What's cool about Immaculate Grid is that it's so open ended. Play how you want. Try to get the rarest scores, or the most common. Try to answer as fast as you can, or take your sweet time. Play alone, or use it as a lunch/bar conversation starter.
I find Immaculate Grid impossible. When confronted with the question of “who has played on both the Brewers and Angels?” I struggle to even think of five players who have ever played for either team
I took the Beilock quote to mean that there are other, more useful/important goals than comfort. Saying that discomfort is more important than comfort keeps us on the comfort/discomfort spectrum, when really our attention is better spent on other spectra where comfort might be an accidental (or even expected) result, but is not the focus.
I love the conversation on optimal win-percentages, and it got me thinking about which team's fans have had the best experience over the last decade (mostly considering on-the-field, because otherwise it becomes impossibly complicated to answer). I know most other Yankee fans will probably think I'm insane for saying this, but I've really loved the experience of being a Yankees fan over the last decade: always in contention, but never good enough to make victory seem inevitable.
As a working-class kid growing up in rural New York in the 90s who never identified with winners or NYC, I was so envious of the romantic doom of Cubs fans ( Stuart Dybek's Death of a Right Fielder is still my favorite short story of all time) or good teams with more interesting stars than the seemingly unflappable Jeter, like the Astros combination of a sad-looking 1B with a cool beard (Bagwell) and a small-ish 2B (Biggio) who would throw himself at pitches to get on base.
Looking back, as a baseball-obsessed kid, I never appreciated what a joy it was to get to root for your team for the entire baseball season without ever feeling out of it. I wanted a good team, just not a great one. Which is why I probably enjoy the current era of Yankees so much more. I also think I'd find some perverse joy in being a Dodgers fan and only getting a World Series trophy in the season where it doesn't feel like it really counts.
I'm curious how other fans of other teams would weigh in!
P.S. Because I've been a fan of your work for a decade, but have never in any way interfaced with you before this comment, I just wanted to say that your writing/podcasting has been a profound source of joy in my life and your commentary lingers in my brain for years after consumption. It uniquely validates years of invested baseball fandom because I'm able to write it off as prerequisite knowledge that allows me to fully enjoy your baseball-tinged musings on life. Thank you for being you!
On the topic of disappearing parts of baseball, I was at a game last night discussing the last time a player charged the mound. I cannot remember any in the last 5 years, nor find any online.
To be honest, I got stuck on that, too, but I pushed it out of mind and hit publish anyway. I regret it!
Editors' value isn't so much telling writers what needs to be fixed in a piece--writers usually know, but are often too lazy to be honest with themselves about it. The editors' value is forcing them to fix it.
What's cool about Immaculate Grid is that it's so open ended. Play how you want. Try to get the rarest scores, or the most common. Try to answer as fast as you can, or take your sweet time. Play alone, or use it as a lunch/bar conversation starter.
I find Immaculate Grid impossible. When confronted with the question of “who has played on both the Brewers and Angels?” I struggle to even think of five players who have ever played for either team
I took the Beilock quote to mean that there are other, more useful/important goals than comfort. Saying that discomfort is more important than comfort keeps us on the comfort/discomfort spectrum, when really our attention is better spent on other spectra where comfort might be an accidental (or even expected) result, but is not the focus.
I love the conversation on optimal win-percentages, and it got me thinking about which team's fans have had the best experience over the last decade (mostly considering on-the-field, because otherwise it becomes impossibly complicated to answer). I know most other Yankee fans will probably think I'm insane for saying this, but I've really loved the experience of being a Yankees fan over the last decade: always in contention, but never good enough to make victory seem inevitable.
As a working-class kid growing up in rural New York in the 90s who never identified with winners or NYC, I was so envious of the romantic doom of Cubs fans ( Stuart Dybek's Death of a Right Fielder is still my favorite short story of all time) or good teams with more interesting stars than the seemingly unflappable Jeter, like the Astros combination of a sad-looking 1B with a cool beard (Bagwell) and a small-ish 2B (Biggio) who would throw himself at pitches to get on base.
Looking back, as a baseball-obsessed kid, I never appreciated what a joy it was to get to root for your team for the entire baseball season without ever feeling out of it. I wanted a good team, just not a great one. Which is why I probably enjoy the current era of Yankees so much more. I also think I'd find some perverse joy in being a Dodgers fan and only getting a World Series trophy in the season where it doesn't feel like it really counts.
I'm curious how other fans of other teams would weigh in!
P.S. Because I've been a fan of your work for a decade, but have never in any way interfaced with you before this comment, I just wanted to say that your writing/podcasting has been a profound source of joy in my life and your commentary lingers in my brain for years after consumption. It uniquely validates years of invested baseball fandom because I'm able to write it off as prerequisite knowledge that allows me to fully enjoy your baseball-tinged musings on life. Thank you for being you!
On the topic of disappearing parts of baseball, I was at a game last night discussing the last time a player charged the mound. I cannot remember any in the last 5 years, nor find any online.
Sam, every 7th day is a Monday. Are you saying you want Mondays to happen more often?
To be honest, I got stuck on that, too, but I pushed it out of mind and hit publish anyway. I regret it!
Editors' value isn't so much telling writers what needs to be fixed in a piece--writers usually know, but are often too lazy to be honest with themselves about it. The editors' value is forcing them to fix it.