Brewers Trivia Time

@Timpranillo posted:

Play along and don't look these up...

1. Who holds the record for most career HR as a Switch Hitter as a Brewer?

2. What season were the Brewers in first place the most number of days?

3. 7 Brewers have hit >40 HRs in a season. Name them.

4. What pitcher holds the record for allowing the most hits, most runs, and most earned runs in a game?

5. Name the only Brewer to hit 2 HR in the same inning?

Without looking (maybe I'll get 50%)

1. Don Money

2. 1987

3. Gorman Thomas, Ben Oglivie, Prince Fielder, Greg Vaughn, Rob Deer, Christian Yelich, and Ryan Braun (I think I have this one right)

4. Slaton

5. Cecil Cooper

Total guesses here:

1) Don Money

2) 1982

3) George Scott, Gorman Thomas, Rob Deer, Richie Sexson, Chris Carter, Jeromy Burnitz, and Greg Vaughn.

4) Jaime Cocanower

5) Bill Hall

ugh, totally forgot some obvious HR guys.

1.  Ted Simmons.  I don't think Don Money was a switch hitter.

2. 2021

3.  Scott, Thomas, Oglivie, Deer, Sexson, Fielder,  Vaughn.

4.    Jim Colburn

5.  Fielder

No correct answers for 1, 2, 4, 5 yet

Most correct on #3 thus far is 5 / 7

Is the 2nd part of my #1 correct? 

@Timpranillo posted:

Play along and don't look these up...

1. Who holds the record for most career HR as a Switch Hitter as a Brewer?

2. What season were the Brewers in first place the most number of days?

3. 7 Brewers have hit >40 HRs in a season. Name them.

4. What pitcher holds the record for allowing the most hits, most runs, and most earned runs in a game?

5. Name the only Brewer to hit 2 HR in the same inning?

1. Ted Simmons

2. 2019

3. Gorman Thomas, Ben Oglivy, Greg Vaughn, Richie Sexton, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Christian Yelich

4. Moose Haas

5. Geoff Jenkins

I was close on the HR one… Vaughn had 40+ but it wasn’t with the Brewers. The switch hitter one was a surprise… wow!

@ammo posted:

1.  Ted Simmons.  I don't think Don Money was a switch hitter.

2. 2021

3.  Scott, Thomas, Oglivie, Deer, Sexson, Fielder,  Vaughn.

4.    Jim Colburn

5.  Fielder

Yes. For some reason I thought Money was, but now I remember he platooned with Howell during the 1982 season.

I got Simmons immediately…and then when it came to remembering the 40 home run guys it got too much like college so I dropped the class.

I looked up #1, forgot all about that guy.

1. I would have bet my children on Ted Simmons. But, no. Jose Valentin with 90 HRs. Simmons with 66 as a Brewer in 5 years.

2. Obviously this must be a season in which they won the division and were as dominant as they've ever been in franchise history, right? Gotta be 1982 or 2011!  Nope. In 2014, the Brewers spent 159 days in total in first place, including the entire span from April 5th to August 31st. They fell out of first for the first time since April 4th on Sept 1, and ended up finishing in 3rd place 8 games back. Possibly the most disappointing season I can recall from any sports team I follow. A 1-11 stretch in July followed by a 3-16 stretch in late August to Sept. They went from UP 1 game to down 6 in a 10 game stretch. Leading the division for 5 months and finishing in 3rd. Just an unreal collapse. GUH.

3. People were bouncing all around this and many had the obvious ones. I would have never in a billion years remembered one of them. Fielder, Sexson, Thomas, Yelich, Carter (WHO? WHAT? I HAVE ZERO RECALL OF CHRIS CARTER IN 2016), Braun, and Oglivie. I miss Richie Sexson.

4. Bill Travers. 18 Hits. 14 Runs. All Earned. August 14th 1977. Possibly the lowest point in franchise history in all honesty. At that point, the they had never finished higher than 4th in division, never won more than 76 games, and after a fleeting moment of things getting better in 73/74, the trend was not good. It's a Sunday DH vs the equally hapless Indians. Game 1 the Indians blow out Milwaukee 12-4, scoring 9 in the 5th. In game 2 Bill Travers is a year out from a injury that hit hard as he was looking like a not half bad pitcher. He was struggling all through 1977, but hell, everyone was. Travers gets rocked for 7 runs in the first 2 innings. Alex Grammas sends him back out in to the 3rd. Why? Who knows? Saving the bullpen? For what? But, Travers settles a bit, giving up only 2 more runs through the next 5 innigns. Maybe the thought was to try and regain confidence after that rough start? Cool, job done, let's take him out and throw someone out for the 8th and final inning here. Nope. 150 pitches in to a 9-3 game Grammas sends him back out AGAIN. A clearly gassed Travers gets rocked for 5 more runs and then finally for some unknown insane reason only the worst manager of all time can appreciate, he takes Travers out after a double to make it 14-3 and brings in Bob McClure for the final out. Alex Grammas was the WORST. Also Saturday or Sunday DH's were the goddamned best man.

5. I know this only because I was an irrational fan of this guy as I followed him in the Minors and I thought he'd be an All Star. Dave Nilsson hit 2 HRs in an inning vs Minny in 1996.

Well, at least I got Chris Carter, lol. Not much else. That was fun!

I had completely forgotten about Carter as well. I should have guessed Sexton, but I guessed Vaughn and I was 75% correct. Vaughn hit 41 HRs the one year that he started with the Brewers (but only hit 31 in Milwaukee before being traded to the Padres at the deadline).

Alex Grammas managed to lose close to 95 games a few times with what wasn't talent that should have been that bad. The 1977 Brewers had a decent starting pitching rotation. Caldwell, Slaton, Travers, Augustine, Haas, and Sorenson got most of the starters, so they weren't throwing out a total stiff in any of their games. The offense had Cooper, close-to-prime Don Money, Lezcano, a young Yount, and Sal Bando was decent.

Bamberger comes in the following year and wins 93 games with the same pitching staff. Of course, adding Molitor and Hisle and bringing Gorman Thomas back up was huge, but Bamberger was much better in handling a pitching staff.

In looking back to the 1978 team (which as a 9-year-old was the thing that got me excited about Wisconsin sports for the first time I could remember), the statistics are amazing in how they show what a completely different game it was. The staff had 62 complete games. Caldwell alone had 23 and Sorenson had 17. No reliever had double-digit saves on a 93 win team (McClure had 9 and Castro had 8).

Yup- didn’t even remember Carter- weird.

Australia’s own immortal Dave Nilsson… how about that guy? Incidentally he was an All Star in ‘99.

Not surprised I mentally blocked the ‘14 team that was on top and fell apart the last 2 months.

I had forgotten about Grammas.  And others.

Australia’s own immortal Dave Nilsson… how about that guy?

He couldn't live if living was without you.

Wow.

You went deep on that one.

Gebins.

Everybody’s talking about it.

@Timpranillo posted:

Also Saturday or Sunday DH's were the goddamned best man.

Used to go to a DH or 2 every year. Always liked the games against the Red Sox. With Yaz & Rice.

Great article on Ted Simmons, now a member of the baseball HOF.

https://www.mlb.com/news/ted-s...ll-of-fame-induction

  I always enjoyed watching Simmons play, a catcher who could hit for power and average.  His eyes get pretty BIG at the end when he talks about the NBA champs Bucks, and a possible baseball championship in Milwaukee.

I remembered Valentin, thinking they had a real heir to Yount at SS, was WAY off on #2, missed Sexson and Carter for the 40 club, guessed Jerry Augustine for #4, had no idea on #5