The Tuesday Discussion: Yankees Facts and Trivia

February 4, 2025

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The Yankees have done nothing, for weeks and weeks and weeks. They have made this offseason extremely boring. They have also made my responsibility of delivering three articles to each of you every single day quite challenging.

For the Tuesday Discussion, I posed the following to our writers:

Please share your favorite baseball trivia question (and answer) or the most obscure baseball fact that you like to share.

Here are their replies:

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Andrew Hefner - A cool fact about one of the newest members of the Hall of Fame: CC Sabathia led both the AL and NL in shutouts in 2008, 2 with Cleveland, and 3 with Milwaukee. 

If you like other facts just look at Jamie Moyer's baseball reference page, one of the most interesting players in baseball history!

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Ed Botti - One weird fact that comes to mind is the 1957 Dodgers and Cubs trade. The Dodgers were preparing to move West and the Cubs were looking to change things up, so both teams decided to trade entire 25-man minor league teams for each other.

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Cary Greene - There is no doubt that the Yankees were at one time a very successful franchise, back when winning championships was the sole measure of success. In fact, the Yankees have won 27 titles, which is good for a considerable lead over the team with the next most World Series titles, the St. Louis Cardinals, who have won 11 championships. 

One would think that with 27 World Series championships under their collective belts, the Yankees would certainly have the most retired numbers. Though the Yankees have retired 22 of the numbers that past stars of the franchise wore, there is another team that has retired even more numbers that their star players wore. Granted, this is a bit of trick question, but what team has retired even more numbers than the Yankees, how many championships do they have and how many numbers have they retired?

Answer Below...

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Lincoln Mitchell - I love baseball trivia and am taking the liberty of offering three questions.

1) Other than being among the greatest players ever, what to Ken Griffey, Jr., Babe Ruth and Tom Seaver have in common?

2) Who has the most big league wins of any left-handed Jewish pitcher?

3) What player, over the course of his career was teammates with four players who won two consecutive MVP awards, each in a different decade?

Answers Below...

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Derek McAdam - In 2001, Randy Johnson had 372 strikeouts in just under 250 IP. He also accomplished this feat at the age of 37, still bringing the heat. He also struck out 300 more batters in 2001 than he walked, which may be even more incredible.

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Tim Kabel - Who is the first president of the United States to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day?

Answer Below...

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Andy Singer - Who was the last Yankee to throw an immaculate inning (3 strikeouts on 9 pitches), and when?

Answers below...

ANSWERS:

Cary's Answer:

The Boston Celtics, with 24 retired numbers and 18 NBA Championships!

Lincoln's Answers:

1) They all had the same first name-George.

2) Everybody says Sandy Koufax, but the answer is Ken Holtzman. (I am both left-handed and Jewish so this is a sentimental favorite question.

3) Jim Bouton was teammates at various times with Mickey Mantle (MVP 1956-7) Roger Maris (1960-1) Joe Morgan (1975-6) and Dale Murphy (1982-3)

Tim's Answer:

President William Howard Taft was the first US president to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Major League Baseball (MLB) game. He threw the pitch on April 14, 1910, at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. The game was between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics. President Taft threw the pitch to the Senator’s starting pitcher that day, Walter Johnson.

Andy's Answers:

Nestor Cortes Jr. accomplished the feat on April 17th, 2022 against the Baltimore Orioles in the 4th inning.