Trivia Answers

Time’s up! Here are the answers:

  1. What year did the team begin playing?  - 1883
  2. What league did the team play in?  - The Interstate Association
  3. What was the first year that the team played in the major leagues? – 1884, in the American Association
  4. What was the team’s nickname?-  Trick question; they were simply called the Brooklyns until 1888
  5. What name was given to the team in 1888 and why?- The Brooklyn Bridegrooms, because five players got married just before the season began.
  6. When was Dodgers adopted as the team’s official name? – 1932.

More Team Trivia—

  1. Whose idea was it to start the Brooklyn team that became the Dodgers?New York newspaper editor George Taylor
  2. Who was the team’s first president and the man behind the team’s success?New York real estate man and opera lover Charles H. Byrne
  3. Who was his partner?His brother-in-law, casino owner Joe Doyle
  4. Who was the team’s main financial backer? Gus Abell,  owner of a large casino in Rhode Island
  5. What baseball innovations did the first president begin or promote? Ladies Day, the rain check, coaching boxes, no-smoking section.
  6. Who was the team’s first star player? Pitcher William “Adonis” Terry, a favorite of  female fans

Still More Team Trivia

  1. What team was Brooklyn’s major rival in the 1880s? The St. Louis Browns, now the St. Louis Cardinals
  2. Who was the owner of the rival team? German-born saloon owner Chris Von der Ahe, who called himself Der Boss.
  3. Who was the player-manager? Charles Comiskey, later the owner of the Chicago White Sox and Comiskey Park
  4. How  many consecutive pennants did the rival team win? Four, from 1885 to 1888.
  5. How did its rowdy players bend the rules? By cutting from second base to home plate to score a run when the umpire wasn’t looking.
  6. What off-the-field ruckus at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis made news in 1886? The time that Chris Von der Ahe’s wife hit his mistress over the head with a soda bottle.

Give Up already?—More answers:

  1. By buying the top players of the first place  Camden, N.J.,  team when it folded.
  2. By purchasing most of the Cleveland National League team. But the New York Mets still won the American Association pennant.
  3. By buying the entire New York Mets club, plus 3 star players from arch-rival St. Louis.
  4. About $19,000 — then a record for acquiring players.
  5. $5,500 and a diamond stick pin.
  6. By buying more stars named Hub Collins, Oyster Burns and Tom Lovett.