I filled in for a Trivia Night Friday night, which was a lot of fun. I’m not the most knowledgeable for trivia, but I can usually be relied on for a few questions (sports, current events, etc.). I’ve done a couple the past few months with my friends, and those were mostly “social events” and weren’t that competitive.
This past Friday, I filled in for my mom on a team for a youth baseball fundraiser. I had done this trivia event the previous year, and I remember how perturbed I was that for a baseball fundraiser, they didn’t have any baseball questions. There was an entire category on football though, and I was just figured that since so many of the questions had to do with the Green Bay Packers, he must have been a Packers fan. Still, a fundraiser for a baseball team should have baseball questions.
This year, the second category has based on the 2011 MLB season. I knew I would know the answers to most of these questions! The first round, the question was which team had the most historical collapse in MLB history? Of course, they had to start with this question. I spoke up and said “Boston Red Sox” and also pointed out if the Sox hadn’t collapsed, the answer would have been “Atlanta Braves.”
As the questions continued, they were fairly easy, like who had the largest paycheck in 2011? I don’t think there was a table who put down something other than “Alex Rodriguez.” There was also questions like which of the following teams missed the playoffs, etc.
Then, around round six, the question was: Which of these teams had the highest batting average for 2011? A. Boston B.Texas C. Detroit D. St. Louis. I immediately answered Texas. Some at the table thought it was one of the other teams, but I was convinced it was Texas. I explained that Boston scored the most runs last year, but I was positive Texas had the better batting average. There was a little debate because Detroit had Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez who both had very high batting averages, Boston had many players above .300 (Gonzalez, Ellsbury, Ortiz, and Pedroia), and St. Louis had some heavy hitters as well. I said I was positive on this one, and so, we answered B. Texas.
When the announcer stated that the answer was “A. Boston,” there were many at our table glaring at my dad and me. I said I knew that Texas had the highest batting average and immediately pulled out my iPhone to google it. Everyone kept saying that my dad and I should’ve known the answer because we were Sox fans, and how could we be Sox fans and not know that. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the 2011 team batting averages quickly enough on my phone, and the next round quickly started.
The baseball question for that round was “Who had the lowest ERA in the Majors?” A. Clayton Kershaw B. Cliff Lee C. Roy Halladay D. Justin Verlander. While the majority of our table favorite Verlander, I believed the answer was Kershaw. I tried explaining that Halladay was great last year, but Kershaw pretty much blew him out of the water with his stats. I also argued that while Verlander was really great last year, I didn’t think his ERA was that better than any of the NL pitchers listed. My table argued back that Verlander won Cy Young and MVP, which means he was the past pitcher last
year.
Since I was considered wrong on the Red Sox question, the table voted to put the answer as D. When the answer was announced as “A. Clayton Kershaw,” I got a few surprised looks from my table. I think I had been redeemed, since no one else thought I really knew baseball.
The last round’s question was: Which of the teams that made the playoffs in 2011 had the smallest payroll? I quickly said “Tampa Bay Rays.” Some at my table said they thought the answer was “Arizona Diamondbacks” because they don’t have any “superstars,” and the Rays had Johnny Damon, Evan Longoria, and star pitching.
I said that I knew the answer was “Tampa Bay Rays” because they don’t really spend money like other teams, their strength was in drafting. I stated that the Rays don’t have a lot of money to spend, and that was the reason why they didn’t retain Carl Crawford, traded Matt Garza, and signed Damon to a one-year deal. They eventually listened to me, and we received the point for that round.
Even though I had felt a bit redeemed by the end of Trivia Night, I was still confused by the highest batting average answer. I asked my brother if he knew the answer, and he said “Boston Red Sox.” I told him he should’ve gone to Trivia if he knew it.
I had almost forgot about the whole thing until this morning. I had seen some of the people who I played trivia with on Friday, and the whole “I-don’t-know-the-Red-Sox-as-well-as-I-thought-I-did” thing came up. I had enough. I went on my computer and googled “2011 team batting averages.” Here’s the link I went to:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/batting/year/2011
Boston’s team batting average was .280; Texas’s batting average was .283. I was right. I had doubted my Red Sox knowledge, and that really ticked me off. But, I had been right, and I was able to back it up with stats. I immediately emailed my dad and the two people in his office we had played with. I said we should demand a recount.
The point of this posting wasn’t that I proved others wrong; it was that I had doubted my Red Sox knowledge. That’s such a strange feeling. I’ve been the “go-to” person for Red Sox stuff for a long time, that it felt foreign to me to second-guess myself. I’m just happy that I was able to find the information to back up my statement.
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