"Fall Classic" October 21, 2022

[Dplass]

The writeup at CrosswordFiend sums up my amazement nicely.

[Limerick Savant]

Crosswords of a Feather

Well it doesn’t take puzzling nerds
To detect there are six and ten words
And for those in the know
In the city of Poe
A big title is just for the birds

So for those of you checking the score
Telltale part of each word’s number four
Series? Two, Orioles
Vs. three Super Bowls
Quoth the Ravens, “It’s all Baltimore!”


This seemed pretty straightforward once I solved 38A and 39A. I was surprised that there wasn’t more of clue in title, however.

Sad that the meta wasn’t my hometown team which hasn’t won the Series since before I was born but made a pretty good run at it this year defying expectations with a division title. Kudos to the out of nowhere Phillies and the who but Astros for making it to the Big Show.

[BarbaraK]

Who said there were no rabbit holes this week?

I realized that "four out of seven" was the key. And there are tons of 7 letter words - 7 in the top half of the grid and 7 in the bottom. (The two in the middle can't be part of the meta of course.) And some of them have embedded 4 letter words; that must be it. But the perennial problem with ideas like this is what to count - proper names, foreign words? And then some had two, like tall and lone in TALLONE. So that can't be it.

What about 4 letter words in the grid. Why look! Just as all the 7 letter words are across, all the 4 letter words are down. That must be significant!

So I looked for 4 letter entries that were in 7 letter entries. And lo and behold, I found exactly 7 of them! Aha! Must be on the right track now.
LAGASSE - AGES
CAPITOL - IOTA
PAROLES - ERAS
YESORNO - RYES
ATEITUP - ETTU
TALLONE - NELL
ILLSTOP - OILS

OK, the team name is AIERENO? Don't know my sports well, but pretty sure that doesn't work. IAERENO (grid order of the 4-letter words) is no better).

Well, it said "four out of seven" maybe need take what's left when the 4 letter words are taken out:
LAS
CPL
POL
ONO
AIP
TAO
LTP
LCPOATL doesn't seem like a team name either. Some of these are words, but not other grid entries, or alternative answers for clues, or words in the clues.

Wait a minute - most of the 4 letter words cross their 7 letter words!
LAGASSE - AGES at the A
CAPITOL - IOTA at the T
YESORNO - RYES at the S
TALLONE - NELL at the L
ILLSTOP - OILS at the S
Would have thought there'd be 4 rather than 5, but that last S sure seems like it belongs on a sports team name. Maybe I need to take the other 4 letters and do the mechanism in reverse and find a 7 letter team name that includes A, T, S, L. OK, google a list of World Series Winners and look for one that works. Nope. Really? That has to be it! Look again. Nope, really nothing there.

Finally had to back all the way out of that rabbit hole and start again and saw the actual answer staring right at me. And the middle two 7 letter entries really are doing double duty as revealers and part of the meta! What kind of deal with the devil did some genius constructor have to strike to make that even possible?

[LadyBird]

I peeked my nose into all of those rabbit holes that @BarbaraK mentioned, but didn't dive in as deeply.

After solving the meta, I knew which bird I couldn't use this week!

[Flying_Burrito]

i like this one because it was easy but it had a couple of interesting rabbit holes that got my attention before solving it (e.g. Replacing the first letter of Fourout to You r out, or Tall one to become Ball One). I wasted some time on those 2 before taking a step back

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is the BALTIMORE ORIOLES. As suggested by the central hint FOUR OUT / OF SEVEN, taking the fourth letters of the seven-letter answers in the grid spells the contest answer.

This one was a big crowdpleaser: 2,515 entries, about 87% correct (above our typical 75%). Breathtaking ingenuity that the central hint also yielded two letters (RE) that fit right in the middle of the answer!

With 30 (I think) World Series winning teams to choose from, incorrect answers were all over the map, including RED SOX (13), BRAVES (10), DODGERS (9), CUBS (9), METS (9) and may others. Hope there are some PHILLIES and ASTROS fans among our solvers. And congrats to this week's winner: Anthony Masiello of Burlington, NJ!

[Limerick Savant]

I peeked my nose into all of those rabbit holes that @BarbaraK mentioned, but didn't dive in as deeply.

After solving the meta, I knew which bird I couldn't use this week!

I wondered if you would find it tempting to drop even the faintest of hints to this week’s answer. I commend your restraint. It’s difficult sometimes to avoid nudging others along OR vIOLating EStablished precedent in this forum.

