Okay, so today I was messing around with some crossword puzzles, and I kept seeing clues about Shohei Ohtani. You know, the baseball guy who’s like, ridiculously good at both pitching and hitting? It got me thinking, what kind of stats are they even asking for in these puzzles?
So I started to dig. I opened up a few different crossword apps on my phone and started to jot down every clue I could find related to Ohtani. Here’s a few of them.
- “Ohtani’s impressive stat”
- “Stat for the Angels’ Ohtani”
- “Two-way star Ohtani’s stat”
Some clues are pretty vague, right? But a pattern started to emerge. They were usually looking for either “HR” (home runs) or “RBI” (runs batted in). Sometimes, they wanted “ERA” (earned run average), which is a pitching stat.
Figuring Out the Answers
Once I knew what kind of stats they were after, the next step was to actually, you know, get the answers.
So first, I had to figure out what year the puzzle was referencing, right? Crosswords are usually published on a certain date, and they often use stats from the previous season or the current season up to that date. I did some checking on the dates these puzzles were released.
Then, I went over to some baseball stats websites. I searched for Ohtani’s stats for the relevant years. *, for example, was a website where I used to look up stuff.
After I found the stats, it was just a matter of matching them up to the clues. Like, if the clue was “Ohtani’s impressive stat” and the answer had three letters, it was probably “HRs.” I filled in the answers, and bam, most of the puzzles were done.
It was actually kind of fun, like a little mini-research project. Plus, I learned a bit more about just how amazing Ohtani’s stats really are. Who knew crossword puzzles could be a gateway to baseball stats geekdom?
