let’s play: Immaculate Grid!

https://www.immaculategrid.com/

100000% chance that all you guys are going to be better than me, I’ve only managed to complete this three times in the two and a half weeks I’ve been playing.

Baseball Twitter is big into this, people love finding the most obscure picks for each square. I think the lowest 0.1% pick I got for some square was Freddy Sanchez (Pirates who were also Giants) 😎.

Anyway it’s really fun to play, new grid every day but you can’t play the old ones!

Sorry some of you are lying with your immaculate grids there’s just no way you just know a guy named Bilbo Bogtrotter who played for the Reds before WWII

— jayne (@GI_Jayneee) June 26, 2023

My lowest score today was 0.5% for the bottom left square Ian Kinsler

Rough today because I don’t know much about two of today’s franchises!

I tried this, but I don't think I understand it. For today's, you're supposed to name any pitcher from any of those five teams who struck out 200+ batters in a season? I clicked inside each grid, selected a name...and I'm not sure how I did.

I’m pretty pleased with my answers today despite my lack of Twins knowledge burning me badly.

Whichever Rogers twin played for the Twins didn’t get 40 & the only other closer I know for them is Jhoan Duran, so…
https://i.postimg.cc/1zmKR9M1/IMG-4433.jpg

This game is awesome!

yeah this is fun!

Can you guys share your answers behind the hide text if you don’t mind, I love seeing what other people put down

had to cheat a bit on the middle square

andrew miller - jackie bradley jr. - jonathan papelbon
luis arraez - kyle lohse - joe nathan
miguel cabrera - prince fielder - mariano rivera

7/9 today, I usually blank out on the "played for team A and team B" squares. I don't look anything up, where's the fun in that?

Sammy Sosa - Albert Belle - Cal Ripken Jr.
x - Francisco Lindor - Mike Piazza
x - Carlos Santana - Ichiro

guessed a couple wrong today, shouldn’t try to get so cute

😎
My Giants knowledge getting it done today.

https://i.postimg.cc/6qRdYSCM/IMG-4548.jpg

ok this is great

i biffed the houston/tb one today.

Literally only got that one cos it was mentioned in the commentary of some game I was watching

I finally figured this out a few days ago (duh)...Same as Thermo for today's: 8/9. Stared at the screen for 10 minutes, couldn't think of anyone for Houston/TB. I don't know how to copy/hide my grid, but my most obscure correct answer was Dickie Thon for Houston/Philadelphia.

having infinite time to stare at the thing is not going to be good for my productivity

Having checked the Houston/TB answers (five, I think), I'm just glad I gave up--I would have still been sitting there in 2029.

got 9/9 this time, all higher profile and/or al east teams made it easy for me

8/9 the only Phil/LA player I could think of was Dick Allen

i went with Utley

Looking at the NFL/NBA versions, man I don't know a damn thing about those aside from the 49ers (sort of) and Mavericks.

I had Utley too, although I like Dick Allen better as an answer. I expect I'll ace all the stat/award stuff and struggle with the upper-left part of the grid; I just don't pay enough attention to player movement that doesn't involve Jays and/or stars.

8/9 again--missed Tigers/Rockies. Rockies are extra-hard because who can name any Rockies pitchers? Tried to hide/display my grid on a testing thread, all I got were 8 green squares and one white one.

That’s the one I missed too

got lucky with Todd Zeile for CO/NY - I was thinking of his time with the Mets

8/9, struggled even with the Tigers/Braves

Yeah 8/9 for me too but a different one I think
https://i.postimg.cc/Z5VjSyh2/IMG-4668.jpg

I watched a LOT of bad baseball this year for this one.

for the Barves answers i really knocked the rarity numbers out of the park: Darrel Evans, 1%; Ron Gant, 2%; Gary Sheffield 3%

Yeah, you should include your rarest answers along with your score; mine were Eddie Matthews for the Braves/Tigers and Joe Torre for the Braves/Cardinals, both 2%.

