A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’. @bertyashley
Quiz | Easy like Sunday morning
New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig was known as ‘The Iron Horse’ for his batting expertise.
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1 / 10 |
On June 19, 1846, the first official version of this sport was played in New Jersey, based on rules that had been drawn up by Alexander Cartwright who also umpired this game. The biggest cup in this sport is the World Series. Since 1903, a team based in America has won every single of the 117 titles. What sport is this where the New York Yankees have 27 wins as the most successful team?
2 / 10 |
Born on June 19, 1903, Lou Gehrig is an American baseball player who was known as ‘The Iron Horse’ for his batting expertise. He played a record 2,130 consecutive games, which he had to break only because a then undiagnosed disease hampered his playing. This was later found to be Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), an incurable neuromuscular illness, which was named after him. In 2014, a challenge went viral that supposedly made one feel what an ALS patient felt like. What challenge was this that causes your body to shut down?
3 / 10 |
Most people believe this baseball team gets its name from the cunning tricks one would use to avoid a tag or stealing a base. In fact, it refers to people in Brooklyn in 1800s moving fast in order to not get run over by fast-moving trolley cars powered by a new invention, electricity. Pedestrians were accustomed to just crossing a road without looking left or right; an oncoming horse cart would just stop for them. Unfortunately the trolleys did not; hence they had to make these moves. What baseball team, which started in Brooklyn but later moved west, derives its name from this practice?
4 / 10 |
This city’s Major League baseball team’s name is ‘Astro’, which reflects the ‘space age capital of the world’ the city had become. Consequently, they built the ‘Astrodome’ that was the first domed sports stadium in the world. They won their first world series in 2017 beating the LA Dodgers. Which city is the home-town of the aptly named ‘Astros’?
5 / 10 |
The earliest known version of this sport was when university students played it with a rolled up boxing glove as a ball, and a broom handle as a bat. The rules made it suitable for indoor play, so players could continue practising in winter. The name refers to the fact that the ball was made from a material not as hard as the one used for baseball. What is the sport?
6 / 10 |
One explanation for the origin of this term is that baseball fields were earlier oriented in such a way that the batter always faced west. Most batters would thus have their bats facing the north. However, this origin is often disputed given that the term did not originate with baseball at all (and not all baseball fields are oriented in this manner). It was used much earlier to describe a left-handed person dealing a blow. What term is this?
7 / 10 |
This version of baseball was developed by Philip Weidner in 2010. Unlike in the original game, both teams are on the field at the same time. Pitchers from each team take turns pitching to batters at two adjacent home plates. One team runs around the base clockwise while the other runs around anti-clockwise. What is this version known as, which puts it on par with bungee jumping and sky diving?
8 / 10 |
When the U.S. joined WWII, the Office of Strategic Services in partnership with Eastman Kodak manufactured a particular ammunition to look and feel like a baseball. Called BEANO T-13, it was built for Americans to throw it with greater accuracy as they had more experience with the game. What was BEANO T-13?
9 / 10 |
The Baseball World Cup was founded in 1938 and has been held 38 times. The most successful country has 25 gold medals as opposed to the U.S., which has won only four. The country was introduced to the sport by students returning home from U.S. colleges and it became so popular that the government tried banning it in 1869. What country is this where even revolutionaries, who were at war with the U.S., played it?
10 / 10 |
The Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru has a brick wall at its entrance made of 10,000 bricks and has the words ‘Commitment, Consistency, Class’ emblazoned on it. Erected in 2008, it had a live electronic counter on one corner of the wall ticking from then, until it finally stopped in 2012 at 13,288. To honour which great sportsperson (who said ‘Cricket has always been statistically-driven like baseball, but over the past 15 years we have moved beyond comparing averages and now use data to help in strategy and player selection’) has this structure been erected?
