All Things Immaculate Grid-related (MLB, NBA, NFL)

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Breakin' The Plane said:
There are 33 players in the 3000 hit club. The grid shows that there are 33 possible answers for that square. The lowest career average in the 3000 hit club is Cal Ripken at .276, but even he had a season where he hit .340.
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Thanks for sharing the deductive reasoning approach. Makes sense.
 


Twins on the grid today, went with:
Twins/TB: Rortvedt, catching this past week (1%)
Twins/Royals: two days in a row for Steve Braun (.7%)
40+ WAR: Graig Nettles (.2%)

Also was able to tap two former Twins in the 40+ WAR in Jerry Koosman and Kirby (a long overdue thank you to Ope for reminding me that Puck got some time in at 2B)
 

coolhandgopher said:
Twins on the grid today, went with:
Twins/TB: Rortvedt, catching this past week (1%)
Twins/Royals: two days in a row for Steve Braun (.7%)
40+ WAR: Graig Nettles (.2%)

Also was able to tap two former Twins in the 40+ WAR in Jerry Koosman and Kirby (a long overdue thank you to Ope for reminding me that Puck got some time in at 2B)
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For the Twins picks I went all over the place:

TB - Garza 6%
KC - Ken Brett 1%
+40WAR - George Sisler 0.1% (bulk of his career was as a St Louis Brown then briefly a Washington Senator).

For the general 2B/+40WAR, Knobby gets a 1% rarity.
 



Breakin' The Plane said:
Noticed that there are 365 possibilities today for Reds/Cardinals.
I wonder what two MLB franchises have the most crossover.
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I would guess that's it, given they are 2 of the oldest franchises around, going back to the 1870s. Running some other combos with the Phillies, Cubs, Braves, Dodgers, Giants & Pirates the most I could find was 322.
 

Ope3 said:
I would guess that's it, given they are 2 of the oldest franchises around, going back to the 1870s. Running some other combos with the Phillies, Cubs, Braves, Dodgers, Giants & Pirates the most I could find was 322.
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It was the Phils/Cards that had the 322. Cubs/Cards are at 325. Cubs/Reds 335.
 

Ope3 said:
It was the Phils/Cards that had the 322. Cubs/Cards are at 325. Cubs/Reds 335.
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Ope, I would do this myself if I had the knowledge on how to do so, but which franchise do the Twins have the most shared players with? And if possible to break it down even further, since ‘65?
 



coolhandgopher said:
Ope, I would do this myself if I had the knowledge on how to do so, but which franchise do the Twins have the most shared players with? And if possible to break it down even further, since ‘65?
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Lol. I immediately started on this right after I asked. Because I'm a moron, I just started clicking on grids and looking for ones with the Twins. I got about 2/3rds of the way through before I figured out you can just go to baseballreference and input two (or more) teams and it'll show you the total number of players. Anyway, the top 3 for the Twins are pre-realignment AL East: Boston at 249, Orioles at 241 and Cleveland at 239. Highest NL crossover is the Dodgers at 175. Lowest is Diamondbacks at 46. Most surprising for me was the Brewers at 76 and Houston at only 63.

You can probably do it from 1965 on, but you might have to count that out by hand.
 
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coolhandgopher said:
Ope, I would do this myself if I had the knowledge on how to do so, but which franchise do the Twins have the most shared players with? And if possible to break it down even further, since ‘65?
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Breakin' The Plane said:
Lol. I immediately started on this right after I asked. Because I'm a moron, I just started clicking on grids and looking for ones with the Twins. I got about 2/3rds of the way through before I figured out you can just go to baseballreference and input two (or more) teams and it'll show you the total number of players. Anyway, the top 3 for the Twins are pre-realignment AL East: Boston at 249, Orioles at 241 and Cleveland at 239. Highest NL crossover is the Dodgers at 175. Lowest is Diamondbacks at 46. Most surprising for me was the Brewers at 76 and Houston at only 63.

You can probably do it from 1965 on, but you might have to count that out by hand.
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The Numbers I provided I just was doing Google Search: "How many have played for both the ______ and ______?" Google would just spit out a number that was connected to Baseball Reference output.

BTPs process seems easier.

Brewers have only been around since 1969 (as the Seattle Pilots) and Houston since 1962, while the Twins have been around since 1901 as the Senators, so those numbers seem to be in line.
 

Ope3 said:
The Numbers I provided I just was doing Google Search: "How many have played for both the ______ and ______?" Google would just spit out a number that was connected to Baseball Reference output.

BTPs process seems easier.

Brewers have only been around since 1969 (as the Seattle Pilots) and Houston since 1962, while the Twins have been around since 1901 as the Senators, so those numbers seem to be in line.
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I probably just have it in my head that there should be more tie ins with the Brew Crew because there has been a lot of crossover fairly recently (22 players in the last 10 years).

