Learned League 74 - Official Thread

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georgespelvin
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by georgespelvin »

I knew the Willie McCovey question only because of this old Peanuts' cartoon.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/images/ ... eanuts.jpg
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by acthomas »

georgespelvin wrote: Sat Oct 14, 2017 4:30 pm I knew the Willie McCovey question only because of this old Peanuts' cartoon.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/images/ ... eanuts.jpg
If only I had! I thought McCovey was the Giants' right fielder because McCovey Cove at AT&T Ballpark is over the right field wall, so why would they name it after him otherwise? (Because he was great, of course, and because "Bobby Bonds Cove" doesn't scan well.)
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by Bamaman »

georgespelvin wrote: Sat Oct 14, 2017 4:30 pm I knew the Willie McCovey question only because of this old Peanuts' cartoon.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/images/ ... eanuts.jpg
That's how I got it as well. I always thought he was a first baseman, but apparently he was in left that day. I might have guessed him anyway since I know Mays played center, but the comic strip helped.
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by georgespelvin »

I'll bet that everyone that got the McCovey question because of the Peanuts cartoon got the Charlie Brown Halloween question right last season. ;)
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by RichmondJ »

georgespelvin wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 8:37 am I'll bet that everyone that got the McCovey question because of the Peanuts cartoon got the Charlie Brown Halloween question right last season. ;)
Nope ... I didn't! I have a pretty good command of Peanuts print strips from the early years (I had them all in paperbacks when I was a kid), so McCovey was an instaget. But except for A Charlie Brown Christmas, I have almost no recollection of the TV specials. "I got a rock" didn't ring a bell at all, even after the reveal.
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by jeff6286 »

McCovey was a left handed power hitter so he hit a lot of home runs to right field, I believe this is the reason that the Cove bears his name.
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

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jeff6286 wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 4:56 pm McCovey was a left handed power hitter so he hit a lot of home runs to right field, I believe this is the reason that the Cove bears his name.
That makes sense. I balked on McCovey since I thought he was a rightfielder because of that, but I could only think of Mays and McCovey, and knew the Say Hey Kid (and even saw him at Shea) was centerfield. That left only McCovey.
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

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georgespelvin wrote: Sat Oct 14, 2017 4:25 pm Anyway, figuring that you would give me a zero on the pop music question, I did not want to risk you getting a lot of points on me if you got it right. I knew that I had five out of six right, but if I had given you a three on the question and you had gotten it right, I would have lost. By giving you a one on the question, I was hedging my bets and playing more a chance at no worse than a tie than giving you a two or three, which would have been more warranted given your category strengths (I knew that had I given you a zero for it, I would have been risking what actually would have happened--a rare 9(5) win for you). Anyway, I was still VERY happy to get a tie out of you because I knew that you would likely get at least five questions right.
I'm a bit confused by this "grand strategy". Why would the 0 points (presumably) assigned to you on the music question play any role in how many you assign to him? How can you specifically plan to play for a tie rather than a win? I can see the use of "hedging" as a defensive term when there is a question you don't know the answer to, if it may have a really easy answer or a really hard answer, it can be logical to hedge by assigning 1 or 2 rather than 0 or 3. But here you say you planned to hedge as a pre-match strategy before even seeing the questions. I dont get it.
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by georgespelvin »

Well, I confess that math and statistics are not my forte, so I am kind of carelessly playing with matches here. I supposed that someone would take me to task here, although I figured that it would be boson.

This is the way I thought of it, flawed or not. I know (or, in this case, had a high probability of knowing and was correct) that I would be assigned zero points on the pop music question. That meant that I had no chance to score any points on it. My opponent, however, could score points on me that I could not match on that question because I knew that I would be assigned zero. That means that if my opponent gets that question right, unless I assign zero points as well, my opponent will get points ahead of me.

Assigning zero points would be foolish because my opponent is not strong in the category. My opponent could wind up with a score of 9(5). However, if I assign a two or a three on the question and my opponent gets it right, I am down two or three points in the match on the question. The point here is that I know that I cannot get points on the question and I want to limit the damage. Yes, I guess this would also work if I don't know the answer at all because I will get zero points on the question regardless what my opponent assigns me.

I am not really playing for a tie because that is impossible to do. However, against a perceived strong opponent like boson (or Steve Bahnaman, who wound up having a horrible day against me), I figure my chances are better if I limit the points my opponent will get that I know I will not be able to match. As it turns out, boson got all five of the other questions--I knew that I had five correct because I actually knew them and was not guessing. I hoped that the way the numbers fell out would at least give me a tie because that is worth one point and I needed that point to stay ahead of the folks just behind me with another tough match for me coming up. Had I given boson a two or three on the Willie Nelson question, I would have won, but by giving him one, I opened the door to him getting a tie if he got the other five right. It doesn't guarantee the result, but it is a cautious way to make that result in the realm of probability.

Anyway, I would only do something like that against an opponent that I know has a good chance to get at least five right.
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

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RichmondJ wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 4:11 pm Nope ... I didn't! I have a pretty good command of Peanuts print strips from the early years (I had them all in paperbacks when I was a kid), so McCovey was an instaget. But except for A Charlie Brown Christmas, I have almost no recollection of the TV specials. "I got a rock" didn't ring a bell at all, even after the reveal.
Image

I know, I know, this isn't from the early years, given the presence of Peppermint Patty -- in fact, it postdates the first broadcast of "It's the Great Pumpkin" by nine years (it's from November 1, 1975).
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by RichmondJ »

Interesting - a little too late to have been in one of my books, but I certainly was reading Peanuts in the paper then. I don't remember that one, though.
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by KellyLasiter »

georgespelvin wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 5:41 pm Well, I confess that math and statistics are not my forte, so I am kind of carelessly playing with matches here. I supposed that someone would take me to task here, although I figured that it would be boson.

