Archive for Challenging Career Quiz

Ron Coomer was a solid hitter while playing for four teams, mostly the Minnesota Twins, across the 1995-2003 seasons. A corner infielder who took his hacks from the right side, the Chicago-area native counted 92 round-trippers among his 827 base knocks. An All-Star with the Twins in 1999, he later suited up for the Cubs, Yankees, and Dodgers.

He is currently in his 13th season as a color analyst in the Chicago Cubs radio booth. Working along the legendary Pat Hughes, Coomer not only provides insight gleaned from his playing days, he consistently contributes entertaining anecdotes. Given those attributes, he was an ideal candidate for an installment of our Challenging Career Quiz series.

As with most of the dozen players-turned-broadcasters who preceded him, I began by asking who he faced the most times.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Would it be Scott Karl?”

Coomer wasn’t particularly close with his guess. He matched up against the erstwhile Milwaukee Brewer a total of 25 times, whereas he faced Chuck Finley 45 times.

“Really?” Coomer said upon learning it was the longtime California/Anaheim Angels southpaw, against whom he went 11-for-42 with a pair of home runs. “I remember Chuck very well. I remember getting some hits off him, and I really remember that I got a lesson taught to me when I was a young big league player. He threw me a pitch inside and I blasted it, but hit it way foul at the Metrodome. I thought, ‘Well, he’s not throwing that again.’ I was wrong. He doubled up and struck me out on the same fastball inside. I went, ‘Hmmm, OK. Don’t forget that.’ I think this was my first year in the big leagues.” Read the rest of this entry »

Javier López faced 756 different batters while pitching for five teams from 2003-2016. Frequently employed as a lefty specialist, the sidewinding native of San Juan, Puerto Rico did so to the tune of a 3.48 ERA, 14 saves, and a 30-17 won-lost record across 839 appearances. He also earned four World Series rings. López lifted a trophy with the Boston Red Sox in 2007, and with the San Francisco Giants in 2010, 2012, and 2014.

How well does the now Giants broadcast analyst remember his matchups against the hitters he faced? Interested to find out, I recently sat down him for the latest installment of our Challenging Career Quiz series.

I began by asking which player he faced the most times. His first guess, Chase Utley, was incorrect. His second was likewise wrong — although he did get the surname right. It wasn’t Adrián González, but rather Carlos González.

What are López’s recollections of the longtime Colorado Rockies outfielder?

“What I remember about facing Cargo is that he was an absolute monster,” the pitcher-turned-broadcaster said of the 2010 NL batting champion, whom he held to just four hits and one walk in 26 plate appearances. “He had such a sweet swing. I remember giving up a monster home run to him in Colorado. I hung a breaking ball and he hit it off the facing of the second deck. He was pretty impressive.”

Bobby Abreu was the batter López faced the second-most times (24), and he also has distinct memories of him. Read the rest of this entry »

Darrin Jackson is 62 years young and in his 26th season as a broadcast analyst for the Chicago White Sox. Currently paired with Len Kasper in the radio booth, the erstwhile MLB outfielder is equally adept at breaking down plays and sharing entertaining anecdotes. Much for the latter reason, he is a fantastic fit for our Challenging Career Quiz series, which now runs 11 deep and most recently featured Baltimore Orioles legend Jim Palmer.

Jackson’s playing career comes nowhere close to rivaling Palmer’s, although he did have his fair share of success. Suiting up for seven clubs — including both of Chicago’s — over a dozen seasons, Jackson was at his best in San Diego. Across the 1991-1992 campaigns, the right-handed swinger swatted 38 home runs as a Friar while logging a 99 wRC+ and 8.5 WAR. Filling a platoon role for much of his big league tenure, Jackson retired with 676 hits, including 80 round-trippers, over 2,816 plate appearances.

Which pitcher did he face the most times? That proved to be an easy question, as Jackson correctly guessed Tom Glavine with little hesitation. When I informed Jackson that the southpaw was also the pitcher against whom he’d garnered the most hits, he offered an unsurprising recollection of Glavine. As most fans know, the Hall of Famer had a well-earned reputation for getting strikes just off the plate.

“Facing him was never a fun practice, mainly because umpires had their own strike zones back then,” said Jackson, who went 11-for-44 with a pair of home runs and one walk versus Glavine. “He knew how to abuse that strike zone by working away, away, down and away, down and away. He would get you diving across the plate, looking in that zone, and the next thing you knew, he’d be throwing a two-seam fastball on the inside corner to freeze you for strike three. I probably got rung up looking by him more than anyone else I faced, because of that exact way of pitching. It drove me crazy. Even though you said I had a bunch of hits, I never liked facing him. He was just too smart and too good.” Read the rest of this entry »

Jim Palmer faced 870 different hitters over the course of a Hall of Fame career that spanned from 1965 to 1984. A Baltimore Oriole throughout, the now-80-year-old broadcast analyst did so while fashioning a 268-152 won-lost record and a 2.68 ERA. A six-time All-Star who captured three Cy Young Awards, he is widely considered the best pitcher in franchise history.

