Monday, October 3, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Turd Ferguson]

I'm with Tom on Gooden. I'm a diehard Mets fan, so it was cake for me, but you're talking about someone who is barely in the top-50 in strikeouts, so his name wouldn't likely be the first one you'd come up with for that.

Doc came up in a TD, where I'd figured he'd be a somewhat less obvious answer for a recent pitcher with a high career K/IP ratio... turned out to be a very wrong answer. He did have high-K seasons early on, but they came in a low-K era (Ks went up when HRs went up in the late 80s/90s), plus he had a lot more low-K (post-injury/drug) seasons at the end of his career than I'd thought that really dragged down his career rate.

[heisman65]

Have a few answers that need rulings — windpipe for trachea, and lamb for sheep. I think the former is right, the latter a bit more iffy. What say you?

[reddpen]

Durocher and Rizzuto should have been the bottom two clues...

Agreed... though pulling Dr. K (so close to Julius Erving's nickname) was the trickiest for me.

Still, for a J! board, I was expecting more along the lines of "Iron Horse", "Charlie Hustle", or "Mr. Cub." This isn't their first surprisingly tricky baseball category either. Exhibits A and B:
http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=3325
http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=3626

As a baseball fan, I didn't find either A & B above tricky. The 4/19/11 contestants sure did, but to me that says more about them than about the difficulty level. Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton, both first-ballot HOFers, are no fan's idea of obscure -- Denny McLain might be -- or maybe I'm just the right age to know them.

[heisman65]

The baseball category seemed to me like the literature category, and other lit. categories from this season — lotsa new and different material from the writers. I don't think Dwight Gooden has ever come up, nor Carol Shields and the Stone Diaries. I think there was A Ballad Of The Sad Cafe clue the other day that was a real curveball for Carson McCullers (usually The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter or A Member Of The Wedding comes up in relation to her name). Good on the writers for keepin’ it fresh.

[heisman65]

I stand corrected, the Stone Diaries has come up once before, and Dr. K four times (not since 2003). Still, not exactly Chaucer or Wagner.

[Turd Ferguson]

As a baseball fan, I didn't find either A & B above tricky. The 4/19/11 contestants sure did, but to me that says more about them than about the difficulty level. Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton, both first-ballot HOFers, are no fan's idea of obscure -- Denny McLain might be -- or maybe I'm just the right age to know them.

Ditto on the previous categories, though I probably know more about baseball than I do about any other subject that might come up on J!, and I might've wavered on the Cards vs. Phillies for Carlton.

Denny shouldn't be obscure... being the last guy to do something that nobody will ever do again (barring a significant change in the way the game is played) has to be considered significant. It's like naming the last man on the moon... not something that "everyone" can do (I can't, honestly), but something that someone who's reasonably knowledgeable about the subject (i.e. not me for space exploration) would likely know.

[alietr]

I attended a conference last year where Carlton spoke. He spent a while discussing that season, so I knew that one cold. Strange dude though.

[Rex Kramer]

Joon, I finally got to watch this game -- I had not before had the chance to fully appreciate your poise and self-assuredness behind the podium. Nor your Somerville residency -- the Neighborhood Restaurant is one of my all-time favorite places to eat. Congratulations on an impressive debut!

Rex

[MarkBarrett]

The Baseball Nicknames was a 4/5 for me as I blanked on Rizzuto. It wasn't that I was stumped. I went for the name and it scooted by me. Since the category was not a run for me that makes it harder than usual. The other four were all instas, so it's hard to play value judge on those. I'll use my Bay Area bias and say Eck is easier than Dr. K.

[Bamaman]

I just now got to watch the episode. I've already seen Tuesday and Wednesday and read how easy today's was. I was worried I'd screw it up, but it was an instaget once I did the math.

Could the other place Alex referred to have been Harper's Ferry? Same time frame.

I went 4/5 in the baseball category. I missed only Gooden, which I should have known, but could only come up with Ryan. I did sweep all three categories linked above, however.

BTW, Gooden is Gary Sheffield's uncle, never heard of him being related to Strawberry other than through their drug addictions.

[legendneverdies]

I
Could the other place Alex referred to have been Harper's Ferry? Same time frame.

That event was in 1859, no? I guess most J! players would relate 1859 to Harper's Ferry?

[opusthepenguin]

Could the other place Alex referred to have been Harper's Ferry? Same time frame.

Probably not. It'd be a stretch to call Harpers Ferry a "stronghold".

His comment was something to the effect that two possibilities would come to mind, but the timing would make it obvious which was correct. My guess is he was thinking of the Alamo. The category "Remembering U.S. History" coupled with the word "stronghold" would naturally take you to that possibility. But subtracting 150 years from 2011 doesn't get you within experimental error of Crockett and Bowie's Last Stand. So you regroup, ask yourself what was going on in 1861, think of the Civil War, and hopefully before time is up, you scrawl something that looks like "Fork Sunder" but could also be read as "Fort Sumter" if you squint at it just right and know what you're looking for.