The Hillsboro Baseball team of 1900. -----------------
April 7, 2008
Puzzle by Randall J. Hartman, edited by Will Shortz
This Monday back-to-work crossword COVERSEVERYBASE (40A. Takes care of all possibilities). No, not the cliché, “covers all the bases”, but only a killjoy crossword curmudgeon could care! It’s just a breezy and friendly walk in the park for a beautiful Spring day! FIRSTLADY (17A. Bess Truman or Barbara Bush); SECONDGUESS (25A. Question after the fact); THIRDDEGREE (52A. Grilling); and HOMEALONE (65A. 1990 Macaulay Culkin film) are the entries which cover every base of America’s national pastime begun in Russia 700 years ago! Oh really, see HERE!
With the baseball season having just begun, this tidy little crossword puzzle is timely -- however, it will do for just any day of the year from April to October. Wikipedia provides a neat History of Baseball in the United States, and for the latest news and current stats in the major leagues, one can check out The Official Site of Major League Baseball. You don’t need much more!
Today’s puzzle does provide plenty of people to play a game -- whatever that would be like!: AMIN (1A. See 48-Down) and IDI (48D. With 1-Across infamous Ugandan dictator); ZAPPA (9A. Frank of the Mothers of Invention); “ANNA and the King of Siam” (15A.); ELLEN (50A. Funny DeGeneres); GRETA (63A. Garbo of “Mata Hari,” 1932); ASNER (68A. Ed of “Lou Grant”); TYRA (72A. Model Banks); CAL (5D. Iron Man Ripken of the Orioles); WAYANS (8D. Brother comic Shawn or Marlon); ZANEGREY (9D. “Riders of the Purple Sage” author); SAINTJOAN (37A. Play by George Bernard Shaw); LEDA (51D. Mother of Castor and Pollux); IRENE (54D. Ballroom dancer Castle); SONIA (57D. Braga of “Kiss of the Spider Woman”); ILSA (62D. She requested “As Time Goes By“); a GOONY (55D. Foolish person, slangily), Bess Truman, Barbara Bush, Erskine Caldwell, Pablo Picasso, Macaulay Culkin, Superman, and a POSSE (11D. Star’s entourage). Go team!
"Love has its sonnets galore. War has its epics in heroic verse. Tragedy its sombre story in measured lines. Baseball has “Casey at the Bat." -- Albert Spalding.
"Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville -- mighty Casey has struck out.
For the complete version of Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, as taken from the San Francisco Examiner of June 3, 1888, go HERE.
Play ball!------------------
For today’s cartoons, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.
For the classic animated cartoon of "Casey at the Bat" (1946) on YouTube, click HERE.
