You knew that Bob Gibson wore No. 45 when striking out batters for the Cardinals, right? That’s a gimme. But how many pitches did Chris Carpenter throw in Game Three of the 2006 World Series? It’s fair game for the obsessives who partake in the annual St. Louis Sports Trivia Championship—February 7 at the Chaifetz Arena—to benefit St. Patrick Center for the homeless and impoverished. With a first-place prize of season tickets to the Cards, Rams and Blues, the competition between 110 teams gets cutthroat. We asked four contenders to prove the depth of their obsession. (By the way, Carpenter threw just 82 pitches.)
Name: Jeff Siudzinski
Team Name: Regular Guys
Team in a Nutshell: Tenacious
Years at Championship: Six
Sports Knowledge Source: I’ve always been into sports. I have a mind that just remembers sporting events.
Hardest Get: NFL coach with highest win percentage since ‘60? Vince Lombardi.
Hardest Miss: Name the top three guys with career triple-doubles in the NBA. We forgot Jason Kidd.
Proof of Sports Fixation: I’m a lifelong Cubs fan.
Coolest Memorabilia: A 1959 World Series program that I bought at a garage sale for 50 cents.
Significant Other’s Complaint: She’s a sports widow.
Name: Dan Flayer
Team Name: North County Raiders
Team in a Nutshell: Kinda sober
Years at Championship: Six
Sports Knowledge Source: We have guys who are experts on different sports: Olympics, football, basketball, boxing and golf. I’m the hockey guy. Being from St. Louis, we’re all baseball fans.
Hardest Get: Who’s second all-time in hockey assists? Ron Francis. He’s totally underrated.
Hardest Miss: Name two teams that had four pitchers who started 30 games or more in ’07. White Sox and Cubs.
Proof of Sports Fixation: I won’t hesitate to dispute an answer if I think I’m right and everybody else is wrong.
Coolest Memorabilia: Autographed Carl Hubbell baseball
Significant Other’s Complaint:Actually, she likes to do general-trivia contests.
Name: Larry Perres
Team Name: Lewis, Rice
Team in a Nutshell: Getting old
Years at Championship: Five
Sports Knowledge Source: Recruit smart guys—we’ve got three from the Sporting News.
Hardest Get: A rowing question two years ago. It was a guess.
Hardest Miss: How many pitches did Chris Carpenter throw in Game Three of the ’06 World Series?
Proof of Sports Fixation: My basement is a sports hall of fame, with more than 5,000 items.
Coolest Memorabilia: Game-day jersey autographed by Bob Gibson.
Significant Other’s
Complaint: The basement
Name: Tod Greenberg
Team Name: Chico’s Bail Bonds
Team in a Nutshell: Sports geeks
Years at Championship: Six
Sports Knowledge: Source SportsCenter. Plus we do some other sports-trivia contests to warm up for the big one.
Hardest Get: Who starred as Dizzy and Paul Dean in the movie The Pride of St. Louis? Dan Dailey and Richard Crenna.
Hardest Miss:Who was the only player to hit four home runs in two different World Series? Duke Snider.
Proof of Sports Fixation: I’ve never missed a Northwestern football bowl game in my life.
Coolest Memorabilia: A Super Bowl football signed by Kurt Warner
Significant Other’s Complaint:My wife isn’t interested in sports, but she’s very understanding.
