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

[Ope3]

Twins Alert on the Grid today. Warning, too early for Kepler in the Phillies combo.

Phils - St Cloud St / 2%
1B - 1979 All Star / 0.2%
RoY - Tanning Bed Mishap / 12%

Yesterday's Clues were, Jim Eisenreich, Roy Smalley (hack, one game at 1B for the Twins career) & Marty Cordova.

Back to Back Twins on the Grid Alert. I can't ever recall that happening.

With the Rays/30 SB category it was all I could do to come up with Carl Crawford, 48% so I didn't feel any urge to go Rarity hunting.

A's - Sonny Gray / 19%
30 SB - Rod Carew / 39%
OF - Downtown Darrell Brown / 0.02%

It took me several attempts to spell "Darrell" correctly. Had to punch in "Brown" and scroll to find the early HHH Dome legend.

 

[Ope3]

Yet another Twins Grid Alert, 3rd in 7 days.

Bucs / 2006 whirlwind rookie campaign on the bump. 20%

Snakes / Os # 1 Draft Pick. Reliever. 0.8%.

40WAR / 1975 World Series stalwart. 0.2%.

 

[coolhandgopher]

Yet another Twins Grid Alert, 3rd in 7 days.

Bucs / 2006 whirlwind rookie campaign on the bump. 20%

Snakes / Os # 1 Draft Pick. Reliever. 0.8%.

40WAR / 1975 World Series stalwart. 0.2%.

Bucs: Mendoza-esque SS from the ‘80s who shares his given name with a MLB city (.005%)

Snakes: Really tall relief pitcher who came over from Arizona and was quite effective (1%)

40 WAR: Big Sexy (.9%)

Also found spots for Puck, Eduardo Escobar, and Lefty Carlton today.

 

[Ope3]

Bucs: Mendoza-esque SS from the ‘80s who shares his given name with a MLB city (.005%)

Snakes: Really tall relief pitcher who came over from Arizona and was quite effective (1%)

40 WAR: Big Sexy (.9%)

Also found spots for Puck, Eduardo Escobar, and Lefty Carlton today.

Bucs - Houston???

I also used Kirby (2B hack) and Eduardo.

 

[coolhandgopher]

Bucs - Houston???

I also used Kirby (2B hack) and Eduardo.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTMFyZiIRE7r4BpHfn8dmZ0_xkw52doUWdbk_Y3QGJoRQ&s

 

[coolhandgopher]

No Twins category today, but opportunities for former Twins abound—I was able to use Olivia, Castino, Carew, Puck, and Nettles for various spots on the board.

 

[atsgopher]

Got me a 6. Thought I was gonna do better being clever with the Sisler. Kudos to whoever is getting those top 5 scores. I think I limit out if this one can’t beat 6.

 

[Ope3]

View attachment 35197
Got me a 6. Thought I was gonna do better being clever with the Sisler. Kudos to whoever is getting those top 5 scores. I think I limit out if this one can’t beat 6.

Impressive.

I could only muster 21, despite Willie Banks getting 0.02% as a Cubs pitcher. Sweet Music gets 0.1% in the P/6WAR box.

I thought Jeff Kent & Jeff Samardzija would be lower than 7% each on the Giants line.

 

[Ope3]

Shucks, I missed out on a rare chance to use Ice Box Chamberlin today.

Ice Box Chamberlain Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Ice Box Chamberlain. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com

Ice Box had 202 Ks back in 1889. It did take him a staggering 421.2 innings to accomplish that feat. He would hit the 400 mark twice more in his career. Primarily a Righthanded thrower, he did go Southpaw at least once in the same game according to the link.

Seams reasonable once you get over the 420 inning mark, IMO.

 

[atsgopher]

Impressive.

I could only muster 21, despite Willie Banks getting 0.02% as a Cubs pitcher. Sweet Music gets 0.1% in the P/6WAR box.

I thought Jeff Kent & Jeff Samardzija would be lower than 7% each on the Giants line.

I usually don’t hold a candle to you. I don’t have a good handle of the 70s. Which I think is the decade to really know for this. My knowledge is usually either prewar and junk wax baseball card era. I actually had to restart baseball card collecting (just to try and catch up .

