Do You Remember What Position These All-Star Baseball Players Played?

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Some of the biggest baseball fans around can tell you all sorts of facts about the greatest baseball players of all time - their height, weight, years played, teams played for, number of home runs, favorite foods... but, weirdly, a lot of people don't remember the positions those players played.

These days players tend to move positions all the time: going from high-pressure, intensive positions like shortstop and center field to lower-pressure ones like first base and left field as they get older. Back in the day, though, a lot of players stayed at a single position for almost their entire career.

In this quiz, we have a list of some of the greatest players to ever play the game at every batting position (no pitchers, because that'd be too easy). Most of them had at least ten all-star appearances, and are either in the Hall of Fame, or would be if it weren't for those pesky performance enhancing drugs. See if you can match them to the position they're best known for playing, or where they won all of their Gold Gloves or Silver Slugger awards. If you can manage to get all of them, you're probably a baseball genius!

Question 1

What position did Hank Aaron play?

He set a home run record that wouldn't be touched for years. He played almost his entire career with the Braves (both before and after the moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta). He still has more RBIs and total bases than anyone else in baseball history. There's no question that Hank Aaron is one of the greatest players to ever play the game. But he doesn't get a lot of discussion of his defensive play, two thirds of which he played at this position.

Question 2

What position did Willie Mays play?

Back before the Giants moved to San Francisco, they signed a kid named Willie Mays to play for them. He stayed with them for twenty years, through the move to SF (before ending his career with a couple of years for the Mets - meaning he played for two New York teams, and none of them were the Yankees!). His nimble play on defense was remarkable, but his bat was the main attraction, as he had an OPS north of 1.000 for four seasons.

Question 3

What position did Cal Ripken play?

They called Cal Ripken Jr. the Iron Man, and for good reason: he played in the most consecutive games of all time (and given the routine rest all players are given in the modern era, it's a record that will probably never be broken). 2,362 games. 8,243 innings. And it's not like he played an easy-to-play position, either; this position is considered one of the hardest in the league these days. Only a handful of players can even do 162 games there in a season now.

Question 4

What position did Rod Carew play?

Rod Carew actually played more games at first base than he did at this position, but he is best remembered as one of the greatest at this position of all time. With the Minnesota Twins, he was a hit machine and made the All-Star roster every year for his first 18 years in the league. Later he joined the Los Angeles Angels (at the time, the California Angels) where he kept rocking his signature number 29, but his best years were in Minneapolis.

Question 5

What position does Mike Trout play?

This list is full of all stars of the past, but where are the all stars of the present? Look no further: Mike Trout is already one of the greatest players of all time. He'd make the hall of fame by almost any metric if he quit today. And he's only 26 years old. While they tried him in left field for a while, it wasn't his natural position, so he moved back to this position, where he is one of the best defensively in the league... and, almost every year since coming up, the best offensively, too.

Question 6

What position did Carl Yastrzemski play?

If you have a hard time spelling his name, and most of us do, you can jsut call him what everyone else calls him: Yaz. Make sure you at least know how to pronounce it before you visit Boston, though, where he is a Red Sox legend. He was American League MVP in 1967, and, while he never brought a World Series win to Boston, basically nobody did for something like a hundred years, so can you really blame him?

Question 7

What position did Ted Williams play?

Ted Williams was a legendary hitter. He was such a legendary hitter, that he released a best selling book all about how to hit a baseball. His career reached from 1939 to 1960 (with three years for military service, no less) and he was an All-Star every year he wasn't in the war or injured. He finished with a career batting average of .344, which is unbelievable by today's standards - these days, nobody even hits that in a season.

Question 8

What position did Mickey Mantle play?

Few players are as synonymous with the New York Yankees, or, for that matter, greatness, as Mickey Mantle. The Commerce Comet was a three-time MVP, a sixteen-time All Star, and is considered the greatest offensive threat in history by many. He has the highest career OPS+ at his position ever, which measures the player in context to the era in which they played, so you knew you had to take him seriously when he was at the plate. Being a legend is tough, and a Yankees legend, even tougher. But he did it.

