Friday, April 13, 2018

National Scrabble Day






I've always been a big fan of board games. Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Battleship, checkers... you name it, I'll play it. Maybe it's because I enjoy the strategy. Maybe it's because the stimuli keeps my overactive imagination occupied. Maybe it's because I relish the opportunity to gather round a table with family and friends for an evening of enjoyment. Heck, perhaps it's all of the above reasons. However, one thing is for certain - I will never get bored with board games.

One particular game that holds a special place in my heart is Scrabble. When my sister was a colicky infant - up all night and crying uncontrollably - my father, brother, and I would sit on the living room floor and test our vocabularies for hours while dad simultaneously rocked the baby. I mean, it was too loud to sleep and we needed something to distract our minds from the raucous sobbing. This little bit of family bonding meant a great deal to me and I'm pretty sure I can thank my baby sister for my school district spelling bee championship in seventh grade.

The reason I bring this all up is that, apparently, today is National Scrabble Day. The Hasbro trademarked creation has been around since 1948 and is sold in 121 countries with 29 different language versions. Why we have a national holiday to honor the crossword-based game is beyond me, but I'll sure as heck take any excuse to bust out the board after dinner tonight.

But, what does any of this have to do with baseball cards? This is a baseball card blog, right?





    =  29

Longtime Cubs hurler and current Giants disabled list resident, Jeff Samardzija, is famous for his tremendously difficult to spell surname.  Lord knows I can never confidently press "publish" on a post which makes mention of the Notre Dame product without cross-checking Baseball Reference.  I can only imagine what fits he put the editors at the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times through.  With that, Jeff - while better known as "Shark" - was often nicknamed as "Spellcheck" or "Scrabble," in reference to the random jumble of letters that is his last name.

Out of curiosity, I decided to see just how many points "Samaradzija" would earn in the game of Scrabble.  Of course, since it's a proper name, it would not be a legal play; but, in theory...

With the coveted "Z" and "J" tiles generating most of the oomph, the name generates twenty-nine points.  That's not bad at all; although, if one were to play the names of former Cubs players, Samardzija would not be the highest earner.





  =  29

Another former Cubs moundsman, Fred Baczewski (9 games, 1953), actually ties the "Shark" with twenty-nine tallies and with less letters, to boot.  Another "Z" is found, but the wealth is spread out a lot more here, with three, four and five-point tiles making appearances.

Now, I couldn't stop going down the road at this point - I had to figure out which player in Cubs history would have the most valuable last name in the game of Scrabble.  In the franchise's loooooong history, lords knows that they have had some mouthfuls on their active roster.






  =  13


  =  13

Here's another pair of hurlers whose family names have twisted the tongues of Cubs fans in the past.  Unfortunately for them, neither Pisciotta nor Tiefenauer combine for much in the way of scoring.  Thirteen is definitely not an embarrassing score for a turn in Scrabble, though it's hardly anything to write home about...

...much like the Cubs tenures of journeyman Bobby Tiefenauer (6.08 ERA in 13.1 innings for 1968).






= 21

Hargesheimer has the second longest last name in Cubs history; but, unlike the three men tied ahead of him, it's much more difficult for the human mind to figure out how these syllables form a pronounceable word. His lone season in the Windy City came in 1983, one year after Harry Caray shifted from the South Side to the North Side... someone please tell me that video exists of everyone's favorite drunkard struggling to pronounce this mish-mash!

For all his trouble, though, all Mr. Caray would earn from his struggle would be twenty-one points.  Good, but not great, and still behind a handful of other Cubs.








 = 26

  =  26

Tied for third most in my far-from-comprehensive research are yet another pitcher and, finally, a position player.  Apparently, those that man the mound are more naturally inclined to have peculiar names; is it a competitive advantage in distracting hitters?

Joe Schaffernoth might get points through the shear amount of letters on his name tag; however, sometimes less is more.  It's tough to beat Matt Szczur (pronounced "Caesar," somehow) and his two "Z's"... especially since in the real game you only get one such tile.  We'll suspend that disqualification though, since proper nouns aren't legal plays anyway.




  =  28

The hat-less Vic Roznovsky edges out Szczur and Schaffernoth by two tallies, on the strength of yet another "Z" and some four and five-point letters  This ranks him second on the list of best Cubs Scrabble names of all-time... or at least of my half an hour of semi-distracted research.  Speaking of which, Topps might be trying to tell me that this is an Orioles card, but they can't distract me from the fact that Vic is clearly wearing a Cubs uniform in this photograph; the blue and red trim on his color give it away.

Alright, it's all come down to this, which Cub has the highest scoring Scrabble name?  Drumroll please:








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The all-time, Scrabble king is Zizzer-Zazzer-Zastryzny - another two-Z technicality.  How appropriate that this quirky title should fall upon a lefty reliever?

With that, we've reached the end of my little exercise, inspired by National Scrabble Day.  Out of curiosity, what names from your favorite franchise's history would be best to drop on the game board?  Am I the only person who's brain is wired like this?  Will my wife kill me if I try to play "Roznovsky" in our game tonight?  So many questions begging to be answered!

Happy National Scrabble Day, everybody.