8/9, I got tripped up by the Tigers/Rockies square (as did most people).

killed the braves column: mike hessman (det), ken oberkfell (stl), claudell washington (nyy) all 0.2%

but i had no col/det and i tried to get too fancy with the 40+ homers

Yeah if it helped I put Goldie for the middle right one and in retrospect, why

So is the rarity score actually one of the objectives? I haven't been playing that way, but I will if it is.

i would guess that most people playing the game can probably answer most of the questions (rockies/tigers aside), so yeah rarity is a thing. which is nice for you, as i bet you'll totally kick ass at it

Just a function of being older. When I answered Joe Torre for the Braves/Cardinals, that for me is an obvious answer: perennial All-Star with the Braves, an MVP with the Cardinals. But he was 2% of the correct answers. I'll still struggle with the intersecting teams--and will usually be happy if I can come up with even one answer--but I will go for more offbeat stat/award answers.

9/9, really concentrated on less obvious answers: all but one under 10%, six 5% or under, three under 1%. The one name that escaped me was J.A. Happ for the Jays 20-game winner, so I settled for Morris--who surprisingly was only 3% anyway.

Rarity Score: 62.

If they added a time component to this, I'd be dead.

8/9.
Could not FOR THE LIFE OF ME name a single A/Pirate, the only reason I got the reliever is cos I read about him being picked up by the Pirates off waivers.
https://i.postimg.cc/63hPG7Ct/IMG-4734.jpg
Sorry for letting you down with my lack of Pirates knowledge, Mookieproof.

What’s funny is your top right answer could have been used for the one you didn’t get!

That's who I used for my top left (I was pretty sure but not 100%). Could have used Jeff Kent twice too, if you were allowed to. I actually found Cy Young/MVP a little tricky since double-winners have been somewhat arbitrary. Best example: Rice beat out Guidry in '78, but Clemens beat out Mattingly in '86. I thought that's what happened, but again, wasn't 100% sure, so I went with a safe 36% choice there.

xp I didn’t know that until you said so, I had two answers for that top right square and Cutch was a more obvious choice

Let me know what your Jays answers were, Thermo. I had (working down) Al Oliver, Candy Maldonado--both under 1%--and Morris at 36%.

Those are all solid 80s answers!

I had Liriano, Pillar & Clemens (6%, 10% & 21%)

Unfortunately I chose the most obvious answers Jose Bautista, Brandon Belt, Roy Haaladay. I have plenty of room for improvement in this game.

I came up with what might be the only Immaculate Grid with the same answer for all nine squares (if you include a major award and a major statistical benchmark--there are guys who've played for nine teams, so that would be the other way to go). This is extremely easy.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ib_kzXqxUdy4qWeNf2c_Q72Ka0UHxIZXq1d9ufTfll8/edit?usp=sharing

8/9, couldn't start to think of a Pirates/Jays crossover. Rarity score:304

Jason Kendall - Ray Knight - Barry Bonds
Barry Zito - Brandon Belt - Willie
Bob Welch - Roy Halladay - Sandy Koufax

Ray Knight was supposed to be Gary Carter - 'long career, played in Canada, might have made a pit stop in Pittsburgh?' - and still wrong

I had Bob Welch for his 27 win season my first year playing rotisserie baseball, age 9 - also Bobby Thigpen & Cecil Fielder... my roto talent scout career was all downhill from there

We don't need to get into specifics, but not good at all today. (I did figure out that you can think in terms of franchises, so I was able to use the Expos in place of the Nationals.)

4/9 - Chris Young for Rangers X Padres and Johnny Damon/Julio Franco/Paul Molitor for SB

as a young person i could absorb and retain insane levels of info on the most forgettable players, and my son has the same level of retention - i'm constantly asking him to explain players that i am not familiar with, it's definitely tied to age. after going in on the grid for a few weeks i started to recall long forgotten names, but you probably have that same level of remembering today players even though you might not be a kid, it's all new to you. i just like reliving my youth via this game, the 70s were a great period in mlb and i like stepping back there.