How well does Palmer remember his matchups against Carl Yastrzemski, Rod Carew, and other notables from his era? Moreover, can he correctly answer questions such as “Who did you strike out the most times?” and “Who did you surrender the most home runs to?” I decided to find out. Given his reputation as an entertaining storyteller with a good memory, Palmer seemed like a perfect fit for our Challenging Career Quiz series.

That he didn’t know who he had faced the most times came as a surprise. Palmer faced Yastrzemski a whopping 197 times, with his next most frequent matchup, Graig Nettles, lagging well behind with 160. Of course, his not being able to name the Red Sox icon didn’t mean there weren’t stories. With Palmer, there are almost always going to be stories. Read the rest of this entry »

Will Middlebrooks didn’t have an especially accomplished career. Hampered by injuries, the slugging third baseman saw action in just 347 big league games — the bulk of them with the Boston Red Sox — before hanging up his spikes shortly after his 29th birthday. But there were memorable moments along the way, and he has good stories to go with them. Now a broadcast analyst for the Red Sox, Middlebrooks shared several of them in the latest installment of our Challenging Career Quiz series.

I began by asking which pitcher he faced the most times.

“I had the most success against Mark Buehrle, and it could have been him,” replied Middlebrooks, who logged 262 hits, including 43 home runs, while playing from 2012-2017. “I know I faced him a lot. Was it Buerhle?”

Nope. Middlebrooks stood in the box against the longtime Chicago White Sox southpaw 19 times, going 8-for-18 with a pair of doubles and a hit-by-pitch, but it’s another hurler who has the honor. Asking Middlebrooks if he had any other guesses prompted a good exchange. Read the rest of this entry »

Glen Perkins had a successful four-season stint at the back end of the Minnesota Twins bullpen. From 2012-2015, the St. Paul-born southpaw was credited with 12 wins and 118 saves while posting a 2.93 ERA over 254 appearances comprising 251 2/3 innings. Moreover, he was an All-Star in three of those campaigns. A mixed-results starter earlier in his career, Perkins ultimately finished with a 35-25 won-lost record, 120 saves, and a 3.88 ERA over 624 1/3 frames while pitching exclusively with the Twins from 2006-2017.

He now serves as one of the team’s broadcast analysts, providing insight befitting a reputation he had during his playing days. Perkins was rightly regarded as one of the game’s most analytically inclined pitchers.

How well does the left-hander remember his matchups against big league hitters? Let’s just say that Perkins’ power of recollection is every bit as impressive. He proved as much when he sat down recently for the eighth installment of our Challenging Career Quiz, a series that had thus far comprised Geoff Blum, David Cone, Mark Grant, Mark Gubicza, Jeff Montgomery, Dan Petry, and Steve Sparks. (Links to those pieces can be found on their player pages.)

I began by asking Perkins to whom he surrendered the most hits. His first two guesses, Miguel Cabrera (seven hits) and Carlos Santana (eight) were both wrong. He then correctly named Paul Konerko, who had 11. What does the southpaw remember about the erstwhile Chicago White Sox slugger?

“I had two different careers,” Perkins replied. “I was a starter and gave up a bunch of hits, then I was reliever and didn’t give up nearly as many. Pauly probably got me a bunch when I was a starter, although I do think I did well against him when he was still closer to his prime. I remember that the last year he played [2014] he mostly just hit singles. He had a little short swing and just punched the ball. He didn’t do any damage, but he did have some hits against me.”

Perkins was spot-on with his recollections. Konerko had five singles in six trips to the plate against him that year. He had previously gone 6-for-24 with a pair of doubles and a home run.

A batter who did do damage against Perkins was Santana. The still-active, 40-year-old switch-hitter went 8-for-13 with two doubles and four home runs. Perkins promptly named him when asked who took him deep most often. Read the rest of this entry »

Steve Sparks is a good storyteller, which serves him well in the broadcast booth. Now in his 14th season working alongside Robert Ford, Sparks forms one half of a Houston Astros radio team that ranks among the best in the business. He used to throw knuckleballs for a living. Pitching for five teams from 1995-2004, primarily the Detroit Tigers, the 61-year-old Tulsa, Oklahoma native took the mound 270 times to the tune of a 59-76 won-lost record and a 4.88 ERA. All told, he faced 626 different batters over 1,319 2/3 innings of work.

How well does he remember his more-notable matchups? Following in the footsteps of Geoff Blum, David Cone, Mark Grant, Mark Gubicza, Jeff Montgomery, and Dan Petry — links to those pieces can be found on their player pages — Sparks sat down for the seventh installment of our Challenging Career Quiz.

