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

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Ope3 said:
Does this cat look like he was ever capable of a 56 SB season? (1987)

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I had forgotten how much of a threat he was until seeing a re-air of a Costas interview he did with Gwynn & Carew together in Cooperstown. Great show.

15 Batting Crowns combined. Wow.
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A great point guard for SDSU back in the day too, earning All-WAC honors in both sports. Found this snippet on his Wikipedia page:

By the following season in 1979, Gwynn still had not heard from Aztecs baseballcoach Jim Dietz about joining the team after the basketball season.[39] However, an opportunity arose after two outfielders riding bicycles were struck by an automobile and injured, leaving Dietz in need of replacements
 

coolhandgopher said:
A great point guard for SDSU back in the day too, earning All-WAC honors in both sports. Found this snippet on his Wikipedia page:

By the following season in 1979, Gwynn still had not heard from Aztecs baseballcoach Jim Dietz about joining the team after the basketball season.[39] However, an opportunity arose after two outfielders riding bicycles were struck by an automobile and injured, leaving Dietz in need of replacements
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The Costas show touched his time as an Aztec hoopster with some quick highlights (baller) as well as that story about getting more time on the diamond.

Because of his limited time playing baseball before joining the Padres system, he really had to work hard in the minors, instructional leagues etc to catch-up. Gwynn made Carew's acquaintance during that time as the Padres & Angels shared facilities, with Tony soaking as much knowledge as possible from Rodney.

Eventually they became friends too, especially with the Cooperstown connection. Really good show. They had some pretty good Teddy Ballgame stories.
 

Ope3 said:
Does this cat look like he was ever capable of a 56 SB season? (1987)

View attachment 36285

I had forgotten how much of a threat he was until seeing a re-air of a Costas interview he did with Gwynn & Carew together in Cooperstown. Great show.

15 Batting Crowns combined. Wow.
Click to expand...
On YouTube?
 



Strange grid today, with the only criteria for all nine squares being “played in MLB”. I went obscurity hunting from the Twins archives and ended up with a score of 0%.

Twins used: Vic Albert, Mark Funderburk,
Craig Kusick, Terry Bulling, Pete Redfern, Andre David, Rick Sofield, Hosken Powell, and Roger Erickson.
 

coolhandgopher said:
Strange grid today, with the only criteria for all nine squares being “played in MLB”. I went obscurity hunting from the Twins archives and ended up with a score of 0%.

Twins used: Vic Albert, Mark Funderburk,
Craig Kusick, Terry Bulling, Pete Redfern, Andre David, Rick Sofield, Hosken Powell, and Roger Erickson.
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Just came here to post about this. Gridmaker must have the day off.
 

coolhandgopher said:
Strange grid today, with the only criteria for all nine squares being “played in MLB”. I went obscurity hunting from the Twins archives and ended up with a score of 0%.

Twins used: Vic Albert, Mark Funderburk,
Craig Kusick, Terry Bulling, Pete Redfern, Andre David, Rick Sofield, Hosken Powell, and Roger Erickson.
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It is bizarre. Doesn't look any of the other sports followed suit.

I went:

Randy Johnson
Randy Johnson
Randy Johnson (the one that was a Twin)
Gary Serum
Darrell Brown
Pete Filson
Paul Giel
Glenn Borgman
Frank Quilici

Even with the HoF Randy Johnson (0.2%), still a total Rarity Score rounded down to 0.
 







Gophers1992 said:
The WNBA one is. Probably my only chance ever to fill out that whole grid.
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Looking closer each board has a little something wonky. It would have been a good chance to mix up sports, like having a "Played in NFL" on the Baseball Grid. Could use Bo Jackson, Jim Thorpe, George Halas....

Hockey Grid has Utah and Arizona in different columns. That's a fail for me because I can't name a current player on the Utah roster, much less 3. I did not realize for Grid purposes they are considered separate.
 



Ope3 said:
Looking closer each board has a little something wonky. It would have been a good chance to mix up sports, like having a "Played in NFL" on the Baseball Grid. Could use Bo Jackson, Jim Thorpe, George Halas....

Hockey Grid has Utah and Arizona in different columns. That's a fail for me because I can't name a current player on the Utah roster, much less 3. I did not realize for Grid purposes they are considered separate.
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Yep, luckily for me former gophers Logan Cooley and Nick Bjugstad are on their current roster, but I don't know of any non-Americans on that team.
 

Gophers1992 said:
Yep, luckily for me former gophers Logan Cooley and Nick Bjugstad are on their current roster, but I don't know of any non-Americans on that team.
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I forgot about Cooley, should have remembered that one. Bjugstad that is new information to me.
 

Ope3 said:
I forgot about Cooley, should have remembered that one. Bjugstad that is new information to me.
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He's turned into a bit of a journeyman ever since he left Florida. I had forgotten and just checked and realized that this is actually his second stint with Arizona/Utah, with 19 games in Edmonton between the two.
 

Twins on the Grid today, I went with:
Portugal, the Man (.7%)
"El Tiante" (1%)
Eric Soderholm (.6%)
 

coolhandgopher said:
Twins on the Grid today, I went with:
Portugal, the Man (.7%)
"El Tiante" (1%)
Eric Soderholm (.6%)
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I used Portugal for Giants/Astros (0.4%).

