The Immaculate Grid began sweeping the baseball world in 2023, and seemingly everyone has been playing it, from the average fan to Yankee Manager Aaron Boone; everyone that is except for me. I stayed away from the challenge for so long, I didn’t understand how it worked and thus, had no interest in diving into the craze. Boy, was that a mistake. This year, my best friend started to play, and he urged me to join him, and to even make it a friendly competition. So I relented, he taught be how to play, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Through this process, I’ve had some great scores and some legendary pulls, so I thought it would be fun to examine my Top 5 Immaculate Grids.
#5: Grid 527 – “Immaculate 7”
This one was really fun for me, as I got to recall back to one of my favorite card games as a kid, MLB Showdown, to make some pretty deep pulls. My worst pick here was Connor Joe at 3%, and him being a modern player might have had something to do with it; David Cone and Justin Wilson on the other hand are examples of what we will call “institutional knowledge,” as both played for the Yankees, and I’ve been able to follow their careers. If anything, I was surprised their rarity scores (3% and 0.1%) were so low!
With the exception of Roger Bernadina – who I think might have been a deep memory of the MVP Baseball video games – the rest, Troy O’Leary, Butch Huskey, Ron Calloway, Adam Hyzdu and one of my favorite “random” players of all time, Willie Harris, were all the result of thousands of hours spent sorting and playing with my showdown cards. As this list goes on, you may see some themes develop, this is not by accident.
#4: Grid 287 – “Immaculate 7”
Another 7, this one requiring exploration into a few deep crevices of my mind. Justin Martinez, a modern, got such an incredibly low score because he is relatively new to the baseball scene, and this grid is older, so strategically it was a great pick as most people weren’t using him for such a grid. Players like David Dellucci (2001 World Series and brief Yankee), Aaron Hill (a pretty good player from my teen years), Bubba Starling and Boof Bonser (pulled that name out of thin air), I had experience with in just everyday baseball observation, and Tony Graffanino was a mixture of MLB Showdown and MVP Baseball; but it was Augie Ojeda, Walter Johnson and Sean Lowe that were my true crown jewels.
It is true, I played with Augie Ojeda a LOT in MVP Baseball 2005, but I first got to know and love him (he is another one of my favorite MLB “randoms”) when I attended a Rochester Red Wings minor league game as a kid. That sort of thing leaves an indelible mark on your memory. With Lowe and that incredibly, um, low rarity score, you can once again thank an MLB Showdown card. Finally, Walter Johnson playing at least one game in the outfield was a bit of institutional knowledge gleaned from playing the Grid, as I accidentally discovered this while looking up something else – and I won’t soon forget it.
#3: Grid 733 – “Immaculate 5”
Yesterday’s grid, was a real doozy with an eclectic mix of players; Drew Pomeranz is one of those guys who has bounced around in recent years (although he hasn’t played in the last couple), so for me, he wasn’t too hard to remember, but apparently the rest of the Immaculate Grid world disagrees; Dave Veres and Brian Lawrence, again, came courtesy of MLB Showdown, Jeromy Burnitz and Ray King? Products of my teenage years. Adam Ottovino having been a Cardinal was new information to me, as I literally discovered it about four days ago when he re-signed with the Yankees, and so I looked him up; and Chad Qualls – as my last pick – took forever to pull out of the recesses of my brain. But its the Keon Broxton and Bobby Jones picks that hold a special place in my heart.
See, Bobby Jones is a name I will never forget, not just because of how generic it is, but because I’ve heard it many times through my decade plus long tradition of rewatching the 2000 World Series VHS; and Broxton? I doubt I’d even know who he was if not for one of the best baseball memories of my life: visiting Miller Park in 2016 with my best friend, sitting five rows back from the field, and having an, uh, exuberant (?) fan yell out every time he passed “FUTURE HALL OF FAME-AH, KEOOOOOOOOON BROXTON!” Oh Milwaukee, never change!
#2: Grid 720 – “Immaculate 4”
These are the type of grids my friend and I LOVE; no teams to remember, just pure stats, achievements and mental capacity – the perfect opportunity to go LOW. There honestly isn’t too much analysis to give here because of that. Craig Biggio is a Hall of Famer and one of my favorite players of all time, the fact that only 0.5% of respondents chose him is fascinating to me, but then again, this grid is designed to have a plethora of possible answers. Juan Gonzalez, Edwin Encarnacion, Luis Gonzalez and Derrek Lee were just a matter of remembering if they hit both categories, and all of those players I grew up watching. Greg Vaughn was a nice under 1% pull for me, as many may not remember him, but certain big beefy 90s sluggers like him, Albert Belle and Ken Caminiti (RIP) will always live in my memory, especially when my Yankees came very close to trading for Vaughn during the dynasty years.
Jose Bautista was a fun one, because as mainly an infielder and DH, most don’t remember that like Miguel Cabrera, his early career saw him spend time in the outfield; but the real clincher here were the picks of Yogi Berra and Jimmie Foxx, as like Walter Johnson before, their excursions in the outfield have become institutional knowledge for me while researching for this game.
#1: Grid 622 – “Immaculate 3”
My Immaculate Grid Mona Lisa as of this point, this grid is not only designed to go outrageously low if you pick correctly, but it also came with the knowledge that my friend had already scored a 3 on it. I labored HARD on this one, and just when it looked like I would lose, I tied him as we both achieved our lowest score ever!
Foxx, Lou Gehrig, and especially Randy Johnson (I mean, WHAT?) playing outfield are our final cases of forever ingrained information I learned in looking things up after playing various grids; Jacoby Ellsbury hitting for a .300 average and also having a 100 RBI season coming in at a paltry 0.2% is shocking to me, seriously, this wasn’t that long ago people! Bernie Williams I can see being pretty low, but as a Yankee fan I had the inside track there, as I did with Yoendrys Gomez, who barely pitched in his short MLB career (and again for my team) so he was bound to be an infinitesimal rarity score. Josh Donaldson is always a fun pick, because while he is an All-Star Third Baseman, he has also caught, and played first and shortstop; but his only pitching performance was with – you guessed it – the New York Yankees!
Courtesy of the Houston Chronicle
WAR was the potential killer here. I HATE WAR, so much so that I wrote an entire takedown of it for this very website; so I don’t really pay attention to who puts up how much WAR in a singular season! These are the times that try men’s souls…especially when competing with a friend! So I, with firm reliance on common sense, baseball knowledge, and the hope that sabermetric nerds weren’t going to be too incredibly stupid, shot my shot.
Foxx was – as mentioned before – institutional knowledge from playing the Grid, and given some of the production he put up, I figured he just had to have collected 6 WAR in a season, and I was correct. His being an old-timey player though is what sealed the deal for his low score. As for Bagwell and Biggio, they are two of my all-time favorites from back when the Astros had great uniforms, and before they were dirty, rotten cheaters, so I knew Craig had hit .300 and Jeff had only played for one team (truthfully, both men would have worked in either category), so the amount of WAR put up remained the question.
Being familiar with just how consistently dominant of players they were, especially with some of the seasons they put up, I entered their names, squinted my eyes and clicked submit. Success! But not only success, a combined 0.6% worth of it! I had achived my 3, and used my baseball knowledge to match my friend’s best score; all was right with the world.
Well, that ws fun! If you too are interested in playing the Immaculate Grid, you can do so here: https://www.immaculategrid.com/
