Obscure sports trivia

The obvious guess is St. Louis, but from the question I’m wondering if they were somewhere else first.

 

Yes, they were from somewhere else first. Several places, in fact.

 

isn’t Chicago in there somewhere?
Edit: nope and I had no idea the original city or someone of there other stops.

 

Pud Galvin? Or old Hoss Radbourn?

 

looked it up. Did not expect the fifth guy , but also not surprised either. Also, I had never heard of Matt Kilroy, who holds the “record” of 513 strikeouts in a season.

 

Nope and nope.

 

Nope. Chicago was the origin for the current Washington Wizards. They were actually called the Packers, which sounds almost sacrilegious.

The franchise also spent a season as the Capitol Bullets, which sounds just weird.

 

They were the Tri-Cities Blackhawks -- Davenport, Iowa; Rock Island, Ill.; and Moline, Ill. Then they moved to Milwaukee as the Milwaukee Hawks, then to St. Louis.

 

Bettendorf says, "What the hell, man?"

 

All of that is correct. However, they started in Buffalo in 1946 in the NBL, were there for about a month, were called the Bisons (like a bunch of other Buffalo teams), then moved to Tri-Cities. They were a part of the NBL and BAA merger.

 

Amos Rusie, The Hoosier Thunderbolt?

Some subsequent reading has revealed that the last hit surrendered by Nolan Ryan was a grand slam, so he joins Bob Gibson in the "last hit allowed by an HOF pitcher was a grand slam" club.

Here's an easy one: Which pitcher gave up a MLB-record 522 home runs?

 

Incorrect.
Invoking the 24-hour rule, so the answer is Tim Keefe. He retired in 1893 with 2,562 strikeouts, the record that stood until Cy Young broke it 14 years later. Walter Johnson passed Young in 1921, and then Ryan and Carlton both passed Johnson in 1982. Ryan and Carlton traded the record back and forth for about a year until Ryan claimed it for good.

Some other notes about Keefe. He holds the record for wins in most MLB ballparks, with 47.
He also pitched from three different distances in his career. In his rookie season, the mound was 45 feet from home plate. In his last, it was finally moved to 60 feet, 6 inches. In between, for most of his career, it was 50 feet.