Question 9

What position did Yogi Berra play?

Yogi Berra was an excellent ball player, but he may be even better known for his bizarrely beautiful quotes. At first he seems like he might be the dumbest person ever, but to create so many of these quotes, he might be the smartest? "It’s like déjà vu all over again?" Yogi Berra. "It ain’t over till it’s over?" Yogi Berra. "A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore?" Yogi Berra. But what position did he play? Here are four options. Like he would say: when you come to a fork in the road... take it.

Question 10

What position did Tony Gwynn play?

Tony Gwynn was not only a Silver Slugger winner, but a Gold Glove winner too, because he was so excellent defensively. In the year of the 1994 players' strike, he came close to getting a .400 batting average (and may have, had the season not ended prematurely). Interestingly, he was a tech pioneer in the way he approached hitting too: he used to obsessively watch video of pitchers he was about to face before facing them learning their tendencies and their pitches, and used that knowledge against them.

Question 11

What position did Ozzie Smith play?

Ozzie Smith, or the Wizard of Oz, was an offensive and defensive dynamo for the St. Louis Cardinals. In fact, he was so good defensively that he won the Gold Glove for his position for a stunning 13 years in a row - and it isn't an easy position, either. He didn't need home runs to be an All Star - he made the roster 15 times, and only hit 28 home runs in his life. He was easy to love, too - who else could hit a standing backflip on the field, after all?

Question 12

What position did Johnny Bench play?

Johnny Bench was born in Oklahoma but spent his entire career with the Cincinnati Reds, where he was one of the titans of their team during the Big Red Machine era along with Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez. A fourteen time all-star, Bench was called the greatest player at his position ever by ESPN. There are so many great stories about the way he played ball that would fit great here, but they'll all give away his position, so look him up later!

Question 13

What position did Barry Bonds play?

Barry Bonds was a player so good that he essentially had two hall of fame worthy careers. Unfortunately, the second one was pretty closely tied to allegations of performance enhancing drug use, so he is still not in the hall of fame. He took Hank Aaron's home run record before he left, though, leading people to start calling him "the asterisk" because of his drug use. Regardless, if you were a fan of the Giants or the Pirates, you were happy to see him come to the plate, because you knew magic would happen.

Question 14

What position did Reggie Jackson play?

Reggie Jackson was an excellent player, especially during the playoffs. Due to his ability to hit in the clutch (whether this is a "real" skill or not is up to debate, but those who believe it is tend to point at Reggie), he earned the nickname "Mr. October." He was the AL MVP once, the World Series MVP twice, and had his number retired by two of his five career teams: the Oakland Athletics, and, of course, the New York Yankees.

Question 15

What position did Derek Jeter play?

Derek Jeter is one of the most fondly remembered New York Yankees players of all time. Well, by Yankees fans, anyway. To everyone else, he represented everything they hate about he Yankees - professional, flashy, clean, and always beating your favorite team. While he wasn't the greatest player at his position defensively by any metric (although that didn't stop the league from giving him several gold glove awards), it'll be a long time before anyone wears the number 2 at that position in the Bronx.

Question 16

What position did Alex Rodriguez play?

The flip side to Derek Jeter was Alex Rodriguez, who even many New York Yankees fans hated. He started his career with the Seattle Mariners and played the same position as Derek Jeter. When he joined the Yankees, he needed to move, and the two of them became the Jekyll and Hyde of that team: one, the goodie two shoes, public facing captain, and the other, the arrogant alleged performance enhancing drugs user. He doesn't care, though. He's got half a billino dollars and a girlfriend named J-Lo.

Question 17

What position did Ivan Rodriguez play?

