Boston Red Sox Trivia
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8correct to beat the crowd
This Red Sox trivia quiz has 119 free questions with answers and runs from the Boston Americans of 1901 to the 108-win team of 2018. There are questions on the first World Series, Cy Young and Smoky Joe Wood, the sale of Babe Ruth and the Broadway show that supposedly paid for it, Tom Yawkey, Ted Williams' .406 and his last at-bat, Yaz's Triple Crown, Fisk's wave, Bucky Dent, Buckner, and then the good years: Pedro, Manny, Big Papi, the bloody sock, the Idiots, Boston Strong and Mookie's 2018. Fenway gets a round of its own: the Green Monster and when it turned green, Pesky's Pole, Duffy's Cliff, the lone red seat, the manual scoreboard rule, the Monster Seats and why the street outside changed its name back. There is 'Sweet Caroline', Wally, the sellout streak and the club's Liverpool connection too. Easy questions suit a casual fan or a bar round; the hard ones are for people who can name the 1912 outfield. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic or primary source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 119 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Fenway Park has been the Red Sox's home since which year?
1912
Fenway Park opened on 20 April 1912; the Titanic had sunk five days earlier, pushing the new park's debut off the front pages.
Q 02Before adopting the name Red Sox in 1908, what was the club most commonly called?
The Americans
Newspapers mostly called the club the Boston Americans, after its league; the Red Sox name was adopted in December 1907, taking up the red stockings the city's National League team had dropped.
Q 03How many World Series titles had the Red Sox won through their 2018 championship?
Nine
Nine: 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018, from thirteen World Series appearances through 2018.
Q 04Boston won the very first World Series in 1903 against which team?
Pittsburgh Pirates
Boston beat the Pittsburgh Pirates five games to three in the best-of-nine 1903 Series, urged on by the Royal Rooters' endless choruses of 'Tessie'.
Q 05Which pitcher won the pitching Triple Crown for Boston in 1901 and holds the all-time record of 511 wins?
Cy Young
Cy Young went 33-10 for Boston in 1901, threw a perfect game for the club in 1904 and finished with 511 wins; the annual pitching award took his name in 1956.
Q 06On 26 December 1919, the Red Sox sold which player to the New York Yankees?
Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth, fresh off a record 29 home runs in 1919, was sold to the Yankees for $100,000; Boston did not win another title for 86 years.
Q 07The 'Curse of the Bambino' only entered common use after which sportswriter's 1990 book of that name?
Dan Shaughnessy
Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy's 1990 book The Curse of the Bambino popularised the idea that the 1919 sale of the Bambino doomed the club; Boston's drought ran from 1918 to 2004.
Q 08Who bought the Red Sox in 1933 and owned them for over four decades?
Tom Yawkey
Tom Yawkey bought the club in February 1933 and owned it until his death in 1976; Yawkey Way outside Fenway reverted to Jersey Street in 2018 over his record on race.
Q 09Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941; what is that figure's significance?
Last .400 season in the majors
Williams's .406 was the majors' last .400 season; rather than sit out the final day to protect a rounded .400, he went 6-for-8 in a doubleheader.
Q 10Ted Williams missed most of the 1952 and 1953 seasons serving as what?
A Marine combat pilot in Korea
Williams flew 39 combat missions as a Marine pilot in Korea, once crash-landing a flak-damaged jet; he had already lost 1943-45 to World War II service.
Q 11What did Ted Williams do in his final major-league at-bat in 1960?
Hit a home run
Williams hit a home run off Baltimore's Jack Fisher in his last at-bat on 28 September 1960; John Updike immortalised the moment in 'Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu'.
Q 12What does the lone red seat in the right-field bleachers at Section 42 mark?
Where the park's longest home run landed
Ted Williams hit it in 1946, and the ball went through the straw hat of a fan named Joseph Boucher.
Q 13The Red Sox were the last major-league team to field a Black player, promoting whom in 1959?
Pumpsie Green
Q 21Which general manager, hired in 2002 at age 28, became the youngest GM in MLB history?
Theo Epstein
Theo Epstein, a Brookline native and Yale graduate, was 28 when Boston hired him in November 2002, then the youngest GM ever; he won titles in 2004 and 2007 before leaving for the Cubs.
Q 22Pedro Martínez came to Boston in a November 1997 trade with which team?
