Uncategorized

South Korea reached the 2002 semifinals as cohost with some measure of luck or help. In particular, Byron Moreno’s officiating in the round of 16 against Italy has been regarded as incompetent, if not corrupt—incorrectly ruling out a Damiano Tommasi goal for offside, then sending off Francesco Totti for diving when he was clearly fouled. Moreno, later sentenced to 2½ years in an American prison for smuggling heroin, was from what country, which made its World Cup finals debut in 2002?

Ecuador

Obscure

What are you most likely to be watching if you buy a ticket to the Las Ventas venue in Madrid?

Bullfighting

Uncategorized

Of the players selected in MLB draft history, 22 have jumped straight to the majors without ever playing in the minors. In the past 40 years, it’s happened eight times, and three of those eight were position players. Name any one of those position players.

(Hint: One of them was an outfielder drafted out of Oklahoma State who still holds the career and single-season Division I home run records, and hit 20-plus home runs and struck out more than 100 times in each of his first five Major League seasons, all with the Rangers. Another was a two-way player out of Washington State who currently has the two-way college player of the year award named after him and won an American League batting title. And the most recent was drafted by San Diego from Cal in 2000, and played 12 seasons primarily as an outfielder with the Padres, Mets, Pirates, Yankees, Cubs, Diamondbacks and Nationals.)

Pete Incaviglia, John Olerud, Xavier Nady