TIM: So, as I suppose is still the norm with the Grid(?), Saturdays are gimmes. Today it was all stats, no pitching, no teams, stuff with lots of right answers everywhere. To make it more interesting, I went to my standby theme of “can this be filled entirely with Seattle Mariners?” Early on, it seemed like this was going to be a tough theme, but now I’ve done it multiple times; the Grid Gods are getting lazier, maybe.
Anyway, here’s what I ended up with:
It wasn’t hard to think of a name that would fit each box, but it was hard to not double up on them. Edgar fits six of nine, but you gotta pick one. Same for A-Fraud. So I slotted those two in the boxes I thought would be harder for anyone else to go in, then went with Junior, who only fit two squares, and Buhner, with Frank Costanza shouting his name as I typed it in. (Tino was another option at 300 HR/100 RBI.) Ichiro, duh, goes in .300/200. That left the bottom row, third base, where you’d naturally place either Edgar or Rodriguez if they were available. Or Adrian Beltre.
But Beltre saved the theme by having one exactly 200-hit season the year before he came to Seattle. I initially thought Bret Boone might work for that 200 hits/300 HR box, but was dubious of his homer total pre-suspected-PEDs. (And I was right, Boone has “just” 252 longballs.) So that’s where Beltre had to go even though he also works for the entire bottom row.
So now it’s wonder about guys that maybe logged a few innings at the hot corner, as the guys you’d normally think of are already on the board. I mean, it’s not like Darnell Coles or Jim Presley would work. Longevity is key here. So longtime vets only. Omar I knew played a lot of third late in his career, and I figured Cano probably had to at one time or another with the Yankees. But that last box was a shot in the dark. I got lucky with Santana, but in hindsight the easy answer there was Edwin Encarnacion. But Edwin was only here for a couple of months, so maybe Santana’s the better pick. Surprisingly, one other guy would have fit: Raul Ibanez. Raul actually played third for the Royals a couple times. Go figure.
ERIK: What’s the toughest square in the grid? I thought bottom center, a third baseman with a career .300 batting average, so that’s where I began. Dude I went with was, when I was very very young, generally regarded as the greatest third baseman of all time. Then Brooks, Brett and Schmidt came along, and now you hardly ever hear his name mentioned. WAR isn’t kind to him, either: just 38.7.
To me, that center square felt like the cross category wasn’t eliminating many answers. Who could hit .300 career and not have at least one season of 200+ hits? Then I realized: “Oh right, the walkers. The Ted Williamses of the world.”
Here’s the shocker. According to BR, this is the number of correct answers for each of those squares:
.300 career/200+ hit season: 125
.300 career/3B: 287!!!!!
What the hell???? But here’s their first 200. Some of the guys who handled the hot corner for at least a hot afternoon surprised me:
Henry Aaron
Willie Mays
Roberto Clemente
Kirby Puckett
More than anything, though, there’s a lot of short timers on the list. At least 100 of these guys never played a full season in the Majors.
Nice work on the all-M’s grid, Tim! Could I have done the same with the Twins? I’m looking over it and thinking … No.