Some unforgettable names here… And some others!
This will be the final Saturday Sporcle for a few weeks, since we’ll be switching into Award Season mode for the next few weeks. Last time out, we asked you to name the position players who started a post-season game for the Diamondbacks. Most of you proved up to the task, with the average score a respectable 63%. There were three remembered by everyone who took part. Interestingly, they all came from the 2001 season, rather than more recent post-season runs. Luis Gonzalez, Tony Womack and Steve Finley each reached 100% awareness.However, a slew of 2023 names were missed on just one attempt, including Alek Thomas, Corbin Carroll, Gabriel Moreno, Ketel Marte and Christian Walker.
At the other end, there was one man nobody at all remembered, which is close to a rare feat in this series. The Unknown Diamondback award (post-season edition, anyway!) goes to infielder Hanley Frias (above), who started at shortstop for Game 1 of the 1999 NL Division Series against the Mets. He went 0-for-4 that night, and indeed, was 0-for-7 in the series overall, Frias’s only career experienced of playoff baseball. The following season was his last in the majors, his MLB career ending at age 26. He rattled around in the minors for a couple more years, before vanishing as far as Google is concerned. If you’ve got ten bucks (plus shipping), you can pick up one of his broken bats on Ebay.
We’ll see if the same goes for any of the pitchers. Unlike with the position players, I’m not restricting you to post-season starters, because there were a lot fewer of those. Only 22 men have started a playoff game on the mound: only half a dozen have more than two to their credit. So, I’m including relief pitchers as well, which probably makes things a little more difficult, and bumps the count up to a more manageable and challenging 63. That goes all the way down to a guy who faced one (1) batter in the post-season here. Good luck remembering him. I think if you can crack 50% on this, you are doing very well.
Quiz is embedded below, or can also be found here for those on mobile.