ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ SHAKESPEARE AT THE BAT]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ SHAKESPEARE AT THE BAT]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Baseball season is (almost) upon us. Although in Boston it seems to be a twelve-month ritual. I mean, for crying out loud, one Patriots season ended (I’m gonna guess it was that one where they lost to the Broncos), the local sportscaster Bob “Freaking” Lobel was reassuring everyone that the loss was okay because pitchers and catchers was just around the corner! I mean, the gall! Me and my Dad, who aren’t really big baseball people, were just disgusted. Partially for the loss, and mostly because we didn’t want your baseball mixed in with our football.
My old roommate was a massive baseball junkie, so I guess living with him for nearly eight years made me, by proxy a baseball junkie. Those were good times. We’d come home from a nightcap and catch the ESPNEWS feed of all the day’s baseball action. But Mike was a fanatic. Bascially, if something had the picture of a mitt, baseball or bat on the cover, he would probably buy it. Mike bought a seven DVD box set of the 1975 World Series, not so much for the Carlton Fisk 12th inning walk off game-winning home run game, but more so to analyze all three Bill “Spaceman” Lee pitching performances.
Seems like baseball is the de facto sport in crosswords. Sure SHAQ is entering into nigh-crosswordese levels, and the odd football player, golfer, and race car driver shows up now and again. But it’s mostly baseball stats and players that riddle the grids. Your guess is as good as mine as to why that’s the case. I have my theories. A lot of the crossword establishment has come from New York (and, like in Boston, baseball is a religion in New York). I also guess that with the length of the season coupled with baseball’s rise to popularity initially through the radio format — and the fact that you can’t have dead air — that it just naturally lended itself to being “literary” from the beginning. (Have you seen the baseball section of your library/bookstore? It’s nuts!) I’m probably wrong with both of these theories. Dan Okrent, I know you’re a regular reader here; please chime in and set the record straight!
So I figured, while you’re setting up your roto leagues, why not pull this baseball classic off the shelves? And if you’re so inclined, pick up a book of one of my novelty sports crosswords books. New ones are: Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, Mets, and the current World Series champs Phillies. Plus the old favorites Red Sox, and Yankees. Enjoy this one, and new puzzle on Wednesday.
I like doing your Yankees crosswords – they are giving me a greater base of knowledge and wider vocabulary with which to hate on that team. Go Sox (I have your Boston crossword book too).
Whoa whoa whoa… There is a Cardinals crossword puzzle book! Outstanding. (I bought it minutes ago, hope it is here in time for my trip from upstate NY to STL for opening day) Who does not like to sit outside with a beer and something grilled. It is baseball season, enjoy.
What sharpelbows said, but about the Dodgers book…I just bought my copy from Amazon! That is super-exciting.
Great puzzle, and I loved the GAZPACHO clue. I’ve found there’s a lot of mediocre cold soup out there, which is I suppose an adequate way to get revenge on someone…
GO YANKS! Heartbroken as I am to see the Stadium go, sitting in the bleachers on Opening Day vs. the Indians should make up for it.
@ Ethan: you still a season ticket holder?
@ Matt M: I apologize for mistaking you earlier for my buddy Matt Mafera. 1,001 apologies. Hope you enjoy the book.
@ Sharp Elbows: Happy to oblige.
@ RP: Didn’t know you got both of them. Thanks!
I had some trouble with this one. I think my brain just isn’t working right today. I initially read the clue for 16-Across and said to myself, “Oh, I’ll skip that one; I can never remember who any of them were except for Diana Ross.” Even if I read it as a last name, that’s pretty dense.
So, with the baseball books, how big a fan of the given team does one need to be, do you reckon, to get through them? Is it a lot of trivia? Other than the Red Sox (love) and Yankees (uh, not love), I never know nearly anything about anybody else, apart from crossword mainstays like the ALOUs, Mel OTT, or TRIS Speaker.
Was this puzzle from the latter days of your Time Out NY stint? I think I’ve solved it before, so I won’t post my time. 🙂
@Dan F: yeah… But go ahead and put your time down, we all know it took you like 190 seconds.
@Martin Allen: These books are a tough call, some puzzles are mired in esoterica. Others are run of the mill puzzles. Ask RP.
Fun puzzle…and while I was doing it, my “WTF is BEQ” shirt came in the mail!! Awesome coincidence!
As far as the Red Sox..as a diehard Yankees fan, I won’t get into it with you guys, except to say that my fondest memory from my first Yankees game was at the merch stand, asking my Dad what “Boston sucks” meant…hoping to relive that moment at my daughter’s first game this year…its all about the tradition!
Even you guys have to admit, that Pedroia video game commercial is annoying!
@Jimmy D: anytime you want to send a photograph of you wearing the WTF? shirt alongside your daughter, it will be posted post-haste to the site.
And here’s the thing: the inning with the most Bill Lee strikeouts was ‘lost’ by MLB. Dammit!
That Pedroia commercial is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while. Why wouldn’t you like a commercial that openly Mocks one of the Red Sox? Never understood “Team X Sucks” gear. Gear should be about love. The hate should live only in your heart…
And if there were a PG-13 version of that “WTF” shirt, I would buy it. I use profanity a lot, but I draw the line at wearing it, for some reason. Maybe it’s my 8-year-old.
I like the idea for the commercial…but the acting just seems a little ‘off’…especially that smug video game exec…ugh!
And my daughter is 8 also, so I can’t drop the F-bomb on her…but my band is playing a biker bar on Good Friday, that is a more appropriate milieu for that shirt…will def send a pic!
the 2 things i now know pedroia can’t do are
1. hit the high outside heat
2. act.
then again, have you seen any of jeter’s commercials? they don’t even trust him to open his mouth.
As a big baseball fan (read Yankees), I loved the puzzle. And only a week before Opening Day. What sucks is not the Red Sox … or the Yankess … or even the Dodgers, for that matter. What sucks is Bud (Lite) Selig who has to be the dumbest human being on the planet. How about a Bud Sucks t-shirt? It would have a strong secondary market with all of the Rolling Rock and PBR drinkers.
As another Yankee fan, I have to say that I did enjoy this puzzle. Brendan, I’m actually the guy you noticed at the ACPT wearing the Jets hat and Yankees shirt while passing out puzzle 3.
As far as why baseball appears more in the puzzles, I think it’s a combination of the literary aspect you mention and the sheer weight of baseball’s popularity vs. the other sports. Plus Mel Ott, Sammy Sosa and the Alou brothers really seem to appeal to you constructors. 🙂
Long-suffering Mets fan here (except for ’86).
Hopefully I can solve the puzzles at the end of the new Mets book as well as the ones in the beginning, unlike certain teams I know….
As to “sucks,” Yale students once duped a stadium full of Harvard fans into spelling out WE SUCK in big crimson letters. Which reminds me—Brendan’s working on a Yale football crossword book now, which I’m proofing. Other upcoming titles include the Baltimore Orioles and U.S.C. football.
It’s ALWAYS chess season!