Oakland A’s trivia: Name the 2012 walk-offs

The 2020 MLB season is on hiatus, and there’s no telling when baseball might start again. In the meantime, let’s play some trivia!

SB Nation’s theme this week is Underdogs, and few teams are more familiar with that role than the Oakland A’s. It has become part of the club’s very identity, as they go into every season with a payroll that pales in comparison to those of other rivals, while playing in the shadow of another local franchise next door that tends to hog the region’s attention. When the A’s win, they often do so by overcoming some tough odds, and sometimes even by outright defying low expectations. Billy Martin’s 1980-81 teams definitely fit that bill.

But perhaps the best example of that underdog spirit was the 2012 season. The A’s entered the year with a nondescript roster, and they were a popular pick to finish last place in their division. Instead, they got breakouts from some new stars, and clutch performances from some journeymen, and together they shocked the world by winning the AL West title on the final day of the season.

Along the way, those 2012 A’s developed a signature move that perfectly captured their essence: The walk-off victory. On 14 occasions in the regular season, and once again in the playoffs, they drove in the winning run of the game in their final at-bat, triumphing by the skin of their teeth. That’s not an all-time record, which is 18 by the 1959 Pirates, but it’s not far off — and each one was followed by a celebratory pie to the face.

The question today is, how many of Oakland’s 15 walk-off wins from 2012 can you name? We’re just looking for the player who drove in the winning run, whether with a homer, a single, or some other result. I have constructed a quiz on the website Sporcle to test your knowledge, with the following instructions:

• You can go in any order, with 10 minutes and unlimited guesses to fill 15 spaces.
• You only need to type the last names to register the answers.
• However, you do have to spell them right!
• When you get each name, the final column will show what kind of hit he had and which team the A’s were playing against.
• Read the next paragraph about how to not spoil the answers for everyone else in the comments section.

Share your results in the comments, BUT DON’T SPOIL ANYTHING!! There is an option in the comments for ”spoiler text,” which will black out that particular text until the reader puts their mouse over it to reveal it. If you are going to share right/wrong answers, please use the spoiler option. It’s on the row of options like bold, italics, etc., all the way on the right side, in between the option to add a hyperlink and the option to add a smiley face; it looks like a black square.

DON’T BE THAT PERSON WHO SPOILS THE ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS.

Alrighty, here is the quiz! It’s embedded below, or you can click here to play it on Sporcle’s site.

How did you do? Are there any that you can’t believe you missed?