Nine men play the positions

[Guest]

Nine men play the positions on a baseball team. Their names are Brown, White, Adams, Miller, Green, Hunter, Knight, Smith and Jones. Determine from the following information the position played by each man.

1. Brown and Smith each won $10 playing poker with the pitcher.

2. Hunter is taller than Knight, and shorter than White, but each weighs more that the first baseman.

3. The third baseman lives across the corridor from Jones in the same apartment house.

4. Miller and the oufielders play bridge in their spare time.

5. White, Miller, Brown the right fielder and center fielder are bacheloros. The rest are married.

6. Of Adams and Knight one plays an outfield position.

7. The right fielder is shorter than the center fielder.

8/ The third baseman is a brother of the pitcher's wife.

9. Green is taller than the infielders and the battery (the pitcher and the catcher), except for Jones, Smith and Adams

10. The second baseman beat Jones, Brown, Hunter, and the catcher at cards.

11. The third baseman, the shortstop and Hunter made $150 each speculating in General Motors stock.

12. The second baseman is engaged to Miller's sister.

13. Adams lives in the same house as his sister but dislikes the catcher.

14. Adams, Brown and the shortstop lost $200 each speculating on wheat futures.

15. The catcher has three daughters, the third baseman has two sons, but Green is being sued for divorce.

[Aaryan]

Green=Left Field

Knight= Right Field

Hunter= Center Field

Brown= 1st Base

Miller= Shortstop

White= 2nd base

Adams=3rd base

Jones=Pitcher

Smith=Catcher

Am I right? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Edited January 17, 2011 by Aaryan

[Guest]

What I want to know is, who's on first?

[Aaryan]

no, who's on second!

[Guest]

I don't know!! THIRD BASE!!!

I'm not sure if there is enough information here to come up with a solution, so I had to make an assumption to come up with the answer. Let me know if it's correct.

P = Jones

C = Smith

1B = Brown

2B = White

3B = Adams

SS = Miller

LF = Green

CF = Hunter

RF = Knight

Assumption: Having kids implies that you are married.

[Aaryan]

Exactly what I said. Did we solve it, moltenpanther?

[Shanna]

I found this way late in the game, but this puzzle makes no sense.  If we are to assume that some people are married or single, then are we also to assume that the word "house" means the same thing as the word "apartment"?  I found this puzzle a few years ago and forgot about it until I found it today.  I assumed that Adams cannot be the third baseman because he lives in a house while the 3B lives in an apartment.  I got online to search for the answer because, of course, the puzzle is not solvable.  It seems that Sports Illustrated first published it in 1959 and reposted it online.  It then apparently went viral.  One thing I can say is that any site that has this puzzle posted has people discussing it and everyone agreeing with each other, the same as in this forum, that Adams is the 3B.  Not a single person has questioned the difference in residence type.  This is the worst puzzle for someone like me because little clues like that are usually given to help answer the puzzle.  

[Thalia]

3 hours ago, Shanna said:

I found this way late in the game, but this puzzle makes no sense.  If we are to assume that some people are married or single, then are we also to assume that the word "house" means the same thing as the word "apartment"?  I found this puzzle a few years ago and forgot about it until I found it today.  I assumed that Adams cannot be the third baseman because he lives in a house while the 3B lives in an apartment.  I got online to search for the answer because, of course, the puzzle is not solvable.  It seems that Sports Illustrated first published it in 1959 and reposted it online.  It then apparently went viral.  One thing I can say is that any site that has this puzzle posted has people discussing it and everyone agreeing with each other, the same as in this forum, that Adams is the 3B.  Not a single person has questioned the difference in residence type.  This is the worst puzzle for someone like me because little clues like that are usually given to help answer the puzzle.  

"3. The third baseman lives across the corridor from Jones in the same apartment house."

Normally, I would consider an apartment and a house to be different. But clue number 3 seems to indicate that they are interchangeable.

[DejMar]

12 hours ago, Thalia said:

"3. The third baseman lives across the corridor from Jones in the same apartment house."

Normally, I would consider an apartment and a house to be different. But clue number 3 seems to indicate that they are interchangeable.

An apartment and house are different, and clue number 3 does not indicate they are interchangeable, but gives the implication that the house the third basemen and Jones reside contains more than one apartment. Your reference to clue 13 to which it states that Adams lives in a house  does not preclude the possibility that Adams may reside in an apartment of an apartment house, not does it state that Adams' sister and Adams lives in the same apartment. From that clue the two siblings could reside in the same or separate apartments -- or in no apartment as the house they reside may, in fact, not be an apartment house, but may be single unit, duplex, or other type of residential house.
An assumption that only a non-bachelor could have children contradicts evidence of reality.  Yet, in order to find a solution with the givens, it may be one of the assumptions that is needed to be made. Another assumption that might be taken is that one engaged to be married is a bachelor -- even given that the assumption is partially contradicted by clue 15, with divorce being recognized.
 

[Thalia]

Thanks for the clarification. After some googling, I see apartment house is another term for apartment building. . . So if you live in an apartment, you live in a "house". Haven't done the puzzle yet so not sure how relevant that is but it would explain the perceived discrepancy. It was noted that this was published in 1959. I'm sure reality hasn't changed since then in terms of children and bachelors but I'm wondering if there were some different assumptions back then about recognizing children outside of marriage. I get the feeling that unless you're a politician, it might not be quite as big of a deal for a bachelor (or bachelorette) to have a child now as it was in the 50s. I don't have any evidence of that though.

How does recognizing divorce contradict engaged men being bachelors? Google shows a bachelor as being a man who isn't and has never been married. So an engaged man would be a bachelor because he's not actually married, a divorced man would not be a bachelor because he used to be married, but as written, it doesn't matter anyway because Green is still married until the suit is settled.

[Thalia]

I got the outfield and 2B without assuming children have married fathers. The rest seem to depend on that assumption. I've seen a couple sites post this with those assumptions stated with the original problem. I found the sports illustrated version but it sounds like the writer had gotten it elsewhere as he mentioned he hadn't solved it yet. So that is not the original source.

It looks like the only purpose of mentioning the residence is to establish that a given player does not play a given position. Sounds more interesting than just saying "Adams is not the catcher." or "Jones is not the third baseman."

[DejMar]

18 hours ago, Thalia said:

How does recognizing divorce contradict engaged men being bachelors? Google shows a bachelor as being a man who isn't and has never been married. So an engaged man would be a bachelor because he's not actually married, a divorced man would not be a bachelor because he used to be married, but as written, it doesn't matter anyway because Green is still married until the suit is settled.

The mistaken inference that one might take is that being engaged does not preclude the possibility that the baseball player had previously been married. That another assumption might be needed to be made in order to solve the puzzle.

[Thalia]

Ok. That's fair. I think all the assumptions I've seen are fairly safe ones though. Maybe less safe if it were written today. The divorce one would be a rather cruel trick if applied that way. I don't usually see this kind of puzzle written with a trick like that.