I won’t tell you how bad Team Zealot (myself, Shawn Lee, and team newcomer Nick Zahos) did other than to say that we didn’t come in last  (whew!).  The questions were tougher in my opinion, from last year’s inaugural Sports Trivia Championship.  During the halfway break, we were mentally exhausted. 

They did give us the answers to the first half’s questions during the break and while they were tough, I think we caught a break and got a lot of lucky answers (including questions like what was the height of the Illinois state high school record high jump… we got that through pure luck).  We really weren’t in the running by the halfway point but I thought we did ok. 

Overall, we generally scored 7 out of 10 on most categories.  Weak points for Team Zealot were (don’t hate us Illini fans) Illinois football (4 out of 10) and Illinois basketball (5 out of 10).  Ironically, we managed to score 8 on the NFL (I haven’t followed football religiously since the 80s).

The biggest trivia question surprise to us?  It was in the Major League Baseball category.  Ok, here’s the question:

Which franchise had the most players in the Hall of Fame?  The choices:  Yankees, Cardinals, Giants, Red Sox. 

I’ll tell you the answer later in the article.  I will say that I think all three of us agreed on the same answer and got it wrong anyway. 

Much kudos go to the winners named ‘Team Rain Delay’, who scored 83 out of 100 questions correctly.  If you think of it, they would have had to score eight or nine out of ten for each of the ten categories.  They had four members on their team so they will have to split that $1,000 check four ways.  Be nice, guys!

Thanks to Brian Barnhart who was the Master of Ceremonies.  Some of you may know Barnhart as the broadcaster for Illini football and basketball games.  Others may remember him from his days as broadcaster for the Angels in the late 90s.  He did an excellent job and quite honestly, kept the event going at a pretty good pace. 

Biggest thanks go to Jim Sheppard, longtime former public address announcer for Illini football and basketball games.  His work with Kiwanis to organize the Sports Trivia Championship to raise money for the service projects that they are involved should be recognized. 

Oh, the trivia question.  Which franchise had the most players in the Hall of Fame?  The answer is the Giants.  The lesson here is:  Don’t go with the obvious.  The three of us all thought it was the Yankees. 

Jim Sheppard told me that they plan to do a third Sports Trivia Championship next year.  Those in the East Central Illinois area should keep that in mind for a fun afternoon for a good cause.

The Sports Trivia Contest will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign, Illinois. Event organizer Steve Zahos is mum on the types of questions being asked other than to say that there are a few new categories.  Indeed, he is right.  Here is the list:

• Illini Men’s Basketball
• St. Louis Cardinals
• National Football League
• What’s The Number?
• Illini Football
• Super Bowls
• Chicago Cubs
• NCAA Men’s Basketball
• Major League Baseball
• Chicago Bears

Alas, I don’t remember What’s the Number, Super Bowls or NCAA Men’s Basketball from last year. 

Team Zealot will once again make an appearance this year.  The good news is that we can’t do much worse than last year.  There’s Room for Improvement!  That’s our slogan and we’re sticking with it.

On San Diego thirdbaseman Graig Nettles’ APBA card, it show his nickname as “Puff”.  Neither Brando or I knew why or how Nettles how he got this nickname.  “Puff” seemed to me such a feminine name for such a hard-nosed player like Nettles. 

So I looked it up.  According to Baseball Reference’s Bullpen:

Graig Nettles was given the nickname of Puff by his teammates. "Puff" referred to the way Graig disappeared after playing a practical joke or starting trouble.

Another interesting aside… Nettles, who played the bulk of his career with the Yankees before being traded to San Diego (for Dennis Rasmussen), was a San Diego native and attended San Diego State University.  Perhaps he wanted to get closer to home.

Details are at the Kiwanis’ Sports Trivia Championship website but here’s the skinny:

• Date:  January 30, 2011
• Time:  2-5pm
• Location:  Hilton Garden Inn, Champaign, IL
• Entry Fee: $25

There will be prizes of course, with the winning entrant or team winning $1,000.  The Baseball Zealot entered a team in the Sports Trivia Championship last year and quite honestly, fared quite poorly.  Well, at least now there’s room for improvement. 