If it weren’t for 1994, things would be a whole lot different. I was as crushed as anyone, and really stopped watching and following other than cursory. I was really into the Expos that year as a carryover from the year before. Both Pucket and Knoblauch on threatening the RBI and doubles records. Finally, Tony Gwynn was always one of my favorites….. damn you Baseball. How the world could have been different.

 

[Ope3]

I usually don’t hold a candle to you. I don’t have a good handle of the 70s. Which I think is the decade to really know for this. My knowledge is usually either prewar and junk wax baseball card era. I actually had to restart baseball card collecting (just to try and catch up .

If it weren’t for 1994, things would be a whole lot different. I was as crushed as anyone, and really stopped watching and following other than cursory. I was really into the Expos that year as a carryover from the year before. Both Pucket and Knoblauch on threatening the RBI and doubles records. Finally, Tony Gwynn was always one of my favorites….. damn you Baseball. How the world could have been different.

Today's Grid is a Rarity Hunter's delight. I got 8% and more than half of that was using Wally Pipp for the Yankees 1B.

 

[Ope3]

Came across another fun little baseball trivia game in a different vein today: https://www.dailywalkoff.com/

This is fun, but when there are more than a couple of Washington Senators in play (like today) it's rather challenging.

I can't say I was familiar with Ossie Bluege, though he had a rather stellar career in DC. He also signed Killebrew as a scout and stayed employed with the franchise for more than a decade after the move Bloomington.

Ossie Bluege - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[atsgopher]

Today's Grid is a Rarity Hunter's delight. I got 8% and more than half of that was using Wally Pipp for the Yankees 1B.

This is not a fully true honest grid, but posting to show what the rarity score took.

The parts that were not memory
Ope’s Wally Pipp was a huge benefit. Even still, I thought Ken Phelps played 1st (turns out only 3 games after looking it up.)

Luis Salazar was a cheat, as his 86Topps card was sitting out. I picked it up and looked. I don’t remember him at all. Would have probably had to use Ivan Calderon. Roy Siervers was also a recent card read. Becuase I was going after guys that were around for Grandpa’s Sox teams.

Mickey Scott was one I remember from this question before. Only because I thought he was Mike Scott. Then read about this guy.

The rest I put from memory, but Jack Howell was organically lucky too. I thought he was LF, but instead he only played there a few games as spot duty.

Immaculate Grid 641 9/9:
(from the archives)
Rarity: 2

 

[Ope3]

This is not a fully true honest grid, but posting to show what the rarity score took.

The parts that were not memory
Ope’s Wally Pipp was a huge benefit. Even still, I thought Ken Phelps played 1st (turns out only 3 games after looking it up.)

Luis Salazar was a cheat, as his 86Topps card was sitting out. I picked it up and looked. I don’t remember him at all. Would have probably had to use Ivan Calderon. Roy Siervers was also a recent card read. Becuase I was going after guys that were around for Grandpa’s Sox teams.

Mickey Scott was one I remember from this question before. Only because I thought he was Mike Scott. Then read about this guy.

The rest I put from memory, but Jack Howell was organically lucky too. I thought he was LF, but instead he only played there a few games as spot duty.

Immaculate Grid 641 9/9:
(from the archives)
Rarity: 2

View attachment 35262

Those are some impressive names. Our only match was Wynegar. I think Phelps is the only one I have ever used.

Mine was Twins centric: Blyleven, D Ford, Smalley, Crain, P Munoz & Killebrew.

The other non-Twin was White Sox/LF "Happy" Felsch. He was the Black Sox played by Charlie Sheen in Eight Men Out.

Since Pipp has now dropped to 4% combined with others, the Overall Board is improved to 7.

 

[atsgopher]

Those are some impressive names. Our only match was Wynegar. I think Phelps is the only one I have ever used.

Mine was Twins centric: Blyleven, D Ford, Smalley, Crain, P Munoz & Killebrew.

The other non-Twin was White Sox/LF "Happy" Felsch. He was the Black Sox played by Charlie Sheen in Eight Men Out.

Since Pipp has now dropped to 4% combined with others, the Overall Board is improved to 7.

Good def/ bad off Catchers are a rarity score hunters dream.

They have lengthy careers, on tons of teams, but don’t play enough on any one team to be remembered (except by those of us who also toiled back there).

