Good morning!
Last Sunday saw the White Sox finally demolish their ten-game losing streak with a wild and dramatic 7-run walkoff ninth inning to win 12-9. How improbable was the comeback? Well, the winning expectancy for the Rays at the start of the inning was 99%, so I’d put that under the “improbable” column on the spreadsheet.
To further underscore how improbable it was, the great Sarah Langs tweeted that it was the first time the White Sox had engineered a comeback of 4 runs or more in nine innings of baseball since…Wednesday, April 28, 2004 (9-8 win against Cleveland, 5 runs in the ninth). Nearly 20 years!
Here’s how Bob Foltman of the Chicago Tribune had it the following day, April 29, 2004:
Many among the crowd of 12,189 at U.S. Cellular Field made for the exits after the eighth inning Wednesday.
That's a habit White Sox fans may have to break. The Sox pulled out another victory in their final at-bat, scoring five runs in the ninth to stun the Cleveland Indians 9-8 and salvage a split of the two-game series.
So, for today, I thought it might be fun to try and remember who was involved in that 2004 comeback. I’m asking you to try fill out both the White Sox and Cleveland players to appear in that game. In all, there are 29 names. How many can you get? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I’ve allotted 15 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, I’ve provided the position/role of the player, and grouped by team.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
Both of the following pieces of trivia come from the aforementioned Chicago Tribune article:
- The last time the Sox came back from four runs down in the ninth was July 29, 1992, in an 8-6 victory at Detroit. Wednesday was the first time they had come back from that far down at U.S. Cellular.
- They rallied from a four-run, ninth-inning deficit June 4, 1988 with a six-run ninth, capped by Gary Redus' grand slam at old Comiskey Park.
All data from baseballreference.com
