#9 of our Curious Conundrums series.
One of my favorite baseball players is on 2012 Veterans Committee' Hall of Fame ballot. The committee will vote on Dec 15 at their winter meeting and the result will be announced on Jan 9 next year.
Don and I made this puzzle in early September to support his Hall effort.
Here is PDF (click on File, then Download).
Here is puz file (click on File, then Download).
Spoiler: Here is the answer grid. Here is an autographed copy of the puzzle. Please also click here and help the Hall right a wrong. Thank you.
Thanks for solving, and we look forward to your comments.
C.C.
One of my favorite baseball players is on 2012 Veterans Committee' Hall of Fame ballot. The committee will vote on Dec 15 at their winter meeting and the result will be announced on Jan 9 next year.
Don and I made this puzzle in early September to support his Hall effort.
Here is PDF (click on File, then Download).
Here is puz file (click on File, then Download).
Spoiler: Here is the answer grid. Here is an autographed copy of the puzzle. Please also click here and help the Hall right a wrong. Thank you.
Thanks for solving, and we look forward to your comments.
C.C.
27 comments:
It found it to be a fairly easy puzzle, and I know nothing about baseball. My only misstep was ROILS for RILES, but the perps fixed that soon enough.
Congrats for cramming so many long theme answers without resorting to esoteric (Natick?) down fill. I enjoyed it.
Not being a baseball fan, this was a bit rough for me. The crossing of TONY OLIVA and RIOS was potentially a Natick, but OLIVA seemed more logical than OLOVA or OLEVA.
Other than that, BADGED was truly evil. I tried HEDGED at first, but that gave me HATTING TITLE, which I knew couldn't be right. Also, NOENDS was a complete unknown to me. My kid plays mostly with LEGOS...
I really groaned when I saw this was a baseball puzzle, and thought I would never have a shot of even coming close, especially with all the cross references. Like Barry, I know next to nothing about the game, the players or the awards. But with mucho perp help, I got 'er done!
You got me for a minute with "Caps and jerseys, e.g." for NOUNS. But I still don't know what GRAYS, for "Road uniforms" means? Must be a b-ball thingy...
In the SW corner, the fill could be changed to get rid of the ugly BADGED:
44A SCARE (instead of READE)
53A ALAMO (instead of USAGE)
56A RAREE (instead of LITER)
59A BRANS (instead of FEEDS)
But other than that, this turned out to be a really fun puzzle, and gave me a great sense of accomplishment to fill everything in without resorting to gg. That shows what a great job you guys did. It must be a real thrill to have his autograph on your creation. Thanks for sharing with us, C.C. and DonG!!
HeartRx, I thought BADGED was clever fill. A policeman is shielded because he wears a badge (shield). Like you, I have no idea about the GRAYS.
This puzzle is a clever tribute to Tony Oliva, with many clues contributing to the basball theme. I liked BADGED. The only unknown was NOENDS, but perps settled that. I usually wait to do the CONUMDRUM in the afternoon, so that I can get some work done. Today I gave in to temptation, but it was "all good" because this was a very fast puzzle. Back to the salt mines.
Thanks, CC and Don, for a really fun puzzle. Put me in the 'BADGED=truly evil but great clue' corner. I like it!
Didn't know the player, his number or team but didn't need too many perps to figure it out.
Desper and Marti, as I understand it, the home team wears their more flashy uniform (would that be colors?) and the visitors or away team wears the less flashy (grays) uniform.
Thanks for the reminder, desper-otto, about this puzzle on the main blog. I posted there, went to the gym, and forgot about the Conundrum by the time I got back. Your comment sent me back to give it a try.
CC, good luck on your campaign to get Tony into the HOF. Unfortunately, a lot of very deserving players get overlooked because they didn't play for the 'right' team. Oh, how I remember the years when the Twins and my Indians battled for last place.
Desperotto and Yellowrocks, I agree that the clue was quite clever for such a difficult word like BADGED. It's just not a word that has ever been used in an LAT puzzle (or any puzzle, for that matter). So I suspect that our editor would likely ask for that section to be redone if he were to publish this one.
That said, the fill was remarkably clean with six theme entries packed in, and two pair of overlapping entries.
I forgot to ask you C.C. and Don - why was this one rejected??
Yes, Marti & Otto (& Grumpy), road grays refer to uniforms. In sports, the host team will usually wear their "home whites" and the visting team will wear their colors (or gray before colors became more common). "Home whites" is the more common term - "road grays" is a bit more obscure.
Thanks for the clarification, anonymous, I was on the right track, but bass-ackward on which was which. I wrote in 'white' for that entry before perps changed it to GRAYS.
C.C. and Don:
What a fine puzzle and what a lovely tribute to a player, TONYOLIVA, who was completely unknown to me.
