All baseball players should understand the history that went into making America’s game what it is today. I am not saying you need to rush to the library, or I guess nowadays Amazon, but it can prove beneficial to build up knowledge about the sport you play. Baseball’s history is riddled with special players, moments, and movements that make for a great game of trivia.
Today, we are going to test your knowledge with some difficult baseball questions. You will encounter questions about the present-day MLB, historic home runs, history of the World Series, and legendary players/teams. If you don’t know an answer don't get discouraged, we hope you will learn something along the way. So let's jump right in and put your knowledge to the test!
Baseball Trivia Questions
As we shuffle through some baseball trivia topics, know this article is not just meant to test your knowledge as a baseball fan. It is also written to increase what you currently know about the history of baseball. We will touch on a lot of different facets of baseball and the answer will be provided at the end of each of the questions.
Major League Baseball Trivia
We will start generally first to ease our way toward becoming experts at baseball trivia. Today the MLB is made up of 30 teams, two conferences, and three divisions in each conference. They have come a long way since the foundation of what is known to be professional baseball nowadays. Let’s kick off this trivia post with a fun and interesting MLB quiz.
Question #1: When was the first MLB game played?
Answer: On May 4, 1871, the first major league baseball game was played in a contest between the Cleveland Forest Cities and Ft. Wayne Kekiongas.
Question #2: How many single stitches does an official MLB baseball have?
Answer: An official MLB baseball has 216 stitches that are made by hand.
Question #3: Which team holds the highest all-time win-loss percentage in MLB history?
Answer: The New York Yankees hold the highest all-time percentage of .569.
Question #4: Who holds the nickname “Father of Baseball”?
Answer: Henry Chadwick.
Question #5: Where is the oldest professional baseball park?
Answer: Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama is considered to be the oldest professional baseball park. It was built in 1910 and is still used to this day.
Question #6: During Babe Ruth’s iconic career that ran from 1914 to 1935, how many teams did he play for?
Answer: 3. The famous two-way player Babe Ruth played for the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, and the then Boston Braves.
Question #7: How did the Kansas City Royals get their name?
Answer: In 1968, the team held a name-the-team contest and chose Sanford Porte’s “Royals” out of the bunch. It was after their nation-leading stocker and feeder market and the nationally known American Royal parade and pageant.
Question #8: Who is the only player in MLB history to hit 40 home runs and collect 70 steals in one regular season?
Answer: In 2023, Ronald Acuna Jr. became the only player in MLB history to garner 41 home runs and 73 stolen bases during one regular season.
Question #9: In what year was the Athletics organization founded?
Answer: The Athletics, then known as the Philadelphia Athletics, were founded in the year 1901.
Question #10: What was the name of the classic ballpark that was demolished when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles?
Answer: Ebbets Field.
Question #11: What current franchise was the first baseball team established in the MLB?
Answer: The Atlanta Braves (founded in 1871).
Historic Home Runs
The section above provided a list of general questions that could be from any time period or subcategory of baseball. Hopefully, it was a good way to break the ice and we can continue to grow our knowledge in this next section. We will now focus on historic home runs across baseball history. Who doesn’t love players who smash the cover off the ball?
Question #1: Who holds the record for most home runs hit in their career?
Answer: Barry Bonds played 22 seasons in the MLB and hit 762 home runs.
Question #2: After standing for nearly 40 years, who broke Roger Maris’ single-season home run record of 61?
Answer: In Sept. 1998, Mark McGwire broke Maris’ record by hitting his 62nd home run of the season.
Question #3: Which player currently holds the most grand slams hit in MLB history?
Answer: Alex Rodriguez holds the most grand slams hit in MLB history with 25 in 22 seasons.
Question #4: Did Hank Aaron ever hit over 50 home runs in a single season?
Answer: Despite Aaron sitting second behind Bonds on the all-time list with 755 career home runs, Hank never hit more than 47 in one season. He embodied the definition of the word consistency.
Question #5: Who hit the longest verified home run in professional baseball history?
Answer: The longest verified home run in professional baseball history was hit by Joey Meyer and was launched at 582 feet. Meyer was on the Triple-A Denver Zephyrs when he hit the homer.
Question #6: Was Jackie Robinson’s first at-bat a home run?
Answer: Jackie Robinson’s first at-bat did NOT result in a home run. However, after the ground out, Robinson would end his first game 4-5 with his first hit being a three-run home run.
Question #7: Since Statcast started tracking in 2015, who has the hardest hit home run?
Answer: On August 9, 2018, Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run that was 121.7 MPH.
Question #8: Which team hit the most home runs last season?
Answer: The Atlanta Braves clubbed the most home runs by a team last season with 307.
Question #9: What player holds the most batting titles in MLB history?
Answer: Ty Cobb.
Question #10: What position player has the most gold gloves in MLB history?
Answer: Brooks Robinson.
Question #11: How many Cy Young awards did legendary pitcher Nolan Ryan win?
Answer: 0.
World Series Trivia
As fun as home runs are, the post-season brings the most excitement out of the sport every year. For this next section let’s lay out some trivia questions about the past and present World Series.
Question #1: In 1903, Which team won the first World Series?
Answer: In a best-of-nine series, the Boston Americans (Now Boston Red Sox) beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3 in the series that only went eight games.
Question #2: Who won the World Series last season?
Answer: The Texas Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks last season to secure their first World Series in franchise history.
Question #3: Which player holds the record for best World Series batting average in a single season?
Answer: Billy Hatcher holds the record batting .750 in the 1990 World Series.
Question #4: Which pitcher became the youngest in MLB history to throw a complete game shutout in 1966?
Answer: Baltimore Orioles Jim Palmer beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the 1966 World Series by pitching a complete game shutout.
Question #5: Who is the only pitcher to throw a perfect game in World Series history?
Answer: In Game 5 of the 1956 World Series pitcher Don Larsen threw a perfect game for the Yankees.
Legendary Players and Teams
As fun as home run and World Series trivia questions are, they are nothing without the legendary players and teams in the answers. To cap off our baseball trivia, we are going to take you through some questions about legendary (and some not-so-legendary) players and teams.
Question #1: Which team holds the most World Series Championships in MLB history?
Answer: The New York Yankees currently sit with 27 World Series Championships, which is 16 more than the St. Louis Cardinals in second place.
Question #2: Which pitcher has won the most Cy Young Awards?
Answer: Roger Clemens has won the most Cy Young Awards with seven.
Question #3: Which team has yet to appear in a World Series?
Answer: The Seattle Mariners are the lone team to never make it to a World Series.
Question #4: What is the nickname for Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig?
Answer: The Iron Horse. Gehrig received the nickname by playing in 2,130 consecutive games.
Question #5: How long was it before the Texas Rangers won their first World Series?
Answer: 62 years. The Texas Rangers were founded in 1961 and won their first World Series in 2023.
Question #6: Why was the Chicago Cubs World Series win in the 2016 season so significant?
Answer: The Cubs held the longest drought in MLB history between World Series Championships. It spanned from 1906 to 2016, which is 106 years.
Question #7: Who were all of the players in the first Hall of Fame class?
Answer: Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, and Honus Wagner.
