SAN DIEGO _ Even by the standards of baseball's most arduous trivia competition, and even to the competitors whose brains overflowed with arguably useless knowledge, this question was ridiculous.
Other questions had made you think. Some had made you laugh. This one might have driven you to curse.
Who better to solve trivia riddles than the fans dedicated to the study of the sport? The Society for American Baseball Research, or SABR, gathered in San Diego for its annual summer convention, four days of seminars, speakers and studies, with the final night reserved for the annual trivia test.
The contest is not for the weak, but even the strong could do nothing but shrug at this question: Which two Hall of Fame players died on the same day?
The contestants did not know. The audience in the hotel ballroom did not blurt out a suggestion.
Finally, a shout from the crowd shattered the silence.
"Jefferson and Adams!"
Modest laughter ensued. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are the only United States presidents to die on the same day: July 4, 1826.
The correct answer: Stan Musial, the regal first baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Earl Weaver, the plain-spoken manager of the Baltimore Orioles, died Jan. 19, 2013.
So you think you know baseball? This is not the benign trivia that flashes on the video board at Dodger Stadium. This is as if the masochists running the bar exam or the National Spelling Bee had invaded the national pastime.