11 comments:

  1. I don't know who the Royals leader is, but I suspect it will be tough to beat Doug Mientkiewicz!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I ran it. :-) Here are the top names in MLB History:
    Score Name
    40 Rzepczynski
    39 Czajkowski
    39 Velazquez
    38 Szotkiewicz
    37 Vazquez
    37 Wojciechowski
    36 Jerzembeck
    35 Cappuzzello
    34 Jacquez
    34 Lombardozzi
    34 Zawadzki
    33 Krawczyk
    33 Zastryzny
    32 Alburquerque
    32 Faszholz
    32 Hanyzewski
    32 Mackiewicz
    32 Mientkiewicz
    31 Fitzpatrick
    31 Foltynewicz
    31 Grabarkewitz
    31 Knickerbocker
    31 Konuszewski
    31 Kouzmanoff
    31 Kuczynski
    31 Quackenbush
    30 Brizzolara
    30 Cannizzaro
    30 Chiozza
    30 Gronkiewicz
    30 Henriquez
    30 Kluszewski
    30 Mierkowicz
    30 Ramazzotti
    30 Ruszkowski
    30 Velasquez
    29 Baczewski
    29 Ferrazzi
    29 Filipowicz
    29 Garagozzo
    29 Janowicz
    29 Jurewicz
    29 Kozlowski
    29 Lemanczyk
    29 Lukasiewicz
    29 Matarazzo
    29 Pagnozzi
    29 Perzanowski
    29 Samardzija
    29 Stankiewicz
    29 Swartzbaugh
    29 Yastrzemski
    28 Beniquez
    28 Cortazzo
    28 Dybzinski
    28 Federowicz
    28 Gajkowski
    28 Hazelbaker
    28 Izquierdo
    28 Jacklitsch
    28 Jakubauskas
    28 Lachowicz
    28 Lauzerique
    28 Mazzilli
    28 Perezchica
    28 Perlozzo
    28 Pezzullo
    28 Pierzynski
    28 Roznovsky
    28 Schierholtz
    28 Vasquez
    28 Vizquel
    28 Volquez
    28 Zitzmann
    27 Bibens-Dirkx
    27 Buchholz
    27 Chetkovich
    27 Fitzmaurice
    27 Fitzsimmons
    27 Gonzalez
    27 Grudzielanek
    27 Hawblitzel
    27 Holdzkom
    27 Jankowski
    27 Keriazakos
    27 Kirkpatrick
    27 Klimkowski
    27 Konieczny
    27 Marquez
    27 Mazzaro
    27 Mazzera
    27 Mazzoni
    27 Moncewicz
    27 Odorizzi
    27 Pyznarski
    27 Schuerholz
    27 Schweitzer
    27 Weckbecker
    26 Gouzzie
    26 Grodzicki
    26 Hawksworth
    26 Johjima
    26 Klimchock
    26 Kubiszyn
    26 MacKenzie
    26 Nischwitz
    26 Piazza
    26 Rogodzinski
    26 Schaffernoth
    26 Szczur
    26 Tulowitzki
    26 Von Kolnitz
    26 Vuckovich
    25 Baumholtz
    25 Bluejacket
    25 Budzinski
    25 Fitzberger
    25 Fujikawa
    25 Heintzelman
    25 Hitchcock
    25 Huckleberry
    25 Jimenez
    25 Kazanski
    25 Kieschnick
    25 Klobedanz
    25 Konikowski
    25 Krenchicki
    25 Kuczek
    25 Lazzeri
    25 Maltzberger
    25 McConnaughey
    25 Mizerock
    25 Monbouquette
    25 Oberholtzer
    25 Peckinpaugh
    25 Quisenberry
    25 Rizzuto
    25 Schatzeder
    25 Schwartz
    25 Stelmaszek
    25 Walczak
    25 Wyckoff
    25 Zimmermann

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow - thank you for sharing! I'm glad I got Zastryzny right.

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    2. Dang. I missed the list by a measly 5 points. Great post Tony!

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  3. I think you did get Zastryzny right! :-)

    Here's what I could find for top-scorer by team. Had to eyeball it, so may be mistakes, but you can use this for a lower-bound and try to find someone better.
    40 Mark Rzepczynski STL CLE TOR SEA OAK SDP WSN
    39 Jim Czajkowski COL
    39 Gil Velazquez BOS LAA MIA
    39 Freddie Velazquez ATL
    39 Carlos Velazquez MIL
    38 Ken Szotkiewicz DET
    37 Asher Wojciechowski HOU CIN
    37 Javier Vazquez NYY ARI CWS ATL
    37 Felipe Vazquez PIT
    37 Ramon Vazquez TEX
    34 Thomas Jacquez PHI
    34 Steve (Sr.) Lombardozzi MIN
    34 Steve (Jr.) Lombardozzi BAL
    33 Ray Krawczyk MIL
    33 Rob Zastryzny CHC
    32 Doug Mientkiewicz KCR NYM LAD
    30 Lou Chiozza SFG
    27 Jake Odorizzi TBR

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great idea! Happy National Scrabble Day!

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  5. Imagine if any of those names wound up on a Triple Word!

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  6. One that came to mind for the Rockies is Todd Zeile. Only five letters but that Z gets him up to 14 points!

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  7. I can't remember the last time I played a board game but that was fun.

    ReplyDelete