The leadoff batter of a baseball team came up to bat in all nine innings.

logic/leadoff.batter New

New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.

Problem

The leadoff batter of a baseball team came up to bat in all nine
innings.  What is the fewest runs that the team could have scored?

Show solution

The team was shut out.  In the first inning, three batters got hits,
loading the bases, but the next three batters were all out.  In the
second inning, the seventh hitter got a hit, and the next two were out.
With the leadoff hitter at the plate, the runner was thrown out trying
to steal second base.  Since the leadoff hitter didn't finish his time
at bat when the runner was thrown out, he came to bat again in the third
inning, and repeated the pattern,

[ Editor: the message breaks off here in the original. ]

[ Editor: the puzzle is credited to Martin Gardner. ]

-- David Joseph Grabiner <grabiner@math.huji.ac.il>