Filling Immaculate Grid with Oakland Athletics
An IBWAA writer enjoys using the A's in a daily game
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . The first Immaculate Grid was put out on April 4 this year. Since, the game has grown to include not just baseball, but also NFL football, NBA and WNBA basketball, NHL hockey, and soccer.
. . . An average day for Immaculate Grid brings in more than 60,000 participants. The “rarity score” is offered after each participant completes their grid, hoping to get into single digits, or, even better, the treasured “rarity 1”.
Leading Off
Creating an All-Athletics Immaculate Grid
By Rich Campbell
Have you been enjoying the Immaculate Grid from Baseball Reference for the last few months? I certainly have.
If you are not familiar with the game, a 3x3 grid is presented daily at immaculategrid.com. The concept is simple, just name any player who has played for both teams that align with each square inside the grid. Sometimes it is an award (MVP, ROY, Gold Glove, etc.) or a season/career statistic (30+ home runs in a season, 300+ home runs in a career) instead of a team that is the prompt.
As a lifelong A’s fan, I have added a layer of difficulty to the way I play the game. Some days (depending on the categories) I try to use a former A’s player to fill in each slot. For example, in the October 13 game, one square aligned with Red Sox and MVP. Racking my brain, I realized that former A’s great Jimmie Foxx won an MVP with the Red Sox (in addition to a pair of MVPs with the Athletics), so that was my answer.
On October 28, I successfully completed an all-A’s grid for the second time – the day before my deadline to submit this article! The players used were: Jose Canseco, Jimmie Foxx, Mark McGwire, Miguel Tejada, Catfish Hunter, Joe Rudi, Jason Giambi, Reggie Jackson and Rickey Henderson. All of these players were significant in the history of the A’s.
The first time I nailed an all-A’s grid, some of the players were not quite as well known (at least as A’s), including Willie McCovey, Emilio Pagan, Scott Kazmir, Ernie Riles, Kirk Saarlos, Ramon Hernandez.
If you decide to attempt an all A’s grid, here are some tips:
- Use Rickey Henderson. Rickey is one of the greatest to ever play, so he qualifies as an answer in many categories including 3,000 career hits, Hall of Fame, and just about any stolen base category or run-scoring category. As an added bonus, he played for so many teams in the back half of his career. The full list: Oakland A’s, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays. Do you recall him playing for all those teams?
- Remember certain pitchers. A recent MLB.com article listed the players who have played for the most teams, a list that includes many former A’s pitchers. If you are ever stumped by a pair of teams, odds are one of these former Oakland hurlers played for both of them: Edwin Jackson (14 teams), Rich Hill (13), Octavio Dotel (13), Mike Morgan (12), Fernando Rodney (11), Bartolo Colon (11), Tyler Clippard (10), Alan Embree (10), Dana Eveland (10), Kevin Jarvis (10), Russ Springer (10) and Brett Tomko (10). Do you remember all of them in Green and Gold? I personally had no recollection of Jarvis. He had four appearances in 1999 in Oakland.
- Keep these position players in mind. From the same list, here are a few former Oakland position players who toiled for many MLB teams: Matt Stairs (12 teams), Tommy Davis (10) and Jose Guillen (10).
Finally, many all-time greats made stops in Oakland toward the end of their careers, including Willie McCovey (in 1976), Dick Allen (1977), Joe Morgan (1984), Davey Lopes (1984), Don Sutton (1985), Ron Cey (1987), Willie Randolph (1990), Goose Gossage (1992), Tim Raines (1999) Frank Thomas (2006) and Mike Piazza (2007). If you know the other teams these greats played for, you can include them in your all-A’s grid pursuit.
Rich Campbell is a Marketing Professor at Sonoma State University by day and A’s fan by night. He has previously been a sports business contributor at Forbes.com and his academic writing has appeared in Sport Marketing Quarterly. You can find him on Twitter @RichCampbellPhD.
Timeless Trivia
Which former Yankee and one-time Georgia Bulldog commit was the first player since the dead ball era to lead each league in home runs?
Check back tomorrow for the answer!