No, since the batter still strikes out on the third strike, even if they safely make it to first.
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A strikeout doesn’t always end in an out. On a passed ball/wild pitch, a swinging batter must be thrown out. You can strike out everybody yet allow an infinite number of runs.
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Pitchers can walk and get outs by picking off runners. Home runs can be discounted if the batter doesn’t touch all bases.
I’m not absolutely sure what the rule is on this. Suppose the batter has two strikes, and a runner is caught stealing to make the third out of the inning. Does that same batter lead off the next inning with a 0-0 count?
If that’s correct, then two more strikes makes four in that at-bat, without striking out.
ETA: Beaten to the punch, I see.
Alternate answer for #9:
Before the Wildcard, only the division winners could go to the playoffs. If the top two teams in 1 division were tied at the end of the season, they had a playoff game or series to determine which one would go to the playoffs (which is why some players in the 80’s played 165 games or so.)
Therefore, you can have the best record in the regular season (although tied with another team in the division), lose the tiebreaker games, and not go to the playoffs.
#5: You can play for two different teams on the same day:
Joel Youngblood
On August 4, 1982, Youngblood became the only player in history to get hits for two different teams in two different cities on the same day. After Youngblood had driven in two runs with a single in the third inning for the Mets in an afternoon game at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs,[2] he was replaced in center field by Mookie Wilson, and traded to the Montreal Expos for a player to be named later (On August 16, the Expos sent Tom Gorman to the Mets to complete the deal). Youngblood rushed to Philadelphia in order to be with his new team, and hit a seventh inning single.[3] Interestingly, the two pitchers he hit safely against, Ferguson Jenkins of the Cubs and Steve Carlton of the Philadelphia Phillies, are both in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
So, there’s several ways to answer this:
A. The pitcher beats the team he is then traded to.
B. In the rain delay scenario as above, he could pitch against himself in the same game. Interestingly, he could beat and lose to himself.
C. In the 6th inning, the trade is approved and he switches to the other dugout.
Heh I think I figured out the secret for these questions: try to find stuff that happened ~1984. 
The tiebreaker game is considered part of the regular season so you would no longer have the best record in the regular season.
Doesn’t have to be the 9th inning; as long as the pitcher’s team goes ahead in the bottom of the inning and keeps the lead for the rest of the game.
Unlike most of the other ‘facts’, this has actually happened many times in MLB. Cite
The only way I can think of for #9 to work is if the exhibition season is counted.
Nope, because the 7th guy who “stepped to the plate” didn’t actually have a plate appearance, and he would lead off the next inning.
What made this more pernicious (Reds fan back then) was that the Reds were a mere 1/2 game behind the Dodgers when the strike hit, and had a game to make up. Instead of giving them a shot at tying for the 1st-half division crown (right before the 2nd half officially started up) and potentially playing a tiebreaker game with LA, Kuhn and Co. just automatically gave the 1st half title to the Dodgers with absolutely no considerations of fairness. If I was Cincy I would have filed a formal protest or something.
Note that the outfielder in question would be very foolish to do so, unless he had a cannon for an arm and the guy at 3rd was one of the Molina brothers/clones. I’ve seen outfielders shy away from the ball in such situations.
I’d think that the Commish would try to do anything to let St. Louis tie for the division (playing 2 straight doubleheaders if necessary). He’d probably just let them play a 3 game series (again with a doubleheader) for the sake of fairness.
Nope - that’s not a playoff game, it’s the 163rd regular season game, and stats accumulated during that game count towards players’ regular season totals. As such, the winner then would have the best regular season record AND go to the playoffs.
These being riddles and all, I think it’s OK to bend the verbiage to our whim. So I think this is easier than figuring out how to get pickoffs to work:
The Pirates pitcher, Joe Smith, comes into the tied game in the 9th inning. Sweat beads down Smith’s nervous neck. Strike one! He gathers himself for the next pitch. Strike two! Smith takes a deep breath with the game on the line. Then a big swing, and crack the ball goes deep. Way back, way back…the fans are on their feet…the fielder jumps at the wall, aaaaaand…IT’S GONE! IT’S GONE! HOME RUN!
The team rushes the field in delight and hoists Smith up on their shoulders. Why? 'Cause Pitcher Smith was at bat. The pitcher won the game without throwing a pitch.
Right, and #1 says “come to the plate,” not record a plate appearance. (I’m assuming the OP’s transcription is accurate.)
Already answered, but I’d point out this also happened in the strike-shortened 1994 season, when there were no playoffs. The Montreal Expos and the NY Yankees had the best records in their respective leagues, and of course neither made the playoffs because there weren’t any.
Which really sucked for the Expos, considering their fortunes in the following years.
I agree that #10 only works if you count a game with no bottom of the ninth (or a walkoff-shortened ninth) as something other than a nine-inning game. Therefore, home wins, which are presumably slightly more prevalent than visitor wins, won’t go [exactly] nine innings. Plus extra inning games (they go longer than nine) and rainouts, and there you go.
–Cliffy
It seems pretty clear to me that that’s what they’re going after here. I don’t think it’s particularly weaselly, either. An inning in baseball has two halves. A game with the home team winning may have gone into the ninth inning, but was finished after 8.5 innings. The actual quote from the presenter is “All baseball games are scheduled to go nine innings, so why is it, most games don’t go nine innings?” It’s a bit playing with semantics, but I think it’s fair.
President Johnny Gentle’s got it for the four called strikes fact. #1 is a tough one, but I think CJJ* nailed it.
Apparently everybody does not know this, because it sure as hell is not true in baseball. The home field advantage in major league baseball is something like five percent.
Where’d you get 25% from?
There is nothing in your link to support your contention, unless you want to point to the final paragraph, where they point out the 2003 Rockies’ home record, but qualify it as “astonishing” (especially in light of every single other piece of data they give that completely refutes your statement).
Adding the prefatory statement makes it even less accurate than it was. Baseball games are not scheduled in terms of innings, except in a tiny number of cases in certain minor leagues when a makeup doubleheader is (re)scheduled as two seven-inning games. (Or to be strictly accurate, it is rescheduled as two games in which the Exception clause of Rule 4.10(a) is activated. Such games can still be shorter or longer than regulation. I saw a “scheduled” seven-inning game once that actually went 16.) Otherwise, the schedule says nothing about innings at all. Games are scheduled to be played on given dates, between given teams, at given sites, beginning (but not ending) at given times, and according to given league rules. It is those rules which determine how many innings end up being necessary to resolve the game, and that can’t be known until it actually happens. So whether the game goes more or less than or exactly nine, it’s not a matter of the schedule.
From your link: