Relief Pitchers

In an attempt to really round out every remaining team quiz I can come up with for the last 30 years or so of baseball, I've started posting relief pitcher quizzes. They're definitely a degree of difficulty well above the starting pitcher ones, which aren't easy.

Arizona Diamondbacks relievers
Atlanta Braves relievers
Baltimore Orioles relievers
Boston Red Sox relievers
Chicago Cubs relievers
Chicago White Sox relievers
Cincinnati Reds relievers
Cleveland Indians relievers
Colorado Rockies relievers
Detroit Tigers relievers
Florida Marlins relievers
Houston Astros relievers
Kansas City Royals relievers
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim relievers
Los Angeles Dodgers relievers
Milwaukee Brewers relievers
Minnesota Twins relievers
Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals relievers
New York Mets relievers
New York Yankees relievers
Oakland Athletics relievers
Philadelphia Phillies relievers
Pittsburgh Pirates Relievers
San Diego Padres Relievers
San Francisco Giants Relievers
Seattle Mariners
Tampa Bay Rays relievers
Texas Rangers relievers
Toronto Blue Jays
Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals relievers

Team Leader Quizzes

ironsij0287 is getting a lot of traffic with his quizzes that have team leaders by decade. Alas, they don't compare with the swelling omnibus of team leader knowledge that I'd posted last year (which I had updated yesterday morning).

MLB:
AL Team Home Run Leader 1979-2010
NL Team Home Run Leaders 1979-2010
AL Team Stolen Base Leaders (1981-2010)
NL Team Stolen Base Leaders (1981-2010)
Team Save Leaders 1990-2009 (alas, no room for updating it to 2010).

NHL:
NHL Team Point Leaders 1992-2010

The latter is possibly my favorite quiz I've ever posted, though I do astonishingly poorly at it, since I stopped following hockey about the time it disappeared for a year.

Other Lineup quizzes

1960s:
AL Lineups (1960) (by aaronwhitehead)

AL Lineups (1968) (by aaronwhitehead)
NL Lineups (1968) (by aaronwhitehead)

1970s:
AL Lineups (1970) (by steelehere)
NL Lineups (1970) (by steelehere)
AL Lineups (1975) (by steelehere)
NL Lineups (1975) (by steelehere)

1980s:
AL Lineups (1980) (by bones21)
NL Lineups (1980) (by bones21)
AL Lineups (1981) (by steelehere)
NL Lineups (1981) (by steelehere)
AL Lineups (1982)
NL Lineups (1982)
AL Lineups (1983)
NL Lineups (1983)
AL Lineups (1984) (by bones21)
NL Lineups (1984) (by bones21)
AL Lineups (1985)
NL Lineups (1985)
AL Lineups (1986) (by aaronwhitehead)
NL Lineups (1986) (by pancakes188)
AL Lineups (1987)
NL Lineups (1987)
AL Lineups (1988) (by pancakes188)
NL Lineups (1988)
AL Lineups (1989)
NL Lineups (1989)

1990s:
AL Lineups (1990)
NL Lineups (1990)
AL Lineups (1991)
NL Lineups (1991)
AL Lineups (1992)
NL Lineups (1992)
AL Lineups (1993)
NL Lineups (1993)
AL Lineups (1994)
NL Lineups (1994)
AL Lineups (1995)
NL Lineups (1995)
AL Lineups (1996)
NL Lineups (1996)
AL Lineups (1997)
NL Lineups (1997)
AL Lineups (1998)
NL Lineups (1998)
AL Lineups (1999)
NL Lineups (1999)

2000s:
AL Lineups (2000)
NL Lineups (2000) (by benlewellyn)
AL Lineups (2001) (by benlewellyn)
NL Lineups (2001) (by benlewellyn)
AL Lineups (2002)
NL Lineups (2002)
AL Lineups (2003)
NL Lineups (2003)
AL Lineups (2004)
NL Lineups (2004)
AL Lineups (2005)
NL Lineups (2005)
AL Lineups (2006)
NL Lineups (2006) (by pancakes188)
AL Lineups (2007)
NL Lineups (2007)
AL Lineups (2008)
NL Lineups (2008)
AL Lineups (2009) (by sienna66)
NL Lineups (2009)
AL Lineups (2010)
NL Lineups (2010)
AL Lineups (2011)
NL Lineups (2011)

