Playing the Field - Solution
Written by Steven Silverman. Video by Jacqui Fashimpaur.
Answer: RADAR GUNS
We first notice that the images are part of a collage, displayed in order from top left to bottom right, and that when arranged in that order, they fill in the entirety of a baseball field, with one pair of images at each position. This is accompanied by nine lines of text.
- Who’s ready for the Horse Racing derby?
- Tomorrow, the stadium will host an impressive lineup.
- Nobody has seen talent like this before.
- I don’t know the winner, but I do know the field has been narrowed down to two.
- Six others were eliminated because they couldn’t keep up.
- To be a champion, you have to handle what gets thrown at you and knock it over the fence repeatedly.
- In today’s game, you need the endurance to hold up for at least four minutes on your run home.
- I don’t care about the distance or score.
- My position is that the official numbers are why we swing for the fences.
This, along with the smaller baseball fields scattered throughout, allows us to identify the smaller images as representatives of MLB teams. We then turn to the text. Each clue points in some way to the MLB Home Run Derby, describing the rules, the quality of the participants, literally spelling out "H R derby," and so on. We notice that each pair of teams has competed against each other in the finals of a Home Run Derby over the years. The small fields with question marks on them (plus the title of the puzzle) indicate that we’re interested in the stadiums at which these Derbies occurred. The final piece of text, "My position is that the official numbers are why we swing for the fences," hints that we should should be using the canonical positional numbers:
| Position | Position Number | Left Team | Right Team | Year | Stadium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitcher (P) | 1 | Angels (Charlie’s Angels) | Blue Jays (DC superhero) | 2007 | AT&T Park |
| Catcher (C) | 2 | Brewers (generic beer brewer) | Rangers (Lone Ranger) | 2009 | Busch Stadium |
| First base (1B) | 3 | Cubs (Piper J-3 Cub) | Reds (Red Auerbach) | 2000 | Turner Field |
| Second base (2B) | 4 | Mets (Metropolitan Museum of Art) | Blue Jays (DC superhero) | 2019 | Progressive Field |
| Third base (3B) | 5 | Mariners (Mariner spacecraft) | Brewers (generic beer brewer) | 1999 | Fenway Park |
| Shortstop (SS) | 6 | Yankees (American soldier) | Twins (twin beds) | 2017 | Marlins Park |
| Left field (LF) | 7 | Twins (twin beds) | Rangers (Lone Ranger) | 2008 | Yankee Stadium |
| Center field (CF) | 8 | Marlins (Marlin from Finding Nemo) | White Sox (a white sock) | 2016 | Petco Park |
| Right field (RF) | 9 | Athletics (Olympics "athletics" logo) | Nationals (The National album cover) | 2013 | Citi Field |
Lastly, the pictures on the bottom left and bottom right of the collage are of an abbott and Elvis Costello, prompting us to notice that each sentence has the name of a player from Abbott and Costello's skit Who’s on First. We use the order these names are presented in the video, matching them up by position and indexing into the stadium. This gets us to the final answer, RADAR GUNS.
| Text | Who's on First character | Position | Position Number | Stadium | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who’s ready for the Horse Racing derby? | Who | First base (1B) | 3 | Turner Field | R |
| Tomorrow, the stadium will host an impressive lineup. | Tomorrow | Pitcher (P) | 1 | AT&T Park | A |
| Nobody has seen talent like this before. | Nobody | Right field (RF) | 9 | Citi Field | D |
| I don’t know the winner, but I do know the field has been narrowed down to two. | I Don't Know | Third base (3B) | 5 | Fenway Park | A |
| Six others were eliminated because they couldn’t keep up. | Because | Center field (CF) | 8 | Petco Park | R |
| To be a champion, you have to handle what gets thrown at you and knock it over the fence repeatedly. | What | Second base (2B) | 4 | Progressive Field | G |
| In today’s game, you need the endurance to hold up for at least four minutes on your run home. | Today | Catcher (C) | 2 | Busch Stadium | U |
| I don’t care about the distance or score. | I Don't Care | Shortstop (SS) | 6 | Marlins Park | N |
| My position is that the official numbers are why we swing for the fences. | Why | Left field (LF) | 7 | Yankee Stadium | S |
("Nobody" is not named in the original skit, but is named in the board game based on the skit.)
Below is an explanation of the clues in the text.
- "H R Derby", the first two letters of Horse Racing are HR.
- The stadium is important to this puzzle.
- The players involved are talented (the Derby takes place the day before the All-Star Game, and features some of the best power hitters in the league)
- The field has been narrowed down to two, so the finalists are what’s important
- The initial field was eight players (2+6), which further solidifies the Derby as the event of interest
- Description of hitting lots of home runs
- Description of the current rules, which involve a 4-minute limit (and players can earn a bonus 30 seconds). Also, "run home" clues home runs.
- The distance of the homers and the number of homers aren’t important to this puzzle.
- The position numbers, as used by the official scorer, are what’s important. Additionally, another clue referencing home runs ("swing for the fences").