Once you clued me onto this one, it took me days to to fill the last 2 boxes. Since you gave Pipp, I could only thini of Phelps and Kevin Maas as rare 1Bs. Got lucky he didnt bust me.

I think it’d be great If I could get there organically.

I ran into one player, through a 50s card that will be an awesome answer here someday. I hadn’t heard of him. Figured y’all might like to read this guys bio too…. Including how he died.

Curious if its just me who missed him or is he just one of those guys that flashes and gets lost to history.

Luke Easter

Luke Easter (baseball) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Luke Easter Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Luke Easter. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com

 

[Ope3]

Good def/ bad off Catchers are a rarity score hunters dream.

They have lengthy careers, on tons of teams, but don’t play enough on any one team to be remembered (except by those of us who also toiled back there).

Once you clued me onto this one, it took me days to to fill the last 2 boxes. Since you gave Pipp, I could only thini of Phelps and Kevin Maas as rare 1Bs. Got lucky he didnt bust me.

I think it’d be great If I could get there organically.

I ran into one player, through a 50s card that will be an awesome answer here someday. I hadn’t heard of him. Figured y’all might like to read this guys bio too…. Including how he died.

Curious if its just me who missed him or is he just one of those guys that flashes and gets lost to history.

Luke Easter

Luke Easter (baseball) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Luke Easter Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Luke Easter. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com

For Yankees/1B I didn't think of him until after the fact, but Ron Coomer I'm sure would have fetched a good score. To continue your Catcher theme, Thurman Munson also played a few games at 1B.

I had not heard of Luke Easter. Very interesting history.

 

[Ope3]

A belated, Twins Alert on the Grid, still available in the Previous Grid Section:

Mariners - Bret Boone (3%)
Blue Jays - R.A. Dickey (1%)
Rockies - Pat Neshek (1%)

I was fortunate to keep a perfect January going by correctly placing Ellis Burks as a Rockie-Guard.

Today not perfect. I really thought Rod Carew would fit the First Round Draft Pick/200 Hit Season box.

 

[coolhandgopher]

A belated, Twins Alert on the Grid, still available in the Previous Grid Section:

Mariners - Bret Boone (3%)
Blue Jays - R.A. Dickey (1%)
Rockies - Pat Neshek (1%)

I was fortunate to keep a perfect January going by correctly placing Ellis Burks as a Rockie-Guard.

Today not perfect. I really thought Rod Carew would fit the First Round Draft Pick/200 Hit Season box.

I went with. . .
Mariners: Terry Bulling (.1%)
Blue Jays: Hosken Powell (.3%)
Rockies: the pride of New Ulm, Brian Raabe (.1%)

The Rockies/Guardians was stumping me for a long time, but then finally recalled Jose Mesa played for both franchises.

What really stumped me though, as far as a rarity score went, was the Mariners and 100 runs scored--the obvious (Ichiro, Griffey, Rodriguez, Edgar M.) were there, but I was hunting and let me tell you, between their debut and 1992, runs were hard to come by in the Kingdome! I eventually threw in the towel and went with Ichiro.

And regarding today. . .I'm not going to make you feel better (that #1 draft pick is dangerous territory), but Kirby slotted into the #1 pick/200 hits quite nicely.

 

[coolhandgopher]

Today's Grid is a Rarity Hunter's delight. I got 8% and more than half of that was using Wally Pipp for the Yankees 1B.

I know I'm diving back into territory from days ago, but that was a fun grid and one that brought a 6% score for me. I'm always bemused by the rarity percentages--a quick quiz, who do you imagine garnered the highest percent on the grid that day for me?
Top Row: Ed Figueroa, Bert Blyleven, Thad Bosley
Middle Row: Bucky Dent, Jesse Crain, Rudy Law
Bottom Row: Kevin Maas, Jesus Vega, Harmon Killebrew

 

[Ope3]

And regarding today. . .I'm not going to make you feel better (that #1 draft pick is dangerous territory), but Kirby slotted into the #1 pick/200 hits quite nicely.

The real kick in the butt, I already burned Puck on the RF/200 Hit square.


Molitor would have worked too.

