Do NOT go to the posted coordinates
Now that you've done Single to Right and Double to Left (and collected the baseball players' names at those two caches), you're ready to tackle Triple Into The Gap.
A triple is the toughest hit in baseball to get. In that spirit this cache is significantly more challenging than the first two in the series. In addition to spawning a language all its own, baseball has a written type of language all its own as well. When I was growing up, my grandpa sometimes took me to baseball games and taught me how to "score" a baseball game. On a single sheet of paper, an entire game could be captured such that anyone familiar with written baseball language could understand what went on the entire game. For this cache, I have done just that: scored a real baseball game. In order to complete this cache you will need to summarize the game from the scorecard and answer a set of questions. If you are successful that will give you the coordinates for the first waypoint. You will then need to do some further research on the player whose name was listed on the Single to Right logsheet. That will lead you to the second waypoint. At that point, you will need to have done some research on the player whose name was listed at the top of the logsheet for Double to Left. That will then send you to the cache and logsheet. Since baseball is a game of numbers, be prepared to do a fair amount of simple arithmetic.
Waypoint #1.
The scoresheet you need to summarize and understand can be downloaded either as a Windows Word document or an Adobe pdf document. There does exist some variance in scoring techniques but most methods are quite similar. Here is an excellent tutorial on scoring a baseball game and his methodology is identical to the one I use. Once you download the scorecard you should compute totals both horizontally and vertically. A couple of notes about this scorecard. This is from a real Major League game sometime in the past 10 years but I wouldn't waste time trying to identify the game. The player names and uniform numbers have been changed to protect the innocent (and guilty). Call them Team Rainbow. This was an American League game hence a designated hitter was used. The team that I scored was the winning team and, because they were playing at home, they didn't need to bat in the ninth inning. After you've computed the totals, answer the following questions and assign the answers to the letters as indicated.
A = Total number of pitches thrown to Team Rainbow (this is probably the toughest question)
B = Total Bases by the DH
C = Uniform number of player that hit into a double play
D = How many combined runs were scored by the catcher and first baseman?
E = How many times were players called out on strikes?
F = How many total strikeouts were there?
G = How many runners were left on base?
H = How many hits were there?
I = How many RBIs did player Purple have?
J = How many official at bats were there by Team Rainbow?
K = What was the ERA of the starting pitcher that faced Team Rainbow? (2nd toughest question)
OK, now that you have all that info, waypoint #1 is located at:
N 47 (B+C+E+F).A-(H+1)
W 122 (J-I-G+1).(K*50)-(D*7)+1
In the following research, DO NOT add in postseason numbers - only use regular season data.
Waypoint #2
Now you need to do small amount of research on the player from Single to Right in order to get waypoint 2
1. What was the most hits this player had in any one season?
2. How many career home runs did this player hit?
There are instructions at waypoint one on what to do with these numbers and that will lead you to waypoint #2.
Final cache
To find the final you need to do some research on the player that was listed on the Double to Left cache.
1. How many doubles did this batter hit in his career?
2. How many RBIs did this batter have in his career?
Follow the instructions at waypoint 2 and you will have the final coordinates in hand.
Be careful in your research and calculations. There is nothing tricky here, just careful work required. The two waypoints are bison capsules and the final is an Altoids can with room for very small items. I put a Washington Geocoin for the FTF - a coin I got from Weightman for an FTF at his Life's Beach cache.
I'll start this at four stars and see how it goes. Good luck!
Be sure to note the player listed at the top of the cache log in order to work on the next in this series.
Feel free to email me for confirmation on any of the questions.
Congrats to TMP on his persistence and bagging the FTF!