ALL-STAR GAME INSIDER

Target Field

Tuesday, July 15 • 7 p.m.

Only 84 All-Star Games have been played, or barely more than half the number that each major league team plays per season. With so few games, All-Star history is dotted with lots of statistical anomalies. This week, let's explore a few of them, in the form of a quiz about All-Star hitters:

questions

1. Who is the only player ever to go 4-for-4 in an All-Star Game?

2. Who has the most doubles in All-Star Game history, more than double any other player, yet never more than one in a game?

3. Who is the only player to triple twice in an All-Star Game?

4. Who is the most recent player to hit a triple in the Midsummer Classic — which was his only triple of the season?

5. Who has hit the most career home runs in All-Star competition?

6. What active player has the most career home runs as an All-Star?

7. Five players have homered twice in an All-Star game — who was the most recent?

8. Who is the only player with seven at-bats in an All-Star Game?

9. Who is the only player to strike out four times in an All-Star Game?

10. Who was the last Twins player to hit an All-Star home run?

answers

1. Ted Williams, who singled twice and homered twice (and also walked once) before his Fenway Park fans in 1946.

2. St. Paul native Dave Winfield doubled seven times in the All-Star Game; nine players, including Twins star Tony Oliva, are runners-up with three.

3. Twins great Rod Carew tripled twice in 1978, both off San Francisco's Vida Blue.

4. When Carlos Gomez's diving attempt at his looping liner failed, Prince Fielder reached third base last July at Citi Field. Fielder's last regular-season triple came May 31, 2012.

5. Stan Musial homered six times in 24 All-Star Games. No other player has more than four.

6. Alfonso Soriano has three All-Star homers — one each with the Yankees, Rangers and Cubs.

7. The late Gary Carter homered off Ken Forsch and Ron Davis in 1981, a feat nobody has equaled in 33 years.

8. Phillies third baseman Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones went 1-for-7 as the NL leadoff hitter in 1950.

9. Roberto Clemente batted .323 in 15 All-Star appearances but struck out four times in six at-bats in 1967.

10. There are four Twins homers in All-Star Game history — three by Harmon Killebrew, and Kirby Puckett's solo shot off Terry Mulholland in 1993 on his way to taking MVP honors.