Implements Of Naivete

Albert Lin, Jaci Conrad

SOLUTION:

Each line clues a set of baseball-related things. The numbers in parentheses indicate which letter to extract from each item. Taking the nth letters produces a name. All the names, taken together, are names of members of the Knickerbockers, the first baseball team. The answer is KNICKERBOCKERS.


CLUE: old folks home
CATEGORY: ZIP codes of former homes of major-league teams
OFFSET INTO: team name
PLAYER: D ANTHONY

D 02115: Huntington Avenue Grounds, Boston Red Sox
A 21218: Memorial Stadium, Baltimore Orioles
N 55425: Metropolitan Stadium, Minnesota Twins
T M6K3C3: Exhibition Stadium, Toronto Blue Jays
H 20003: RFK Stadium, Washington Senators
O 48216: Bennett Park / Tiger Stadium, Detroit Tigers
N 98104: Kingdome, Seattle Mariners
Y 10032: Hilltop Park, New York Highlanders [Yankees]

CLUE: meaning of life not included
CATEGORY: Red sox retired numbers (not including 42, Jackie Robinson)
OFFSET into: player name
PLAYER: TRYON

T 9 Ted Williams
R 27 Carlton Fisk
Y 8 Carl Yastrzemski
O 1 Bobby Doerr
N 4 Joe Cronin

CLUE: put me in
CATEGORY: center field fence distances
OFFSET INTO: stadium name
PLAYER: TUCKER

T 401 Turner Field
U 410 Shea Stadium
C 402 Busch Stadium
K 420 Comerica Park
E 435 Minute Maid Park
R 415 Coors Field

CLUE: fill 'er up
CATEGORY: 2003 home attendence: percentage of tickets sold
OFFSET INTO: team name
PLAYER: BIRNEY

B 100.2 Boston Red Sox
I 97.1 San Francisco Giants
R 84.5 Seattle Mariners
N 83.9 Anaheim Angels
E 77.7 New York Yankees
Y 28.9 Tampa Bay Devil Rays

CLUE: curses!
CATEGORY: Red Sox World Series appearances
OFFSET INTO: opponent team name
PLAYER: BIRNEY

A 1946 St Louis Cardinals
D 1975 Cincinatti Reds
A 1967 St Louis Cardinals
M 1986 New York Mets
S 1918 Chicago Cubs

CLUE: none worse
CATEGORY: pitchers with infinite career ERAs (no outs, >0 ER) (year of
play given)
OFFSET INTO: pitcher name
PLAYER: PAULDING

P 1901: Frank Dupee
A 1918: Lou Bauer
U 1956: Gordie Sundin
L 1919: Will Koenigsmark
D 1936: Bill Ford
I 1895: Bill Childers
N 1922: Doc Hamann
G 1939: Mike Palagyi

CLUE: job done right
CATEGORY: unassisted triple plays (date of play given)
OFFSET INTO: player name
PLAYER: H ANTHONY

H 5/31/1927: Johnny Neun
A 8/10/2003: Rafael Furcal
N 5/29/2000: Randy Velarde
T 7/8/1994(: John Valentin
H 7/29/1968: Ron Hansen
O 9/20/1992: Mickey Morandini
N 5/7/1925: Glenn Wright
Y 5/30/1927: Jimmy Cooney

CLUE: one at a time
CATEGORY: solo inductees into Hall of fame (year given)
OFFSET INTO: player name
PLAYER: TURNEY

T 2002: Ozzie Smith
U 1998: Don Sutton
R 1997: Phil Niekro
N 1994: Steve Carlton
E 1993: Reggie Jackson
Y 1986: Willie McCovey

CLUE: locals
CATEGORY: major-league players born in Cambridge, MA (birthdate given)
OFFSET INTO: player name
PLAYER: ADAMS

A 5/26/1971: Jason Bere
V 7/11/1911: Vito Tamulis
E 9/4/1919: Eddie Waitkus
R 10/22/1941: Wilbur Wood
Y 11/19/1922: George Yankowski

Answer: KNICKERBOCKERS