# Help with a baseball puzzle? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 25, 2003, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697 "2003-09-25T06:31:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![NYR407](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NYR407](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NYR407)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/61 "2003-09-27T16:33:19Z")
**Superdude** , I am not blaming you. That is exactly how they have it in print on the car talk website. Both their printed and spoken versions were poorly done. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/62 "2003-09-27T18:04:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mahaloth \* > \*\*Cecil does: > > [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_299.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_299.html) \*\* Actually, Cecil didn’t. That’s one of the few times he actually got one wrong. He corrected himself in the update to that column: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000818.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000818.html) ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/63 "2003-09-27T18:42:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Superdude \* > \*\*Depends on the ground rules of the stadium, I believe. But chances are it’s going to be called a dead ball, and replayed. \*\* This actually happened at a game I was at a couple weeks ago, Devil Rays. I didn’t pay much attention to what the outcome was though. I’m sure things like this have happened at other stadiums too. I know at Wrigley if a ball gets lost in the vines on the outfield wall it’s a ground-rule double. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/64 "2003-09-27T19:22:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NYR407 \* > \*\*Of course we took the question to be worded exactly as intended so as not to leave open interprertation. Oh well. \*\* Yes, but isn’t it great to be among others who do this. It gives us a fourm to be strictly literal about things without driving our SOs nuts for a change. Haj ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/65 "2003-09-29T12:54:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NYR407 \* > **I still don’t buy the “hard bunt” answer. A sharply hit grounder and a swinging bunt are not the same.** I know the answer has already been revealed, but I’d just like to point out that I never said “a swinging bunt.” My proposed solution was an intentional bunt, the only kind of bunt for which a batter (grade A moron or not) is out if it’s foul with two strikes. BTW, I think that the “mirror” solution is deceitful and it makes me feel cheated. And I know I’m not the only one who feels that way. ---
**Author:** ![NYR407](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NYR407](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NYR407)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/66 "2003-09-29T13:37:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spiff \* > > 1. One would not ordinarily consider a bunt to be “a hard grounder,” but in some cases, especially if \*\*the batter pushes the bat forward \*\*(instead of backwards a bit, to absorb some of the pitched ball’s momentum), then a bunted ball could be fairly sharply hit. And if a first baseman is expecting a bunt, i.e., playing far up the line (closer than normal to home plate), then even a bunt could be sharply hit from his point of view. In other words, a bunt could only be rightly called “sharply” hit from the perspective of a first baseman playing closer to normal to home plate (and it would still have to be a harder than normal bunt). > \*\* [Bolding mine] Sorry **Spiff** but I read that to mean a swining bunt. Obviously that is not what you meant. I still can’t see a “pushed bunt” being called sharply hit or have enough momentum to need to be stopped before it makes it to the outfield. FTR Car Talk has still not posted their answer. I don’t know what Garfield226 was listening to but it wasn’t Car Talk. 2pm EST today if anyone can listen in and post answer/explanation it would be appriciated. Although we seem to be conceding that the “mirror” is the answer. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/67 "2003-09-29T13:58:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NYR407 \* > \*\* > FTR Car Talk has still not posted their answer. I don’t know what Garfield226 was listening to but it wasn’t Car Talk. \*\* Sure he was. I was listening on Saturday as well. It’s broadcast at different times in different places, the show isn’t live. It’s recorded on the previous Wed, IIRC. And the answer is mirror. ---
**Author:** ![NYR407](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NYR407](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NYR407)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/68 "2003-09-29T14:36:50Z")
Thanks Telemark. Why oh why there website states the answer is not given until Today is beyond me. Sorry Garfield didnt mean to imply you were lying. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/69 "2003-09-29T23:53:03Z")
Oh boy do I hate the mirror answer. Surely a first baseman seen in a mirror is still a first baseman! Grrr now I have to go on a crime spree to vent. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![bobk2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@bobk2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobk2)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/70 "2003-09-30T01:13:58Z")
As a side issue, in the OP, how can it be the bottom of the 5th inning and no score? Isn’t it 0 to 0? I thought there was only no score until the end of the 1st half-inning or until the first run is scored, whichever occurs first. At least, that’s the way the broadcasters around Boston seem to say it. During a scoreless 1st half-inning I’ve heard “top of the 1st with no score” and at the end of that half-inning “the score is (insert visiting team) 0, Boston coming up to bat” I reailize it can be said “he pitched (insert number) scoreless innings” but that is a different usage than “what is the official score of the game”. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/71 "2003-09-30T02:51:28Z")
Sportscasters commonly say there’s no score when the score is 0-0, regardless of the inning. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/72 "2003-09-30T03:11:33Z")
They still didn’t explain the “three team mates”. ::sheesh:: ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/73 "2003-09-30T13:18:55Z")
Well, I figured out this week’s Puzzler: [spoiler]1. Put three coins on each side of the scale. 1. If each side weighs the same, the heavier coin must be one of the remaining two coins. 2. Take the two remaining coins and weigh them, selecting the heavier coin. 2a) If after the first weighing (three coins per side), one side is heavier than the other, then take the 3 coins that weighed more. (The heavier coin must be one of these three.) 3a) Take two of these three coins and put them on the balace, one on each side. If they weigh the same, the coin left over is the heavier one. 4a) If the balance shows one coin heavier than the other, then that coin is the heaviest one. Final steps: Pat yourself on the back, take coins to local tavern and buy rourself a beer.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![NYR407](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NYR407](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NYR407)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697/74 "2003-09-30T14:01:26Z")
**ccwaterback** , do you not like reading my posts? I answered the “three team mates” already before as well. It was a misprint in the question. IMO the quesiton was neither asked or translated to text well. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NYR407 \* > \*\*Also I decided to listen to the question and it makes quite a difference in the interpertation. > > The one glaring difference is that they do not say “All three of his team mates…” They say “All of his team mates run off the field”. > > One more nitpick on the mirror answer (even though I am begining to believe it is the right answer) is that they say the third baseman stepped on third after he caught the ball. Since there was no indication that the ball was thrown away the first baseman (thirdbaseman in the mirror) would have had his foot on first base before the ball arrived. \*\* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-baseball-puzzle/203697.md?page=3)