[Limerick Savant]

929AB91D-0FF6-4ABC-AC10-1D389B643957.jpegthe-roadrunner-bird-interesting-facts-and-information.jpg

Ground Control to @MajordomoTom, don’t you know it’s a sin to post that photo without identifying it for us non-birders?

[femullen]

Dang, sorry I missed this week. Finally did the grid today, saw the instructions across the middle, and for once followed them correctly. Solved in about 20 minutes. Wish I could do that more often

Here's my excuse for being late. After basking in 80-degree sunshine of South Carolina the week prior, last week I was brushing snow off my tent in rural and signal-free West Virginia, where I'd gone with several pals for the annual First Week of Deer Camp. This is also the Last Week of Deer Camp, because we all know what happens the second week.

[SusieG]

@BarbaraK those were the rabbit holes that tripped me up for a day and a half!

[Beeth]

This is my husband

The contest answer is the BALTIMORE ORIOLES. As suggested by the central hint FOUR OUT / OF SEVEN, taking the fourth letters of the seven-letter answers in the grid spells the contest answer.

This one was a big crowdpleaser: 2,515 entries, about 87% correct (above our typical 75%). Breathtaking ingenuity that the central hint also yielded two letters (RE) that fit right in the middle of the answer!

With 30 (I think) World Series winning teams to choose from, incorrect answers were all over the map, including RED SOX (13), BRAVES (10), DODGERS (9), CUBS (9), METS (9) and may others. Hope there are some PHILLIES and ASTROS fans among our solvers. And congrats to this week's winner: Anthony Masiello of Burlington, NJ!

[mkmf]

The writeup at CrosswordFiend sums up my amazement nicely.

Thanks for the link to the blog of the puzzle on CrosswordFiend. Conrad really put his finger on how good it was. I hope it is okay to include a snippet of it here:

...This was a beautiful meta by Matt: the majority of the characters in the grid are thematic: 112 out of 180 by my count. Both the theme entries and the solution letters are symmetric. And it didn’t feel forced. Amazing.

[BarbaraK]

This is my husband

The contest answer is the BALTIMORE ORIOLES. As suggested by the central hint FOUR OUT / OF SEVEN, taking the fourth letters of the seven-letter answers in the grid spells the contest answer.

This one was a big crowdpleaser: 2,515 entries, about 87% correct (above our typical 75%). Breathtaking ingenuity that the central hint also yielded two letters (RE) that fit right in the middle of the answer!

With 30 (I think) World Series winning teams to choose from, incorrect answers were all over the map, including RED SOX (13), BRAVES (10), DODGERS (9), CUBS (9), METS (9) and may others. Hope there are some PHILLIES and ASTROS fans among our solvers. And congrats to this week's winner: Anthony Masiello of Burlington, NJ!

Yay! Congratulations! Love it when the mug goes to someone in the muggle community. It's the next best thing to winning it myself.

[OGuyDave]

Done, Friday; and done, 25 seconds later. From what I've read, there's a sizable subset of muggles for which this solve is the first one in a long time. Add me to your group. Eight weeks since my last solve. In baseball, they call that a slump, hopefully ended.

Baseball related, here's a picture of Harold Traynor who played third base for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1920 through 1937. Lots of team loyalty back then. Now? Not so much.

TFTXWD

[escapeartist]

This is my husband

The contest answer is the BALTIMORE ORIOLES. As suggested by the central hint FOUR OUT / OF SEVEN, taking the fourth letters of the seven-letter answers in the grid spells the contest answer.

This one was a big crowdpleaser: 2,515 entries, about 87% correct (above our typical 75%). Breathtaking ingenuity that the central hint also yielded two letters (RE) that fit right in the middle of the answer!

With 30 (I think) World Series winning teams to choose from, incorrect answers were all over the map, including RED SOX (13), BRAVES (10), DODGERS (9), CUBS (9), METS (9) and may others. Hope there are some PHILLIES and ASTROS fans among our solvers. And congrats to this week's winner: Anthony Masiello of Burlington, NJ!

Yay! Congratulations! Love it when the mug goes to someone in the muggle community. It's the next best thing to winning it myself.

And just registered on this site Saturday - perhaps the fastest muggle registration to mug victory on record?

[BarbaraK]

This is my husband

Yay! Congratulations! Love it when the mug goes to someone in the muggle community. It's the next best thing to winning it myself.

And just registered on this site Saturday - perhaps the fastest muggle registration to mug victory on record?

Looks to me like registered in April. But either way. Brand new, long term, prolific poster, lurker — we’re all muggles!

