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

[Ope3]

Twins Alert on the Grid. 2 New Players on their line but I don't know if it was Varland or Kriske.

As for Bill Burns, while not one of the Black Sox he played a pivotable go between role with the team. His character was portrayed by Christopher Lloyd in Eight Men Out.

 

[Ope3]

Twins Alert on the Grid. 2 New Players on their line but I don't know if it was Varland or Kriske.

As for Bill Burns, while not one of the Black Sox he played a pivotable go between role with the team. His character was portrayed by Christopher Lloyd in Eight Men Out.

View attachment 39271

Turns out Varland is the Newbie. Per post #887, I used Kriske on 9/16/25.

 

[Ope3]

Found a little quirk today. On the football grid, I tried to use Ed "Too Tall" Jones as a Cowboy with a 10+ sack season (not really a deep pull, I know). Anyway, I started with just Ed Jones. Only name that came up was a guy that only played in 1975. Obviously not the right guy. So I try typing in Ed Too Tall Jones. Nope. Third try I discover that he's listed only as Too Tall Jones. So now that I've opened that can of worms, I'm wondering how many players in the database are listed primarily by their nicknames.

Here's a good one, and note he's a 3X All Star:

Ripper Collins

Ripper Collins (baseball) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

The nickname "Ripper" developed during an on-field incident that occurred when Jimmy was a young player. A ball rocketed off his bat and struck a nail protruding from the outfield fence; it caused the cover to partially tear. When asked who hit the ball, the retrieving outfielder saw the ball hanging and said, "It was the ripper."

 

[coolhandgopher]

Here's a good one, and note he's a 3X All Star:

Ripper Collins

Ripper Collins (baseball) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

The nickname "Ripper" developed during an on-field incident that occurred when Jimmy was a young player. A ball rocketed off his bat and struck a nail protruding from the outfield fence; it caused the cover to partially tear. When asked who hit the ball, the retrieving outfielder saw the ball hanging and said, "It was the ripper."

I'll see your Ripper, and raise you with Baby Doll Jacobson (he works for a slew of AL squads: Orioles, Athletics, Guardians, Tigers, and Red Sox):
From Wikipedia:
On opening day of the 1912 season, the band began playing the popular song, "Oh, You Beautiful Doll", as Jacobson came to the plate. Jacobson recalled, "Well I led off with a home run on the first pitch and a lady sitting behind the plate jumped up and shouted, 'You must be that beautiful doll they were talking about.' The name stuck with me and that was it."

 

[coolhandgopher]

The 1988 Topps podcast paid off today, as I was able to utilize Porfi Altamarino in the Phillies/Cubs square, knowledge only delivered to me by the recent segment on Keith Moreland, as Porfi was involved in a trade for/with (can't quite recall) Moreland.

Btw, it's a nice little podcast-once a week, they delve into one player from the '88 Topps set and dive deep into their career. I know more about Brian Dayett now than I knew I needed.

 

[Breakin' The Plane]

Sorry to hear Mike Greenwell passed away. It's notable for Grid purposes that he was a career .303 hitter who only played for the Red Sox.

 

[Ope3]

Sorry to hear Mike Greenwell passed away. It's notable for Grid purposes that he was a career .303 hitter who only played for the Red Sox.

Damn sad news. Only 62, RIP.


For the GRID he's sneaky as he played C for 1 game, in addition to all 3 OF spots. Also had a 100 RBI season, has a Silver Slugger, a 7.5 WAR year and was an All Star. Pretty stellar.

 

[coolhandgopher]

He didn't do much for the Twins this year, but for Grid purposes I am very glad I was introduced to Jose Urena this year--with his five teams this year, he's up to 11 teams overall, including the Marlins and Rockies, which are always vexing. He was my sub 1% square for Marlins-Rangers yesterday. (other great quality, besides the Marlins, he's never spent enough time elsewhere, so his rarity score should be tidy).

Tagline for the 2025 Twins should read: "They didn't do much on the field, but they were a bonanza for Immaculate Grid!"

Here's who I am quite certain I've used this year who you might charitably call journeymen:
Darren McCaughen
Urena
Erasmo Ramirez
Thomas Hatch
Brooks Kriske
Justin Topa
Anthony Misiewicz
Joey Wentz
Genesis Cabrera
Danny Coulombe
Jonah Bride
Jhonny Pereda
Mickey Gasper
James Outman

I've still got Noah Davis, Alan Roden, Michael Tonkin, Scott Blewett, Kody Clemens, and a bunch of homegrown Twins in my pocket. What a bountiful year!

