Sporcle Saturday: Non-American

Signing of Liam Hendriks grades out as the best move of the offseason (Photo by Cody Glenn/Icon Sportswire)

Welcome to the first Saturday of the regular season! It’s delightful to think that we now get to watch baseball on the weekend, every weekend, from now through October (which, hopefully, includes the White Sox for most or all of that month). With the Sox’ season officially underway, it marks a unique moment in franchise history: the team has its first player born outside the Americas on the roster since 2012, and just its second Australian.

In a question posed to me by Jim Margalus (props to him for the Sporcle idea): who all have played on the White Sox and were born outside of the Americas? Well, I did the research and it turns out that 17 different non-American players have suited up for the team at some point throughout history. Would you like some trivia about them? I’d bet my sweet bippy you would! Among these fine gentlemen we have:

  • The only player in MLB history from Finland; he ultimately preferred playing independent ball over organized because it paid better. Ultimately he moved to Woodruff, WI, better known as home to the largest penny in the world. (The reviews are pouring in! “We visited the ‘World’s Largest Penny.’ I am not sure what I expected, but it is made out of concrete, and there is no back on the ‘penny.‘”)
  • A pitcher part of the first White Sox SP rotation in 1901; in 1900 for the minor-league Sox, he notched four consecutive shutout victories, each by the identical score of 3-0. (SP, 1901-02)
  • A player who earlier in his career had picked up the nickname “Chick”, when a doctor had to remove a chicken bone from his throat. (SP, 1948-49)
  • The only hitter in major league history to have three triples in one game twice in one season. Perhaps more famously, he’s on the “All Body Parts Team”, along with Barry Foote, Rollie Fingers, Roy Face, Ricky Bones, Ed Head, and Harry Cheek. (2B, 1901)
  • This fine player photograph (SP, 1911):
(via Wikipedia)

At any rate, today’s Sporcle tasks you with an attempt at naming those 17 non-Americans. How many can you get? Good luck!

Quiz Parameters

  • I’ve allotted 15 minutes for completion attempts.
  • For hints, you get the player’s tenure with the team, and their position.
  • To qualify, non-American is defined as born outside North/Central/South America or the Caribbean region.

Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:

  • These players combined for 14.5 WAR over their White Sox careers.
  • The highest amount of WAR? 5.4 by the second baseman from 2005-2007.
  • The lowest amount? -1.2 by the starting pitcher from 1948-1949.

Direct link here

Data and information from baseballreference.com, and SABR.

(Top photo by Cody Glenn/Icon Sportswire)

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asinwreck

8/17, and I only got that with a) Jim correcting me on the first Australian Sox player a few weeks back, and b) a shot-in-the-dark guess on the Poland-born pitcher. That guy was the earliest name I got; while a couple of the names revealed at the end of the quiz were familiar ones, I had no idea of their birthplaces before today.

Amazing quiz, Ted!

roke1960

6/17. Well, you got us Ted!! Great quiz!

Fun quiz! I only got our closer and the three Japanese players.

My brother’s favorite body part player: Tony Armas. (each syllable is a different body part if you mispronounce the last one)

KenWo4LiFe

8. Tough quiz got the 8 since I was alive barely.