SABR 54: Scott Kent comes home with plenty of hardware in Trivia Contest
Scott Kent of Celina, Texas, was the star of the show during the SABR 54 Trivia Contest, earning three plaques for his baseball recall prowess during a captivating Closing Ceremonies on Saturday, August 1, 2026, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Kent, from Celina, Texas, captured his second career individual trivia crown, besting two-time champion Rob Rafal of Douglaston, New York, in the final. Rafal built a big lead early in the game, but Kent took advantage of both “daily doubles” on the Jeopardy!-style board — correctly answering questions about Jim Brosnan’s memoir The Long Season and John Updike’s famous quote about Ted Williams, “Gods do not answer letters” — to secure the victory.
In the team final, Kent and Rafal joined forces with Mark Kanter of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and Vince Guerrieri of Elyria, Ohio, to win it all. With a commanding 52-point lead entering the final round, they responded to the crowd’s wishes and nearly went “all in” to give the runners-up — R.J. Lesch, David Raglin, Stephen Roney, and Mark Simon — a fighting chance on a question about hitting streaks. But the champions answered correctly about Bill Dahlen in 1894.
Kanter added to his total with his 14th team trivia championship, an all-time record in the SABR Trivia Contest dating back to 1982, while Rafal won his eighth team title, tied for second place on the leaderboard with Bill Carle, who advanced to the semifinals of the individual contest at SABR 54.
Kent’s third honor of the night came in a “Name That Player” game based on identifying Cleveland-related players using only limited screenshots of their Baseball-Reference stat lines or Hall of Fame plaques. The other finalists were Rafal and Derek Bain of Forked River, New Jersey. Kent also won the inaugural edition of “Name That Player” at the 2025 convention in Texas.
In the “Immaculate Feud” competition, based on the popular Immaculate Grid game produced by Baseball Reference, the winning team was Lesch of Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Raglin, of McLean, Virginia; Roney, of Ladera Ranch, California; Simon, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and Richard Smiley of Chicago, Illinois.
The other Immaculate Feud finalists were William Butler, Gene Horowitz, David Kaiser, and Stew Thornley.
The SABR Trivia Contest was moderated by five-time champion Dan Massey. Massey and T. Scott Brandon wrote and edited the questions, and Larry Hayes served as a fact-checker. Assistance in evening sessions at SABR 54 was given by David Firstman, Paul Zwirecki, Tasha Rivera, and Damian Begley. Massey assembled the game boards of the semifinal and final rounds.
To view a list of previous SABR Trivia Contest winners, click here.
For more coverage of SABR 54, visit SABR.org/convention.
Originally published: August 4, 2026. Last Updated: August 4, 2026.