Judi Purcell has her baseball down pat.
The Cobleskill resident correctly answered all 10 questions in the Times-Journal’s Trivia Mania contest that focused on baseball, not only the game itself, but also baseball in our culture.
Ms. Purcell won the prizes––$50 from the T-J and gift certificates from participating businesses––when her entry form was drawn from the 71 correct entries on Tuesday.
Times-Journal Proofreader and Historian Pete Lindemann and Publisher Jim Poole came up with the questions, which follow with the correct answers.
• “Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio?” ask Simon and Garfunkel in the soundtrack of what 1967 movie? The Graduate.
• When the New York Mets formed in 1962, who was the team’s first manager? Casey Stengel.
• In the movie Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner’s character builds a baseball field in a farm field in what state? Iowa.
• Name three ways to reach first base without getting credited with a hit. Hit by pitch, walk, error, fielder’s choice, catcher’s interference, dropped third strike by the catcher.
• In the song Take Me Out to the Ball Game, the singer asks for what two stadium snacks? Peanuts and Crackerjacks.
• Boston Red Sox star Carl Yastrzemski won the Triple Crown in 1967, leading the American League in batting average (.326), runs batted in (121) and home runs (44). It wasn’t quite a clean sweep for Yaz, however, as another player tied him in homers. Who was he? Harmon Killebrew.
• What Yankee great became the Mr. Coffee spokesman? Joe DiMaggio.
• The American League St. Louis Browns moved from St. Louis after the 1953 season. What was the team’s new city and nickname? Baltimore Orioles.
• How many people saw the mighty Casey strike out in Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s poem? 5,000.
• Jim Bouton was a Yankee pitcher who gained fame writing a tell-all baseball memoir. What was the name of his book? Ball Four.

• • •
More than any other sport, baseball lends itself to trivia, and there are many, many good questions. Trivia Mania at first included a fine one, and it went like this:
•Yankee greats Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle played in vastly different eras, but one pitcher served up home runs to both players. Who was he?
Mr. Poole had the answer, Al Benton, who played from 1934 to 1952, bridging the Ruth and Mantle careers.
But Mr. Poole and Mr. Lindemann later discovered that Bobo Newsome, who pitched from 1929 to 1953, also surrendered home runs to Ruth and Mantle.
The two trivia writers tossed the question, which had two answers. . .and maybe more.