Cleveland Guardians Trivia
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59 free Cleveland Guardians trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Cleveland Guardians trivia quiz covers 125 years of the franchise, from the Bluebirds and the Naps through the Indians era to the 2022 rename. There are questions on Nap Lajoie's arrival, Ray Chapman, the 1920 World Series with its unassisted triple play, Bob Feller's Opening Day no-hitter, Bill Veeck's movable fence, Larry Doby and Satchel Paige, the 111-win 1954 team, the Curse of Rocky Colavito, Ten Cent Beer Night, Len Barker's perfect game and the film Major League. The modern era gets its due too: Jacobs Field and the 455 straight sellouts, the 1995 and 1997 pennants, José Mesa and Game 7, the 22-game winning streak of 2017, the 2016 World Series against the Cubs, Kluber and Bieber's Cy Youngs, and why the club is now named after eight Art Deco statues on a bridge. Easy questions suit any Cleveland fan; the hard ones are for people who know which catchers caught baseballs dropped from Terminal Tower. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Guardians name comes from eight Art Deco sculptures on which Cleveland bridge?
Hope Memorial
The Hope Memorial Bridge opened in 1932 with eight 'Guardians of Traffic' carved on its pylons; by the 1970s they faced calls for demolition, and they survived to give the ball club its name.
Q 02The baseball club settled a Guardians trademark dispute with a local team in which sport?
Roller derby
Roller derby: a men's team called the Cleveland Guardians sued in October 2021 to block the baseball club's new name, and within weeks the two sides settled on both keeping it.
Q 03What is the name of the Guardians' fuzzy mascot?
Slider
Slider debuted in 1990 and earned his fame the hard way: during the 1995 ALCS he fell off the outfield wall, tore knee ligaments, and was back for the next game on crutches.
Q 04Which Guardians star finished 2024 one home run short of a 40-homer, 40-steal season?
José Ramírez
José Ramírez had 39 home runs and 41 steals when rain wiped out the season's final game, taking away his last chance to become the seventh member of the 40–40 club.
Q 05From 1903 to 1914 Cleveland's club took its nickname from which star second baseman, later its player-manager?
Nap Lajoie
Nap Lajoie joined Cleveland in 1902 after a Pennsylvania court barred him from playing in that state for anyone but the Phillies, so he sat out the club's games in Philadelphia.
Q 06The franchise moved to Cleveland in 1900 from which Michigan city?
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids: the club left Michigan for Cleveland in 1900, the first season its minor Western League played as the American League, and a year later the league declared itself major.
Q 07With the Spiders gone, Cleveland's American League club played its first major league season, 1901, under which name?
Bluebirds
Bluebirds, also known as the Blues, pulled off a famous escape that May: down 13-5 with two out in the ninth, they scored nine runs to beat Washington 14-13.
Q 08The 1899 Cleveland Spiders went 20-134 after their owner moved the best players to which club?
St. Louis
St. Louis: the Robison brothers owned both clubs and shipped Cy Young and Cleveland's other stars to their new team, leaving the Spiders to play out the season with what was left.
Q 09The Indians name adopted in 1915 had been a nickname for the 1890s Spiders when which Native American outfielder played?
Louis Sockalexis
Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot from Maine, joined the Spiders in 1897 and the press took to calling the team the Indians; sportswriters revived the nickname when the club needed a new name.
Q 10Which Cleveland shortstop died after being hit in the head by a Carl Mays pitch?
Ray Chapman
Ray Chapman was hit with such a crack that Carl Mays thought the ball had come off the bat, fielded it and threw to first base for the out.
Q 11Which Cleveland second baseman turned the only unassisted triple play in World Series history?
Bill Wambsganss
Bill Wambsganss caught a line drive, stepped on second base and tagged the runner arriving from first, three outs in a few seconds without a throw.
Q 12Cleveland's first World Series title, under player-manager Tris Speaker, came against which National League team?
Brooklyn Robins
Brooklyn Robins led two games to one, but Cleveland won the next four to take the best-of-nine Series, allowing just two runs over the final 43 innings.
Q 13Bob Feller arrived in Cleveland in 1936 as a 17-year-old from which state?
Iowa
Iowa: after his rookie season he went home to the family farm in Van Meter to finish high school, and he was famous enough that NBC Radio carried his graduation nationwide.
Q 21Which Negro leagues legend became the American League's oldest rookie when Cleveland signed him in 1948, officially aged 42?