Edit: Make that 23 players, Kuechel pitched for Milwaukee tonight.
 
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Breakin' The Plane said:
I probably just have it in my head that there should be more tie ins with the Brew Crew because there has been a lot of crossover fairly recently (22 players in the last 10 years).
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That Astros number checks out in my mind—whenever they’ve popped up for the Twins I’ve always struggled to come up with new names (when possible I try not to recycle).

I’d say my favorite teams that pop up for the Twins are the Rangers (natch), Angels, Blue Jays, and Yankees. Some really fun history with the cross-pollination of players with those franchises.
 



I’m in an extended stay at my in-laws and spent last night mining the rosters of the Twins squads from their inception through about 2000. I was especially fascinated by those names of mystery-players from an era when I was earnestly collecting baseball cards and following the Twins religiously but I had little to no recognition of their time with the Twins.

That “dedication” paid off this morning with an overall score of 6% with 8 of 9 squares dedicated to former Twins. 5% went to a notable former Twin who played all 9 positions in a game.
 

coolhandgopher said:
I’m in an extended stay at my in-laws and spent last night mining the rosters of the Twins squads from their inception through about 2000. I was especially fascinated by those names of mystery-players from an era when I was earnestly collecting baseball cards and following the Twins religiously but I had little to no recognition of their time with the Twins.

That “dedication” paid off this morning with an overall score of 6% with 8 of 9 squares dedicated to former Twins. 5% went to a notable former Twin who played all 9 positions in a game.
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I swore Dan Gladden caught once, but I guess he must have just been an emergency catcher who never got in...or I'm completely wrong. So that ruined my immaculate grid, but my Twins line of Keith Atherton, Philip Humber, and Mike Lincoln totaled .587%
 

coolhandgopher said:
I’m in an extended stay at my in-laws and spent last night mining the rosters of the Twins squads from their inception through about 2000. I was especially fascinated by those names of mystery-players from an era when I was earnestly collecting baseball cards and following the Twins religiously but I had little to no recognition of their time with the Twins.

That “dedication” paid off this morning with an overall score of 6% with 8 of 9 squares dedicated to former Twins. 5% went to a notable former Twin who played all 9 positions in a game.
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I didn't start with an intention of going Rarity Hunting, but after 4 cubes and not even on the Twins line I was super low and matched your 6%. I used 7 Twins overall.

Twins Alert:

- Early days of Target Field ace/ 0.8%
- '86 WS Champ 2Ber who later played for the Twins / 1%
- Won a Labor Day spot start for his only W as a Twin in '87 / 0.02%.
 

As I’m quite sure no one else has these Twins on their line, here are my three selections:
Twins/Guardians: Roric Harrison
Twins/Mets: John Pacella
Twins-pitcher: Tom Klawitter (my dusty memory recalls a strong spring training for “The Klaw” that gave way to 7 MLB appearances (2 starts!) and a 6.75 ERA)

Total rarity score for that line is .101

Was also able to utilize Mark Salas, Junior Ortiz, Rick Aguilera, Frankie Rodriguez and of course, Cesar Tovar from the Twins clubhouse. The most fascinating career goes to the Red Sox/Guardians cube however, a player I’ll expound upon later.
 

coolhandgopher said:
As I’m quite sure no one else has these Twins on their line, here are my three selections:
Twins/Guardians: Roric Harrison
Twins/Mets: John Pacella
Twins-pitcher: Tom Klawitter (my dusty memory recalls a strong spring training for “The Klaw” that gave way to 7 MLB appearances (2 starts!) and a 6.75 ERA)

Total rarity score for that line is .101

Was also able to utilize Mark Salas, Junior Ortiz, Rick Aguilera, Frankie Rodriguez and of course, Cesar Tovar from the Twins clubhouse. The most fascinating career goes to the Red Sox/Guardians cube however, a player I’ll expound upon later.
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Following up on my teaser from earlier today, the most fascinating player today occupied the Guardians/Red Sox square. Here are a few fascinating tidbits from his career:
* A strong candidate for having the best day ever on a baseball field, hurling a no-hitter and smacking two home runs on June 23, 1971.
* He was traded for two HOF’ers in his career, Steve Carlton and Dennis Eckersley (he was also traded for Reggie Smith, a Hall of Very Good shoo-in)
* He was the winning pitcher in Game 6 of the ‘75 World Series (aka, the Carlton Fisk waving home run game)
* He played in the Little League World Series, Babe Ruth World Series, and MLB World Series.
* His ‘82 Topps card (which I think was in every third pack I opened that year) made him a dead ringer for Doc on The Love Boat (see for yourself!) IMG_0283.jpeg