 

[coolhandgopher]

From Eric Stephen’s BlueSky account:
MLB's final four has been set, aka the Henry Blanco gauntlet, named for the only player to play for the Dodgers, Brewers, Blue Jays, and Mariners

 

[Ope3]

Sorry to hear Mike Greenwell passed away. It's notable for Grid purposes that he was a career .303 hitter who only played for the Red Sox.

Greenwell was actually a New Player for me yesterday. He along with a host of Twins lead to a solid Total Rarity of 12.

 

[Ope3]

Late Night Twins Alert. The 2 Buddys are actually part of the franchise's Top 24 in All Time WAR. Only Lewis registered as a New Player for me, while Myer I had used as an All Star.

Robby Thompson also an added Newbie, to my surprise.

 

[coolhandgopher]

Late Night Twins Alert. The 2 Buddys are actually part of the franchise's Top 24 in All Time WAR. Only Lewis registered as a New Player for me, while Myer I had used as an All Star.

Robby Thompson also an added Newbie, to my surprise.

View attachment 39477

It always humors me when we have the same players on the Grid together-I used Gaetti and Punto in the same slots as you. I was able to add Newbies in Alan Roden and Edouard Julien in the Twins column, along with a 1988 Topps podcast featured guy in Wallace Johnson (surprise, suprise, it was a really low score).

And in addition to Punto, I was able to slide Ben Revere (Phils) and Denard Span (Giants) into the centerfielder slots, with Span being a surprising newbie for me.

 

[Ope3]

Today was a good day to unleash Carson McCusker.

 

[Ope3]

It’s a big reason I never can remember that Ken Brett was with the Twins—no Topps card cause he ended the season somewhere else.

Ode to Ken Brett, though neither Minnesota nor Bloomington got a mention in this classic.


Maybe he was here...

 

[Ope3]

Sorry to hear Mike Greenwell passed away. It's notable for Grid purposes that he was a career .303 hitter who only played for the Red Sox.

Damn sad news. Only 62, RIP.


For the GRID he's sneaky as he played C for 1 game, in addition to all 3 OF spots. Also had a 100 RBI season, has a Silver Slugger, a 7.5 WAR year and was an All Star. Pretty stellar.

Today's the day for the Red Sox-C/Mike Greenwell play.

 

[Breakin' The Plane]

Today's the day for the Red Sox-C/Mike Greenwell play.

View attachment 39646

Awe. Dammit. Missed out. Stupid Rich Gedman.

 

[Ope3]

Twins Alert on the Grid. No Newbies on that line, I thought Hughes would be a qualifier, but not so.

Vic Davilillo was added to the list though. I was watching something on the '77 & '78 Dodgers-Yanks WS and somehow he popped up.

Also was on the AL Roster for the 1965 All Star Game at the Met, for Cleveland.

 

[Ope3]

Ode to Ken Brett, though neither Minnesota nor Bloomington got a mention in this classic.


Maybe he was here...

My guy, K Brett can be used in any of the 4 Team-Team boxes today.

Surprised that Chase Utley had not been used prior to today.

 

[coolhandgopher]

Twins Alert on the Grid. No Newbies on that line, I thought Hughes would be a qualifier, but not so.

Vic Davilillo was added to the list though. I was watching something on the '77 & '78 Dodgers-Yanks WS and somehow he popped up.

Also was on the AL Roster for the 1965 All Star Game at the Met, for Cleveland.

View attachment 39670

I used Davillio some time ago, due to my deep dive on anonymous All Stars from the 60s and 70s. I recall reading in his SABR profile that the Dodgers employed him and Manny Mota as pinch hitting specialists in the mid 70s and that was pretty much all they did. The era of 9 and 10 man rotations.

For the Twins I was able to have three newbies: Dallas Keuchel, John Christensen, and Luis Gomez. Gomez came to my awareness a few weeks back when seeing how Mickey Gasper and Dashawn Kiersey were measuring up against all time low BA’s in a season. Christensen might be one of the all-time anonymous Twins for me; played with the team in ‘88, so right in the time period I was really paying attention to the team. Played about 20 games or so, didn’t do awful, didn’t do great it appears. Only reason he came on my radar was that I was diving into Bob Ojeda’s trade history and turns out Christensen was involved in a couple of trades in the 80s where remember that guy-Ojeda, Calvin Schiraldi, Dave Henderson, Spike Owen were the primary pieces.