Test your Seattle sports literacy

Every time a pitcher gives up a historic home run, television announcers love to say the fellow on the mound just became the answer to a trivia question.

Really?

Does anybody really need to know who threw the pitch that became the 600th home run of Ken Griffey Jr.'s career? Not really. Especially when the trivial can be so much more fun.

What follows is a quiz that tests your literacy when it comes to Seattle sports and not your command of the minutiae of the games. This is about the athletes and the incidents that make up our collective culture in this city, even if Nick Licata doesn't know the first thing about it.

So this quiz is for the kind of person who knows that it was Gary Payton — and not Vernon Maxwell — who flung the free weight in the Sonics training room that struck Horace Grant. This is a quiz for those who might not remember Bobby Ayala fondly, but they remember him. For those who can still picture Bo Jackson running over The Boz and Xavier McDaniel wrapping his hands around Wes Matthews' scrawny little neck.

So take a couple of minutes to test your command of both the sordid and a few of the celebrated figures in our city's sports history. We will not ask who gave up home run No. 600 to Griffey, but just for the record, it was Mount Vernon's Mark Hendrickson, a former Washington State and NBA player.

1. Which NBA basketball player was the original name of the rock band Pearl Jam? (one point)

a) Xavier McDaniel

b) Ansu Sesay

c) Mookie Blaylock

d) World B. Free

2. Who is the Sonics career leader in steals? (one point)

a) Gus Williams

b) Gary Payton

c) Clay Bennett

d) Calvin Booth

3. What was the occupation of Charles Rice, best known in these parts for the $50,000 loan he made to Washington quarterback Billy Joe Hobert, right, with no payback schedule? (one point)

a) rocket scientist

b) astronaut

c) commercial fisherman

d) lumberyard owner

4. Which of the following Washington coaches served as an NCAA investigator before becoming a Huskies coach? (one point)

a) Rick Neuheisel

b) Tyrone Willingham

c) Andy Russo

d) Lynn Nance

5. Which of the following coaches had the lowest winning percentage as Sonics coach (one point)?

a) Bob Weiss

b) Paul Westphal

c) Bill Russell

d) Bill Russell's cousin

6. Which of the following scenarios did not actually occur? (one point)

a) Dale Ellis' wife, Monique, and Alton Lister's wife, Bobby Jo, became involved in a skirmish outside the Sonics locker room in 1988, which was heated enough that police became involved.

b) Mariners closer Kazu Sasaki suffered severely bruised ribs after a fall. He said he tripped and fell on a suitcase.

c) Bobby Ayala possessed compromising photos of Mariners management, which kept him on the team in 1998 when he had more losses (10) than saves (eight) and wins (one) combined.

d) Jerome James explained his absence from a Sonics team workout by saying his car (an H2, actually) was unable to back out of his Bellevue driveway. To be fair, it had snowed.

7. What did the Sonics get in return for the draft rights to Scottie Pippen? (one point)

a) Olden Polynice

b) Benoit Benjamin

c) Frank Brickowski

d) A tray of dryer lint

8. What was the name of the Huskies softball coach who was ousted after a controversy regarding the drug-dispensing practices of a team doctor? (one point)

a) Ann Wilson

b) Nancy Wilson

c) Wilson Phillips

d) Teresa Wilson

9. Carlester Crumpler was: (one point)

a) A pastry sold aboard the monorail during the 1962 World's Fair

b) A Seahawks linebacker

c) A Seahawks tight end

d) The bully from the children's book "Seattle Sam and his Super Seahawks"

10. Who was named MVP of the 2004 WNBA Finals when the Storm won the city's first professional championship in 25 years? (one point)

a) Lauren Jackson

b) Sue Bird

c) Betty Lennox

d) Doppler

11. The Seattle Metropolitans: (one point)

a) Are an ice cream flavor that includes coffee and pine.

b) Are a nickname for those fancy-pants dudes who put gel in their hair and hit Belltown every Saturday night.

c) Were the hockey team that won the 1917 Stanley Cup.

d) Were the local soccer team that faced Pele's New York Cosmos in Soccer Bowl '77.