IMG_0284.jpeg
 

coolhandgopher said:
Following up on my teaser from earlier today, the most fascinating player today occupied the Guardians/Red Sox square. Here are a few fascinating tidbits from his career:
* A strong candidate for having the best day ever on a baseball field, hurling a no-hitter and smacking two home runs on June 23, 1971.
* He was traded for two HOF’ers in his career, Steve Carlton and Dennis Eckersley (he was also traded for Reggie Smith, a Hall of Very Good shoo-in)
* He was the winning pitcher in Game 6 of the ‘75 World Series (aka, the Carlton Fisk waving home run game)
* He played in the Little League World Series, Babe Ruth World Series, and MLB World Series.
* His ‘82 Topps card (which I think was in every third pack I opened that year) made him a dead ringer for Doc on The Love Boat (see for yourself!) View attachment 32043
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I always thought it was a baller move for a pitcher (especially one coming off several years in the AL/DH) to have Wise's baseball card depicting him wearing a batting helmet.

Looking at his stats he actually was pretty skilled as a hitter early in his career with the Phillies. Had 6 HRs one season.

Obviously his time in the Junior Circuit led to atrophy of his ability at the plate, he was no longer a threat.
 

coolhandgopher said:
Following up on my teaser from earlier today, the most fascinating player today occupied the Guardians/Red Sox square. Here are a few fascinating tidbits from his career:
* A strong candidate for having the best day ever on a baseball field, hurling a no-hitter and smacking two home runs on June 23, 1971.
* He was traded for two HOF’ers in his career, Steve Carlton and Dennis Eckersley (he was also traded for Reggie Smith, a Hall of Very Good shoo-in)
* He was the winning pitcher in Game 6 of the ‘75 World Series (aka, the Carlton Fisk waving home run game)
* He played in the Little League World Series, Babe Ruth World Series, and MLB World Series.
* His ‘82 Topps card (which I think was in every third pack I opened that year) made him a dead ringer for Doc on The Love Boat (see for yourself!) View attachment 32043

View attachment 32044
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You know, upon further reflection and with the viewing of a Barney Miller episode recently, I would say Wise was more of a doppelgänger for that show’s Arthur Dietrich:
IMG_0286.jpeg
 

My fascination (obsession?) with the Rangers franchise continued today—when I came to the “only one franchise” square, I couldn’t think of any current Rangers and all the former Rangers were notable for their peripatetic ways-until Rusty Greer popped into my mind. I figured this would garner a really low score, but the solid corner outfielder who was never an All-Star from 25 years ago put me at 7%. So, I took a look and the only position player exclusive to the Rangers who has played over 1000 games with Texas was Greer; #2 on the list is Joe Lovitto who played with them from ‘72-75 (not including current players on the roster). In regards to pitchers, the two with most games are Roger Pavlik (131, 1992-98) and Matt Harrison (135, 2008-15).

I considered that perhaps I was too skewed in my view of the Rangers and longevity, so I compared them with the Twins-a quick recollection brings the names Puckett, Hrbek, Mauer, Radke, Laudner to mind (not to mention lesser lights like Randy Bush and Gene Larkin). Thinking of other mid level franchises names like Brett, Frank White, Trammell, Whitaker, Gwynn, Stargell, Bagwell, Biggio flash to mind. Rusty Greer was a nice player but not nearly on the same plain as this list.

So, if your kid makes the big leagues and lands with the Rangers, advise him to rent, not buy.
 

coolhandgopher said:
My fascination (obsession?) with the Rangers franchise continued today—when I came to the “only one franchise” square, I couldn’t think of any current Rangers and all the former Rangers were notable for their peripatetic ways-until Rusty Greer popped into my mind. I figured this would garner a really low score, but the solid corner outfielder who was never an All-Star from 25 years ago put me at 7%. So, I took a look and the only position player exclusive to the Rangers who has played over 1000 games with Texas was Greer; #2 on the list is Joe Lovitto who played with them from ‘72-75 (not including current players on the roster). In regards to pitchers, the two with most games are Roger Pavlik (131, 1992-98) and Matt Harrison (135, 2008-15).

I considered that perhaps I was too skewed in my view of the Rangers and longevity, so I compared them with the Twins-a quick recollection brings the names Puckett, Hrbek, Mauer, Radke, Laudner to mind (not to mention lesser lights like Randy Bush and Gene Larkin). Thinking of other mid level franchises names like Brett, Frank White, Trammell, Whitaker, Gwynn, Stargell, Bagwell, Biggio flash to mind. Rusty Greer was a nice player but not nearly on the same plain as this list.

So, if your kid makes the big leagues and lands with the Rangers, advise him to rent, not buy.
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I figured today would be a banner day for you with the Rangers.

On that line I went with Ferguson Jenkins, Frank Howard and my guy I waxed nostalgic about in post #280 former AV/Missota stalwart...Dan Smith.

