Okay, so I sat down with my usual morning routine today. Got the coffee brewing, grabbed the newspaper off the porch. I always flip straight to the puzzle section first thing. It’s just how I get my brain going, you know?
The crossword looked pretty standard. Started filling in the across clues. Got a few easy ones right off the bat – you know, the usual suspects like ‘three-toed sloth’ or ‘river in Egypt’. Felt like I was making good time.
Then I hit one down clue that made me pause. It just said: ‘Padres slugger Juan’. Four letters. My first thought was, okay, baseball. San Diego Padres. They got that big hitter, relatively new guy, right? Juan… Juan… the last name wasn’t coming to me immediately.
I stared at those four empty boxes. Let’s see. Who are the big names on the Padres? Machado? Tatis Jr.? Good players, sure, but the clue specifically said Juan. My mind drifted back. They made that huge trade a while back. Washington Nationals, wasn’t it? Yeah, that young outfielder. Power hitter. Slugger fits.
What was his name again? It was right there on the tip of my tongue. Sounded kind of simple. Juan… Soto! That was it! Juan Soto.
Let me check the letters. S-O-T-O. Four letters. Perfect fit. Penciled it in. Felt a bit silly it took me that long, I follow baseball pretty closely, usually.
It’s funny how crossword puzzles work. Some clues just click, others make you really dig deep or connect dots you didn’t expect. Getting that ‘SOTO’ one felt pretty good, unlocked a couple of crossing words too, which always helps.
Just another small victory in the daily puzzle grind. Keeps the mind sharp, I guess. Anyway, that was my little adventure with the crossword this morning. On to the rest of the day.
