I was worried when I saw it was about baseball, but a very easy going meta. Thanks, Al!
whimsy 15:23 · quasi 2 anni fa
Agree on the grid. Had the right mechanism early enough (and fortunately came up with what it had to be before looking to see whether ACME had started a Go Fund Me to Free Wily -- I know, wrong spelling.) But not sure if I have all it takes -- LANDER is close to Orbiter?
Regardless, Thank you, Al, for the fun challenge!
BarbaraK 3s · 2023-06-12T15:45:46.665Z
And Thing is an Adams Family character. And Freewill is a Rush song. And look at those grid initials:)
whimsy 15:23 · 2023-06-12T20:36:09.029Z
Ah, thanks, Barbara! I guess I was always more of a Cousin Itt kinda girl. :)
KayW 🤓8:50 · quasi 2 anni fa
Woohoo! I solved a sportsing one! Fun one, thanks Al! I admit I kind of "backed into" this one. I found one of the CLOSE CALLS in the grid, I'm still looking for the other two...
KayW 🤓8:50 · quasi 2 anni fa
...and found the other two. VERY clever.
Joe 🤓13:25 · quasi 2 anni fa
Nice!
oldjudge 3s · quasi 2 anni fa
Strike 1, strike 2, strike 3--yer out! Great job Al.
Agree a very engaging grid with a great AROD dis to boot. Forecast here is for pluvious weather til late tonight. Here's hoping all fans make it through a the winning nonet of their favorite team. And thanks for those brackets, Al!
Well I got it, but reading the comments I am not sure I got the mechanism I should have. Mine was a combo of an intuit; what is a six letter call a closer wants to hear, pitcher with a low ERA, Tom Seaver's record, and Strike 1, Strike 2, Strike 3 adds up to YER OUR (six letter cry). On top of that, Strike one letter from 17A (Y), two from 39A (ER) and three from 62A (OUT) and of course the one I liked for obvious reasons; TOM SAW LANDER (ORBITER) with YER OUT left over. I am afraid I do not see any Close Calls but I'd bet there are many things I missed. I had a tough time with the GRID, one spot in particular, because I wanted the pigeon to live in a HOLE. That works for two across answers but trying to decide what type of pitch a HOALTER (I spelled Aphesis wrong) was or what LEE had to do with the Turks, well that was a head scratcher. My favorite clue was 33A - VERY clever and 57D. Thanks for pitching a perfect game!
OMG, I just saw what everyone is talking about...BRILLIANT! Rush Song, Addams family member, Lunar ___ and that is why you would strike One letter, Two letters and Three letters. I will continue to make metas but I will never be as clever as this!
Hector 12s · quasi 2 anni fa
Did not notice that in my morning "rush", as 1,2,3 and OUT fronting the third themer made the answer easy to guess, which would make a fine mechanism on its own. The original answers to the close call clues spell TWO -- probably just random? Also, WILLY crosses an anagram of MAYS, which had me looking for other crossing stuff -- ALOU and PRINCE (Fielder?) sort of cross the others.
Laura M 🤓13:43 · quasi 2 anni fa
Great puzzle! Props for using the word "pluvious" :-) Does it mean anything that the first letters of the alternate entries spell out TWO, or is it just a coincidence?
An unfortunate coincidence... but too sweet to totally ignore. I'm going use it as corroboration and/or a hint on Nudge Wednesday.
MatthewL 🤓14:12 · quasi 2 anni fa
Finally got it, after ruminating over it for quite a bit. Very clever puzzle Al! Thanks for the workout.
FrankieHeck 🤓12:57 · quasi 2 anni fa
Thanks, Al! Almost didn't attempt the meta after reading the prompt (huh?) and seeing strikes involved (oh, must be a baseball thing?) But you made it dummy-friendly enough even for me.
Qmark 3s · quasi 2 anni fa
Always love a baseball-themed meta...thanks Al!
rjy 3s · quasi 2 anni fa
Very fun challenge, Al! Nice AHA! when the light bulb went off...
still not 100% sure how TOMSAWYER, ORBITER, and WEDNESDAY played a path towards the solution, but they were clever finds to be sure. I couldn't do anything with them, which sent me back to the excised letters which of course constituted the solution.
Great puzzle, clueing and mechanism, Al - thank you!
hoover 3s · quasi 2 anni fa
I have no idea what the metanism is supposed to be, but I'm here. I just grabbed YER from TOMSAWYER and OUT from OUTLANDER and went with it, knowing there has got to be something else somewhere.
ReB 3s · quasi 2 anni fa
I was quite sure of the answer given the PLUVIOUS torrent of baseball clues, but finding the intricacies or the mechanism was quite enjoyable (though I had to wait for the comments here to find the alternate entry for FREE WILL). My plaudits to you, Alex for another tight MATRIX of construction.
Ergcat 24:11 · quasi 2 anni fa
Grid tricky! But fun finding the CLOSE CALLS! Thanks, enjoyed it!
JHSeeman 4s · quasi 2 anni fa
Cool baseball one....trigger for me was Rush Freewill with the Strike one, figured I'd head down that path, and didn't strike out.
Thanks Al.
THC 🤓2:23 · quasi 2 anni fa
Thanks, Al!
Bbaack 21:15 · quasi 2 anni fa
That was a fun one, and no extra pine tar was used!
Anita and Steve 4s · quasi 2 anni fa
Knew what it has to be, took awhile to notice the metanism because we were distracted by the red herring in 25A. Fun!
Carolyn 3s · quasi 2 anni fa
Took me a bit, but finally got there! Very cool.
HeadinHome 🤓8:31 · quasi 2 anni fa
Oh I JUST got it… just in time not to have to ask nudges from the Zoom group tonight. ( : What a great idea this was, and enjoyed tracking it down. I actually don’t know what is the companion clue to FREEWILL (in my world, that is a theological topic of dispute… maybe it’s something else to the wide world). Anyhoo… my initial guesses were close but no ceegar. More fun to find it the intended way, though!
Sharkicicles 2s · quasi 2 anni fa
GO WHITE SOX!
Thanks Al!
Snood 3:32 · quasi 2 anni fa
What a great/vast collection of clues and answers! Thank you as always for sharing yer skillz!
ajk 12:29 · quasi 2 anni fa
amazing stuff. Got to it late due to being at a meeting last week. Guessed the answer right away, but of course waited until I knew how it worked to submit. Not sure I'd have gotten it without the nudges.