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

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Today's grid allowed me to dive into one of my favorite factoids I learned recently because of I.G. A couple of weeks ago, the Brewers reliever Jerry Augustine popped into my head (I think it was the "pitched at least one game" and I did a bit of background on him and turns out he spent his entire 10 year career with the Brew Crew, but most interestingly, he was a product of UW-LaCrosse's program. I didn't attend UW-L, but I was across the river at WSU in the early '90s and spent a few fun nights in that beer-sotted college town. When I saw Augustine played there, I dug deeper and found a couple of familiar (if faintly) names for Twins fans--Tom Klawitter and current Triple A pitcher Caleb Boushley also played their college ball there.
 

Twins Alert on the Grid.

- Maligned mid80s Closer (1%)
- Tragic (1%)
- Blackjack (22%)

Overall though perhaps my highest Rarity Score ever, 277%. I would guess that number will go down throughout the day.

I could only think of 1 Reds career .300 BA, and I wasn't even sure the All Time Hit Leader qualifies, but he does. For the Pitcher category I used someone more known as a terrific Met.

Perhaps if I had gone with a Twins HoFer, I could have gotten to 300.
 

Ope3 said:
Twins Alert on the Grid.

- Maligned mid80s Closer (1%)
- Tragic (1%)
- Blackjack (22%)

Overall though perhaps my highest Rarity Score ever, 277%. I would guess that number will go down throughout the day.

I could only think of 1 Reds career .300 BA, and I wasn't even sure the All Time Hit Leader qualifies, but he does. For the Pitcher category I used someone more known as a terrific Met.

Perhaps if I had gone with a Twins HoFer, I could have gotten to 300.
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Not my finest rarity scores on the Twins today, went with a couple obvious ones

-Lefty Starter who was over the "Hill" when he came here for a season (5%) - I really thought this would score a little better than 5%
- #29
- Dick Bremer's long time partner in the booth
 


FYI - There is a Bonus Grid today:

Immaculate Grid: Baseball

Put your baseball knowledge to the test! Immaculate Grid is a daily trivia game powered by Sports Reference. Come back for a new MLB grid challenge every day!
www.immaculategrid.com
 


We had a lot of similarities today Ope-Rose, Seaver, Blyleven (as a Pirate)-that led me to a score of 210, as with you, likely my highest score for an immaculate board.

As for the Twins:
-early ‘80s closer who was a fire starter not a fireman)
-mid ‘70s standout whose life was tragically cut short while with another team
-cup of coffee pitcher for Twins whose notoriety here involved an Emory board
 


coolhandgopher said:
We had a lot of similarities today Ope-Rose, Seaver, Blyleven (as a Pirate)-that led me to a score of 210, as with you, likely my highest score for an immaculate board.

As for the Twins:
-early ‘80s closer who was a fire starter not a fireman)
-mid ‘70s standout whose life was tragically cut short while with another team
-cup of coffee pitcher for Twins whose notoriety here involved an Emory board
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Throughout the day, my score has dropped to a still gaudy 266.

Looking at the.300 career BA list, the Twins franchise including their first 60 years as the Senators, has at least 12 enshrined in Cooperstown.
 
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Yesterday’s NFL board (#365) had me checking if it was Adrian Peterson’s birthday—he would have worked for all 9 squares on the grid.
 



coolhandgopher said:
Yesterday’s NFL board (#365) had me checking if it was Adrian Peterson’s birthday—he would have worked for all 9 squares on the grid.
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I think there was one on the Baseball grid where either Randy Johnson and/or Nolan Ryan worked for all or like 8 of 9.
 

Twins alert on the grid today. I broke my own personal rarity record by getting a .05% on a forgettable utility infielder from the mid-late 2000's
 

Gophers1992 said:
Twins alert on the grid today. I broke my own personal rarity record by getting a .05% on a forgettable utility infielder from the mid-late 2000's
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- "Mongo" 0.4%
- Courtesy Harry Caray, "Last name means 'devil' in German. 1%.
- Co AL RoY in 1979. 0.8%
 




Breakin' The Plane said:
Guy who just played 3rd last week at .04
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I can't believe I already forgot that one, even though I commented about the Grid Factor on the Twins In Season Thread. D'oh.

