By now, if you follow just about any baseball media outlet, you’ve heard of the hit game Immaculate Grid, playable on their website https://www.immaculategrid.com/. For me, this is exactly what I was looking for this season without even knowing it. If you’re a stat nerd, a superfan, or you’ve simply just been watching for a while and want to test your knowledge, then this is the game for you. The rules are as follows, and I’ll go into a bit of detail on things that might come across as confusing, based on my personal experience and conversations surrounding the game.
It’s pretty explicitly stated in the rules, but you can only use a player once per day, which creates a challenge as the creators of the game seem to enjoy throwing in a few different categories that fit one player but is best for one, leaving you stranded if you accidentally put them in the wrong spot. Think before you guess!
The players need to have played at least one game to count for the selection, such as one option from 6/26 for a player that played for both the Yankees and the White Sox. I almost immediately jumped the gun and chose Carlos Rodón, which would’ve made me very upset as this would’ve been incorrect, as he has still yet to make his debut for the Yankees, despite being on the team.
For days that they add in a statline, be careful who you choose. For season-long accomplishments, the player needs to have accomplished that stat in a season with the corresponding team or other stat, so while Nick Castellanos may have played for the Tigers and had seasons batting above .300, he’s never batted .300 while on the Tigers, so that wouldn’t work. On the other hand, there is also the option for career stats to be a column or row to be choosing from, in which case that would work if they hit that stat/milestone for their career and played on the team corresponding, such as with the Yankees and 3,000 career strikeouts, I jumped over C.C. Sabathia and shot for Randy Johnson for a correct guess.
Lastly, you don’t get any spare guesses, you’re either immaculate or you’re not! Don’t get disheartened if you find yourself incapable of getting all nine correct, they certainly don’t make the game easy and it’s meant to challenge your baseball knowledge throughout generations. While there’s always an answer, that answer is not always obvious, which makes it all the sweeter when you find a player than under 10% of people correctly guessed.
From there, the game is simple, just figure out some obvious ones and scratch your head real hard until you figure out a guess or drive yourself crazy trying. If you used to collect baseball cards, use your knowledge from there. MLB baseball videogames? Use it. No matter where you learned about the league, your knowledge will be useful, and there’s no better feeling than finally figuring out a player that you’ve been sitting on.
The game is fun and simple and refreshes every day at 12:00am EST and can easily leave you scratching your head all day (I say, still wondering who might’ve played for both the Guardians/Indians and Mariners). It’s already brought up some of the best baseball conversations that I’ve had in years and brings back a sense of nostalgia with some old players that have simply faded out of the limelight that we used to know and love.
My one critique on this game is the fact that they don’t tell you who would’ve worked afterwards, although I’ve also come to realize would simply just be a very long list for many options (especially team combinations), so if you’re wondering who you might’ve missed, don’t forget to check https://www.baseball-reference.com/ to see what you can find out. For players on multiple teams, you can head over to https://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/multifranchise.cgi and enter the two teams in question and Baseball Reference will do the rest, pulling up every single player in MLB history to play at least 1 game with both teams. For specific awards, you can use https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/ and choose the specific award that you’re looking for and find what players will match, and I also happen to notice that page leaves out 30/30 players, which you can find a complete list of here https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/30-30_club. The only thing that is a bit more difficult is that there is no clear-cut way for everyone to find out certain season stat mixes, the only way I was able to check the extensive list of Rays .300 season hitters was by using the subscription service Stathead, otherwise I could’ve been left wondering who might have worked after Evan Longoria came up short.
There are sure to be copies coming very soon from the other major sports, so keep your eyes open for those, which currently are being passed around the internet for you and your friends to complete solo at best. Some of the possibilities are pretty endless, and Immaculate Grid makes you think about just how little you know about a game with nearly 23,000 players in its history. Give it a try, and give us a shout at one of our social media pages to let us know how you did! Happy Gridding!
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