This is the way I thought of it, flawed or not. I know (or, in this case, had a high probability of knowing and was correct) that I would be assigned zero points on the pop music question. That meant that I had no chance to score any points on it. My opponent, however, could score points on me that I could not match on that question because I knew that I would be assigned zero. That means that if my opponent gets that question right, unless I assign zero points as well, my opponent will get points ahead of me.

Assigning zero points would be foolish because my opponent is not strong in the category. My opponent could wind up with a score of 9(5). However, if I assign a two or a three on the question and my opponent gets it right, I am down two or three points in the match on the question. The point here is that I know that I cannot get points on the question and I want to limit the damage. Yes, I guess this would also work if I don't know the answer at all because I will get zero points on the question regardless what my opponent assigns me.

I am not really playing for a tie because that is impossible to do. However, against a perceived strong opponent like boson (or Steve Bahnaman, who wound up having a horrible day against me), I figure my chances are better if I limit the points my opponent will get that I know I will not be able to match. As it turns out, boson got all five of the other questions--I knew that I had five correct because I actually knew them and was not guessing. I hoped that the way the numbers fell out would at least give me a tie because that is worth one point and I needed that point to stay ahead of the folks just behind me with another tough match for me coming up. Had I given boson a two or three on the Willie Nelson question, I would have won, but by giving him one, I opened the door to him getting a tie if he got the other five right. It doesn't guarantee the result, but it is a cautious way to make that result in the realm of probability.

Anyway, I would only do something like that against an opponent that I know has a good chance to get at least five right.
As someone who is not a math person, I feel like there needs to be a mention of iocane powder somewhere in here. :lol:

I think I see what you mean, though.
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

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trainman wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 8:36 pm
RichmondJ wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 4:11 pm Nope ... I didn't! I have a pretty good command of Peanuts print strips from the early years (I had them all in paperbacks when I was a kid), so McCovey was an instaget. But except for A Charlie Brown Christmas, I have almost no recollection of the TV specials. "I got a rock" didn't ring a bell at all, even after the reveal.
Image

I know, I know, this isn't from the early years, given the presence of Peppermint Patty -- in fact, it postdates the first broadcast of "It's the Great Pumpkin" by nine years (it's from November 1, 1975).
Peppermint Patty debuted in August 1966 and the Great Pumpkin cartoon first aired in October of that year.
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

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Bamaman wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 9:23 am Peppermint Patty debuted in August 1966 and the Great Pumpkin cartoon first aired in October of that year.
Yes, my point was that RichmondJ, who said he was familiar with the "early years" of the "Peanuts" strip, probably wouldn't consider any strip with Peppermint Patty as part of the "early years" -- much less the November 1, 1975, strip, which was the first (and perhaps only) mention in the strip itself of Charlie Brown getting rocks for Halloween.
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by morbeedo »

With a surprise second place finish, I made the finals of JI: Movies! Another happy day :)

Finished 6th and 8th in ME and 1960s, not too horrible
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by Woof »

When I saw Q1 on yesterday's 60s ML, my thoughts immediately went to a particular boardie (you know who you are, Randy). When I saw how hard it played, I didn't feel so bad about missing it. Now, on to the Championship!
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by georgespelvin »

I actually wound up winning my group in the '60s ML, beating boson in the tiebreaker. We both finished 8-1-2. I actually thought that the first tiebreaker was total correct answers, not match play differential, so I had assumed that boson would get the tiebreaker. :oops:

Not that it made any difference, but I knew thalidomide right away, but convinced myself out of it because I did not think it was used today in cancer treatments. I still have seared in my memory a picture of a thalidomide damaged baby that I saw in Life magazine when I was a child.
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by RandyG »

Woof wrote: Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:13 am When I saw Q1 on yesterday's 60s ML, my thoughts immediately went to a particular boardie (you know who you are, Randy). When I saw how hard it played, I didn't feel so bad about missing it. Now, on to the Championship!
It played even harder than I thought it would. Still, I was hoping for a question like that in the championship round, but I'll take it. When I saw the question, my initial thoughts went to whether there was an error in describing the group as "Diana Ross and the Supremes." I thought that Florence Ballard was bounced from the group just before the name was changed from "The Supremes." Turns out her official bouncing was just after the name change, although she was less active within the group before then. (Yes, I'm a 1960s pop music geek.)

You may have missed that Q, Woof, but at least you got the Rolling Stones question (MD7Q5) correct:
Fill in the missing name, circa 1965: Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wyman, ________
and also the Woodstock question (MD3Q2):
In what New York town did the Woodstock Festival actually take place?
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by Volante »

I still can't spell thalidomide or Kosciusko apparently (the latter keeping me out of the top 100 on the monuments 1D... :evil: Though I'm somewhat surprised so few knew the -one- president during the reconstruction era who served 3.5 years...)
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Re: Learned League 74 - Official Thread

Post by KellyLasiter »

georgespelvin wrote: Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:18 am I actually wound up winning my group in the '60s ML, beating boson in the tiebreaker. We both finished 8-1-2. I actually thought that the first tiebreaker was total correct answers, not match play differential, so I had assumed that boson would get the tiebreaker. :oops:

Not that it made any difference, but I knew thalidomide right away, but convinced myself out of it because I did not think it was used today in cancer treatments. I still have seared in my memory a picture of a thalidomide damaged baby that I saw in Life magazine when I was a child.
I, too, missed thalidomide because I didn't realize it was still in use--thought it had been banned. But it was another example of the rule I should have adopted for that ML, namely, "when in doubt, guess something that's mentioned in We Didn't Start the Fire." :lol:
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