Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

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Bamaman
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Bamaman »

Paucle wrote:Most baseball fans of the really trivial know what "only" Lee's brother can claim. Who wants to win the race to the buzzer?
Spoiler
Carlos had his birthday on the back of his jersey. Actually, I thought it was Lee who did that until I looked him up yesterday after the show aired.
Related to that......
Spoiler
Back when each league had their own set of umpires, I was watching a game between two American League teams. They showed one of the base umpires and gave his name, which was Al (forgot his last name) and said he was the only umpire with his name on his hat. (His hat, like the other umps, said AL).
I will give Lee credit for plunging to the bottom of the baseball category when he didn't seem to know much about baseball. The Sandberg guess was odd, if he has heard of him, he should know he played more recently than the 1950s. That miss wound up costing him $1,000 as he fell from second to third place with the neg.
Last edited by Bamaman on Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
davey
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by davey »

dhkendall wrote:
davey wrote:
wallzy41 wrote:
Bamaman wrote:Abundance could be spelled abundanse without changing the pronunciation, so beans should have been accepted.
Regardless of the "controversy" surrounding that... the wording of the clue was NASTY negbait, imho.
The clue was Lima OR pinto. Anyone who does crossword puzzles knows that OR connecting two elements signals a singular response. AND indicates a plural...
Anyone who does crossword puzzles or watches Jeopardy! that is, that's a common device used on the show as well.
Sure, and it's grammatical too, but here it's only the category that mandated the singular. Even with that phrasing J! would normally accept either response, right? Still, it worked as a TOM for me.
Last edited by davey on Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by StevenH »

Onairb wrote:
zakharov wrote:I don't think I'd be able to resist fistpumping if I got a baseball category on the show. Come on guys, nobody can ID Bobby Thomson??
I don't remember when Thomson was last used as a response, but nobody got him then, either. Between that, and not knowing when the hell Ryne Sandberg played, it's time to ban baseball categories when they know the contestants don't know anything about the topic. It will save all of us who actually like the sport from the indigestion we get listening to non-sports folk spouting woefully incorrect responses.
There is nothing wrong with having a baseball (or football, soccer, basketball, etc.) category on the show every now and then, but it would have probably been better for it to appear in the J! round. Having a clue on Bobby Thompson at the bottom of the board was the right way to go and shows that the writers did a good job of keeping the difficulty of the category within reason. It's unfortunate that the category appeared in a game with 3 non baseball fans, but that's how it goes sometimes.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by davey »

StevenH wrote:
Onairb wrote:
zakharov wrote:I don't think I'd be able to resist fistpumping if I got a baseball category on the show. Come on guys, nobody can ID Bobby Thomson??
I don't remember when Thomson was last used as a response, but nobody got him then, either. Between that, and not knowing when the hell Ryne Sandberg played, it's time to ban baseball categories when they know the contestants don't know anything about the topic. It will save all of us who actually like the sport from the indigestion we get listening to non-sports folk spouting woefully incorrect responses.
There is nothing wrong with having a baseball (or football, soccer, basketball, etc.) category on the show every now and then, but it would have probably been better for it to appear in the J! round. Having a clue on Bobby Thompson at the bottom of the board was the right way to go and shows that the writers did a good job of keeping the difficulty of the category within reason. It's unfortunate that the category appeared in a game with 3 non baseball fans, but that's how it goes sometimes.
The novelist Don DeLillo wrote a famous chapter about the shot heard round the world for his book Underworld. So a literary fan might have gotten Thomson without much interest in '50s baseball. Not that I did :x , but it's the only reason I think I should have...
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by jeff6286 »

A friend of mine suggested that Lee was thinking of Ron Santo, who played next to Ernie Banks, and wouldn't be a terrible guess, and mixed up "Santo" and "Sandberg". I am less than convinced that this is the case, but it's something to consider.
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nserven
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by nserven »

davey wrote:The novelist Don DeLillo wrote a famous chapter about the shot heard round the world for his book Underworld. So a literary fan might have gotten Thomson without much interest in '50s baseball. Not that I did :x , but it's the only reason I think I should have...
It's also played over the P.A. during an episode of M*A*S*H.

