GoFigure: Taking a look at past 60-game baseball stretches
The 2020 Major League Baseball season is scheduled to begin on July 23, nearly four months after what was to have been the sport's earliest start. Now that COVID-19 has forced the latest start in history - and a 60-game schedule - let's dive without delay into this week's "Go Figure" quiz:
Q1. Last year, a majority of MLB's 30 teams had reached the 60-game mark by June 4. On that day, the only Cub to lead the majors in an offensive department was first baseman Anthony Rizzo. What was it?
(Doubles, Slugging Percentage, Hit by Pitch)
Q2. In 2015, the Cubs defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Wild-Card game. If that season had consisted of only its first 60 games, the Cubs would have likewise advanced to the wild-card contest. Which team would also have qualified as a wild-card?
(Cardinals, Mets, Pirates)
Q3. In 1998, Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa swatted a MLB-record 20 home runs in June, propelling him toward 66 for the season. That was second only to Mark McGwire's 70 homers that same year. Sosa is also the all-time runner-up for home runs in a 60-game span, with 34 between May 22 and July 31, 1998.
Who holds the 60-game mark with 37 home runs?
(Roger Maris, 1961; Barry Bonds, 2001; Giancarlo Stanton, 2017)
Q4. If the Cubs manage to play all 60 games on their schedule, it won't be the franchise's first season playing precisely that number of contests. In 1877, when they were known as the White Stockings, the club won 26 games, lost 33 and tied once.
Their manager was a future Hall of Famer who turned 27 toward the end of the season. Who was it?
(Al Spalding, Cap Anson, Paddy Quinn)
Q5. The Cubs and White Sox are slated to wrap up their regular seasons by playing each other three times at Guaranteed Rate Field, from Sept. 25 to 27. Will that represent the latest the teams have ever squared off during a season?
Q6. Over the last 10 seasons, the White Sox have averaged 28 wins through the first 60 games. How many times have they had a record over .500 at the 60-game mark?
(Once, Twice, Thrice)
Q7. With a 42-18 start in 2016, the Cubs were tops in the Majors and one game better than the 1906 Cubs' 60-game start. En route to a 116-36 mark that season, how many of its final 60 games did that 1906 club win?
(43, 48, 52)
Q8. The 1977 Cubs won 39 of their first 60 games and soared to a 47-22 mark on June 28. At that juncture, they had the top winning percentage in the Major Leagues and held a commanding 8½-game NL East lead. How many of the season's 162 games did the team wind up winning?
(81, 88, 92)
Q9. The 1969 Cubs were 40-19 after winning the first game of a doubleheader at Crosley Field against the host Cincinnati Reds. The nightcap was suspended after seven innings with the Cubs ahead, 5-4, and holding an 8 ½-game lead on the New York Mets in the NL East.
By the time they completed the game with a win, on Sept. 2nd, how much had the Mets cut into Chicago's first-place lead?
(3½ games, 7 games, all 8½ games)
Answers
1. Hit by pitch; 2. Pirates; 3. Barry Bonds; 4. Al Spalding; 5. No - they met in October during the 1906 World Series; 6. Once (33-27 in 2012). In both 2014 and 2016, the Sox were 30-30 through 60 games; 7. 52; 8. 81; 9. 3½ games. On Sept. 3, the Cubs began an eight-game losing streak, part of a 1-11 swoon that doomed their playoff hopes.
• Matt Baron is an Oak Park-based freelance writer. He supplements his baseball brainpower with Retrosheet.org for much of this research.