Mr. Gaffney’s “Put A Little Spin on the Ball” was one of those “perfect storm” puzzles, providing four clear anchor entries with just enough specific information to get some of you Muggles in serious trouble.
Each of those long entries contained the same four adjacent letters – A, E, D and N – in differing order. The idea was to give them a “little spin” and arrive at the name DEAN. Specifically, Dizzy Dean.
Of course, you could also make those letters spell EDNA, as in Edna Scheer (See woozy’s Posts #231 and #254). She was a pitcher who played for the Rockford Peaches in the All-American Girls Baseball League. That’s the same team featured in the movie “A League of Their Own.” Edna was right-handed (a pity) but is part of the “Women in Baseball” exhibit in Cooperstown. An honorable mention, certainly.
Your Rabbit also appreciates the effort from chocoholic (Post #256), but it was a bit too rambling in what was clearly a very competitive week. So now we come to a pair of nominees:
krf (Post #238) found the “Sultan of SWAT” in 5A, wore the number THREE in 41A, pitched LEFT-HANDED in 17A, was tossed out from what became a no-hit game at 25A, and (after removing a few interior letters) was validated by 42A: THE BABE. Lovely!
And we have altosax who took those same four entries and found Sandy Koufax in them (Post #243). He ticked the same boxes: left-handed, four no-hitters, a record-setting attendance for pitching a World Series game, and (yes, it’s a bit of a stretch) played for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats at age 18.
So there you have it. Your Rabbit thinks he will make himself comfortable in the burrow and listen to some Dizzy Gillespie records. Maybe Mr. Gaffney will start working on a Gillespie anagram for a future puzzle. Until next, week, then.