He works at 2nd too.

For the White Sox line I used all infielders from the 1919 Black Sox. All 2%. Note, the 2B was never implicated and is in the HoF.
 

I could have cruised towards one of my best all-time scores if not for the %$&* Diamondbacks as one of the teams (although former Twin Eduardo Escobar garnered .8% as their 2B.

For the Twins, these guys combined for 1.13%:
1721965195117.png1721965276462.png
1721965332498.png
 

Twins alert on the Grid. I eschewed going for rarity.

Tigers - Pitched in the game yesterday against his former team. (4%)

Red Sox - While in college at St John's was involved in an epic pitching dual with Ron Darling (Yale). Link below. (5%)

Brewers - HoF (41%)

www.espn.com

The greatest college baseball game ever: 'The heartache is what made it more memorable'

Two future major league star pitchers squared off in the college baseball postseason 40 years ago. One pitched no-hit ball for 11 innings. The other got the win.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 

Ope3 said:
Twins alert on the Grid. I eschewed going for rarity.

Tigers - Pitched in the game yesterday against his former team. (4%)

Red Sox - While in college at St John's was involved in an epic pitching dual with Ron Darling (Yale). Link below. (5%)

Brewers - HoF (41%)

www.espn.com

The greatest college baseball game ever: 'The heartache is what made it more memorable'

Two future major league star pitchers squared off in the college baseball postseason 40 years ago. One pitched no-hit ball for 11 innings. The other got the win.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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Tigers: This reliever had us boogie-ing in ‘87 (1%)

Red Sox: This ‘70s fireman had us hungry for Soup (1%)

Brewers: Recently DFA’ed pitcher who I learned was a UW-Lacrosse alum (.05%)
 

I doubt I would have survived today's Rays/Nats cube if Denard Span has not been in studio for this Twins series. I had already used Nelson Cruz for Rays/Mariners.
 

Ope3 said:
I doubt I would have survived today's Rays/Nats cube if Denard Span has not been in studio for this Twins series. I had already used Nelson Cruz for Rays/Mariners.
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I scuffled through the Rays category and ended up missing on Rays/Cards. Nelson Cruz was my guy for Rays/Nats and the recent trade of Arozarena salvaged the top square but ultimately couldn't achieve immaculate status.
 

coolhandgopher said:
I scuffled through the Rays category and ended up missing on Rays/Cards. Nelson Cruz was my guy for Rays/Nats and the recent trade of Arozarena salvaged the top square but ultimately couldn't achieve immaculate status.
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Afterwards, I realized Span fits for Ray/M's too.

Rays/Cards, I knew Troy Percival worked. It's not from any memory of Percival pitching for St Louis, but from studying the 300 Save guys a while ago. It's cheesy because he never even had 1 Save for the Cardinals.

Only one I have missed on throughout July is Tigers/Rockies. Wound up taking a shot on LaTroy Hawkins. Fail. Pitched for Colorado, not Detroit.

Too bad I didn't fall back on the 300 Save Club. Todd Jones would have counted as a Tiger/Rockie.
 
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I was excited to bust my Terry Felton cherry on the Grid today.

That's all--and yes, excitement these days ain't what it used to be.
 

Ope3 said:
Afterwards, I realized Span fits for Ray/M's too.

Rays/Cards, I knew Troy Percival worked. It's not from any memory of Percival pitching for St Louis, but from studying the 300 Save guys a while ago. It's cheesy because he never even had 1 Save for the Cardinals.

Only one I have missed on throughout July is Tigers/Rockies. Wound up taking a shot on LaTroy Hawkins. Fail. Pitched for Colorado, not Detroit.

Too bad I didn't fall back on the 300 Save Club. Todd Jones would have counted as a Tiger/Rockie.
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There's a former Twin from the Bomba Squad that was also a Tiger and Rockie.
 


Twins Alert on the Grid:

White Sox: Ken Brett - 0.2%
Rockies: Denny Hocking - 0.5%
Shortstop: Houston Jimenez - 0.2%

With the other Rockies-Royals all I could think of was Bret Saberhagen (9%) and even that took tremendous thought. Rockies foreign player I just plugged Larry Walker (12%) before Morneau entered my mind, so not much in terms of rarity for me today.

