Can anyone help me out with a trivia question?

by iheartchrissabo on Feb 17, 2009 11:35 PM EST Comment 18 comments

Hey Guys,

I am one of those "lurkers" Slyde mentioned in his poll results post. I need some help finding the answer to a question that we encountered at our team trivia game tonight.

For what it's worth, we called ourselves The Harangutangs, and we won the team trivia contest.

The final question asked, "Nolan Ryan holds the MLB record for most 15 strikeout games in his career, how many times did he accomplish that feat?" [There was a 2 game range -- so you were correct within +/- 2 games]

We said 26, which won us the game. However, I felt strongly that Randy Johnson was the actual record holder, with 29 games, because I remembered hearing about it somewhere along the road...with nothing to back that up.

Can somebody help me definitively answer who has thrown 15 strikeouts in a game the most times in MLB history?

Thanks!

David

0 recs | Comment 18 comments

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stop lurking!

and join the vocal club!!!

unfortunately, i’m not a stathead, but i’m sure when slyde wakes his smiley face in the morning, he’ll find an answer for ya!

welcome! don’t be shy!

Blessed be baseball.

by Daedalus on Feb 18, 2009 2:34 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Everyone wishing to join the Welcome Wagon

Sister Daedalus will be holding an organizational meeting in the Rec Room between 1 and 3 AM!

Seriously, though— welcome to the vocal minority!

Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.

by "Red" Moskau on Feb 18, 2009 9:11 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The answer, as with all others, is found on Baseball-Reference

Here’s how I went about looking it up. You could search for the leaders in the Play Index:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/

Click on Pitching Game Finder down a bit on the left. Leave most of the options alone, but in the big yellow box pulldown choose SO and underneath adjust “SO” “≥” and “15”. Now you get a list of the top SO games in history if you’re a subscriber. If not you only get the top one (Tom Cheney—21 Ks in 1962). So even if you’ve paid your monies (you should) you’d have to tally up the Express’s games.

There must be an easier way. So I go to Nolan Ryan‘s player page. On the grey bar above his stats click on the [PI] “Event”. Now we’re back at the play index but just searching Ryan. Select strikeouts and get report. You get this beautiful page. In the sixth column we see his top strikeout games. He had 26 games of 15 or more strikeouts. (Your team was exactly right!)

So the same thing for Randy Johnson and we see that he had… 29. So yes, the force is strong with you. Trust your feelings.

This might have sounded complicated, but in practice it took about 60 seconds, including my wrong turns. If you were of a mind (and a subscriber) you could check out Randy Johnson’s game log (SO≥15) to see when exactly that trivia question became out of date.

by Red Menace on Feb 18, 2009 3:37 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

60 Seconds in Menace time = 2.5 hrs in Madville time

I may be insensitive and crude, but a racist NEVER.
Mads

by Madville on Feb 18, 2009 6:25 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

so are you actually a 12 year old in a wrinkly body?

Soy el niño destructor. I eat kids for breakfast. Roar. - Juan Francisco 'spoken with an Italian accent'

by jacob brumfield on Feb 18, 2009 2:18 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Benjamin Button'd

My millions are unconventional!

by Charlie Scrabbles on Feb 18, 2009 2:24 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I don't know how much this will change for you

but in Menace’s first example, you can choose “Players with Games in Career” from the dropdown box in the yellow area instead of SO, and it will give you a count of the number of times the top player did it in his career. If you have the subscription, your report will look like this. It’s amazing how far out in front of everybody else Ryan and Johnson are on this one.

Alternative Route: You can go to Retrosheet. Select Games/People/Parks and go to the Players page. Choose “RY” for Ryan or “JO” for the Unit. Find your player from the list. Click the “Top Performances” link from just above hist stats. Scroll down until you find strikeouts, which just happen to show all of their games with 15 or more Ks. This route also confirms what Red Menace said above.

We’’re in process of trying to a guy with a trade record of working with pitches

by Slyde on Feb 18, 2009 7:57 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

More impressive?

It’s amazing how far out in front of everybody else Ryan and Johnson are on this one.

How about the fact that those two have over 27% of such games in MLB history?

Often wrong, never uncertain.

by sidnancy on Feb 18, 2009 3:15 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

a-ha

So next time it will take 12 seconds.

One time I suggested a feature for Sean in a BBTF thread and he was like, “In fact we already have that.” So now I always assume it has everything but I just haven’t found it yet.

by Red Menace on Feb 19, 2009 3:27 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs