CryptoSoxery No. 10

We venture into the land of the seedy

Given the devastating new MLB rules on sunflower seeds (anticipated in my social distancing ball article way back in April, along with most of the other protocols, but I wouldn't want to toot my own horn or anything), it seems appropriate to reach out for a quote from a then-White Sox player about sunflower seedery.

But first, the answer to last week's quiz, from none other Jerry Reinsdorf himself:

Any other business, you want your competitors to go out of business. In sports, you just don't want them to have as good a record as you do.

Jerry said that a long time ago, before baseball had this nifty opportunity to go out of business together, LOL. It seemed like a nicer Jerry quote than the more famous one about how he doesn't actually make any money, a claim heard from too many owners these days.

Jerry absolutely, positively never said anything (at least not recently) about not making money off the team he bought for $19 million in 1981 and Forbes now values at $1.65 billion.

USA Today

But enough of the trivial matter of money, and on to the more crucial issue of sunflower seeds, banned for the COVID-19 duration, to the dismay of spitters everywhere.

A few years ago, Adam Eaton, who served the White Sox well as a player and perhaps not quite so much as a person, spoke of his culinary breakthrough, where he used his noodle to make sunflower seeds even more desirable:

EXMF L ETZ LF KRYYMHM, SXTS'Z EXTS L YLAMW RVV RV … IDZS QDS LF

ZRGM ZMMWZ TFW HMS SXM YLSSYM KXLKUMF QTKU, TFW IDZS QDS SXM

QTKU LF CRDB GRDSX ELSX SXM ZMMWZ, TFW TYY RV T ZDWWMF CRD

XTAM BTGMF-FRRWYM VYTARBMW ZMMWZ. LFZSTFS.

Adam Eaton was not just a blowhard, but also culinarily creative.

Thanks as usual to the good folks at wordles.com and their magic encryption machine.

For those new to the game, CryptoSoxery is is a basic cryptoquote, where one letter stands for another throughout the quote ... maybe an F for a J, or whatever. You solve the puzzle by looking for the most common letters (E being the usual winner) and for familiar word patterns. For example, the single L near the beginning is apt to be either and A or an I, the Z after an apostrophe is probably an S or a T.

Unless you're really good, you're probably better off running a copy to work from since this isn't interactive. This week's answer, and CryptoSoxery No. 11, next week.