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This Chicago Cubs trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and runs from the 1870 White Stockings to the 2016 champions: Cap Anson, the 116-win 1906 team, Tinker to Evers to Chance, Weeghman Park becoming Wrigley Field, the ivy and the lights, Babe Ruth's called shot, the Billy Goat, Ernie Banks, the collapse of 1969, the Sandberg Game, Harry Caray's seventh-inning stretch, Sosa and Kerry Wood, Bartman, Theo Epstein's rebuild, and the Game 7 rain delay in Cleveland. The first questions are easy enough for anyone who has sat in the bleachers once; the last ones will test people who can name the goat. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer, so it works as a solo challenge or a ready-made round for a Wrigleyville bar quiz. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Cubs are nicknamed 'the North Siders'. Which team plays on the South Side of the city?
Chicago White Sox
Wrigley Field is on the North Side; the White Sox' home is Rate Field on the South Side.
Q 02Before they were the Cubs, what was the franchise called when it was founded in 1870?
The White Stockings
They were also the Colts and, after Cap Anson left, the Orphans; the White Stockings name went to the new American League team.
Q 03Which newspaper first called the team the Cubs in 1902, referencing the roster's youth?
The Daily News
The club made the name official five years later, in 1907.
Q 04Who was the first player credited with 3,000 hits and player-manager of the Cubs' 19th-century pennant winners?
Cap Anson
He was released in 1897 after 22 years, and reporters called the leaderless team the Orphans.
Q 05The 1906 Cubs won a record 116 games but lost the World Series to which team?
Chicago White Sox
The 'Hitless Wonders' beat them four games to two in the only all-Chicago World Series.
Q 06The Cubs won back-to-back World Series in which two years?
1907 and 1908
They then waited 108 years for the next one.
Q 07Tinker, Evers and Chance were immortalised as a double-play combination in a 1910 poem by whom?
Franklin P. Adams
'Baseball's Sad Lexicon' first ran in the New York Evening Mail.
Q 08Wrigley Field opened in 1914 under what name, built for a Federal League team?
Weeghman Park
The Chicago Whales folded after 1915; the Cubs moved in for 1916 and the Wrigley name came in 1926.
Q 09Wrigley Field is the second-oldest ballpark in the majors. Which is the oldest?
Fenway Park
Wrigley is the oldest in the National League and the only surviving Federal League park.
Q 10Who planted the famous ivy on Wrigley Field's outfield walls in 1937?
Bill Veeck
The son of the club president was inspired by ivy at Perry Stadium in Indianapolis.
Q 11Wrigley Field was the last MLB park to add lights. What year was its first night game?
1988
The first attempt was rained out after 3½ innings; the first official night game came the next evening against the Mets.
Q 12How many consecutive day games had the Cubs played at Wrigley before the lights were lit on August 8, 1988?
5,687
MLB had threatened to make the Cubs play postseason home games in St. Louis without lights.
Q 13Which NFL team shared Wrigley Field with the Cubs from 1921 to 1970?
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Cardinals also played there from 1931 to 1939.
Q 21Ernie Banks holds the MLB record for most games played without ever doing what?
Appearing in the postseason
He played 2,528 games for the Cubs and said he never regretted signing with them.
Q 22Complete Ernie Banks' famous catchphrase: 'It's a beautiful day for a ballgame...'
'Let's play two!'
He wished he could play a doubleheader every day.
Q 23How many career home runs did Ernie Banks finish with?
512
His 277 homers as a shortstop were a record until Cal Ripken Jr. passed it.
Which team overtook the Cubs to win the NL East in the infamous collapse of 1969?
Q 14At Wrigley Field, a ball landing in 'the Basket' atop the outfield wall is ruled what?
A home run
The basket went up a month into the 1970 season to stop fans jumping onto the field after wins.
Q 15The 1932 World Series at Wrigley Field is remembered for which Yankees moment?
Babe Ruth's 'called shot'
The Cubs lost every World Series they reached in the 1929-38 'every three years' run.
Q 16Hack Wilson's 1930 season set the still-standing MLB record for runs batted in with how many?
191
He also hit 56 home runs that year on a club with six future Hall of Famers.
Q 17What was the name of William Sianis's goat, ejected from the 1945 World Series?
Murphy
The Cubs lost that Series to Detroit and did not return for 71 years.
Q 18Which Cubs Hall of Famer was traded to the Cardinals for Ernie Broglio in 1964?
Lou Brock
Broglio won just seven games in the next three seasons.
Q 19'Mr. Cub' Ernie Banks began his professional career in 1950 with which Negro leagues team?
Kansas City Monarchs
He joined the Cubs in September 1953 after two years in the military.
Q 20Ernie Banks won back-to-back National League MVP awards in which years?
1958 and 1959
He was also the Cubs' first Gold Glove winner, in 1960.
New York Mets
Leo Durocher's team led by 9½ games in mid-August before the 'Miracle Mets' ran them down.
Q 25Third baseman Ron Santo became known in 1969 for what celebration after home wins?
Clicking his heels
He played 15 seasons while secretly battling diabetes, which later cost him both lower legs.
Q 26In 1971 Fergie Jenkins became the first pitcher from which country to win the Cy Young Award?
Canada
He also played basketball for the Harlem Globetrotters in the off-season from 1967 to 1969.
Q 27Which song did Harry Caray famously lead Wrigley crowds in during the seventh-inning stretch?
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
After his death in 1998, celebrity guest conductors took over the tradition at Wrigley.
Q 28Before joining the Cubs in 1982, Harry Caray had spent 11 years broadcasting for which team?
Chicago White Sox
He had earlier called 25 years of Cardinals games; his trademark cry was 'Holy Cow!'
Q 29Ryne Sandberg's 1984 'Sandberg Game' featured two game-tying homers off which Cardinals closer?
Bruce Sutter
He hit them in the 9th and 10th innings on national TV and won the MVP that season.
Q 30Ryne Sandberg came to the Cubs in a 1982 trade with which team, packaged with Larry Bowa?
Philadelphia Phillies
GM Dallas Green got the future Hall of Famer for shortstop Iván DeJesús.