The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[udosuk]

Okay some more elaboration:

All of these 4 players are current players. Together they form a very special group.

In other words, you need to find a current MLB player named Paul, and another named Mike, both of them from teams of 3-word-names. And you also need to find 2 current players from the Yankees and BoSox lineups. These 4 players have something in common.

Chat:

The Yankees got a pretty good ol' spanking from the Angels today. The Angels sluggers are all in hot form especially Garret Anderson, who drove in 10 runs (2 from the MLB record). I think they'll get swept in the series (again).

Too bad the D-backs seem to be cooling off a little. Look forward to the next Webb start to see if he'll keep the streak going.

[Hud]

I'm pretty sure Webb is pitching tonight, and if so I believe the scoreless streak will end; probably in the second inning. I'll try to think about the riddle answer. I seem to have jinxed Reynolds (he of the 456 foot homer). He must be swing for the fences all the time now since he tied a major league record by striking out in 9 consecutive at bats. He was mecifully spared taking sole ownership of the record by getting hit by a pitch in AB10.

I've been up to my ears in doing drywall repairs around my new windows. I'm glad I never had to do this for a living. My original windows were flange mounted to the inside walls but I wanted to recess them 3" (76mm?). Most modern houses here have recessed windows and it makes a neater job of hanging blinds inside the recess. Drywall mud dust is really bad stuff and we're gonna have a lot of it after 6 windows.

[udosuk]

Webb's streak ended in the 1st inning, so you're not far off the mark. But at least the D-backs won and snapped their 3-game losing streak. The Yanks also avoided getting swept by the Angels, but I still say things are not looking bright for them. And Dice-K loses again despite giving up just 2 runs against the D-Rays.

But the story of the night is the Rangers beating the O's by 30-3, the most runs scored in 110 years. The O's led 3-0 after 3 innings, but the Rangers scored 5,9,10,6 runs respectively in the 4,6,8,9 innings. And the game was in Baltimore. I bet almost the whole crowd have left in the last few innings. And it was the first game of a double header, with the Rangers winning 9-7 in the 2nd game. So the O's pitchers gave up 39 runs for the day.

Come back a bit to basketball, the Americas tournament has started, and USA beat Venezuela easily. We never got to comment on their roster, which is as below:

PG: Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups, Deron Williams
SG: Kobe Bryant, Michael Redd, Mike Miller
SF: Lebron James, Tayshaun Prince
PF: Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard
C: Amare Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler

I guess they have so many guards to counter for the speed of the South American guards such as Barbosa and Ginobili. Too bad Nash is not playing (once again). Canada lost the game against Brazil, it would have been nice to see Nash play against Barbosa.

I don't want to make you struggle at the riddle too much, so I'll lax a little bit more:

Boston Red Sox - J**** ?
? ? *** - Paul ?
? ? *****s - Mike ?
New York Yankees - D**** ?

So you have 4 current MLB players, 2 of them are called Paul & Mike. Paul's team is comprised of 3 words/names with the last being of 3 letters. Mike's team is also comprised of 3 words/names with the last being the plural form of a 5-letter word. Also you have a BoSox player with a 5-letter first name starting with 'J', and a Yankees player with a 5-letter first name starting with 'D'. These 4 players form a very exclusive group among all the current MLB players.

[Cec]

"...Also you have a BoSox player with a 5-letter first name starting with 'J', and a Yankees player with a 5-letter first name starting with 'D'...."

A bit of a long shot but how about Jason Varitek as the Bosox player and Derek Jeter as the Yankees player.

I'm not much good at these puzzles so here's another joke which might get a laugh...

During a baseball game the ball is smashed some 400 feet out of the stadium by the League's biggest hitter and caught by a gorilla in a nearby zoo. The gorilla, without any help, throws the ball on the full straight back to the catcher.

Amazed at such power throwing, the Team Manager contacts the zoo hoping to sign the gorilla up as a pitcher.

"Wasting your time" says the zoo keeper " he's only got one throw.. 400 feet every time".

Cec

[Para]

For the riddle:

Chicago White Sox - Paul Konerko
Kansas City Royals - Mike Sweeney

and as perviously mentioned

New York Yankees - Derek Jeter
Boston Red Sox - Jason Varitek

Those 4 players are currently the 4 only official captains of a MLB team.

Googling those 4 names gets you to this site of Jason Varitek, in which this is mentioned. http://www.jason-varitek.com/biography.htm

greetings

Para

[udosuk]

Yep, okay, Cec has got 2 correct players and Para has got 'em all. Well done guys. I knew I probably gave away too much by J**** & D****. But hate to keep you guys struggling for too long. The hidden answer, as pointed out by Para, is the word captain. I posted this riddle because it amazed me that only 4 MLB teams have appointed a captain. But I guess the manager is the major commander in charge for a baseball team.

And Cec's gorilla joke had me giggling. Thanks!