 

[Ope3]

I know I'm diving back into territory from days ago, but that was a fun grid and one that brought a 6% score for me. I'm always bemused by the rarity percentages--a quick quiz, who do you imagine garnered the highest percent on the grid that day for me?
Top Row: Ed Figueroa, Bert Blyleven, Thad Bosley
Middle Row: Bucky Dent, Jesse Crain, Rudy Law
Bottom Row: Kevin Maas, Jesus Vega, Harmon Killebrew

I'm going to guess Rudy Law.

 

[coolhandgopher]

I'm going to guess Rudy Law.

It was Maas, at 2%

 

[Ope3]

It was Maas, at 2%

I knew it wasn't Jesus Vega. Great pull there.

 

[Ope3]

This Mod Squad Collection garners a gaudy 5 Rarity Score on Today's Grid:

Terry Forster
Ken Landreaux
Brian Downing
Ken Brett
Waite Hoyt
Dom DiMaggio
Chick Gandil
Mickey "You're So Fine" Hatcher
Gary Gaetti

There's enough Michael Rooker fans out there to get Gandil to 1%. That's the actor who portrayed him in the Black Sox film "Eight Men Out". Chick was born in St Paul but raised on the West Coast.

 

[Ope3]

On the Baseball Grid I went Rarity Hunting using all Twins. Going in order starting left to right at the top I was under 3 Total until my final 2 on the bottom row.

Brooks Lee / Eric Milton / Chuck Knoblauch
Bob Allison / Jack Morris / Rod Carew
Royce Lee / Walter Johnson / Marty Cordova

The Big Train was 4%. Cordova was a surprising 2%. Still registered a single digit total of 8%.

 

[coolhandgopher]

On the Baseball Grid I went Rarity Hunting using all Twins. Going in order starting left to right at the top I was under 3 Total until my final 2 on the bottom row.

Brooks Lee / Eric Milton / Chuck Knoblauch
Bob Allison / Jack Morris / Rod Carew
Royce Lee / Walter Johnson / Marty Cordova

The Big Train was 4%. Cordova was a surprising 2%. Still registered a single digit total of 8%.

I had a rough day on the Grid—7 of 9, with the no-hitters getting me. When I wasn’t flaying about, I was putting Twins to get use-the first row, vertically (one team) had Puck, Hrbek, and Willie Norwood all sub 1%. I wonder if Olivia would have garnered a lower score than Cordova-I used him in the ROY/All Star category for .4%.

 

[Ope3]

I had a rough day on the Grid—7 of 9, with the no-hitters getting me. When I wasn’t flaying about, I was putting Twins to get use-the first row, vertically (one team) had Puck, Hrbek, and Willie Norwood all sub 1%. I wonder if Olivia would have garnered a lower score than Cordova-I used him in the ROY/All Star category for .4%.

I was surprised that for the No Hitter/Played OF at least 1 Game, there were as many as 70.

I knew only 2 that qualified for sure beforehand. Fernando Valenzuela, because I was at the game he was forced to play OF. That was a 21 inning affair at Wrigley.

Babe Ruth was the other. Even he though didn't record an out, it still qualifies as a combined No No for MLB and Grid purposes. Weird.

The quasi-perfect game that started ... after the Babe punched an umpire

While there are 19 combined no-hitters in Major League history, we can safely say that the one tossed by Babe Ruth and Ernie Shore on June 23, 1917, is unlike any of the others. It doesn't count as one of the 24 perfect games in AL/NL history, but it holds

www.mlb.com

Walter Johnson, actually I took an educated guess. I knew he played more than a few games in the OF as he was also a solid hitter. I just correctly assumed that at least 1 of his 400+ Ws was a No Hitter. Indeed he did, in 1920.

Most of the rest of the 70 were way before my time, except a few...Randy Johnson, Roy Oswalt & Dave Stieb for example. Note to self.

 

[Ope3]

From yesterday's Grid, every time I use this guy and his image pops up, I wonder "Who exactly is that? Must be a wrong photo."



I would think Sparky would lobby Baseball Reference for a more Bronx Zoo era image and beyond.

All Time 'stache.

 

[coolhandgopher]

Twins-Wolves-Vikings trifecta on the grid today! Go hunt those low scores.

 

[Ope3]

Twins-Wolves-Vikings trifecta on the grid today! Go hunt those low scores.

22 overall. Just couldn't think of a rare Met speed demon. Perhaps HoJo could have gotten me sub20.