Sporcle Saturday: All the steals
Good morning!
Entering Friday night’s game against the San Francisco Giants, the White Sox currently have two players with double-digit steal totals: Luis Robert (11) and Tim Anderson (10). Adam Engel is next with 9, then the list drops down to a five-way tie for last place with…one.
The totals are hardly surprising given this team’s penchant for hamstrings and legs falling off, not to mention many of the other players aren’t particularly fleet of foot. But do you know who was fleet of foot on this day in 1909? The Chicago White Sox against the St. Louis Browns, when eight different players combined for a then-record-setting 12 stolen bases in a single game. Heck, pitcher Ed Walsh even got in on the fun with a steal of home! The White Sox, unsurprisingly, won 15-3. A sampling of newspaper headlines the following day:
- The Minneapolis Tribune: “St. Louis given awful drubbing by White Sox: Former Yale star gets in the game for White Sox”
- The Inter Ocean: “White Sox smother St. Louis Browns in great swatfest”
- The Boston Globe: “White Sox make enough runs to have won the whole series had they been better distributed”
Newspaper headings sure were fun back in the day. At any rate, today’s Sporcle examines White Sox stolen base leaders in a season. Because, interestingly, just one of the players from that game in 1909 appears in this Sporcle, and not from that season! I’ve set the cut-off at 40 or more stolen bases in a single season: that leaves us 31 entries. How many can you name? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I’ve allotted 10 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, I’ve provided the season and the number of stolen bases.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- Ed Walsh would finish the 1909 season with 4 stolen bases.
- The last time a pitcher stole 4 bases in a single season (well, if you discount Shohei Ohtani) was 1972, when Blue Moon Odom did it with Oakland.
- In 1912, Harry Lord stole 30 bases for the White Sox. Unfortunately for him and the team, he was caught 33 times.
All data from stathead.com
24/31. I missed 1943 and all my other misses were from 1912 and earlier.
This quiz makes me think of Bill James’ Historical Abstract and the way he would discuss decade-by-decade changes to the game. I wonder if we’ll ever get to a point when someone threatens Rickey Henderson’s single-season steals mark. Certainly not in this era.
25/31. I too missed 1943 and several before 1920. But I did get 2 extra on a wild guess!! These last few quizzes have been a challenging change of pace. Great job as usual, Ted!!
Thanks!
I missed a lot of guys. I looked up some of the guys I missed and they had great nicknames: Bald Eagle, Bunions, Sandow, and Nixey.
Bunions! Great nickname.