Others:
World Series champion lineups
Losing World Series lineups
No-hit lineups of the 2000s

Starting Rotation Quizzes

My newest theme quiz is the starting rotation quiz from 1980-2009 (now all have been updated through 2011).

Arizona Diamondbacks
Atlanta Braves
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Indians
Colorado Rockies
Detroit Tigers
Florida Marlins
Houston Astros
Kansas City Royals
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Los Angeles Dodgers
Milwaukee Brewers
Minnesota Twins
Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals
New York Mets
New York Yankees
Oakland Athletics
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Seattle Mariners
Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays
Texas Rangers
Toronto Blue Jays

Opening Day Lineup quizzes -- by team

Ok, I'm a sucker for these, which is why I'm responsible for a disproportionate number of them on sporcle. But I think they're completely fascinating looks at how baseball teams change over time and require actual depth of knowledge (which, again, I'm a sucker for).

Arizona Diamondbacks

Atlanta Braves (1991-2010)
Atlanta Braves (1971-1990)

Baltimore Orioles (1991-2010)
Baltimore Orioles (1971-1990)

Boston Red Sox (1991-2010)
Boston Red Sox (1971-1990)

Chicago Cubs (1991-2010)
Chicago Cubs (1971-1990)

Chicago White Sox (1991-2010)
Chicago White Sox (1971-1990)

Cincinnati Reds (1991-2010)
Cincinnati Reds (1971-1990)

Cleveland Indians (1991-2010)
Cleveland Indians (1971-1990)

Colorado Rockies

Detroit Tigers (1991-2010)
Detroit Tigers (1971-1990)

Florida Marlins

Houston Astros (1991-2010)
Houston Astros (1971-1990)

Kansas City Royals (1991-2010)
Kansas City Royals (1971-1990)

California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels (1991-2010)
California Angels (1971-1990)

Los Angeles Dodgers (1991-2010)
Los Angeles Dodgers (1971-1990)

Milwaukee Brewers (1991-2010)
Milwaukee Brewers (1971-1990)

Minnesota Twins (1991-2010)
Minnesota Twins (1971-1990)

Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals (1991-2010)
Montreal Expos (1983-2004)
Montreal Expos (1969-1990) (by Jaysee)

New York Mets (1991-2010)
New York Mets (1971-1990)

New York Yankees (1991-2010)
New York Yankees (1971-1990)

Oakland Athletics (1991-2010)
Oakland Athletics (1971-1990)

Philadelphia Phillies (1991-2010)
Philadelphia Phillies (1971-1990)

Pittsburgh Pirates

San Diego Padres (1991-2010)
San Diego Padres (1971-1990)

San Francisco Giants (1991-2010)
San Francisco Giants (1971-1990)

Seattle Mariners (1991-2010) (by swellwrench)
Seattle Mariners (1977-1989) (by swellwrench)

St. Louis Cardinals (1991-2010)
St. Louis Cardinals (1969-1990) (by Jaysee)

Tampa Bay Rays

Texas Rangers (1991-2010)
Texas Rangers (1971-1990)

Toronto Blue Jays (1991-2010)
Toronto Blue Jays (1971-1990)

Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals (1991-2010)
Washington Nationals (2005-2010)

Band Antonyms #2

http://www.sporcle.com/games/DerKomissar/bandtonyms/results

21 of 24 -- I missed Yankee Dudes, Stonez, and Yes Belief, none of which bother me in the least.

No one else is getting, but I am: Cocky Cat took a while, since it's not what you usually think of as an antonym to a cat. But it works.

