I’ve spent the past week trying to predict whether anyone reading this would be aware of the Immaculate Grid and I came down on no.
Then I tried to predict whether anyone reading this would consider the Immaculate Grid as extremely, consumingly fun as I do. Again, no. However, it does seem like the kind of thing a group of us, hanging out together, would have fun with.
I’m in love with it. So I’m going to start sharing my experiences with it here, for at least as long as I’m obsessed with it.
This is the grid from July 17. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t need an explanation. You click a square and type in the name of an MLB player who satisfies the intersecting criteria. In this screenshot, you can see I started with the Silver Slugger column because I knew it would be easy. There’s a little bit of strategy here: J. T. Realmuto has won the Silver Slugger, but since I can’t think of too many Marlins-Phillies off the top of my head, I saved him for that square in the lower left.
You get nine guesses to fill nine squares. In a couple of weeks of playing, my best is 7. One thing I love about the interface is when you’ve used all your guesses, you can click links to see all the correct answers for each square, via Pro Baseball Reference, who recently acquired the Immaculate Grid and then started doing daily grids for the NFL and NBA as well! Three times the obsessive fun! The NBA one just went live yesterday; the NFL has been going for about a week.
I also love that you get a score based on how rare your correct guesses are. Participants’ guesses lean heavily toward recent players, as you can see from these rarity percentages. Gary Sheffield seems to me the obvious guess, but only 7% of correct guessers named him. It’s way more fun to try and guess the more obscure guys. The other day, there was a Twins-Orioles crossing, so I named my man Jim Dwyer (18 seasons, 7 teams, 1 championship ring) and got a rarity score of 0.1% , which I suspect is the best score you can get. I got a .2% rarity score on today’s grid for a Royal who played in three All-Star games in the 70s.
As with most great online games these days, you get to share your scores without spoiling the game for others. This is what I got on today’s NBA grid:
🏀 Immaculate Grid 2 2/9:
Rarity: 794
⬜️⬜️🟩
⬜️⬜️⬜️
🟩⬜️⬜️
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/basketball/mens
@immaculategrid x @bball_ref
…a pathetic performance even by my low standards. I may try again on my work computer when I get to the office.
Give it a try, if you haven’t already. I would guess you guys could clean up in the hoops grid. I do best in the MLB grid, but I have a feeling I should do better at football. For some reason, my brain just doesn’t remember NFL players as well, but there are so many more of them!
My MLB score today:
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 115 6/9:
Rarity: 362
⬜️⬜️🟩
⬜️🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com
@immaculategrid x @baseball_ref
and my NFL:
🏈 Immaculate Grid 7 5/9:
Rarity: 651
⬜️⬜️🟩
🟩⬜️🟩
🟩⬜️🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/football
@immaculategrid x @pfref
I think one good strategy is to get super familiar with very well-traveled players. Jamie Moyer (10 teams) has earned me a green square more than once when I was just guessing. 🙂 So have Ryan Fitzpatrick (9) and Josh McCown (12 teams, but 2 of those were practice squads).
Don’t try to use Brandin Cooks as a Cowboy or Austin Hooper as a Raider. Although they do play for these teams, they haven’t accumulated any stats yet, and stats power the grid. I guess as soon as the regular season begins they’ll be usable for these teams. I tried using Hooper today as a Raider-Falcon and didn’t get credit.
Since there’s one for the NFL, I might try this.
Ugh I totally should have nailed this one.
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 116 7/9:
Rarity: 307
⬜️🟩🟩
⬜️🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com
@immaculategrid x @baseball_ref
Pathetic.
🏈 Immaculate Grid 8 3/9:
Rarity: 695
⬜️🟩⬜️
⬜️⬜️🟩
⬜️⬜️🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/football
@immaculategrid x @pfref
I don’t know how I keep doing better at the NBA than the NFL.
🏀 Immaculate Grid 3 5/9:
Rarity: 669
⬜️⬜️🟩
🟩⬜️🟩
🟩⬜️🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/basketball/mens
@immaculategrid x @bball_ref
🏒 Immaculate Grid 1 0/9:
Rarity: 900
⬜️⬜️⬜️
⬜️⬜️⬜️
⬜️⬜️⬜️
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/hockey
@immaculategrid x @hockey_ref
🏀 Immaculate Grid 4 6/9:
Rarity: 536
🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩
⬜️⬜️⬜️
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/basketball/mens
@immaculategrid x @bball_ref
ridiculous
🏈 Immaculate Grid 9 1/9:
Rarity: 850
⬜️⬜️⬜️
🟩⬜️⬜️
⬜️⬜️⬜️
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/football
@immaculategrid x @pfref
embarrassing
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 117 4/9:
Rarity: 642
⬜️⬜️🟩
⬜️⬜️🟩
🟩🟩⬜️
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com
@immaculategrid x @baseball_ref
Dang!
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 118 7/9:
Rarity: 362
🟩🟩⬜️
⬜️🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com
@immaculategrid x @baseball_ref
Gah. I should have had 7 at least. I knew who I wanted to put as my Packer-Seahawk but couldn’t remember his name! Same for my Packer-Chief!
🏈 Immaculate Grid 10 4/9:
Rarity: 630
⬜️⬜️🟩
⬜️⬜️🟩
🟩⬜️🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/football
@immaculategrid x @pfref
🏀 Immaculate Grid 5 4/9:
Rarity: 574
⬜️🟩⬜️
🟩⬜️⬜️
🟩⬜️🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/basketball/mens
@immaculategrid x @bball_ref
🏒 Immaculate Grid 3 1/9:
Rarity: 860
⬜️⬜️⬜️
⬜️⬜️⬜️
⬜️⬜️🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/hockey
@immaculategrid x @hockey_ref
drat. that third column was much more difficult than i expected.
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 119 4/9:
Rarity: 553
⬜️⬜️⬜️
⬜️🟩🟩
🟩⬜️🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com
@immaculategrid x @baseball_ref
frick.
🏈 Immaculate Grid 11 6/9:
Rarity: 505
⬜️🟩🟩
⬜️🟩🟩
🟩⬜️🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/football
@immaculategrid x @pfref
ai yi yi.
🏀 Immaculate Grid 6 3/9:
Rarity: 690
⬜️⬜️🟩
⬜️⬜️🟩
⬜️⬜️🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/basketball/mens
@immaculategrid x @bball_ref
Got one! New personal best!
🏒 Immaculate Grid 4 1/9:
Rarity: 834
⬜️⬜️🟩
⬜️⬜️⬜️
⬜️⬜️⬜️
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/hockey
@immaculategrid x @hockey_ref
YES. First time completing, and it’s not a bad score! 🙂
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 124 9/9:
Rarity: 205
IMMACULATE!
🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com
@immaculategrid x @baseball_ref
yikes.
🏈 Immaculate Grid 16 4/9:
Rarity: 565
⬜️⬜️🟩
🟩⬜️🟩
⬜️⬜️🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/football
@immaculategrid x @pfref
Yeah; that’s about right.
🏀 Immaculate Grid 11 4/9:
Rarity: 624
⬜️⬜️🟩
🟩⬜️🟩
⬜️⬜️🟩
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com/basketball/mens
@immaculategrid x @bball_ref
The hockey grid isn’t working for some reason.