60 free Hard MLB Baseball trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
These hard MLB baseball trivia questions are for fans who already know who holds the home run record and want something that actually makes them think. They cover the records nobody will touch (60 wins in a season, 511 career wins, 191 RBIs, 12 perfect innings in a losing effort), the strangest games ever played (a 3-foot-7 pinch hitter, a no-hitter thrown on LSD, a doubleheader forfeited because fans blew up disco records), the rule changes and labor fights that reshaped the sport, and the scandals from the 1919 World Series to the Astros' trash can. The easiest questions here would be the hardest on a general baseball quiz. The medium ones ask which pitcher threw back-to-back no-hitters and which team lasted exactly one season. The hard ones want the umpire who cost a pitcher a perfect game, the pitcher who struck out 21 in one game and the first player ever drafted. If you want a warm-up first, our main baseball trivia page (brainpickle.app/quiz/a/baseball) starts easier. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which pitcher holds the MLB career record with 511 wins, a total 94 ahead of second place?
Cy Young
He also holds the records for most career losses, innings pitched and complete games, which is what happens when you pitch from 1890 to 1911.
Q 02Nolan Ryan's career strikeout record of 5,714 is how far ahead of the runner-up, Randy Johnson?
839
Ryan also holds the record for fewest hits allowed per nine innings, at 6.56.
Q 03Cal Ripken Jr. voluntarily ended his consecutive-games streak in 1998 at what number?
2,632
He surpassed Lou Gehrig's mark of 2,130 by 502 games and stopped only before the final home game of the season.
Q 04Which Cleveland third baseman's backhand stops helped end DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak?
Ken Keltner
DiMaggio then began a new streak of 16 games, meaning he hit safely in 72 of 73 games.
Q 05What batting average did Ted Williams finish with in 1941, still the last .400 season?
.406
He could have sat out the doubleheader to protect a rounded .400 but insisted on playing.
Q 06Rickey Henderson's 1,406 career stolen bases broke the record of 938 held by which player?
Lou Brock
Henderson's total is nearly 50 percent higher than Brock's, and he also holds the career records for runs and leadoff home runs.
Q 07Which Pirates left-hander retired 36 straight Braves in 1959, only to lose the game in the 13th inning?
Harvey Haddix
A Don Hoak fielding error ended the perfect game in the 13th, and the Pirates lost on an unearned run.
Q 08Which Cincinnati Reds pitcher is the only man to throw no-hitters in two consecutive starts?
Johnny Vander Meer
He did it in June 1938, and 14 years later threw another no-hitter in the Texas League for Tulsa.
Q 09Bob Gibson's live-ball-era record ERA in the 1968 'Year of the Pitcher' was what?
1.12
Despite it, he lost nine games that season because the Cardinals barely scored for him, and he struck out 17 in Game 1 of the World Series.
Q 10Denny McLain, the last pitcher to win 30 games in a season, finished 1968 with what record?
31–6
Three years later, after a second straight Cy Young, he was out of baseball at age 29 amid suspensions.
Q 11Which showman owner sent 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to the plate for the St. Louis Browns in 1951?
Bill Veeck
Gaedel walked on four pitches and was replaced by a pinch-runner; the owner later called him 'the best darn midget who ever played big-league ball'.
Q 12Disco Demolition Night in 1979 forced the White Sox to forfeit a game to which team?
Detroit Tigers
Shock jock Steve Dahl blew up a crate of disco records between games of a doubleheader and the field was wrecked by rioting fans.
Q 13Cleveland's infamous Ten Cent Beer Night in 1974 ended in a forfeit to which visiting team?
Texas Rangers
Q 21Jim Abbott, born without a right hand, threw a 1993 no-hitter for the Yankees against which team?
Cleveland Indians
He would switch his glove from his right forearm to his left hand after each pitch to field the ball.
Q 22Which outfielder refused a 1969 trade and took the reserve clause to the Supreme Court?
Curt Flood
He lost the case but the fight galvanized the players' union and led toward free agency a few years later.
Q 23Joe Nuxhall, the youngest player in MLB history, debuted for the Reds in 1944 at what age?
15
He pitched two-thirds of an inning, then spent 40 years as a Reds broadcaster.
Umpire Nestor Chylak declared the forfeit after fans stormed the field; the club had run beer promotions since 1971 without incident.
Q 14In the 1983 Pine Tar Incident, George Brett's bat had tar beyond how many inches from the handle?
18
Yankees manager Billy Martin had spotted the tar; the umpires measured it against the 17-inch width of home plate, and the ruling was later overturned.
Q 15Fred Merkle's famous 1908 base-running blunder came in a game between the Giants and which team?
Chicago Cubs
The tie was replayed at season's end, and the winners took the pennant by exactly one game.
Q 16Who was appointed the first Commissioner of Baseball in the aftermath of the Black Sox Scandal?
Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Despite acquittals at a 1921 trial, he permanently banned all eight implicated White Sox players.
Q 17Old Hoss Radbourn's untouchable single-season wins record, set with Providence in 1884, is how many?
60
He threw 678.2 innings that year, then pitched every inning of the three-game 1884 World Series.
Q 18Whose 1960 blast remains the only walk-off home run to clinch a World Series in Game 7?
Bill Mazeroski
The Pirates second baseman was known mainly for his glove; his 138 career homers were the most by any second baseman between 1944 and 1974.
Q 19Which pitcher gave up Joe Carter's 1993 World Series-winning home run?
Mitch Williams
Carter had been 0-for-4 lifetime against him, and it was the first Series-ending homer hit by a team that was trailing at the time.
Q 20Dock Ellis said he threw his 1970 no-hitter under the influence of LSD against which team?
San Diego Padres
It came in the first game of a doubleheader; he had used the drug 'two or three times' the day before while visiting a friend in Los Angeles.
Q 24Satchel Paige played his last major league game in 1965 at what age, a record for any pro sport?
59
He had already been the oldest debutant ever when he joined Cleveland at 42 in 1948.
Q 25Under what official name did the Astrodome open in 1965?
Harris County Domed Stadium
It was nicknamed the Eighth Wonder of the World and housed the Astros until 1999.
Q 26Which Yankee was MLB's first designated hitter, walking on five pitches from Luis Tiant in 1973?
Ron Blomberg
The bat he carried to the plate is now in Cooperstown, and the AL owners had approved the DH by an 8-4 vote for a three-year trial.
Q 27Which umpire's blown call at first base cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game in 2010?
Jim Joyce
It was the 27th batter, Jason Donald; the umpire tearfully apologised afterward and the two later co-wrote a book.
Q 28Tom Cheney's single-game record of 21 strikeouts in 1962 came in a game that lasted how many innings?
16
The Washington Senators pitcher gave up one run in the whole game and won 2-1 over Baltimore.
Q 29Rennie Stennett went 7-for-7 in a nine-inning game in 1975 as the Pirates beat the Cubs by what score?
22–0
The only other player with seven hits in a nine-inning game was Wilbert Robinson in 1892.
Q 30Fernando Tatís hit two grand slams in the same inning in 1999, both off which Dodgers pitcher?
Chan Ho Park
The eight RBIs in one inning remain the MLB record, and Tatís is the only player to do it.