What is it with the Yankees and having multi-time all star players? Aside from the fact that they have the deepest pockets in baseball, anyway. Ivan Rodriguez has the most unfortunate nickname, Pudge, but he was an incredible batter and ball player. He actually spent most of his career with the Texas Rangers and the Detroit Tigers, the latter of which he won a World Series with. But back in the day, there was always a Yankees payday, and he got his in 2008.

Question 18

What position did George Brett play?

The Pine Tar Incident. George Brett is an incredible career hitter and put the Kansas City Royals on the map, but he's best remembered for a fight that started over pine tar. Apparently, he had too much of it on his bat, was kicked out of the game, which is when he went off and tried to fight an umpire. You're not supposed to do that, George. Regardless, he's still a legend, a multi-time all-star, and an example of someone filled with the drive to win.

Question 19

What position did Ken Griffey Jr. play?

Fun fact about Ken Griffey Jr.: he is the only player to ever hit consecutive home runs with his father in a game, when the two of them played for the Seattle Mariners. Griffey, also known as the Kid, was one of the greatest players of his era and an incredible face for the league. In addition, his ties with the Mariners (and, by extension, Nintendo, who were part owners) meant he appeared as the face of a bunch of really awesome video games in the 90s.

Question 20

What position did Roberto Clemente play?

Roberto Clemente may not only be the greatest player in Pittsburgh Pirates history, where he played from 1955 to 1972, but the greatest player to ever come from Puerto Rico. But since his death, he has even moreso been remembered for his work in the community. A man with an endless amount of heart and compassion, there was even a petition to have him sainted by the Catholic church. In particular, his work during the Nicaraguan earthquake of 1972 reminded us you can be an expert without losing your compassion for humanity.

Question 21

What position did Roberto Alomar play?

If you were a Toronto Blue Jays fan in the early 90s during their two World Series wins, you definitely knew who Roberto Alomar was. Arguably the best player on those teams, he was a twelve time all star (despite bouncing around a lot - he played on eight different teams during his career!). His number was retired by the Toronto Blue Jays the same year he entered the Baseball Hall of Fame, so nobody in Toronto will be wearing the number 12 any time soon.

Question 22

What position did Wade Boggs play?

If you're a baseball fan, you know Wade Boggs as the legendary Boston and New York player. If you're a Simpsons fan, you know him as the guy who got knocked out in a bar fight arguing about whether Lord Palmerston or Pit the Elder was the United Kingdom's greatest Prime Minister. If you're an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan, you know him as the guy who drank 70 beers on a plane and hit a home run after. There's a lot of ways to know Wade Boggs.

Question 23

What position did Barry Larkin play?

Barry Larkin played for the Cincinnati Reds and was a pivotal player in their 1990 World Series team. Due to a famous triple pay he was a part of, he has a sandwich named Barry Larkin's Triple Play named after him at the Cincinnati deli Izzy's. He had to battle for a spot when he came up in 1987 with Kurt Stillwell, but the better player ended up sticking - and did he ever. A twelve-time all star, he's considered one of the greatest players of his generation.

Question 24

What position did Mark McGwire play?

Another multi-time all star, another performance enhancing drugs suspect, another home run monster. Mark McGwire is best remembered for his battle with Sammy Sosa to see who would hit the most home runs in a season - the two were neck and neck (along with Ken Griffey Jr.) until Roger Maris's 61 homer season was beaten by McGwire, in Chicago, while playing against Sosa. He finished with 70 homers, and held the record for a whopping three years before Barry Bonds decided to take it.

Question 25

What position did Mike Piazza play?

Mike Piazza is one of the greatest players at his position in his generation, and was a beloved member of the New York Mets while he was there. In his rookie year, he hit 35 home runs, which is more than any rookie playing his position ever. He also held the record for most home runs by a Dodgers rookie until it was broken in 2017 by Cody Bellinger. It probably helped that he was coached as a kid by none other than THE Ted Williams.

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