Extra bases or extra crispy ?

Written by Lazers
names edited by Hilts


Trivia night at TC Pub seems to have passed the doldrums phase that resulted in too many competitions involving only a few teams. As the weather begins to warm, so does the trivia as six teams battled last night.

The competition: Morning Wood, Tigers, Kevin’s Happy & Gay, Off In The Woods, and The Bar (shorthanded without Trophy or Kearney Meats)

J&B represented by: Chemical Man, Stix, Hilts, Gf, and Lazers

TC Pub represented by: a cute brunette bartender whom Benkowski referred to as “Mo.” I assume that stands for “Maureen” rather than “Morris.”

The victors from the prior trivia night did not show up to defend their title. Benkowski holds a coin flip between the Bar and J&B to see which team has to go last. J&B record in trivia coin flips (2008): 0-1.

Tonight’s trivia was being held under “Championship Rules”- teams were allowed only two correct answers in a row before control passed to the next team. Surprisingly, I thought this rule ended up very effective and a positive for the game.

First Half: Movies/Sports/Famous Patricks

Bears first round draft pick- 1987?
2007 Best Supporting Actress?
White Sox manager in 1988?
Only Blackhawk with 3 career playoff hat tricks?
The 4 players with over 2000 hits as White Sox (had to name 2)?

Ladies Only “Anatomy Word Challenge”- fortunately, J&B was not involved in this one, as the Kevin team battled one of the Wood teams in a challenge we don’t need to see again. What I think it involved was Benkowski having 8 letters written on the Hangman greaseboard, and the Ladies had to come up with euphemisms for the word “penis” that started with the 8 letters listed. In order to prevent assistance from teammates, the Ladies had to stand behind Benkowski to shield the board from everyone else. Some of the letters available were “c”, “j”, “m”, “r”, “p”, and “w”. Make your own guesses.

Scores at the half: J&B 1060 Kevin 890 Off...Woods 680 Morning Wood 570 Bar 420 Tigers will start the second half.

Second Half: TV/Music/Mixed Up

1984- sang “Hard Habit to Break”?
1970s- sang “SOS”?
1990-1991 TV season top rated show was this sitcom?
Astrological sign represented by scales?
1976- sang “Sarah Smiles”?
The two main stars of “The A-Team” were Mr. T and ?
September 2004- most weight ever lifted by a human tongue- how many pounds?

A “Drink Faster” challenge pits J&B against Off...Woods. As Benkowski has the bartender pour two beers, J&B recognizes certain situations made its options very limited as far as who could partake in this challenge. Hilts represents J&B and brings most of the beer back to the table. Season record in “Drink Faster” challenges: 1-3.

Scores After Two Halves: J&B 1960 Morning Wood 1660 Kevin 1640 Off…Woods 1020 Tigers 790 Bar 660

Choice of Final Category: 2005 World Series or Recent Entertainment News

Believe it or not, J&B did consider the Entertainment category but ends up taking the Baseball one. It was probably expected of us. J&B wagers the classic- 1361.

2005 World Series:
In Game 4, the White Sox had 4 extra base hits from 4 different players. Name them (3 correct wins wager; 4 correct wins bonus).

Entertainment:
Movie titled “New York I Love You” starring Kevin Bacon is currently in production. What actress is directing?
Knocked off “American Idol” after poor rendition of a Beatles song and for general gayness?
Janet Jackson cancelled her upcoming appearance on “Saturday Night Live” due to the flu- who will replace her?

Gentlemen?

Part the Second

Recognizing that their consideration for the Entertainment category should have been much heavier (we knew all of those answers), J&B decides upon Jermaine Dye, Joe Crede, AJ Pierzynski, and Juan Uribe. All were blind guesses (although it did make sense to choose the Series MVP and the guy nicknamed “Dr Doubles”, even if that nickname was coined by Hilts).

First Half Answers:
Jim Harbaugh
Jennifer Hudson (after another team’s guess, Benkowski: “’Black girl’ doesn’t cut it.”)
Jim Fregosi
Denis Savard
Frank Thomas, Luke Appling, Nellie Fox, Eddie Collins

Second Half Answers:
Chicago (via Hangman, Kevin answers correctly after seeing two of the letter “c” in the word. Off…Woods: “Where are there two c’s in Chicago?”)
Abba (Bar gets this answer correct. Art yells “Gay!” and receives a tremendous response of laughter throughout the pub. Benkowski to the Bar: “They beat you at your own game.”)
Cheers
Libra (Bar gets this answer correct. Benkowski: “I almost said ‘gay’ on that one.”)
Hall & Oates
George Peppard
211 lbs

Final Answers:

Bar- 660- Entertainment- guesses Scarlett Johansson (yes), David Hernandez (yes), and Mariah Carey (yes)- wagered everything- all 3 correct plus 3000-point bonus for a total of 4320.

Tigers- 790- World Series- guesses Jermaine Dye (yes), Joe Crede (yes), Scott Podsednik (yes), and Aaron Rowand (yes)- wagered everything- all 4 correct plus 3600 bonus (or more bad math from Benkowski) for a total of 5180. So much for J&B anticipation.

Off…Woods- 1020- World Series- guesses Aaron Rowand (yes), Joe Crede (yes), Juan Uribe (no), AJ Pierzynski (no)- didn’t catch their wager.

Kevin’s Happy & Gay- 1640- World Series- guesses Joe Crede (yes), Aaron Rowand (yes), Scott Podsednik (yes), and Juan Uribe (no)- wagered everything- double to 3280.

Morning Wood- 1660- Entertainment- guesses Penny Marshall (no), David Hernandez (yes), and Fergie (no)- wagered everything- thanks for playing.

J&B- 1960- World Series- guessed Jermaine Dye (yes), Joe Crede (yes), AJ Pierzynski (no), and Juan Uribe (no)- wagered 1361- down to 599.

And victory for the Tigers.

Later arriving at home, I found the Sun-Times from the day after Game 4 in order to detail the extra base hits:
Jermaine Dye hit a double in the 1st inning.
Scott Podsednik hit a triple in the 3rd inning.
Joe Crede hit a double in the 7th inning.

But wait, what is this?
AJ Pierzynski hit a double in the 9th inning.

What? No extra base hit for Aaron Rowand?

The official scorer has overruled Benkowski. Aaron Rowand did not have an extra base hit in Game 4. Victory for the Tigers is false. The real final scores: Bar 4320 J&B 3321 Tigers 1780 Off…Woods ?? Kevin 0 Morning Wood 0. The Bar has been screwed.

I guess it’s just one of the pitfalls of trivia night- just like the hazards of the Green Monster in Fenway, the vines in Wrigley, or Tal’s Hill in Minute Maid Park, trivia teams know they sometimes need to adjust….

Next trivia night is Thursday, March 27th. I am “out”.