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This will be the final Cryptosoxery before we take a break for the regular season. It comes just after the sad news about Eloy Jiménez’s shoulder, but torn shoulder quotes are hard to come by, so we’ll do one that has to do with baseball fandom instead.
First, though, the answer to last week’s cryptoquote, from a White Sox Hall-of-Famer baseball person much more ancient than the one who proclaims that about himself:
I never resorted to the spitter until I was obliged to. I nearly ruined my arm throwing curves. — Red Faber
Perfectly logical explanation from Faber, and perfectly legal activity as well — he was the last American League pitcher to toss the spitter before it was banned. Faber played his entire career with the Sox, going 254-213 from 1914-33. He avoided the ignominy of the Black Sox by getting ill with “Spanish flu” while in World War I service, then being on-off injured in 1919 and ultimately missing the World Series.
In another Faber quote, the big (for those days - 6´2´´) righty said, “It’s a great honor for me to be elected to the Hall of Fame. It’s very hard for me to imagine I would ever be elected to it.” There is no reason to believe he ever used that status to try to beat a DUI rap.
This week’s quote is from probably the most quotable White Sock ever, showing a whole different attitude about fans than the current White Sox big shots. Since you know that must be Ozzie Guillén, I won’t give you the benefit of including his name in the quiz:
DPV RUCI AEQQVSVUTV FVDLVVU GV NUA DPV QNUM EM E TNU’D VND RS ASEUW
ABSEUO DPV ONGV NUA IRB OBIM TNU’D GNWV GRKVM. FVMEAVM DPND, LV NSV
XSVDDI GBTP DPV MNGV XVRXCV.
As usual, thanks to the magic encryption machine at wordles.com.
For those of you who are newbies to cryptoquotes, they’re simple letter substitutions, same letter throughout ... A’s might J’s, K’s are Y’s, and so on. You solve it by looking for the most common letters — “E” and the usual Wheel of Fortune picks, and for common words and patterns. You’ve got a contraction in this one to help.
The answer to this final quiz of the season next week ... right after Opening Day!