Yesterday at Big League Stew, ‘Duk asked:

If you were on ‘Jeopardy!’ and the final category was baseball, how confident would you be in making your wager?

I think about stuff like this all the time. I watch Jeopardy! every night, and most nights I pause the DVR when the Final Jeopardy! category comes up to determine the smartest possible wager for the three contestants. I’m convinced there must be some way to devise a sabermetric-style approach to playing the game, making the strategic decisions at each turn mathematically shown to best improve your chances of winning, but I’m not smart enough to pull that off. I imagine it would require a lot of observation, and still come down to some vague way of rating your own confidence in the category.

As for ‘Duk’s baseball question, his point is a great one: All the sports questions on Jeopardy! are, to an actual sports fan, incredibly easy. I have noticed this myself, and always hoped to take advantage of it should I ever get picked to be on the show.

But I could never bring myself to make a Cliff Claven wager on a Final Jeopardy! clue in a baseball category, just from fearing the professional and social embarrassment I would face if I blew it. ‘Duk’s post passes along the 10 most recent final answers with “baseball” in their category, and indeed, I missed one of them — I had no idea the Cubs trained in Catalina.

I would certainly bet aggressively, though, and I would definitely start with the $800 or $1600 choices if there were a baseball category in the opening or Double Jeopardy! round, as contestants sometimes do. It seems like control of the board is a very important, underrated aspect of winning Jeopardy, and starting with the more difficult questions in a category would be a good way to avoid ceding control to an opponent who might get the $200 question and move to a different category.

Because the last thing you want to do if there’s a baseball category is leave the most expensive answers up on the board. That’s free money for you.

There was an episode last February in which there were categories titled “Cy Young Award Winners” and “Can I Buy You A Sandwich?” Needless to say, as a current baseball writer and a former longtime deli employee, I knew all the questions in both. The latter featured a Daily Double.

I cursed fate for not having put me on that episode. Especially because I realized how hilarious it would have been to hold a commanding lead, but regardless boldly “make it a true Daily Double” in the sandwich category.

I’ve since taken the online Jeopardy! test, but I fear this was not my year. Those questions come fast, and there weren’t nearly enough about baseball or sandwiches.