The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

25.4 - Wayne's Task: Play Ball? Play Ball!

At this time of year, I am usually eagerly looking forward to the start of Spring Training. In a few days from now, instead of cold, snowy Calgary, I can look at warm, sunny Dunedin, spring home of the Toronto Blue Jays! But as I write this, we are only five days away from games being removed from the regular season schedule, and all I can think about is the disastrous 1994-95 strike.

Choose any two options. The combined total of the two books must equal at least 500 pages. Books with a Childrens or Kids MPG are not permitted.
Required: Identify the options.

Option 1: Mr. Padre
Even though a lot of players were having excellent seasons, Tony Gwynn's season stood out. Throughout the season, I made a point of watching the highlights to see if he had inched closer to Ted Williams' .406 average. When the strike hit, I thought, 'Surely they'll settle this quickly and give Tony a shot at the first .400 season since 1941!" But no. He wound up with a .394 average. A great season, but not quite what it could have been.

Read a book with a page number that ENDS with a 3, 9, or 4. SRC page number rules apply.

Option 2: A Great Season, But...
Gwynn was not the only player to have an excellent year. Matt Williams of the San Francisco Giants had 43 homers when the strike hit, giving him a legitimate shots at Roger Maris' 61 homers in 1961, the record at the time, and Frank Thomas was AL MVP for the second year in a row. Ken Griffey Jr. who had 40 homers when the strike hit, summed it up neatly: "We picked a bad season to have a good year."

Find a word comprised of at least 4 consecutive letters in order, forward or backward, in the following: WEPICKEDABADSEASONTOHAVEAGOODYEAR
Read a book with that word in the title or subtitle.
Words such as pick, picked, seas, season, onto, have, good, goody, and year work.
Required: State the word.

Option 3: Les Expos
When the Expos joined the NL in 1969, I was of just the right age to become a diehard fan. I never missed a game. Singing "The Happy Wanderer", listening to Rusty Staub do his very best to speak French, and best of all, the PA rendition of the backup catcher's name: John Boccabellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllaaa! (And yes, that's really how he pronounced it.) Even though I lived thousands of miles from Montreal, I loved every minute of it.
Things looked really good for the Expos in 1994. Best record in MLB, six game lead over the Braves, what could possibly go wrong? The strike, that's what. Not only did it rob them of their shot at a World Series, they lost about a third of the season revenue, which forced them to sell four of their best players. Angry Montreal fans stayed away, putting the team in an even more desperate financial situation. It was the beginning of the end for Les Expos.
There is a silver lining, though. Former Expos mascot Youppi! is now plying his trade for the Montreal Canadiens, and has the distinction of being the only Canadian in the Mascot's Hall of Fame (There really is such a thing. I checked.)

Read a book with a doubled letter in the title.

Option 4: Sayonara MLB
With the strike threatening to drag into a second season, Kevin Mitchell, Shane Mack and Julio Franco, all of whom batted .325 or better in 1994, decided to play in Japan in 1995

Read a book set at least 50% in Japan.
Required: If the setting is not evident in the GR description or metadata provide a reference.

OPTIONAL: Who is the worst MLB Commissioner of all time?
A: Bud Selig
B: Rob Manfred
C: I want to see how badly Manfred messes things up before I decide
D: Other

Let's keep our fingers crossed everyone!

Works:
Option 2: Words spelled backwards

Doesn't Work:
Option 2: Anagrams.

This help thread is open!

I just read this task and need to know.. what sport is this about?
I'm also guessing by 'NL' you don't mean the Netherlands? (I'm from the Netherlands.. which is maybe why these words just fly over my head without me getting the meaning..) ;)

Hannah wrote: "I just read this task and need to know.. what sport is this about?
I'm also guessing by 'NL' you don't mean the Netherlands? (I'm from the Netherlands.. which is maybe why these words just fly over..."

Baseball.

NL = National League

Bea wrote: "Hannah wrote: "I just read this task and need to know.. what sport is this about?
I'm also guessing by 'NL' you don't mean the Netherlands? (I'm from the Netherlands.. which is maybe why these word..."

Thank you!

Bea wrote: "Hannah wrote: "I just read this task and need to know.. what sport is this about?
I'm also guessing by 'NL' you don't mean the Netherlands? (I'm from the Netherlands.. which is maybe why these word..."

Baseball may not be very popular in the Netherlands itself, but there have been a number of stars from the Netherlands Antilles. Kenley Jansen, Xander Bogaerts, Johnathan Schoop and Ozzie Albies are some current stars from there.

For option 2 can the word be part of another words (eg YEARs or GOODwill) or must it be standalone?

The letters have to appear consecutively in the phrase, so "onto" would work, using the last two letters in "season" plus the word "to". You can't add words or letters in the way you suggest, but if "good" and "will" are separate words, such as Good Will Hunting or Everything Good Will Come, that would work. All you have to do with the phrase is use it to make one word and then add more words to it to make a valid book title.

Wayne wrote: "Bea wrote: "Hannah wrote: "I just read this task and need to know.. what sport is this about?
I'm also guessing by 'NL' you don't mean the Netherlands? (I'm from the Netherlands.. which is maybe wh..."

Bert Blyleven, pitcher for the MN Twins and longtime broadcaster after that, was born in the Netherlands.

Interesting that we got 2 baseball tasks this time, last time there were 2 about clearing our TBR, another time 2 about dogs.

Robin P wrote: "Wayne wrote: "Bea wrote: "Hannah wrote: "I just read this task and need to know.. what sport is this about?
I'm also guessing by 'NL' you don't mean the Netherlands? (I'm from the Netherlands.. whi..."

Yes you're right, I forgot about Blyleven. Shame on me!

Option 3: Am I interpreting it correctly that double letter would be something like liTTle or grEEn or fuNNy?

Yes you are. Mine is going to be bOOk.

Update: The first two series of MLB games are officially cancelled.

for option 2, you say a word comprised of consecutive letters, but do they need to be in order? for example, could I use consecutive letters KEDAB to form the word BAKED in my title?
WEPIC (KEDAB) ADSEASONTOHAVEAGOODYEAR

I've messaged Dlmrose regarding this, but it is my understanding that the letters would have to be in proper order, and that what you want to do is use an anagram.

I noticed that four of your letters form a word in order, but backwards: EDAB-BADE. I'm not sure if this works, and this probably wouldn't be of any help to you, but I have also asked Dlmrose about this for future reference.

Thanks, Wayne :) I do a lot of logic problems, and there's always a big difference between "consecutive items" and "consecutive items in order"... but all your examples showed consecutive letters in order, so I figured this one could go either way