[The XWord Rabbit]

Each week The XWord Rabbit learns something new about puzzle folk. This time around the lesson was clear:
“Never underestimate the power of a misguided Muggle.”

To begin with, my apologies and retraction of an earlier post, implying I’d have nothing to write about this week.
In my defense, I was blinded by the immediate and persistent number of solvers to Mr. Gaffney’s “Fall Classic” puzzle.

A World Series winning team? 36A and 38A were the key, directing solvers to the 4th letter of each of the sixteen
7-letter across entries, in order: BALTIMORE ORIOLES. Simple enough, yes? Well, no … not for everyone.

BarbaraK came to the rescue in glorious ways your Rabbit could not have imagined.
Never has a nominee been so eloquent and deserving.

I realized that "four out of seven" was the key. And there are tons of 7 letter words - 7 in the top half of the grid and 7 in the bottom. (The two in the middle can't be part of the meta of course.) And some of them have embedded 4 letter words; that must be it. But the perennial problem with ideas like this is what to count - proper names, foreign words? And then some had two, like tall and lone in TALLONE. So that can't be it.

What about 4 letter words in the grid. Why look! Just as all the 7 letter words are across, all the 4 letter words are down. That must be significant!

So I looked for 4 letter entries that were in 7 letter entries. And lo and behold, I found exactly 7 of them! Aha! Must be on the right track now.
LAGASSE - AGES
CAPITOL - IOTA
PAROLES - ERAS
YESORNO - RYES
ATEITUP - ETTU
TALLONE - NELL
ILLSTOP - OILS

OK, the team name is AIERENO? Don't know my sports well, but pretty sure that doesn't work. IAERENO (grid order of the 4-letter words) is no better).

Well, it said "four out of seven" maybe need take what's left when the 4 letter words are taken out:
LAS
CPL
POL
ONO
AIP
TAO
LTP
LCPOATL doesn't seem like a team name either. Some of these are words, but not other grid entries, or alternative answers for clues, or words in the clues.

Wait a minute - most of the 4 letter words cross their 7 letter words!
LAGASSE - AGES at the A
CAPITOL - IOTA at the T
YESORNO - RYES at the S
TALLONE - NELL at the L
ILLSTOP - OILS at the S
Would have thought there'd be 4 rather than 5, but that last S sure seems like it belongs on a sports team name. Maybe I need to take the other 4 letters and do the mechanism in reverse and find a 7 letter team name that includes A, T, S, L. OK, google a list of World Series Winners and look for one that works. Nope. Really? That has to be it! Look again. Nope, really nothing there.
Finally had to back all the way out of that rabbit hole and start again and saw the actual answer staring right at me.

Some of you may recall your Rabbit’s threat that he might have to resort to sharing old jokes or favorite movies
if there weren’t any tales of Muggles lost. In spite of BarbaraK’s stellar contribution, he does not wish to disappoint MainMarge
(who actually requested an old joke). Here’s one of his favorites -- a little longer than the average Dad joke, but it certainly
falls into that category.

A lady makes a frantic call to the Fire Department.
Lady: “Help! Help! My house is on fire!”
Fireman: “How do we get there?”
Lady: “Don’t you still have that big red truck?”

When you’re finished slapping your knee the Rabbit will make his exit. Until next week then…

[BarbaraK]

BarbaraK came to the rescue in glorious ways your Rabbit could not have imagined.
Never has a nominee been so eloquent and deserving.

Thank you, thank you! And thanks to all the little people I trampled over on my quest for this glorious moment:)

Lately I'd actually found myself hoping I wouldn't see the answer too quickly and thus have a chance at the rabbit hole nomination. (Was that wrong of me?:) Crossword gods, please note that that's done, and now I'd like to see the obvious when it's right in front of me.

[Conrad]

Thanks for the link to the blog of the puzzle on CrosswordFiend. Conrad really put his finger on how good it was. I hope it is okay to include a snippet of it here:

...This was a beautiful meta by Matt: the majority of the characters in the grid are thematic: 112 out of 180 by my count. Both the theme entries and the solution letters are symmetric. And it didn’t feel forced. Amazing.

Feel free to quote my CrosswordFiend posts any time @mkmf. Loved this meta.

[MajordomoTom]

929AB91D-0FF6-4ABC-AC10-1D389B643957.jpegthe-roadrunner-bird-interesting-facts-and-information.jpg

Ground Control to @MajordomoTom, don’t you know it’s a sin to post that photo without identifying it for us non-birders?

ummmmmm