My favorite here is minilife, even if it's not really suitable, it should be minilyfe or something to indicate misspelling.

Can you name the Smallest Division I Basketball Schools?

http://www.sporcle.com/games/YoThisIsBay/smallNCAA/results

I managed 7 or 30, which is pretty woeful for most quizzes, but here still put me in the 75th percentile. Had I thought to simply name figures in the Catholic Church, I'd have fared better. I still love the quiz, because unless you're cheating with conference standings in front of you, this quiz requires genuine depth of knowledge -- I live within a few hundred miles of a lot of these schools and have lived in areas following the Horizon conference and the Missouri Valley and still mustered 7.

Team HR Leaders ('79-09)

Not to toot my own horn (I intend to save that for less worthy efforts I've posted later), but sporcle agrees with me on this one, since both of these quizzes have taken residence in the top rated user created quizzes, it's a fair statement.

Can you name every player who led his respective team in the American League in home runs in the seasons from 1979 to 2009?

Same quiz for the National League.

I've received a lot of comments, mostly inexplicable. Several people have commented that the names shouldn't be in alphabetical order, which I would be inclined to agree with if there were another way to organize them coherently. I'd originally written it with the intention of having them listed by teams, but that pushed the NL list to something like 210 for 1980-2009, since players who led multiple NL teams had to be listed separately. So I compromised and did it this way, which also makes the quiz substantially easier -- but that's not to say it's easy. The chances of someone remembering Eric Anthony or Richie Zisk aren't good. They at least get better when you can get players around them and then rely on your memory instead of solely mentally rifling through the 1991 Bowman set for Astros outfielders.

The reason for the dates is arbitrary, I had set it up as 80-09 when I was getting the NL quiz ready, but that was too long for the setup I had in mind (sorted by team), so I switched to this and found I had room to work with and added another year. I would speculate I could probably cram in '78 also (it's unlikely there are 11 unique figures in that season), but at least 79-09 looks like a round number -- even if it's actually 31 seasons.

I'm working on a similar quiz for win leaders, but I suspect the timeframe will have to be compressed and am starting to wonder if it's even worthwhile. Pitching is far more volatile than hitting, and the arbitrariness of the win only exacerbates it. Still, Bill Gullickson is woefully underrepresented on sporcle, so I ought to do my part.

200 HR, 200 SB

Can you name the 200-200 HR/SB Club Members? - sporcle

This is one of those perfect sorts of quizzes. It requires actual depth of knowledge (there are some guys on here you'd never think of), but most of your time will be spent typing in names that you're sure had to be on there (seriously? You missed Ken Griffey? both of them? where's Dale Murphy? Tim Raines? Jimmy Rollins has to have averaged 15 or so home runs those years he didn't hit 30...right?), and, if you're me and see conspiracy in everything, checking baseball-reference.com for those guys that you're sure are on the list -- Raines was surprisingly not close to 200 HR, it's a safe bet Ken Griffey Jr.'s not swiping 16 bags this year, and so on. And the guys that are on the verge of the list are all people I didn't even think of, which is pretty inexcusable (Cesar Cedeno needed 1 HR, Barry Larkin is a mere 2 HR off the list, Toby Harrah, Amos Otis and Ray Durham are all in the discussion).

Although I originally balked at including a "primary team", I think it's probably necessary once you get below a certain level of obvious. And let me assure you, if I'd seen the entire team list for CIN's 305/304 hitter...wouldn't have been any difficulty in getting him.

Best of Sporcle

For those who aren't already familiar with sporcle.com, it's a trivia person's dream. For better or for worse (it's definitely had bouts of both), it opened up the opportunity to create quizzes to registered users. This blog is dedicated to finding the best quizzes on sporcle -- and, of course, to serve as shameless self-promotion.

My quizzes can be found at:
http://www.sporcle.com/user/tk925/contributed
http://www.sporcle.com/user/tk926/contributed
http://www.sporcle.com/user/lineupquizzes/contributed