Sports Trivia

[Centaur]

Please do not put this athlete’s name into a browser until after someone here successfully describes him: Vinko Bogataj. Doing so will immediately reveal his claim to fame and spoil the fun. He was born in 1948 and was shown performing in his sport on a major television network sports program nearly every week for more than 27 years.

The sportscasters once hosted a convention for many of the athletes that had appeared on the program. Several of the athletes including Muhammad Ali asked Bogataj for his autograph. He is not well known by name. What’s your wild guess as to the famous four-word phrase which was regularly used to describe him?

The first person with the correct answer can ask the next question.

[Swift]

I'm going to guess the "agony of defeat" skier from the intro to ABC's Wide World of Sports.

[Jens]

Yeah, poor guy! I remember watching him crash week after week. It was ski jumping, if I remember correctly.

[Centaur]

I'm going to guess the "agony of defeat" skier from the intro to ABC's Wide World of Sports.

Indeed, Swift, that is correct. The video under "The Thrill of Victory" was regularly changed, but Bogataj's 1970 spill remained "The Agony of Defeat" from 1970 through 1997.

The US Ski Federation objected because the clip allegedly caused Americans to refrain from learning ski jumping. However, the producers felt it had become emblematic of ABC's "Wide World of Sports" and kept it.

Bogataj of Slovenia had received only a mild concussion during the German ski jumping event. The producers said they would not have continued displaying the mishap, if the injury had been worse.

Now it's your turn to provide a question, Swift.

[Swift]

Thanks, but I got nothing. But please, someone else post something.

[DonM435]

There were two baseball-playing Fordham University students in the 1910s era who later became Cardinals. Name them.

[Jens]

Did either of them ever become Pope?

[Jens]

Maybe one is Francis Spellman?

[DonM435]

That's supposed to be the difficult one.

Francis "Frankie" Frisch, "The Fordham Flash", came up with the New York Giants, later player-manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, later Hall of Fame.
Francis Spellman, Archbishop of New York Diocese, joined the College of Cardinals shortly afterward.
Frisch attended Fordham about a decade after Spellman.

Nice going -- your turn.

[DonM435]

Recalls an old joke.
This little kid sees a papal procession and asks, "How'd that guy get to be Pope?"
"The Cardinals chose to honor him so," says his mom.
"Gee, you'd think the Giants would do something like that for Willie Mays."

[DonM435]

Perhaps I should try to keep this topic going. Perhaps not. Anyway ...

(I was trying to ciome up with something of general interest, not just "Who played third abse for the Pirates in 1960?" (Which is a bit of movie trivia as well). But for now, I'm sure that many of you can solve this without looking up the answers.

Match the Yankee star (left) with his real first name (right).

1. Babe Ruth	a. Alfred
2. Lou Gehrig	b. Edward
3. Yogi Berra	c. George
4. Whitey Ford	d. Henry
5. Billy Martin	e. James
6. Catfish Hunter	f. Lawrence

Bonus Question: Mickey Mantle was named for a ballplayer from an earlier generation. What was that man's actual first name?

[FarmMarsNow]

Tennis balls come in a sealed can, because they are pressurized. Over time the pressure in a new tennis ball will decrease, because molecules slowly migrate through the rubber. In the short-term a tennis ball is air-tight maintaining its pressure, but over the long term it is a semipermeable membrane. Old tennis balls are thrown away, which is good because they are stinky inside. (According to someone on cha-cha, tennis balls out of the can have an internal pressure of 12psi.) Mars rovers love tennis balls. Unfortunately, the mars rovers do not get to play fetch with tennis balls once they leave earth because nasa engineers refuse to include tennis balls in their moral kits. There is concern that tennis ball rubber coatings might freeze and crack; so the dogs might choke on small pieces that break off.

[DonM435]

Oh, here's a Cleveland Indians version of the quiz, just for our pal Fazor.

1. Rocky Colavito	a. Rocco
2. Bob Feller	b. Robert
3. Joe Gordon	c. Joseph
4. Bob Lemon	d. Robert
5. Dave Winfield	e. David
6. Early Wynn	f. Early

Bonus Question: True or False? Bill Wambsganss turned the only unassisted triple play in the World Series, but had his name misspelled in the box score.


. . . Ah, doesn't have the same zing to it, does it?

[Jens]

Nice going -- your turn.

Sorry, didn't see that one! But I didn't get both right, so I didn't think I was going to get the right.

[DonM435]

Sorry, didn't see that one! But I didn't get both right, so I didn't think I was going to get the right.

Well, my latest won't be a stumper for very long, so go ahead when you wish.

[Jens]

OK, but since I know very little about any sport.

I don't have an official source for this, so I could be wrong, but anyway: When the sumo wrestler Konishiki used to travel abroad, he was not given any food or drink during the flight. Why?

[Chuck]

Guesses:

He was so big he had to travel in the cargo hold.

He was afraid of flying and had to be sedated.

[DonM435]

Perhaps I should try to keep this topic going. Perhaps not. Anyway ...

(I was trying to ciome up with something of general interest, not just "Who played third abse for the Pirates in 1960?" (Which is a bit of movie trivia as well). But for now, I'm sure that many of you can solve this without looking up the answers.

Match the Yankee star (left) with his real first name (right).

1. Babe Ruth	a. Alfred
2. Lou Gehrig	b. Edward
3. Yogi Berra	c. George
4. Whitey Ford	d. Henry
5. Billy Martin	e. James
6. Catfish Hunter	f. Lawrence

Bonus Question: Mickey Mantle was named for a ballplayer from an earlier generation. What was that man's actual first name?

There, wasn't that easy?

The Yankees are George Herman Ruth, Henry Louis Gehrig, Lawrence Peter Berra, Edward Ford, Alfred Manuel Martin and James Hunter. Mantle's father admired Mickey Cochrane, a great catcher of the 1920s and 1930s. But Cochrane's given name was Gordon: he got the "Mickey" handle as a nod to his Irish ancestry.

The Indians answers are 1-a, 2-b, 3-c, 4-d, 5-e, 6-f and as for the bonus: I have no idea.