12. Who held the shortest postgame news conference in Seattle sports history? (one point)

a) Lou Piniella

b) John McLaren

c) Jack Patera

d) P.J. Carlesimo

13. Which of the following is not true about Thoroughbred Seattle Slew? (one point)

a) Craig Sager — now a TNT television analyst — slept in the colt's stall the night before the Belmont.

b) Never raced in the state of Washington.

c) Was purchased for $17,500 by a group that included a couple from this state.

d) Is one of two horses to be unbeaten at the time he won the Triple Crown.

14. Washington football players Isaiah Stanback and Juan Garcia were sidelined by a Lisfranc injury which is named after: (one point)

a) a Medieval witch who left enemies walking on stubs

b) a field surgeon in Napoleon's army

c) Kathy Bates' character from "Misery"

d) the French word for long, protracted recovery.

15. The O'Brien twins were: (one point)

a) The two pint-size terrors in the Mariners clubhouse while Pete played first base

b) Former child actresses who famously feuded with Paris Hilton and denied drug rumors

c) The first twins ever to play for the same major-league baseball team in the same game

d) Johnny and Eddie, Seattle U. stars who both went on to play in the NBA.

16. The Mariners are one of four teams never to play in the World Series. Name the other three: (one point for each)

17. The Mariners' career leader for strikeouts as a hitter is: (one point)

a) Richie Sexson

b) Ken Griffey Jr.

c) Jay Buhner

d) Bill Bavasi

18. Which first-round flop at quarterback passed for the fewest yards as a Seahawk? (one point)

a) Kelly Stouffer

b) Rick Mirer

c) Mark McGwire's younger brother

19. Former Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel received his law degree from (one point):

a) USC

b) UCLA

c) Harvard

d) Mailing in cereal box tops.

20. From 1990 through 2004, the Mariners had 13 different starting left fielders on opening day. Which of the following was not among that group of 13? (one point)

a) Glenallen Hill

b) Mark McLemore

c) Willie Bloomquist

d) Kevin Mitchell

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com

ANSWERS

1. c) Mookie Blaylock, who was so cool about it he didn't sue the guys. Pearl Jam's debut album title "Ten" was Blaylock's uniform number.

2. b) Payton with 2,107, though Bennett pulled off what could be considered the most significant heist, and Booth made off with some hefty paychecks during three less-than-stellar seasons in Seattle.

3. a) You don't have to be a rocket scientist to lend Billy Joe $50,000, but Rice did in fact once manage the nation's nuclear rocket program.

4. d) Some may have characterized Nance's coaching as a violation, but he in fact was a former NCAA investigator. If you picked Neuheisel, dock yourself 150 points and at least try to look embarrassed.

5. d) Bob Hopkins — Russell's cousin — lasted 22 games in 1977. He was fired when the team was 5-17. The Sonics went 42-18 the remainder of the season under Lenny Wilkens and reached the NBA Finals.

6. c) Ayala did not possess pictures or anything else to explain how in the world he kept his job.

7. a) Polynice. Though history has shown the dryer lint would have been less burdensome.

8. d) Teresa Wilson. And to be clear, there was nothing musical about her exit.

9. c) He was a tight end, even though his surname was so much more appropriate to linebacker.

10. c) Lennox.

11. c) Hockey team, though Barry Ackerley's antagonism toward hockey has led him to deny this ever happened.

12. c) Patera. After a one-point loss in 1980, the Seahawks coach barked, "Go ahead," waited seven seconds, then said, "That's it" when he got no response. If only P.J. had been that brief.

13. d) Seattle Slew was the only unbeaten Triple Crown winner. (He lost races after he had won the Triple Crown). And yes, Sager did sleep in the stall the night before the Belmont Stakes race.

14. b) Jacque Lisfranc described amputation through this joint following an injury when a soldier fell from a horse with his foot still in the stirrup. Sounds pleasant, huh?

15. c) OK. That's a tricky one because Johnny and Eddie were Seattle U. basketball stars, but it was baseball — not the NBA — where they were teammates for Pittsburgh.

16. Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals, Tampa Bay Rays.

17. c) Buhner. Bavasi's misses as a general manager don't actually count in a statistical record.

18. c) Dan McGwire passed for all of 745 yards in the four seasons he played in Seattle. Good thing the Seahawks didn't pick Brett Favre instead of McGwire.

19. a) The former UCLA quarterback and current Bruins coach received his law degree from USC in 1990.

20. c) Bloomquist, much to the dismay of Mariners fans who have lobbied for the man with zero extra-base hits this season to be given an everyday chance.