There comes a time in a little baseball blogger’s life when their wits and historical recollection are tested in a game of mental acuity and creativity. Recently, for me, that’s been the Immaculate Grid.
The Wordle-type game that has taken over the baseball landscape since its inception at the beginning of the season doesn’t seem to be slowing down. The game’s baseball edition averages about 150k-200k players per day, Sunday to Saturday, and continues to be a topic of conversation in the baseball zeitgeist. I even have a Microsoft Teams group chat from work dedicated to our Immaculate Grid rarity scores. Every 9am, I make sure to sit down and give the Grid the old college try, and while sometimes my goal is to just get below a 100 RS (which would basically mean less than 11% on each individual square), I can get pretty niche with my picks and sometimes score below a 30 (my record is 7, which I got today coincidentally). So, with the Yankees’ 2023 fate already sealed, I figured I’d take a break from actual MLB news and give you some advice on how to improve your Griddy-ing, if you’re so inclined to participate in America’s Pastime’s Pastime.
Know your history
This one is pretty vague, but it’s also obvious. As baseball fans, a sport with such a storied past, knowing a range of legends is just a part of the game. Babe Ruth and Cy Young are just the tips of the iceberg. Hank Aaron (Braves-Brewers) and Willie Mays (Giants-Mets) are nice steps forward, but what about Frank Robinson? He’s a great one for Cincinnati-Baltimore. What about Ozzie Smith, who’s a legend on the Cardinals but started his career in San Diego? For two-team squares, you can go as obscure as you want with the role player that had the least amount of cups of coffee in the Show, but in terms of sustainability, knowing where the game’s greats played can be just as beneficial, while only sacrificing a sliver of a rarity score.
Have your guys
Tigers-Rockies? Ryan Raburn. Phillies-Twins? Ed Delahanty. Astros-Giants? Mark Portugal, of course! Having a rolodex of team-player combinations and memorizing it is a great trick to get some really hard combinations. Steve Pierce works for every AL East team, while Steve Finley works for any NL West team. It’s a good back-pocket strategy to have a few players ready to go that are rare enough to get a good score but reliable enough that you won’t forget them. You can use this trick with awards and stats milestones as well. A career batting average north of .300 for the Orioles? That would be George Sisler, which brings me to my next point.
It's franchises, not teams
I usually find that I get the best rarity scores when I reference the former location or moniker of the team that the Grid wants me to go for. For example, as soon as I see the Walgreens logo (if you know, you know), I immediately switch to the Expos. If I see a Twins logo, I switch to the Washington Senators (that’s where Ed Delahanty comes in for Phillies-Twins). If I see an Orioles logo, that’s the St. Louis Browns. Rangers? Washington Senators, again! Frank Howard, anyone?
Have fun!
The whole point of the Immaculate Grid is to celebrate the pedantry of the game of baseball by gamifying it. What’s better than talking about the most esoteric names from you and your buddies’ favorite team and assigning points to who knows them better? That’s what the spirit of the Grid is all about. So, when all hope is lost and you're on that ninth square without a player in sight for miles, just imagine you’re having a conversation with your bois about potential players that would fit there, relax, and let the answer come to you. Oh, Yankees-Pirates? Xavier Nady!