EDIT: Buy me a Coke, Bama.
Last edited by nserven on Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
Bamaman
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Bamaman »

An episode of M*A*S*H had the 1951 pennant race as a plot once and the Thomson home run was shown.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by TomKBaltimoreBoy »

alietr wrote:While El Camino Real in the clue wasn't in California, you can't go a block in California without hitting an El Camino Real. It was a Californiacentric clue.
Better than a Californicated clue.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by opusthepenguin »

Bamaman wrote:My comment was just a joke based on yesterday's discussion on the J! Facebook page. I had bean, but can see someone spitting out beans by mistake.
If one of those beans is a lima bean, that's no mistake.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by opusthepenguin »

alietr wrote:While El Camino Real in the clue wasn't in California, you can't go a block in California without hitting an El Camino Real. It was a Californiacentric clue.
But that's exactly why I clammed. I thought of ECR, but it goes up the California coast. That road clearly didn't. Ergo: must be something else.

Turns out what they were showing was El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro—The Royal Road of the Interior Land. That's a totally different thing and, I think, not what an unqualified "El Camino Real" refers to.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by John Boy »

Bamaman wrote:Though she had a slow start, her victory was assured when both challengers corrected Alex during their interviews.

I would have thought Lee May would know more about baseball than he did. At least he knew Sandberg was a Cub.

FJ was pretty much an instaget. I knew what he meant, just took me a second to pull the word out.

Overall, not the best game in the world. Some strange misses, like the foot pedals on the guitar or Saskatchewan at Niagara Falls. (Slowly, I turned........)

It sounded like Alex was about to neg Borgia rather than give a BMS prompt.
What's easier than an Instaget? Whatever you call it, this FJ was it. Once again I get the sense that the writers just don't know how to make FJ clues of appropriate difficulty; they're either kids-week stuff like this or junk that absolutely no one can get. I've always thought FJ should separate the really good contestants from the pretenders, not baffle everybody or be inky-dinky simple.

Sure wish we could have seen the other two baseball clues. I got easy-peasy Lach Trash for Banks and Thompson.

Yeah, OK game but not exactly a great performance even in victory for Sarah. Not that two wins is anything to sneeze at.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by ElendilPickle »

alietr wrote:While El Camino Real in the clue wasn't in California, you can't go a block in California without hitting an El Camino Real. It was a Californiacentric clue.
Not for Californians who now live in New Mexico. ;) I would have embarrassed myself if I hadn't ran that category. El Rancho de las Golondrinas is a pretty neat place to visit, especially when they're doing a festival of some sort.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by This Is Kirk! »

John Boy wrote:Sure wish we could have seen the other two baseball clues. I got easy-peasy Lach Trash for Banks and Thompson
If you said Thompson you didn't get it since it's Thomson. Had one of the contestants answered that one I bet the judges would have really been listening for that extraneous "p" in the response. On the other hand is it even possible to differentiate "Thomson" and "Thompson" when spoken?
Last edited by This Is Kirk! on Sat Jan 04, 2014 1:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by harrumph »

davey wrote: Is there ANY other sensible response for the FJ? I worried briefly that they were looking for parliamentary democracy or representative democracy but in the end I had to stick with the simplest. I knew I had heard the saying before but I didn't remember it was Churchill's...
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by dhkendall »

TenPoundHammer wrote:
alietr wrote:It was a Californiacentric clue.
They do that too often, IMO.
Yes, they do. They also have Christmas-centric clues in December (taped in October). They expect those who are familiar with the show to know what comes up often (like California stuff) and when, based on your air date (like Christmas clues). They expect you to study for the things they are likely to ask you (and I believe they also tell you your rough air date when The Call comes).