Though this was about baseball, I'll chime in with the others, it was easy enough to complete.
My Natick was 42D and 54A. I wagged GOLDGLOVEAWARD so BADGED and CADGERS fell in place.
I flirted with TOBY or TONY but decided TONY must be short for Antonio and a more likely Spanish name.
Well done, dynamic duo!
Barry,
I thought Oliva would be happy to see a baseball clue for RIOS rather than a simple "Spanish rivers". But you're right. It's a potential obscure crossing for non-baseball fans. Reminded me of our ISAAC clue last Friday. Newton, Stern or Asimov would have done the job easily. But Don and I always try our best to be original in our theme selection and cluing. Hence the designer Mizrahi. Was a bit surprised he's unknown to many. Cluing is so important in crosswords.
Desper-otto et al,
Thanks for solving.
Marti,
No rejection. This puzzle is just for Oliva. Thanks for the re-work. I guess we could have used your option, then changed 31A to BAM to avoid the BAD dupe.
Grumpy,
Indeed. Oliva would already be in the Hall had he played for the Yankees.
Don G. & C.C.
WOW, WOW, WOW !!!
As a baseball fanatic I really loved solving this puzzle.
GRAYS was a gimmie.
As a kid I remember seeing TONY OLIVA leading the league on his way to the BATTING TITLE.
I hope he gets in the HOF.
You're right about the "had he played for the Yankees" he'd already be there.
(Tell you the truth, I thought he was in already).
GRAYS was a gimmie too. ***** clues.
Hey C.C. - don't be so quick to drop "BADGED", I thought it was excellent! Just because it's not been seen before doesn't mean it shouldn't be seen!
Not a big baseball fan, but much less trouble than I expected, so thanks for the thoughtful crossings to unlock the rest.
I learned that it's GOLD GLOVE and not GOLDEN GLOVE - never knew that.
GRAYS not a problem.
Steve:
My late DH was a boxing fan so I know that GOLDEN GLOVE refers to boxing.
Add me to the list of those who know little about baseball but managed to figure out the puzzle. I'm amazed at how many appropriate answers were fitted into a 15 x 15 grid.
Never heard of NOENDS.
C.C. - I bet there is an interesting story behing getting the puzzle autographed! Are you and Tony acquainted?
I enjoyed the puzzle. As with all of the 'conundrums' so far, I think they would fit just peachy into a weekday LAT puzzle. (CADGERS was a new word for me.)
Once I figured out this was going to be about a Minnesota Twins player, I was sure it was going to be Harmon Killebrew.
Don G. and C.C.
Of course you knew I would enjoy this puzzle!
I liked the baseball clues for non-baseball answers@ 30a,60a,1d,9d,11d,43d,44d and the aforementioned 51d.
5a could have been clued as "Name for former Phila. ballpark with The___"
Also the one of the Reds' mascots(along with Mr. Red and Gapper) is ROSIE.
For this baseball FAN, I would rate this as a Tue/Wed level-puzzle.
Forgot to add this link about the gray uniforms.
To summarize: Early uniforms were white for home games and gray for road games. It was easier for home teams to wash their unis and keep them white. Gray unis could hide the dirt better. The teams were further distinguished by their sock color. Hence the name Cincinnati Red Stockings.
Hi C.C. and Don,
What Barry said, even though he's the only as far as I read so far!
I'm not a baseball fan either, but most of the answers came with help from the perps.I agree with Barry on BADGED.Nwer would have figured that one out without some help. But no look-ups! Thanks for an interesting puzzle.
I know I'm going to feel silly when you explain it but what is the significance of the title of the puzzle?
C.C. and DonG are "Monitoring the Hall(of Fame) vote", hoping that Tony Oliva is inducted.
C.C., my favorite player who has been "snubbed" is Davey Concepcion. Just check out his "Career highlights and awards" on the right side of the page.
When I played little league every kid wanted to wear number 5(Johnny Bench), 14(Pete Rose) or "lucky 13".
The player to replace him, Barry Larkin, might get in this year, which is good, but even Barry wants Davey to get in before himself.
Late to the party, but I got her done in today's wee hours. Knowing CC's passion for the game, and specifically the TWins, I knew the theme immediately.
Never gave badged a second thought because I knew the across clues were dead on. Wasn't sure about NOENDS, but again, I was confident about the across fills.
I disagree with those who thinks Tony would be a HOF'er if he played for the Yankees. His stats do not measure up to the criteria today's voter use, namely 300 HR's, Number of Rings, etc. His best chance of ever getting elected is with the Veterans Committee.
Dudley,
No, no acquaintance. I'm just a fan. Met with Oliva several times in various events. He's very sweet and is genuinely interested in talking with people.
Seen,
You're the best. Thanks for highlighting all the baseball clues. So good to be understood.
Wow, C.C., you're up early!
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