I have very specific knowledge but I don’t think I can approach anyone on ILBB on breadth yet. Knowing the dynasty Giants teams is great because they had a lot of marginal bit part players that moved around a lot, I’m always reading back and watching old series so trying to accumulate knowledge but I’ll never have the grown-up-with-it base that most of you have. I do what I can, basically!

i approach the grid similar to how i used to do the nytimes crossword circa 30-35 yers ago - good base knowledge but then pick out the cheat codes, there's like 1-2 dozen old reliables that get you to the promised land even though they may not be your part of your core knowledge.

Speaking of which, here's one you both might find useful (I have four or five): Only two guys have played for all four '61/62 expansion teams (Angels, Senators/Rangers, Mets, Astros): one exceedingly famous player to avoid, Nolan Ryan, but also Darren Oliver.

9/9, 8 today. I thought I'd be even lower: Molitor and Boyer are 5% between them right now. (May go lower.) There are 269 correct answers for 1B/30-SB; I shouldn't be naming a HOF'er. And Mort Cooper (who I think I knew) or Marty Marion (who I didn't) would have been better for Cards MVP. But I did remember Phil Cavarretta from a mistake two or three weeks ago.

https://i.postimg.cc/4d8n6CYS/grid.jpg

Baylor is generally remembered as a big, slow-moving RBI guy; before he turned 30, though, he stole 20+ eight years in a row, with a high of 52 on the '76 A's (who stole *341* as a team).

9/9, 6

https://imgur.com/a/TKbaxNN

Has been purchased (or licensed) by mlb.com. They were linking to Sporacle for a while (and may still be) in what seemed like an effort to compete, but I guess it wasn't working.

Still doing this godforsaken thing. Had only one 9 since Monday--that Colorado grid, so rarity wasn't great.

8/9, 103 today. Almost ran the table: 7/7, 1.28%, 200 wins/Tigers and 200 wins/GG left. I didn't want to use Bunning for the Tigers, and I wanted to avoid Maddux/Gibson/Kaat for the other. So I got the idea to try Bunning for Tigers/GG--struck me as a guy who must have won at least one. Nope. Only 14 correct answers, two of which, Niekro and Hershiser, had crossed my mind.

https://i.postimg.cc/sgzKkTKJ/grid.jpg

To paraphrase Snoop Dogg, I use Bobo Newsom like every single day now. I've memorized six of his nine teams--seven now, because I could have used him for Tigers/200 wins.

9/9, 51. Two pretty good rows; Cubs, no. I'd wonder if all those Holtzman points directly resulted from people reading obituaries the other day, except I can answer my own question: that's why I remembered he threw a couple of no-hitters. Catfish Hunter is primarily famous for two things on the field: winning 20 games so many times and pitching a perfect game. So of course he's 0.7% for 20 wins/no-hitter.

https://i.postimg.cc/xjGRnsCm/grid.jpg

The only kind of 9 I can get for a grid with one of the final four (Rays): 122 rarity.

https://i.postimg.cc/d13fj97J/grid.jpg

I'm surprised Magglio Ordóñez reliably scores under 5%. I know he played in the PED era, but he had some huge years, especially 2007 (for the Tigers): 54 doubles, 139 RBI, .363, MVP runner-up. He seems somewhat forgotten, at least in this context. Quite a post-retirement career! "In August 2013, Ordóñez announced that he would run for the office of mayor in the Juan Antonio Sotillo Municipality in Venezuela, on the ticket of the late Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela. It was announced on December 9, 2013 that he had been elected Mayor."

Had a pretty good one going today--8/8, 17%--but tried Hal Trotsky for the Guardians-only box; nope, two years with the White Sox at the tail end of his career. I thought of Joe Charboneau but decided nah, no chance--so of course he would have worked. Another possibility I'd completely forgotten from my 1970 Zander Hollander guide: Roy Foster, runner-up for AL ROY in 1970, out of the league after three seasons.