If only they could teach that gorilla to bat...

[Cec]

"...If only they could teach that gorilla to bat..."

Or for the Richmond "Tigers" to teach him to play football

Cec

[MCC]

If only they could teach that gorilla to bat...

He could sign up for the




MCC

[Hud]

Thank goodness you guys saved me further embarassment by not being able to solve the riddle. I should do better at them, but I'll plead fatigue due to too much home improvement.

That O's score surprised me and with the 9 runs in game 2, the Rangers easily broke the most runs in a double header, I believe by 8 runs. I was in a fast pitch softball game once where we won 35 to 7. I got mad at our manager for being pulled out of the game after going 5 for 5.

Udosuk, I hate to gross you out, but yesterday a local little league team from Chandler, AZ beat a team from Minnesota. It's customary for the teams to each line up and shake hands with each player on the opposing team after the game. An ESPN camera caught several of the Minn players spitting and hocking loogeys in their hands before the handshaking. I hope they get embarassed by having themselves on film that way, but they're probably too stupid to be.

[Cec]

"... An ESPN camera caught several of the Minn players spitting and hocking loogeys in their hands before the handshaking..".

What's "hocking loogeys" mean??

Cec

[Hud]

Cec, it's pretty gross so I'll email you the answer.

[Cec]

Thanks Hud. From your email I can see why other players would wash their hands with this club's players.

Cec

[udosuk]

The Yankees lost again today to the Tigers in extra innings. When they had the hot streak earlier all the teams they faced are minnows. Against tougher opponents they can't keep up winning, so my prediction that they won't make the playoffs remains sound. And Wang isn't pitching too well in the last few games anyway, so I don't think I'll miss them so much.

My local AFL team the Sydney Swans also lost convincingly tonight to the team I hate the most, the Collingwood Magpies. I switched the channel midway through the 3rd quarter after I saw an incident involving Michael O'loughlin, one of our most important scorer, falling hard towards the ground on his back and coughing up blood afterwards. I think one of his rib bones might have punctured his lung. It was the type of games I despise the most: a game against a Victorian team in Melbourne, who gets away with all kinds of physical acts against us while we got penalised for even a slight pat on the back against our opponent. Reminds me of why we never had too much passion on this sport. It seemed the championship a couple years back would change all that but when this type of games is shown on TV again that disgusted feeling remains the same.

[Cec]

".....after I saw an incident involving Michael Oloughlin, one of our most important scorer, falling hard towards the ground on his back and coughing up blood afterwards. I think one of his rib bones might have punctured his lung."

It certainly took a lot of courage by O'Loughlin to "throw himself" backwards to mark the ball knowing he would land heavily on his back. Like you udosuk, I too thought the worst as O'Loughlin left the ground coughing up blood which suggested a broken rib and possible punctured lung. However, later reports by a commentator, who visited the dressing rooms, indicated O'Loughlin's mouth bleeding was more than likely caused from his teeth biting either his tongue or the inside of his mouth when he hit the ground so heavily. O'Loughlin later returned to continue playing suggesting his injury wasn't as serious as first feared.

It should be a huge crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. I'll predict some 85,000 people to see the last games to be played out on this famous ground by the Essendon Football Club's Coach, Kevin Sheedy, for the past 27 years and this same Club's great player, James Hird. I must point out that Kevin Sheedy was a former player with my Richmond (Tigers) team who I'm hoping will beat Essendon today.

World Athletic Championships.
Well worth watching if you enjoy athletics as I do. My favourite event is the pole vault where the women compete tonight with the winner hoping, I'm sure, to clear 5metres (about 16feet 5inches). The mens pole vault is next Sunday night with the magical 6.10 metre barrier (20 feet) being the vaulters' aim. Up until recent times, Australia never had world class pole vaulters but we now have Steve Hooker and Paul Burgess ranked 1 and 2 with Dmitri Markov - a former winner of this event - also a possible medal winner.

Pardon my passion to like watching this event, particularly in slow motion, but I find it amazing to observe that when vaulters release their hands from the pole to clear the crossbar, the "bottom" hand is released first from the pole then followed by pushing down further with the "top" hand which is still some 4 feet BELOW the crossbar and requiring a "jack-knife" of the body to clear the bar.

History has it that rules were introduced to prohibit the top hand being altered to a higher position on the pole once the run-up commences. This was to eliminate "cheating" by experienced actrobats, eg. circus performers, who could balance the pole in a vertical position when executing their vault and climb up the pole and drop off over the other side of the cross bar.

Cec

[Cec]

Having waited up till after midnight to watch the women's pole vault world athletic championship which I recorded I have just learnt that the advertised program for this event did not mention that tonite's jumping was to qualify for the final next Tuesday night. I'll have to check when the final of the men's pole vault will be held - seems like it may not be next Sunday night as I read in the TV guide.

Cec