Twins:

Astros - Marwin Gonzalez (3%)
2000 Ks - Early Wynn (0.5%) / actually only a Senator Version 1.0
3B - Graig Nettles (0.9%)
 
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Tommy John can be used on any square in the Top Row today. Plugging him in Angels/Dodgers (0.7) helped keep my Rarity sub-20 today.

In looking at his Stats on the Baseball Reference link, I got a kick out of the entry for his 1975 season.

Screenshot_20250406-154607~2.png

That puts him in a 1 of 1 category.
 

In order to keep a perfect April going (still haven't made it through a full month unscathed) I plugged in what I thought was the No Brainer for Giants/200 Hit Season.

Willie Mays. The Rarity Score was a massive 67% for The Say Hey Kid.

Digging into the results though, Mays only did it once, in 1958. That was the first season for the Giants in San Francisco.

Only has been accomplished twice since then. Bobby Bonds had exactly 200 in 1970 and it didn't happen again while they were playing in Candlestick.

Rich Aurilia is currently the last to do it (2001).
 

Ope3 said:
In order to keep a perfect April going (still haven't made it through a full month unscathed) I plugged in what I thought was the No Brainer for Giants/200 Hit Season.

Willie Mays. The Rarity Score was a massive 67% for The Say Hey Kid.

Digging into the results though, Mays only did it once, in 1958. That was the first season for the Giants in San Francisco.

Only has been accomplished twice since then. Bobby Bonds had exactly 200 in 1970 and it didn't happen again while they were playing in Candlestick.

Rich Aurilia is currently the last to do it (2001).
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Funny you posted this, as I was also bemused by the 200 hits category--in my head, it was something that used to happen often, particularly in the more free-swinging eras of the '60s to the '80s, but as you mentioned with the Giants, when you look post-WWII, there's only been four players who hit the mark, the three aforementioned and Don Mueller(?) in 1954. No Barry Bonds, no McCovey, Cepeda, Madlock, Kent, Will Clark, etc. etc.

For the Cubs, they've had 5 players post-WWII hit the mark. Billy Williams (3 times), Bill Buckner, Ryno, Juan Pierre, and Starlin Castro. No Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Bill Madlock, Mark Grace, etc.

I have to think that it's going to become even more of a rarity moving forward, much like the 200 inning pitcher, as such a premium is placed on getting on base, not necessarily putting the bat on the ball.
 

Twins Alert on the Grid.

Mariner's - Larry Milbourne (0.3%)
Mets - John Candelaria (0.2%)
>40 WAR - Jim Thome (4%)

I mucked up my perfect April. I thought Gary Carter won a Gold Glove with the Mets. All 3 of his Awards were as an Expo. Passed on the Keith Hernandez lay up.

Carter did work in the >40 WAR/Gold Glove for a stellar 0.3% Rarity. Too little. Too late.
 
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I went back to a couple familiar wells:
Mariners-John Moses (.5%)
Mets-Tim Teufel (3%)
40 WAR-Jim Perry (slides on by with 41--0.3%)

I was surprised that Teufel wasn't more of a rarity--next time these two teams come up, I'll need to remember who we received in the Teufel trade--Mr. Moneyball himself, Billy Beane.
 

coolhandgopher said:
I went back to a couple familiar wells:
Mariners-John Moses (.5%)
Mets-Tim Teufel (3%)
40 WAR-Jim Perry (slides on by with 41--0.3%)

I was surprised that Teufel wasn't more of a rarity--next time these two teams come up, I'll need to remember who we received in the Teufel trade--Mr. Moneyball himself, Billy Beane.
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In looking up Teufel, I had zero memory of him also playing for San Diego.
 


My perfect April came to an end with the Negro Leagues/born overseas category. It was gnawing at me that I should be able to identify at least one player and after the fact, I see Minnie Minoso was the most popular choice. Alas, May's just around the corner.
 

coolhandgopher said:
My perfect April came to an end with the Negro Leagues/born overseas category. It was gnawing at me that I should be able to identify at least one player and after the fact, I see Minnie Minoso was the most popular choice. Alas, May's just around the corner.
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I took a guess with Minoso, and it worked out.
 

Twins Alert on the Grid with a Coolhand 2fer special paired with the Rangers.

Nats / Matt Capps - 2%
Rangers / Danny Thompson - 0.6%
HoF /Big Ed Delehanty - 0.3%

I was shooting for overall single digit Rarity but Mickey Rivers (4%) for Tanks/Rangers pushed me to 11%.
 

Ope3 said:
Twins Alert on the Grid with a Coolhand 2fer special paired with the Rangers.

Nats / Matt Capps - 2%
Rangers / Danny Thompson - 0.6%
HoF /Big Ed Delehanty - 0.3%

I was shooting for overall single digit Rarity but Mickey Rivers (4%) for Tanks/Rangers pushed me to 11%.
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Wolves, Lynx and Vikes too. Wild didn't make the cut. I got tired of trying to think of a deep pull on Vikes/Jets and typed in Brett just to get it done, but I hit the second name instead of the first one with my fat finger. Brett Favre would have given me a full grid. Stupid Brett Keisel did not work. (Not the first time this has happened to me).
 

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