Here are the answers to my baseball trivia post:

1. What is the minimum amount of pitches a starting pitcher can throw, pitch the whole game, and record the win?

Answer: Liam is correct. The answer is 15 outs. That would be one pitch outs (ground out, or pop out) to each batter faced through 5 innings. Then the game would need to be called on account of rain. After 5 innings the game is considered complete.

2. How many different ways are there for a batter to reach first base? (Hint: This question is very debatable, but think of it from the perspective of the how you would write it in the score book.)

Answer: As I said this is highly debatable. Since no one even attempted to answer, I'll give my best explanation.

I had heard this trivia question before (actually while attending a game with the L-train during a rain delay) and we decided the answer was 8. These are fairly simple:

1. Base hit
2. Base on Balls
3. Hit by Pitch
4. Fielders Choice
5. Error
6. Dropped Third Strike
7. Interference
8. Illegal Pitch

With the exception of #8 those are all fairly common knowledge. I actually saw #8 occur while attending a game in 2004 where the Cards were playing the Pirates. Reggie Sanders had a 3 ball count and the pitcher balked with no one on base. The ball never left his hand, so no pitch was thrown. Yet they awarded Reggie first base on an "illegal pitch".

Since 8 was all we could collectively come up with, I decided to investigate further. There was no real clarification on the matter. There's a good discussion going on here about the potential possibilities on how a batter can reach first. Some people have up to 25 ways to reach first.

Most of those are a real stretch. Some people take an umbrella term like "Interference" and break it down further and list each one. Example: catchers int, umpire int, fan int, base runner int. Or another example is: dropped third strike, pass ball, wild pitch. Some people differentiate between a standard walk and an intentional walk. Some even go as far as to rule home runs and ground rule doubles as different ways to reach since the ball actually travels out of play.

If you are interested check out the discussion and see how many you think are actually valid ways to reach 1st.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 3:01 PM