9/9, 19. By the time I got to Astros/Giants, I was going to be over 10% no matter what, so I quickly typed in Morgan's name. I don't often come up with first-time answers that please me anymore--I usually settle for proven tricks and mnemonics--but I had one today: Ollie Brown, who again goes back to my 1970 Zander Hollander guide. Unless I'm forgetting someone, he was basically the only Padre other than Nate Colbert worth a damn back then (Randy Jones not there yet).

https://i.postimg.cc/63yc80cQ/grid.jpg

9/9, 4, I think tied for best-ever (also probably the easiest grid ever, I know). I wanted all nine to be under 1%, and looking at the two that aren't, I think there's still a chance. (No one ever used to guess Martin Dihigo.) The only two I hesitated on were Bottomley for the HOF and Norm Cash--I knew his '61 season, in the shadow of Maris and Mantle, was huge, but wasn't completely sure that he made it to 40 HR.

https://i.postimg.cc/9M34nrmM/grid.jpg

I got 12% today. Always love coming here and getting the wind taken out my my sails! Lol.

Trust me, whenever I post a really low score, buzzq parachutes in with 1% less.

buzza...

Oh I’m aware!

Today's grid is funny, based on a distinction even GG voters never used to make. No way I'm getting 9 unless I go for really obvious answers, and probably not even then. And I can only use César Tovar once.

8/8, 5%, thought about Junior Felix for Angels CF, balked, tried Ken Henderson--didn't even play for the Angels. Felix would have worked.

https://i.postimg.cc/cJkRwWMd/grid.jpg

Emailed a guy named Aidan today, who I've contacted before about category ideas for IG. On the 10,000 to 1 chance this actually happens, remember, it was my idea.

Aidan -- Hear me out...

What about an Immaculate Grid tournament? You have an entry fee, pick a city, find a venue, run a tournament. You charge like $50 to enter, and you give back half what you collect in prize money (making sure you have enough left for expenses). If you're looking to make money, adjust accordingly.

I really think you'd draw people in if the prize money made it worthwhile. Think of how many people enter Scrabble tournaments. Everything's the same as the daily grid, with a random mix of categories. You set up a bracket with groups of 4--64 players, 128, etc. Ties are broken by rarity (presumably, most everyone's getting 9/9s). You have something set up to prevent cheating.

I'm in Canada, but if it were close enough, I'd probably give it a go. There's a guy I know through a message board who's much--*much*--better than I am, and I expect there are lots of people like him who'd enter.

Or you could set something up online...but the cheating part of it then becomes more of a challenge, I'm guessing.

Hold off on that plane ticket--they politely passed on my idea. ("I don't know if that's something we're practically looking to do right now.") I'm picturing two guys in a room, one says "Him again" as he opens my email, the other makes some kind of a looney-tunes gesture.

9/9, 22 for today's. Al Bumbry 11%? Give me a break!

https://i.postimg.cc/SQctkBjH/grid.jpg

9/9, 21

https://imgur.com/a/k8YbW2S

I'm with you on Bumbry, brother, he is squarely in my 70s memory-holed players that i consistently use to score <2%. I knew I'd take a slight hit on Gomez given the more recent time frame, just glad my Pete Gray cheat code is still working. And yes, i vividly remember some insane extra inning affair where the Mets had to use Orosco in the OF, specifics not so much but him standing out there very much so, of course youtube comes thru, Carter playing 3rd as an extra treat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UhfabRmtJw

oh man i forgot the brawl which put the mets short-handed after ejections, 86 team was so chaotic lmao ray knight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2CwLl-zoNU

Dumb mistake today--Billy Williams didn't win the MVP in '72, even though he almost won a Triple Crown--but I suddenly have an overwhelming desire to revisit yesterday's updated 9/9, 20.

https://i.postimg.cc/4yMW33Sr/grid.jpg

9/9, 9--The Herman Cain Rule. Tony Gwynn for HOF/10-HR not as clever as I thought.

https://i.postimg.cc/T3BhHV72/grid.jpg

9/9, 27. I really got dinged for Bumgarner. Thought about trying Russell Martin for that box--I knew he pitched a couple of perfect innings but wasn't sure about the Silver Slugger. Should have gone with him.

https://i.postimg.cc/sfWN0P5S/grid.jpg

9/9, 6

https://imgur.com/a/zucyD0T

I checked my grid right after you posted, and I'd dropped all the way from 27 to 5. I was surprised too--just the way it goes.