The deadline for registration is January 14th. 

Shawn and I took part in today’s C-U Kiwanis Sports Trivia Championship at the Hilton Garden Inn.  There were a few words we could use to describe our performance today.  Among the printable ones are “humiliating”, “pitiful”, and “put in our place”. 

No, we didn’t do very well. 

But we DID have fun and the Kiwanis event’s purpose was to raise money for a couple good causes, most notably the Don Moyer’s Boys and Girls Club. 

“Captain”.  I like the sound of that.

Here’s page 1 of the General Baseball round questions (click to enlarge).

Shawn and I did pretty well on the General Baseball round.  I’m embarrassed to say we did better on the St Louis Cardinals round than the Chicago Cubs round (ouch).  I was happy I got this one right:  “What are the dimensions to centerfield in Wrigley Field?”  400 feet.

The judges tabulating the scores.

A representative from the “Dave’s Guys” team accepting the $1000 check prize.

Kudos to “Dave’s Guys” who won it all.  It was a good fight.  It came down to a two-way tie at the end and a tie-breaker was necessary.  The tie-breaker was brutal, it seemed.  Ten questions, no multiple choice.  We knew that both teams had deserved to be there because the Championship came down to one question.  “Dave’s Guys” had to answer EVERY question in order to win it all.  Congratulations to them.

Thanks to the Kiwanis for a great time.  Jim Sheppard (former PA announcer of the Illini) did a great job organizing the event.  Brian Barnhart (broadcaster for the Illini and former broadcaster for the Angels) used his awesome voice as the MC.  Thanks also to my good friend and teammate Shawn, who at least made it fun and answered the questions I couldn’t. 

The Kiwanis say they plan to do this again so we plan to avenge our mediocre performance.

Here is the sign-up page.

Not only have I registered for the contest but I’m teaming up with Shawn Lee (yes, teams are allowed).  Some of you might remember Shawn from a few episodes of our now defunct podcast, Baseball Zealot Radio.  Shawn is the webmaster of the Vermilion Voles vintage base ball team.  He’s even been known to pick up a bat for them as well. 

Shawn and I are obviously pretty good at the baseball trivia bit.  But the Kiwanis will be throwing in some Illini sports trivia our way, too (Chicago Bears, too).  Shawn’s a Rutgers man so he won’t be much help with that I suppose. 

Time to brush up on my Illinois sports history, I guess.  Now if only they would include Illini Baseball, I would smoke ‘em all.

Go Team Zealot!

I posted info about it a few weeks ago or you can go directly to the Sports Trivia Championship web site. 

They are looking for more participants so if you’re interested, sign up!

Some of the question topics:  Illini basketball and football, Cubs, Cardinals, White Sox, Chicago Bears.

If you’re interested, you can sign up at the Sports Trivia Championship website.  Entry fee is $25 and proceeds are going to the Don Moyer’s Boys and Girls Club, Little League Baseball, and Challenger Baseball League for Handicapped Youth.  Did I mention there was a $1,000 grand prize?

I’m thinking of entering but that means I have to study up on the White Sox.  Help Teddy! 

Now fast forward to August 1, 1972, the San Diego Padres were playing a doubleheader against the Braves in Atlanta.  Colbert, nursing a bad back, wasn’t going to play.  But when he took batting practice with an old bat, he hit five balls out, and a couple of more that were long gone, but just foul.  Nate’s manager decided his slugger would play, so Nate taped up the old bat, and used it in the first game.  He hit two out in the first game and three more in the nightcap, leading the Pads to a sweep, 9-0 & 11-7, driving in 13 runs on the day, two more than Stan the Man.  Nate finished the season with 38 homers (second only to Johnny Bench’s 40) and 111 RBI’s (highest percentage of runs driven in to a team’s total runs scored in MLB history).

I still remember this big day by this big slugger, even today, but don’t ask me what I ate for breakfast!