Okay, so today I’m gonna walk you through how I tackled this crossword puzzle clue: “jim former baseball pitcher.” It sounds simple, but sometimes these things can be tricky!

First thing I did, of course, was just think about any famous baseball pitchers named Jim. My brain immediately went to Jim Palmer. He’s a Hall of Famer, played for the Orioles, you know, pretty well-known guy.
Then, I looked at the crossword grid. This is crucial! How many letters did I need? If it was a short space, Jim Palmer was out. Fortunately, the space fit his last name perfectly. It had six blank boxes, so “PALMER” looked like a strong possibility.
Next up, I checked the crossing clues. I always do this before writing anything in permanently. It’s saved me a ton of headaches. I looked at the clues that intersected the “P,” “A,” “L,” “M,” “E,” and “R.” One of the crossings, I can’t remember exactly what it was now, but it made complete sense with “P” as the first letter. I think another had to do with “ER” as an ending, which fit the bill perfectly.
I wrote it in… lightly. Always use a pencil! Don’t be that guy who commits in pen and then has to scribble everything out. I filled in “PALMER” very lightly, just in case.
Finally, I double-checked everything. I looked at ALL the crossing clues again, just to be absolutely sure. I also thought about other famous Jim baseball pitchers, but none of their last names had six letters and fit the crossings. Nope. Jim Palmer was the only option.
And bam! I pressed down a little harder on the pencil and made “PALMER” official. That was it! Sometimes it’s straightforward, sometimes it takes a little more digging. But that’s the process I use. Hope that helps you crack some crosswords too!
- Think of possibilities.
- Check the grid size.
- Verify crossing clues.
- Write lightly first.
- Double-check EVERYTHING.
That’s how I landed on Jim Palmer. Good luck with your crosswords!