9/9, 17. The 11% for the D-Backs row has to be a record for me when it comes to Arizona/Colorado/Miami/Tampa Bay. Remembered Aaron Hill by scanning all the Hills on auto-fill, got a break on Steve Finley (likely because of Matt Williams), and at the last second remembered Reggie Sanders from all the times I've looked over the 2001 Arizona BRef page trying to remember somebody, anybody--had no idea if he'd managed 30 HR.

https://i.postimg.cc/d3WkrjsQ/grid.jpg

9/9, 15

https://imgur.com/a/CEDtYEz

9/9, 24. Lots of better choices than Garret Anderson--Vada Pinson, Bill Buckner, Willie Davis, Torii Hunter, Chili Davis, Gary Gaetti, Bert Campaneris--but I thought he'd be lower, so just typed him in right away.

https://i.postimg.cc/YqQntPjq/grid.jpg

9/9, 7

https://imgur.com/a/mQm48Vo

9/9, 22. Heading out for the day--crossing over into Michigan, appropriately enough--so I settled for a few easy ones. I think Carl Furillo was the least celebrated core Boy of Summer--him or Junior Gilliam.

https://i.postimg.cc/8PkCyZD4/grid.jpg

you guys have me glory chasing - which leads to wrong guesses. but for the first time in a while i got two back-to-back. but both in the low 50s.

I messed up on the weekend by assuming Eddie Collins as a sure thing for A's/200-hits, but he only did it with the White Sox.

Didn’t even know he was on the As! Came in handy for me when I needed him for the Sox tho.
Usually the black and white guys are easy low scores - but was surprised Al Simmons was 11% for the A’s.

9/9, 9

https://imgur.com/a/eTuKw4f

Here's some low-hanging fruit for you to beat, thermo: 9/9, 45. I'm retiring my Matt Stairs cheat--all four '69 expansion teams--which others have evidently started using too. The best part of today's is my Red Sox row: Flash Gordon, Smokey Joe, and El Tiante--my greatest nickname row ever.

https://i.postimg.cc/KYmvywpt/grid.jpg

9/9, 15. Amusing that Zolio Versalles is my most common answer today--in the first few months of this game, he was guaranteed to be under 1%.

https://i.postimg.cc/MGnmG5bT/grid.jpg

Why I know him (possibly my first baseball book as a kid):

https://i.postimg.cc/NjzRZTqw/book.jpg

Ha! Even in the low hanging fruit I got one wrong. Did use Smokey Joe (I only know him because of a dead ball era sim I did of the BoSox in OOTP). also took advantage of Stairs.

“In case of emergency use Stairs” as the tshirts used to say

9/9, 20.
https://i.postimg.cc/7Lb21Dbp/IMG-0607.jpg
Shout out to Alex Cora for being forced to play Pablo at first, in easily the worst lineup I’ve ever seen, in a game I saw with my own eyes 🫡

9/9, 25, almost all of it Thomas and Perry. For the first time, I thought to check if there was anybody who played for the Pilots (Brewers) and Mariners. One guy, Diego Segui, so I'm guessing others have clued into that too, and he's worth 5% at best.

https://i.postimg.cc/L8LM2P6f/grid.jpg

You would think Gary Roenicke would be under %0.1, but I think the Roenicke/Lowenstein platoon is pretty well known as such things go.

9/9, 15

https://imgur.com/a/skrGlT0

Middle and right columns: 6/6, 5.75%. (Could have been better if I'd remembered Frank Duffy, the guy the Reds traded for Foster--had that committed to memory at one point.) Rays column: 3/3, 105%. Why would you ruin a good grid with Tampa Bay? So 9/9, 112--thermo and gyac, easy target.

https://i.postimg.cc/FRdmp7LD/grid.jpg

(Highlight today was turning the outfield column into a backdoor Jays column.)

9/9, 10--may drop into single digits. Started off 3/3, under 1%, but Jason Thompson killed that. This will never happen again: I've got two guys in the same row--Billy Martin and Dave Boswell--who got into a famous barroom brawl that cost one of them his job: https://twins-time.com/2022/02/billy-in-the-bar-august-1969/.

https://i.postimg.cc/FzzhfLX1/grid.jpg

Not to mention Giles and Briles side-by-side.