Explanation: There are 11 "unchecked" letters in the puzzle from top to bottom - tight spots, indeed! They spell out SQUEEZE PLAY in alphabetical order - and baseball season's almost here! I'll "squeeze" out any time to watch those plays, for sure!
Always helps! I think I hear this called a safety squeeze more, but I'm pretty sure that's a specific type of squeeze play.
Jerry Miccolis 🤓7:23 · about 1 month ago
There’s the safety squeeze, but there’s also the suicide squeeze, which is more exciting by half!
hoover 3s · about 1 month ago
When I inspected the unchecked letters and saw SQUEEVEPLOP, I knew that (a) I had found the metanism and (2) I had some mistakes in my grid. It's 80 degrees where I am. We built a snowman in the yard 2 weeks ago.
Oh, there's no V in the grid either! I put that clue in to get rid of that option and must have thought there was at least one, haha. I don't know if I prefer 20 degrees to 80 degrees, but I would prefer it to 90!
Took me a moment or two before figuring out what should have been obvious to work with. Trucks left Fenway the other day packed with a gazzillion sunflower seeds as reported on the news. Thanks for the day at the park, Mikey!
Yeah, the grid itself seems 2 or 3, I would surmise!
Berto 4s · about 1 month ago
Took me a bit longer than it should have, but SQFT instead of SOFT had to be intentionally in there! (not to mention the lone Z…) Fun one Mikey
lbray53 2s · about 1 month ago
Just when I was about to give up I saw the SQ UE EZE.
HeadinHome 🤓1:49 · about 1 month ago
Would have been my WAG, then i saw it was right there. Will have to now figure out the method!
ELSavage 🤓8:30 · about 1 month ago
Talk about backsolving! I had to solve the meta to fix an error in the grid. What a difference one letter can make.
So I guess those letters had a cross-check after all.
I have to admit that I kind of saw the answer before I saw the way it should be derived, a nice level 1 though. Now, not being much of a baseball aficionado I always thought he squeeze play was the same as the rundown, so I learned something. That is always the benefit of metas. Thanks Mikey!
I'm fine with that! Yeah, I love crosswords and "Jeopardy!" because I'm always learning something. Cool fact recently: "chauffeur" is derived from the French for "steam" for the way the initial cars used to be powered!
So I guess those letters had a cross-check after all.