Every now and again, a clip from the game show "Jeopardy!" gains on traction online not because of an individual's trivia prowess, but rather because a group of purportedly intelligent people flat out stink at a category a good chunk of the general public would get -- or at least believes they would get. This time, it's clues about Yankee Stadium that stumped the smarties.
To be fair to the sports illiterate contestants, things started out well. The first clue was asking for the first player to hit a home run in the old Yankee Stadium (Babe Ruth) and the show's leader gave the right answer. But after that is when things began to fall apart. Names like Aaron Judge, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra were absolutely forgotten when the remaining clues were asked.
We didn't expect this category about the Bronx Bombers to bomb so hard. Oh well! @Yankees pic.twitter.com/i55Cpmj0l5
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) October 2, 2020
The most striking moment of this clip comes with the final clue: a Daily Double that the contestant is so unsure about, he wagers half of the potential points he could have earned if he had answered the question correctly ($1,000 on a $2,000 clue). Lucky for him, he didn't know that Berra had a statue 60-feet-6-inches away from the statue of pitcher Don Larsen.
Also surprising was how none of the contestants even hazarded a guess on the clues. That being said, in hindsight that might have been the smarter move compared to the alternative. Past contestants of the show who try to answer clues about categories they're unfamiliar with sometimes end up putting their whole foot in their mouth. One recent example was when a contestant answered that Babe Ruth broke the color barrier in baseball.