I had a very early tee time this morning, and was already awake when the new board was unveiled promptly at 5:00 AM. When I plugged in Smith he popped up at 2%, and I was thinking WTF, how can he be that high?!? Turned out there were barely 1000 entries at that point. He went down to 1%, within a few seconds and 0.5%, when I was done. Just checked again and he's sitting at 0.02%.
 

Ope3 said:
I figured today would be a banner day for you with the Rangers.

On that line I went with Ferguson Jenkins, Frank Howard and my guy I waxed nostalgic about in post #280 former AV/Missota stalwart...Dan Smith.

I had a very early tee time this morning, and was already awake when the new board was unveiled promptly at 5:00 AM. When I plugged in Smith he popped up at 2%, and I was thinking WTF, how can he be that high?!? Turned out there were barely 1000 entries at that point. He went down to 1%, within a few seconds and 0.5%, when I was done. Just checked again and he's sitting at 0.02%.
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I just haven’t been able to get Smith to stick in my head, but I did see a name that I will be able to use for the future—Dick Such played exclusively for the Rangers.
 

coolhandgopher said:
I just haven’t been able to get Smith to stick in my head, but I did see a name that I will be able to use for the future—Dick Such played exclusively for the Rangers.
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He was actually a New Washington Senator, so that still counts.
 

My Board of Integrity today was nothing to write home about, as I used Fergie Jenkins in the 10+W/Canuck Cube, though I had a feeling Scott Diamond would have qualified. Only Twin I used was Morneau in the 10+HR/Canuck Cube.

Afterwards I did validate Diamond would have been a success having been born in Guelph, CA and winning 12 games in 2012. So of course I used another device for a Twins Only effort and using Morneau elsewhere.

Top: 10+HR / 10+Ws / ALL STAR
Side: Blue Jays
Born Outside US
Born in Canada

Winfield .8% / Morris 1% / Molitor / 2%
Oliva .4% / Al Williams .01% / Guzman .2%
Koskie 2% / Diamond .4% / Morneau 11%

18 Rarity Total.
 

Ope3 said:
My Board of Integrity today was nothing to write home about, as I used Fergie Jenkins in the 10+W/Canuck Cube, though I had a feeling Scott Diamond would have qualified. Only Twin I used was Morneau in the 10+HR/Canuck Cube.

Afterwards I did validate Diamond would have been a success having been born in Guelph, CA and winning 12 games in 2012. So of course I used another device for a Twins Only effort and using Morneau elsewhere.

Top: 10+HR / 10+Ws / ALL STAR
Side: Blue Jays
Born Outside US
Born in Canada

Winfield .8% / Morris 1% / Molitor / 2%
Oliva .4% / Al Williams .01% / Guzman .2%
Koskie 2% / Diamond .4% / Morneau 11%

18 Rarity Total.
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I panicked when I saw the Canada category--I was able to recall Koskie (placed him the same spot as you), but totally forgot about Morneau. Jesse Crain would have worked too.

Nice pull with Al Williams--I remember on the back of one of his baseball cards, it mentioned he fought with the Sandinistas in the Nicaraguan Civil War--looking at his biography page, it confirms he missed the 1976-78 seasons due to this reason. I'm a bit surprised he received a visa to be able to play MLB.

Edit: Did a little bit more digging and found this article from the NY TImes--Williams certainly had a colorful path to the majors, I wonder where life has taken him after his stint with the Twins.
 
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coolhandgopher said:
I panicked when I saw the Canada category--I was able to recall Koskie (placed him the same spot as you), but totally forgot about Morneau. Jesse Crain would have worked too.

Nice pull with Al Williams--I remember on the back of one of his baseball cards, it mentioned he fought with the Sandinistas in the Nicaraguan Civil War--looking at his biography page, it confirms he missed the 1976-78 seasons due to this reason. I'm a bit surprised he received a visa to be able to play MLB.

Edit: Did a little bit more digging and found this article from the NY TImes--Williams certainly had a colorful path to the majors, I wonder where life has taken him after his stint with the Twins.
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The Billy Gardner quote is fantastic about how, "After jungle fighting, pitching is like a day at the beach."
 

Curveball so to speak on the Pitcher/Silver Slugger category. I guessed right going with a Braves stalwart from their 90s-00s run.
 

Ope3 said:
Curveball so to speak on the Pitcher/Silver Slugger category. I guessed right going with a Braves stalwart from their 90s-00s run.
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I used the former Royals ace who ended up being quite well-traveled. I did learn that former Twin Mark Portugal once won the Silver Slugger while he was with the Giants (obviously not a Cy Young winner).
 

Ope3 said:
Curveball so to speak on the Pitcher/Silver Slugger category. I guessed right going with a Braves stalwart from their 90s-00s run.
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Same here, although I first checked to see if Mike Hampton had ever won a Cy Young.
 

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