is, surprisingly, not all that many more: 264 entries in total back to 1901. And in MLB history? 5,898 player seasons.
I keep forgetting that, though extending the start time back would catch many outstanding deadball-era pitchers, it would also include that lean period after 1920 (Red Faber and Ted Lyons excepted).
That’s an excellent point. Bless those guys for pitching for some truly awful teams. (At least Faber had some successful teams early on, though)
Imagine being Ted Lyons, pitching two decades for the White Sox beginning in 1923. As close as any pitcher on this team gets to Luke Appling’s sustained greatness for a second-division franchise.
94/141. The only guys I missed in my lifetime were
Boomer 126 KenWo 124. Him getting into vintage cards has given him an unfair advantage with some of these random guys from the 50s. Lol
125/141. Hey KenWo, my son says you are following him on Twitter now!! Thanks for the compliments you gave me. It’s great “competing” against you guys here on Sporcle Saturday. I think we’re all chasing asinwreck though for best Sporcler!
“Best” = Most Trivial. There may be better uses of my brain cells than remembering, say, Juan Agosto.
Most of my brain cells are wasted on knowing guys like Fat Pat Seerey and Claude Osteen. I’m surprised I know anything else besides baseball trivia!!
72 … I missed guys in the 70s and 80s that I should have known, but otherwise did alright
114 which is a really good score for me. I am pleasantly surprised that I still have an account after missing the 1974/75 big innings guy which would be much more forgivable if I were younger. I clearly remember him pitching for the Sox and my mom loving when he pitched when we went to a night game because it would end at a reasonable time.
By the way, I don’t know how to do the spoilers on this board.
To put in a spoiler you highlight the text you want hidden and click on the [+] button. Now there’s a feature where you can type something over the spoiler bar as well, which is kind of cool.