Go Figure: World Series wrap; and welcome back Tony La Russa

On the strength of its 4-2 World Series triumph over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Los Angeles Dodgers have championships capping the two shortest "regular" seasons in Major League Baseball history - the other being 1981, when about one-third of the season was lost to a players' strike.

No asterisk needed, either - if anything, winning it all this year may come to be regarded as more of an accomplishment than usual, given the coronavirus pandemic-induced stress that permeated the proceedings.

One additional bonus accompanying the Dodgers' title: Now that Clayton Kershaw has a World Series ring, the 13-year veteran will no longer be unfairly tagged with the "loser" label that some have tried to assign this surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Though it consists of a series of individual confrontations, each set in motion by a pitcher hurling the ball, it's a fundamentally team game. Plenty of all-time greats never appeared in a World Series, let alone were part of a winning team.

What makes the championship even more sweet for Kershaw is that he was credited with two victories over Tampa Bay, elevating his career postseason record to 13-12.

Q1. Until the Dodgers' title, Kershaw was the all-time Major League leader in postseason innings pitched (189) without winning a championship. Who has pitched the most postseason innings overall?

(Kershaw; Roger Clemens; Andy Pettitte)

Snell in select company:

Is it too late to join in on the pig-pile of criticism for Rays manager Kevin Cash's inexplicable decision, with Tampa Bay up 1-0, to pull pitcher Blake Snell with one out and a man on first base in the sixth inning of Game 6? Nope, there's no expiration date on that level of bone-headedness.

Snell was so dominant that, through the contest's first four innings, he became only the second player in World Series history to strike out nine batters. The first: Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax, in 1963, a Game 1 win over the New York Yankees.

Q2. Koufax finished that game with 15 strikeouts. Only one Yankee whiffed three times - a player who, other than White Sox second baseman Nellie Fox, had been the toughest to strike out in the American League that season. Who was it?

(Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Tom Tresh)

Second Sox go-round:

This week, the White Sox named Hall of Famer Tony La Russa to be their skipper. But it will be five months before we know if he gets off on the same, promising footing as he did on Aug. 3, 1979.

That day, at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, the first White Sox batter of the game slugged a home run in La Russa's managerial debut.

Q3. Who was this infielder? (Hint: he shared the same name as a late, legendary rock 'n' roll singer.)

Q4. Which is greater: La Russa's age when he first became the White Sox manager in 1979, or the span between the last game he managed the Sox (June 19, 1986) and Opening Day 2021 (if it happens April 1, as scheduled)?

Indeed, La Russa was precociously young not only as a manager, but when he first broke into the Major Leagues as an 18-year-old "bonus baby" with the Kansas City Athletics in 1963.

Q5. On Aug. 17 of that inaugural season, La Russa got his first big-league hit, a triple, off a 20-game winner for the Baltimore Orioles. Who was it?

(Jim Palmer, Steve Barber, Milt Pappas)

Q6. A career .199 hitter, La Russa was a journeyman who bounced up, but mostly down to the minor leagues in the decade after his debut. He appeared in his final game on April 6, 1973.

It was his only time in a Chicago Cub uniform, as a pinch runner who scored the winning run against the Montreal Expos. He got into the game to be the legs for a future Hall of Famer. Who was it?

(Fergie Jenkins, Billy Williams, Ron Santo)

Q7. This is the 32nd and final "Go Figure" for 2020 - thank you to Daily Herald sports editor Mike Smith for the opportunity. There have been five Mike Smiths who have played in the majors, including three pitchers since the mid-1980s.

How many career wins, combined, did these Mike Smiths rack up?

(3, 30, 303)

Answers: 1. Andy Pettitte; 2. Bobby Richardson; 3. Jim Morrison; 4. By a 17-day margin, his age upon first becoming manager was greater: 34 years, nine months, 30 days; 5. Steve Barber; 6. Ron Santo; 7. Three wins

• Matt Baron supplements his baseball brainpower with Retrosheet.org for research.