The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[udosuk]

Not into baseball at all, but wordplay is fun.

My answer is Loser

(Listen carefully, I tried Closer, but you cannot hear the C)

Well done Ruud, for someone who's not into baseball.

Your reasoning is much more exciting and "in your face" than my own.

My reasoning goes like this: a pitcher who listens to his catcher on how and where to pitch the ball is called "to be led by his catcher". So, for a closer who doesn't listen to his catcher, you can say:

"A closer, without a leading C, will become a loser (i.e. will lose the game/become the losing pitcher)."

Ruud's dialogue would be much more lively for a catcher to tell such a pitcher, but he must have a pretty strong accent to pronounce rhyming "closer" & "loser".

BTW, I couldn't believe Bill didn't recognise the answer when he typed "Closer-C" (i.e. "Closer minus C").

---

Now that we got the riddle cracked, we can continue our sports chatting.

Firstly thanks for the baseball jokes from Cec, keep them coming if you have more! Jokes about other sports will also be welcome.

And the BoSox relief pitcher Hud mentioned must be Eric Gagne, a former Cy Young winner as a Dodgers closer. And Webb has just pitched 2 complete game shutouts on a row, and 33 scoreless innings on the run. Perhaps a perfect game is around the corner.

Hud, good luck on the golf course with your $175 driver. I hope Tiger collapses and John Senden wins it but probably too unlikely. Felt a bit for Sergio Garcia who got disqualified because his playing partner made a mistake on his scorecard though.

[Hud]

Yeah, it has to have something to do with "closer". The part about not listening to his catcher is key imo. If the term is a noun of short length, I really need to put on my thinking cap (or D-back cap).

Webb pitched another great game last night. That makes 33 shutout innings in a row. Hershheiser has the record of something like 59 innings.

Added later: I just noticed udosuk's last post. Well done Ruud.

[Cec]

Well done Ruud for solving this riddle. I must confess to considering Udosuk's riddle being far too difficult for anyone not being familiar with the rules and/or jargon of baseball. Anyway, here's a cute little story I recently came across....

A 5-year old boy, learning to play baseball, became increasingly frustrated after tossing a ball into the air with one hand but failing to hit the ball with his bat held in the other hand. He eventually lost his frustration by calling out after every third toss "great pitching - you're out".

Cec

[udosuk]

A five-year old boy, learning to play baseball with a bat in one hand and ball in the other, became frustrated from calling out "bad hit" after he repeatedly failed to hit the ball after tossing it in the air. He eventually stopped becoming frustrated by calling out "good pitcher" every time he missed hitting the ball.

A 5-year old boy, learning to play baseball, became increasingly frustrated after tossing a ball into the air with one hand but failing to hit the ball with his bat held in the other hand. He eventually lost his frustration by calling out after every third toss "great pitching - you're out".

Am I the only one wondering if Cec is trying to write a series on this storyline or is he suffering from short-term memory loss? Cute innocent joke though.

[Cec]

"...Am I the only one wondering if Cec is trying to write a series on this storyline or is he suffering from short-term memory loss?...."

Udosuk, I'm just as bewilded as you are in my baseball joke appearing twice in the same thread but I hope this explanation will give me a reprieve from being certified.

As mentioned in the log in dilemma thread, a power failure occurred late last night just as I'd completed typing this joke the first time but because I hadn't hit the "submit" button I assumed the joke had not been sent.

Believing I hadn't hit the "submit" button last night (but now I'm not sure about this seeing the joke was published), I retyped the joke this morning when the power had been restored but which necessitated somewhat different phrasing because I couldn't remember exactly how I phrased the joke the first time.

I notice you don't mind sporting jokes being posted and I hope not to make an ass of myself again - or is it three strikes and I'm out

Cec

[Bigtone53]

An easy one for the non-baseball enthusiasts.

What is the connection between a famous Mr van Rijn and a not particularly desired role in cricket (not one-day)?

[Cec]

Here's a subtle joke. Did you hear about the athlete who won the 50 kilometre walk three years running?

Cec

[udosuk]

I notice you don't mind sporting jokes being posted and I hope not to make an ass of myself again - or is it three strikes and I'm out

It seemed I was the one making an ass of myself. No worries, it seems you've just hit 2 safe hits with no outs.

What is the connection between a famous Mr van Rijn and a not particularly desired role in cricket (not one-day)?

A picture is better than a thousand words.

[MCC]

How about "Night Watch" by Rembrandt van Rijn, and
A nightwatchman in cricket

The commom term therefore, is "night watch".


MCC

[Bigtone53]

How about "Night Watch" by Rembrandt van Rijn, and
A nightwatchman in cricket

The commom term therefore, is "night watch".

Correct. MCC. I said it was easy . Perhaps I should have referred to the Melborne Cup rather than to cricket.

Thanks for the picture udosuk.

[MCC]

This one may be easy for baseball fanatics.

What is the word link that connects "baseball" and the "Star War" films

MCC

[Hud]

Is "walker" too obvious?

[udosuk]

I can think of a few words:

Force - "may the force be with you"
Empire - "evil empire"
Strike - "the empire strikes back"
American - self explanatory
Crap - for baseball haters

[Bigtone53]

What is the word link that connects "baseball" and the "Star War" films

Lucas (Gary and George)

[MCC]

So far no one has got the right answer.

Bigtone53's:

Lucas (Gary and George)

Is a great answer but not the right one


MCC