With the 2011 professional baseball season a distant memory and spring training 2012 still a few weeks away, baseball’s around-the-clock television channel known as MLB Network has been angling for a new way to generate offseason ratings.
Enter Baseball IQ, MLB Network’s new series all about baseball trivia.
The concept is simple: 32 participants, including a front-office staffer from all 30 MLB teams, one person from MLB.com and another from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown compete in a tournament bracket through four rounds of MLB historical trivia, all in the name of crowning the most knowledgeable employee in all of baseball and donating a total of $190,000 to various team charities.
To determine which staffer would have the honor of representing each club, all 32 teams launched an internal trivia challenge, with the best performer winning the chance to fly to MLB Network headquarters in Secaucus, New Jersey, to participate in Baseball IQ.
The Diamondbacks sent dbTV Graphics Supervisor Josh DeFamio, who is playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation.
A native of Camden, New Jersey who added to his knowledge of East Coast teams upon moving west to attend Arizona State University, DeFamio explains his fascination with baseball statistics: “I’ve always been good at remembering stuff, remembering lists. Categorizing memories. Baseball seemed perfect for that kind of stuff.”
DeFamio worked for the Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies and scoreboard manufacturer Daktronics before returning to Arizona prior to the 2008 season, where he has been ever since.
DeFamio won his Round One matchup against Houston Astros ticket sales representative Ben Coburn when Coburn was unable to name nine of the 20 players with the most career stolen bases since 1901.
The final score of DeFamio’s Round One game was Diamondbacks 20, Astros three.
DeFamio next faces off against Cincinnati Reds scoreboard operator Rich Linville, who defeated Pitsburgh Pirates account manager Steve Morse in his first-round matchup.
MLB Network has not yet announced air dates for Round Two.
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