Montreal Expos
Boston acquired Pedro Martínez from the Montreal Expos on 18 November 1997 for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr.; he won Cy Young Awards for the Red Sox in 1999 and 2000.
Q 23Which Pedro Martínez number did the Red Sox retire two days after his 2015 induction?
45
The Red Sox retired Martínez's No. 45 at Fenway on 28 July 2015, two days after his Cooperstown induction, where he became the second Dominican enshrined after Juan Marichal.
Pumpsie Green debuted on 21 July 1959, twelve years after Jackie Robinson broke the colour line; the club had given Robinson a sham tryout at Fenway in April 1945.
Q 14Carl Yastrzemski's 1967 Triple Crown was the last in the majors until which player repeated the feat in 2012?
Miguel Cabrera
Miguel Cabrera hit .330 with 44 homers and 139 RBI for Detroit in 2012; Yaz's 1967 line was .326, 44 and 121 as the 'Impossible Dream' Red Sox won the pennant.
Q 15Yastrzemski was the first AL member of the 3,000-hit club to also reach how many home runs?
400
Yastrzemski reached 400 home runs in July 1979 and his 3,000th hit that September, the first American Leaguer with both; he spent all 23 seasons in Boston.
Q 16Whose 12th-inning home run off the left-field foul pole won Game 6 of the 1975 World Series?
Carlton Fisk
Carlton Fisk was filmed waving his arms to keep the ball fair as it struck the foul pole at 12:34 a.m.; the Reds won Game 7 a day later.
Q 17Whose three-run homer over the Green Monster beat Boston in the 1978 tiebreaker?
Bucky Dent
Bucky Dent's seventh-inning, three-run homer off Mike Torrez gave New York a 5-4 win; Boston fans gave him a profane middle name, and the Yankees fired him as manager during a 1990 series at Fenway.
Q 18Roger Clemens first struck out 20 batters in a nine-inning game in 1986 against which team?
Seattle Mariners
Clemens fanned 20 Seattle Mariners at Fenway on 29 April 1986, then matched it against Detroit in September 1996; he went 24-4 in 1986 to win both the Cy Young and the MVP.
Q 19Whose slow ground ball rolled through Bill Buckner's legs to end Game 6 of the 1986 World Series?
Mookie Wilson
Many, including Wilson himself, thought he would have beaten the throw anyway; the Mets won Game 7 two days later.
Q 20Bill Buckner had earlier led the National League in hitting with which club in 1980?
Chicago Cubs
Buckner hit .324 for the Chicago Cubs in 1980 to win the NL batting title; Fenway fans gave him a standing ovation when he threw out the first pitch on Opening Day 2008.
Q 24'Big Papi' came to Boston in 2003 after parts of six seasons with which team?
Minnesota Twins
David Ortiz played for the Minnesota Twins from 1997 to 2002 before they released him; in Boston he hit 483 of his 541 home runs and entered the Hall of Fame in 2022.
Q 25Whose ninth-inning stolen base in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS sparked the Red Sox comeback?
Dave Roberts
Dave Roberts, pinch-running in the ninth, stole second off Mariano Rivera and scored on Bill Mueller's single; Boston became the first MLB team to win a series after trailing 3-0.
Q 26Which pitcher won Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS with sutures in his ankle bleeding through his sock?
Curt Schilling
Curt Schilling pitched seven innings of one-run ball in Game 6 with a tendon sutured in place, then won Game 2 of the World Series the same way; the 'bloody sock' became instant lore.
Q 27Which two players coined the nickname 'the Idiots' for the 2004 Red Sox?
Damon and Millar
Johnny Damon and Kevin Millar coined 'the Idiots' for the loose, long-haired 2004 roster that shrugged off the supposed curse and won it all.
Q 28Whom did the Red Sox sweep in the 2004 World Series to end the 86-year drought?
St. Louis Cardinals
Boston swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games without ever trailing at any point in the series; Manny Ramírez was named Series MVP.
Q 29Whom did the Red Sox sweep in the 2007 World Series?
Colorado Rockies
Boston swept the Colorado Rockies, who had won 21 of 22 games to reach their first World Series; Mike Lowell was named Series MVP.
Q 30Dustin Pedroia was hitting below .200 in April 2007; manager Terry Francona kept him in and he won what?
AL Rookie of the Year
Pedroia finished 2007 at .317 with 165 hits and was voted AL Rookie of the Year; he won the AL MVP the following year.