Sporcle Saturday: Opening Day pitchers and catchers since 1950
(Image credit: Frederick Nachman)
As Spring Training games begin, the time is once again upon us to count down the weeks until Opening Day. Here at Sporcle Saturday, the tradition is to test your knowledge of the Opening Day starters around the diamond. Each year (minus the, uh, past two), I’ve added a decade to the total which means that we’re now going back to 1950!
As the title notes, this week we’ll start with the catchers and pitchers to make a start on Opening Day. With the new decade added, that’s 146 entries: how many can you name? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I’ve allotted the full 20 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, players are grouped by year.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- The White Sox were 4-6 on Opening Day over the 1950s, with four straight losses to Cleveland from 1952-55, followed by back-to-back victories against them in ’56-’57.
- The most runs scored during this decade on an Opening Day was a 17-3 thrashing of the St. Louis Browns on April 17, 1951. That Browns team went a dreadful 52-102 that season, but in a funny coincidence, the starting catcher for the Browns that day would become the stalwart catcher for the Sox the next season.
- The fewest runs scored by the Sox during this decade on Opening Day was, of course, zero. A 6-0 shutout by Cleveland on April 14, 1953.
All data from baseballreference.com
Author
139/146. Now you’re getting the quizzes I should score well on!! I missed only 2 from my lifetime. Incredibly, one was the 1978 pitcher, and the other was the 1967 catcher. Should have had both of those.
Missing the 1978 pitcher and getting almost everyone else is kind of fantastic.
Yeah, I have no idea how I blanked that guy out. It’s not like he disappeared after that. I think I went through every pitcher they had in the 70s and forgot about him.
I had the ’67 catcher, just couldn’t spell his name corrrectly
Did you get yourself?
yep,
So frustrating today. There were like 4 guys who I could picture their baseball cards but couldn’t think of their names, and two old pitchers that I blanked on that covered a lot of spots.
137/146. My most recent miss was the 1976 starting pitcher, and I blanked completely on 1950, 1953, and 1967.
It’s amazing just how many times
1976 starting catcher. If I had gotten the catcher and not the pitcher, that would be truly extraordinary.
I know a lot more pitchers than catchers, although I missed some easy ones. Glad to see the ’63 starter. That was the year I started watching baseball.