Satchel Paige
Satchel Paige went 6-1 that summer, and he still was not finished: in 1965, at 59, he threw three scoreless innings for the Kansas City Athletics.
Q 22Cleveland reached the 1948 World Series by winning the AL's first one-game playoff against whom?
Red Sox
Red Sox: Cleveland gambled on rookie Gene Bearden on one day's rest and won 8-3 at Fenway Park, then beat Boston's other club, the Braves, in the World Series.
Q 23Which player-manager won the AL MVP award while leading Cleveland to the 1948 championship?
Lou Boudreau
Q 14Bob Feller's 1940 no-hitter is the only one in AL or NL history thrown on what occasion?
Opening Day
Opening Day: Feller no-hit the White Sox in Chicago, so every White Sox hitter ended the game with the same batting average he began it with, .000.
Q 15Bob Feller lost nearly four seasons in his prime serving on which US Navy battleship during World War II?
USS Alabama
USS Alabama: Feller gave up a draft deferment to enlist within days of Pearl Harbor, then spent the war as a gunner on the battleship instead of pitching.
Q 16In 1938 two Indians catchers set an 'altitude mark' catching baseballs dropped from which Cleveland landmark?
Terminal Tower
Terminal Tower: third baseman Ken Keltner threw the balls from the top, 708 feet up, in a publicity stunt that beat a mark set 30 years earlier at the Washington Monument.
Q 17The 1940 Indians, who tried to get manager Ossie Vitt fired, were mocked as the Cleveland what?
Crybabies
Crybabies: a group of players went to the club's owner to ask for Ossie Vitt's dismissal, the story got out, and the team wore the name all the way to second place, one game back.
Q 18Which showman owner bought the Indians in 1946 and filled the ballpark with stunts, fireworks and giveaways?
Bill Veeck
Bill Veeck saved his most famous stunt for his next club: in 1951 he sent 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel up to bat, and Gaedel walked on four pitches.
Q 19Which Cleveland-raised entertainer was among the investors who bought the Indians in 1946?
Bob Hope
Bob Hope bought a share of the club, and 47 years later he came home to sing 'Thanks for the Memory' at the last game in its old lakefront ballpark.
Q 20Who broke the American League colour barrier with Cleveland in July 1947?
Larry Doby
Larry Doby struck out as a pinch-hitter in Chicago in his first game, less than three months after Jackie Robinson's debut; a year later his home run decided Game 4 of the World Series.
Lou Boudreau was nearly gone before that season: the club's owner tried to trade him, fans protested, and he stayed and answered by hitting .355.
Q 24Game 5 of the 1948 World Series drew 86,288 fans, then a Series record, to which ballpark?
Municipal Stadium
Municipal Stadium: the crowd came to the lakefront to watch Cleveland clinch the title at home and saw the Braves win 11-5 instead, so the celebration had to wait a day and happened on the road.
Q 25After elimination in 1949, the Indians' owner staged a mock funeral at the ballpark to bury what?
The 1948 pennant
The 1948 pennant got a burial from the very owner who had won it, and he did not stay to chase another: he sold the club once that season was over.
Q 26Which team swept the 111-win 1954 Indians in the World Series?
New York Giants
New York Giants: Cleveland had dethroned the Yankees and went in as clear favourites, then lost four straight to a team that had won 14 fewer games.
Q 27Whose drive did Willie Mays famously catch over his shoulder in the 1954 World Series?
Vic Wertz
Vic Wertz hit .500 in that Series, with more hits than any other player on either team, yet he is remembered for the one long drive that was caught.
Q 28Which Cleveland third baseman was the unanimous 1953 AL MVP after leading the league in home runs and RBIs?
Al Rosen
Al Rosen came within a whisker of the Triple Crown too: he lost the batting title on the last day of the season, .337 to his .336.
Q 29The 1960 trade of a beloved slugger to Detroit for Harvey Kuenn gave rise to a 'curse' named after whom?
Rocky Colavito
Rocky Colavito had just shared the league lead in home runs when he was swapped for its batting champion, and Cleveland went on to post losing records in 27 of the next 34 seasons.
Q 30In 1958 GM Frank Lane traded which young outfielder to Kansas City, where he played before joining the Yankees?
Roger Maris
Roger Maris left in a deal that brought back Vic Power and Woodie Held; three years later, as a Yankee, he hit 61 home runs to break Babe Ruth's single-season record.