For a Royal Shortstop I did use George Brett (6%) allowing me to hit the Bret(t) Trifecta to go along with brother Ken & Sabes.
 

Ope3 said:
Twins Alert on the Grid:

White Sox: Ken Brett - 0.2%
Rockies: Denny Hocking - 0.5%
Shortstop: Houston Jimenez - 0.2%

With the other Rockies-Royals all I could think of was Bret Saberhagen (9%) and even that took tremendous thought. Rockies foreign player I just plugged Larry Walker (12%) before Morneau entered my mind, so not much in terms of rarity for me today.

For a Royal Shortstop I did use George Brett (6%) allowing me to hit the Bret(t) Trifecta to go along with brother Ken & Sabes.
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Hey, Houston Jimenez was my shortstop also!

White Sox: Glenn Borgmann (.2%)
Rockies: Michael Cuddyer (20%--I knew I was going to get a big score here, but he is my Mom's favorite all-time Twin, so I did it for Ma)

I thought I was going to say goodbye to my perfect August less than a week into the month due to Rockies/Royals, but after sitting on that square a long time, I had trace memories of Denny Hocking as a Royal and lo and behold, I maintained perfection (another .2%'er).

Today's grid was a fun one--no Twins, but my baseball card collection from the '70s/'80s really came to life--I'll reveal later today/tomorrow my choices.
 

Finally following up on yesterday's grid--I was happy to utilize the following players:

* Both of Earl Weaver's famous platoon, Gary Roenicke and John Lowenstein
* Two of the famed Red Sox outfielders from the '70s (Dewey Evans and Freddie Lynn)
* Along with Dewey, the other slugging Evans from the era (and hero to the '87 Twins championship drive), Darrell
* The karate-kicking Dave Rozema whose career was curtailed due to a mis-aimed kick in a bench clearer between the Tigers and Twins
* Two of the warhorses of '70s pitchers-Fergie Jenkins and Phil Niekro
* Finally, one of the all-time aberration seasons, Jim Lonborg--'67 Cy Young winner. In that year, he struck out 246 (next highest career number: 143) wins=22 (never eclipsed 20 again, although got close with 18 and 17) and 273 innings. I don't know his full story, but subsequent seasons with the BoSox were injury-marred, he was shuttled off to the Brewers for a season, and then he had a mini- redemptive run in the mid/late '70s with the Phillies.
 

coolhandgopher said:
I thought I was going to say goodbye to my perfect August less than a week into the month due to Rockies/Royals, but after sitting on that square a long time, I had trace memories of Denny Hocking as a Royal and lo and behold, I maintained perfection (another .2%'er).
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My perfect August is toast. No chance on Arizona/30 SBs.
 

Ope3 said:
My perfect August is toast. No chance on Arizona/30 SBs.
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I took a gamble on Tony Womack and got lucky. I knew he could run but I'll admit I was shocked when I checked baseball reference and saw that he had 72 steals in 1999. Not bad for a guy who wasn't known to get on base a ton.
 

Gophers1992 said:
I took a gamble on Tony Womack and got lucky. I knew he could run but I'll admit I was shocked when I checked baseball reference and saw that he had 72 steals in 1999. Not bad for a guy who wasn't known to get on base a ton.
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I'm pretty oblivious on SBs post early 1990s, for 2 reasons. My baseball card collecting came to a halt and stealing bases in general became a much lower priority. That makes for a black hole especially for the COL-MIA-ARZ-TB franchises.

This century overall for MLB beyond Ichiro, Acuna Jr & now De La Cruz, I'm stumped.

Buxton's career high is only 29.
 

Ope3 said:
I'm pretty oblivious on SBs post early 1990s, for 2 reasons. My baseball card collecting came to a halt and stealing bases in general became a much lower priority. That makes for a black hole especially for the COL-MIA-ARZ-TB franchises.

This century overall for MLB beyond Ichiro, Acuna Jr & now De La Cruz, I'm stumped.

Buxton's career high is only 29.
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I done got got by D-Backs/30 SB's too--IMO, it was a category of sadism by the Grid proprietors. I took a stab with Steve Finley but it wasn't to be. Surprised to see Paul Goldschmidt among the 7(!) D-Backs who have eclipsed the mark of 30 SB's.
 

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