If you don't know this by now, then quit complaining and study stuff that Jeopardy! is likely to ask instead of always being surprised they ask it. If you don't want to study it, then don't tell us that you don't know it, this board isn't for you.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by dhkendall »

alietr wrote:Plus Friday's show had 3 Los Angelenos. They saved them all up for the last taping.
I believe it's standard for them to do that, less likely to pay for a return flight if the champ lives nearby.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by This Is Kirk! »

dhkendall wrote:
alietr wrote:Plus Friday's show had 3 Los Angelenos. They saved them all up for the last taping.
I believe it's standard for them to do that, less likely to pay for a return flight if the champ lives nearby.
Here's my experience from when I was on the show. They taped on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nearly everyone at Tuesday's taping flew in from somewhere. Maybe 2-3 didn't get on Tuesday so they (and me, since I won the final show) returned on Wednesday. There were a few out-of-towners but also quite a few local people for Wednesdays taping. The draw (they put your name and facts on an index card for Alex) for who goes on each show is random. HOWEVER, the carry-overs from the Tuesday tapings had marks put on the back of their cards so they would be sure to get on a show taped before lunch on Wednesday. So, all things considered, you are more likely to see someone from LA on the show Thursday and Friday, but they don't exactly "save them for Friday."

The interesting thing to me is you will always need exactly 11 contestants for five shows, unless there's a tie for the win in which case you'll need less. There's no way more than 11 people can be on in a week's worth of shows. I guess they bring in the extras in case of an unforeseen situation where someone gets sick, misses their flight, whatever. They've been doing this for 30 years now, so I'm sure they know exactly what they're doing. :)
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by davey »

This Is Kirk! wrote:
John Boy wrote:Sure wish we could have seen the other two baseball clues. I got easy-peasy Lach Trash for Banks and Thompson
If you said Thompson you didn't get it since it's Thomson. Had one of the contestants answered that one I bet the judges would have really been listening for that extraneous "p" in the response. On the other hand is it even possible to differentiate "Thomson" and "Thompson" when spoken?
I doubt they'd make an issue of it, unless somebody really hit the plosive in that p...
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Bamaman »

This Is Kirk! wrote:
dhkendall wrote:
alietr wrote:Plus Friday's show had 3 Los Angelenos. They saved them all up for the last taping.
I believe it's standard for them to do that, less likely to pay for a return flight if the champ lives nearby.
Here's my experience from when I was on the show. They taped on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nearly everyone at Tuesday's taping flew in from somewhere. Maybe 2-3 didn't get on Tuesday so they (and me, since I won the final show) returned on Wednesday. There were a few out-of-towners but also quite a few local people for Wednesdays taping. The draw (they put your name and facts on an index card for Alex) for who goes on each show is random. HOWEVER, the carry-overs from the Tuesday tapings had marks put on the back of their cards so they would be sure to get on a show taped before lunch on Wednesday. So, all things considered, you are more likely to see someone from LA on the show Thursday and Friday, but they don't exactly "save them for Friday."

The interesting thing to me is you will always need exactly 11 contestants for five shows, unless there's a tie for the win in which case you'll need less. There's no way more than 11 people can be on in a week's worth of shows. I guess they bring in the extras in case of an unforeseen situation where someone gets sick, misses their flight, whatever. They've been doing this for 30 years now, so I'm sure they know exactly what they're doing. :)
If there is a triple zero game, they'll need a 12th player. So they will have to have an alternate on hand just in case that happens or if someone gets sick (had a returning champion have to drop out a few years ago). I guess if something crazy happened and they needed more players than they had on hand, they'd just postpone taping Friday's show until the following week when they could catch up.
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Re: Friday, January 3, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by This Is Kirk! »

Bamaman wrote:If there is a triple zero game, they'll need a 12th player. So they will have to have an alternate on hand just in case that happens or if someone gets sick (had a returning champion have to drop out a few years ago). I guess if something crazy happened and they needed more players than they had on hand, they'd just postpone taping Friday's show until the following week when they could catch up.
Yeah, all the things you'd think couldn't happen in a million years probably have at some point! Good point on the ability to "catch up" at a later date, but I have a feeling they really, really try to avoid that.
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