I began by asking which batter he faced the most times.

“It would probably have to be somebody in the American League Central,” replied Sparks, whom I spoke with at Fenway Park in early May. “I’ll say Frank Thomas.”

His guess was spot on. Sparks faced Thomas 60 times, with “The Big Hurt” going 13-for-49 with three home runs, nine walks, and a pair of plunkings. His memories of the Hall of Famer?

“I had the impression that he couldn’t reach the outside corner,” Sparks told me. “I felt like if I had to go somewhere, throwing a fastball or a cutter, I could go away to Frank Thomas. I found out very quickly that I was wrong. He was so far off the plate that I didn’t think he could reach it. But he could. Read the rest of this entry »

Geoff Blum faced 841 different pitchers over the course of 14 big league seasons, and while he doesn’t remember them all, many come to mind easily. That was proven when he recently became the sixth player-turned-broadcast-analyst to take part in our Challenging Career Quiz series. Did the erstwhile infielder maybe take a few liberties and look a few things up before we sat down for the exercise? He admitted as much, but as was the case with David Cone, Mark Grant, Mark Gubicza, Jeff Montgomery, and Dan Petry — links to those pieces can be found on their player pages — right and wrong answers are largely a secondary consideration. Entertaining anecdotes are the primary objective, and Blum followed suit by providing plenty of them.

I began by asking Blum — the first position player to be featured in this series — which pitcher he stood in the batter’s box against the most times.

“I was going to say Carlos Zambrano, but you gave me some time to look it up and I did cheat a little bit,” Blum replied with a laugh. “I knew it was going to be somebody in the NL Central, and we faced the Cubs a lot, so I figured it was going to be either Zambrano or Ryan Dempster. I also faced Dempster a bunch when he was with Florida and I was with Montreal, so I’m not surprised that he is the answer.”

Blum faced the right-handed Dempster 58 times — 18 more than Zambrano — going 15-for-53 with five walks. What does he remember about the current MLB Network analyst? Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Petry faced 644 different batters across the 1979-1991 seasons, and while he certainly doesn’t remember them all, his level of recollection is impressive. Now 67, the former All-Star right-hander proved as much when he became the latest pitcher-turned-broadcast analyst to tackle one my a matchup-focused career quizzes. As did David Cone, Mark Grant, Mark Gubicza, and Jeff Montgomery — those pieces can be found here, here, here, and here — “Peaches” reached into his personal memory bank to take a stab at answering my questions, and to provide entertaining anecdotes while doing so. Our conversation took place at Fenway Park this past weekend.

I began by asking him which batter he faced the most times.

“It would have to be somebody in the American League East,” replied Petry, who played the bulk of his career with the Detroit Tigers and is now Dan Dickerson’s primary partner in the team’s radio booth. “I’ll say Robin Yount.”

It was indeed Yount, who stepped in against Petry 89 times. I proceeded to ask which player recorded the most hits off him.

“That might be a trick question, because maybe it is Robin Yount,” said Petry, before going with a different answer. “But I think a lot of my answers are going to be George Brett, so I’ll say George Brett.”

He should’ve trusted his initial instinct, because Yount was the answer again. The Hall of Famer logged 24 hits in 83 at-bats against the right-hander, who went 119-93 as a Tiger and 125-104 overall, while tossing 2,080 1/3 innings over 370 big league outings.

“He is a guy who I’ve always, to this day, have so much respect for,” Petry said of the Milwaukee Brewers icon. “I remember when he was just a teenager. At that time [when Yount was in the majors at age 18], I was a teenager also, and thinking about whether I would ever get that opportunity to play, like he was doing. So, just getting to face him was among my most competitive moments.”

How about the batter to whom he surrendered the most home runs? Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Grant is one of the game’s most entertaining color analysts. Teamed with play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo, the man affectionately known as “Mud” is a big part of why the San Diego Padres TV booth polled as baseball’s best in Awful Announcing’s 2025 local broadcaster rankings. Now in his 11th season alongside Orsillo, Grant first began working Padres games in 1996. His previous partners in the booth include the legendary Dick Enberg.

Grant was a pitcher prior to becoming a broadcaster, toeing the rubber for six teams across the 1984-1993 seasons, including the Padres, with whom he made 126 of his 233 appearances. All told, he went 22-32 with eight saves and a 4.31 ERA over 638 2/3 innings.

How well does he remember his matchups against certain batters he faced? As I’ve done previously with David Cone, Mark Gubicza, and Jeff Montgomery — those pieces can be found here, here, and here — I decided to find out by challenging him to a career quiz. Not only did he oblige, he supplied fun anecdotes along the way.

I began by asking the pitcher-turned-broadcaster which batter he faced the most times. Read the rest of this entry »