Grid: 15 minutes; Meta: 5 more
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Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Put a Little Spin on the Ball” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for a pitcher in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. There were four theme entries, each containing a combination of ADEN:
WSJ Contest – 03.21.2025
- LEFTH(ANDE)D: [Like southpaws]
- TOSS(EDAN)OHITTER: [What Giants pitcher Blake Snell did in August 2024]
- THEB(ADNE)WSBEARS: [1976 baseball comedy starring Walter Matthau and Tatum O’Neal]
- ATT(ENDA)NCE: [Ballpark figure?]
I Googled “National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher” and found this link that lead to our contest solution DIZZY DEAN. I noticed that Grover ALEX(ANDE)R also matched the pattern, but that repeated the ANDE from LEFTHANDED (and Dizzy matches “spin” in the title), so I’m confident that that’s not the answer. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
Took me a while to figure out what to Spin. At first I thought it might be like those cryptic puzzles, using Tossed, Bad, Dance and even Left as directives to alter the themers. But not much came out of it. This was a fun meta and I enjoyed learning more about this hall of famer.
I spotted the A-N-D-Es in the puzzle and Tim immediately said Dizzy Dean. From there, we had a moment googling Dizzy and Daffy but Daffy isn’t in the Hall of Fame. Tim probably would have got the answer without me but, with no baseball knowledge, I doubt I’d have got there on my own.
Spin as in twist, stir
Ball as in hair and arcing
Red as in herrings
I got the answer, but mainly because of my baseball knowledge… after spotting the ANDE combinations, it made me think of Dizzy Dean. I kept looking for how that letter combination was “spinning” but they were just various jumbles rather than rotations. I get the allusion to “spinning” with the Dizzy name… but not very elegant IMO.
+1
Kind of got thrown off by the lefthanded. Dizzy was right handed
+1
We saw Padre in the upper center of the grid and thought it was a clue. Then as we proceeded through the puzzle we started looking for a left-handed Padre, noted for the spin on his pitch, who threw a no hitter in a highly attended game. Didn’t know where the bad news came in, but at any rate we didn’t come up with anyone who fit perfectly. Since we were focused on left- handed pitchers we didn’t consider Dizzy Dean, even though my husband spotted the repeated A-N-D (somehow missed the E). We submitted Randy Johnson, who checked many of the boxes. I should have looked back on my childhood when I used to love to spin around and get dizzy!
Exactly the same for me!
+2
I believe there’s an error in the solution presented: 47D should be ZUCK, and 58A CLAD.
Good “catch”…
I’m guessing a typo since X is next to C on the keyboard – perhaps caused by a brief spell of dizziness.
Yes — good catch!
Fixed, thanks!
Too bad Dizzy Dean didn’t play for the Chicago Bears. THEBADNEWSBEARS took me there!
it’s warren spahn.
I know it’s late, but in keeping with the theme, there’s an “error” in your 4th themer –
ATTE(NDAN)CE: [Ballpark figure?] It should be ATT(ENDA)NCE.
Fortunately, minor. Definitely not Buckner level
Fixed, thanks!
Bill Buckner’s error was John McNamara’s fault.