Dooley Womack. Boots Poffenberg. Jim Ray Hart. These names may not mean much to you, but to Dom Amore, they paint a compelling portrait of a bygone era, a rich tapestry of nostalgia and small-town charm.long time columnist The Hartford CourantAmore may have made a living covering the UConn Huskies, but baseball has always been his comfort food, a precious refuge that evokes memories of simpler times.
“When I was 17 and 18, the New Haven Library near Yale University had a huge collection of books, piles of old magazines. I used to take out old magazines that were gathering dust from the 1910s and copy out the articles, ” said Armor, a Hall of Fame voter and member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA). “I’m really interested in that so-called ‘dead ball’ era.”
Inspired by Wordle, a crossword puzzle played by millions of people online, Immaculate Grid quickly became an internet sensation, thrilling every baseball fan with brainteasers that challenge them to dig deeper, conjuring the obscurities of the past and present. Unintelligible names to complete a game. Daily puzzle. The game requires a very specialized skill set, not only knowing the specific players but also the time and team they played for.Fortunately, as a baseball historian, he spent his childhood reading books such as the glory of their time and the memoirs of Leo Durocher The good guys finish lastwhich is exactly Amore’s wheelhouse.
“When I was a kid, I read baseball books over and over again, so I pretty much memorized them,” said Armor, who covered the game as a beat reporter from 1999 to 2007 Yankee, later wrote a book with a foreword by John Sterling. “I may have read ball four, a paperback until it fell apart. I like to use the Seattle pilot that Jim Bouton mentioned there. “
Amore is very good, perhaps the best, on the Immaculate Grid, regularly posting single-digit rarity scores, including two last weekend. I only recognized a handful of the players he used, most of them from the early 20th century. “Cecil Travis. Van Lingle Mongoose. Rube Marquand. Gary Nolan. Wes Parker. Christy Mathewson pitched one for the Reds in 1916 game,” Armor said, recalling his career-best performance last Saturday. “A lot of people don’t realize that Terry Speake played for the Senators for one year in 1927.”
⚾️ Perfect Grid 216 9/9:
Personal best today
Rarity: 2
Flawless!
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Play address: https://t.co/wZV01Pmd8J@Perfect Grid X @baseball_ref— Dom Amore (@AmoreCourant) November 4, 2023
Armor insists his memory isn’t clear, but when he rattles off the names of 1920s knuckleball players like Dutch Leonard or nonchalantly recites the exact date (July 8, 2000), it’s hard to believe what he said. to the dome. If I asked, he’d probably remember pitch speed (98 mph).
“For some reason, I don’t remember as much about the last 20 years as I did what I read on baseball cards or saw or remembered as a kid,” said Armor, a six-time Connecticut Sportswriter of the Year award. prize. “I could probably give you the scores for the first ten Super Bowls, but I can’t tell you any of the ones I actually covered.”
If you could look inside Armor’s brain, you’d see dozens of open tabs, his internal hard drive stuffed with the best baseball facts spanning a century. He can tell you an anecdote about Willard Hershberg, whose number was retired until the Reds forgot about it and mistakenly re-issued his No. 5 to eventual Hall of Famer Johnny · Benchi. If you have five minutes to spare, he’ll even let you beat former Astros pitcher J.R. Richard, a 6-foot-8 right-hander who made his major league debut with 15 strikeouts.
“A lot of Hall of Famers jump ship late in their careers,” said Armor, who identified what he believes is a cheat code that helps him keep his scores low. “Jimmy Foxx played for the Phillies and Cubs. Tony Lazzeri played for the Dodgers and Giants late in his career. Steve Carlton left the Phillies and immediately went from the Giants The White Sox, and then went to Cleveland. Or Warren Spahn, who played for a bunch of different teams after he left the Braves.”
For some, this is a neat parlor trick. But for others, who are the kind of statistics-obsessed die-hards who spend their free time in conjunction with Baseball Reference hunting for obscure nuggets, Armor’s encyclopedic mind is a no-brainer Something to protect, as if he was tapping into some kind of superpower.
“I cover UConn basketball now, and one of their assistant coaches, Tom Moore, always sees what I post and when I post a four-pointer, he takes a shot at me,” Armor said during my interview with him On that day, he onlyThe score is 33. “He was convinced I was cheating.”
⚾️ Perfect Grid 209 9/9:
Rarity: 4
Flawless!
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Play address: https://t.co/wZV01Pmd8J@Perfect Grid X @baseball_ref— Dom Amore (@AmoreCourant) October 28, 2023
As a local reporter covering events across Connecticut, Amore isn’t limited to a normal 9-to-5 workday. Partly because of its unconventional schedule, the Immaculate Grid has become Amore’s home away from home, the perfect break while waiting for an interview or press conference to begin.
“In sports writing, there’s a lot of rushing and waiting,” said Amore, who typically takes 10 to 15 minutes a day to complete a grid. “(Tuesday) I was waiting for UConn women’s basketball (media) to start and I was just sitting there, so I went ahead and did it.”
There’s no question that Armor is a baseball savant, but he’s also unflinchingly humble. In fact, he doesn’t even consider himself the best Immaculate Grid player on his Twitter.Instead, that honor belongs to Tyler Kepner, who served as New York Times“National baseball columnist until newspaper folded its sports department into sports world earlier this year. “Tyler Kepner is someone I have a lot of respect for,” Armor said. “A couple weeks ago I think I hit a six and then I got five and that’s the only time I think I beat him.”
⚾️ Perfect Grid 207 9/9:
Rarity: 5
Flawless!
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Play address: https://t.co/wZV01Pmd8J@Perfect Grid X @baseball_ref— Dom Amore (@AmoreCourant) October 26, 2023
Sometimes, Amore hits a brick wall, gives in, and looks up the answer on Baseball Reference (don’t worry, he won’t post a score unless it’s 100% legitimate). He readily admitted his blind spots and designated the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards as his two weaker categories. But even if Amore isn’t the king of the “perfect grid,” he’s pretty close, a modern wonder with a vast, near-infinite knowledge of baseball. Winning the heavyweight championship is no extra motivation. For Amore, it’s just a refreshing trip down memory lane, an interesting detour into what George Carlin once called “pastoral play.”
“Immaculate Grid rekindled my love and interest in baseball during the dead-ball era, or baseball in the ’60s and ’70s,” Amore said. “It’s awakened this part of my brain over the past few months.”