GAME CHANGERS
Angela Olson Halsted is a legal secretary in Washington, D.C., and the mother of two college students. Doug Peterson is a professional crossword constructor in Pasadena, Calif. The two met at a crossword tournament in 2007 and have been friends ever since. Both are baseball fans (Nationals for Angela, Yankees for Doug), and they have attended at least one M.L.B. game together every year (not counting last year) since 2011. — W.S.
ACROSS
1 Chow down on
6 ‘‘Exactly like this’’
12 Word with mild or
well
20 Character often found
in children’s books 21 Emotionally process,
in modern lingo 22 Repeated cry in 1931’s
‘‘Frankenstein’’
23 *Perfect curveball?
25 Ivy League city
26 Jam
27 Crucial
28 White coat?
30 Course standards
31 Emergency-room
concern
33 *Batting coach’s instruction to a lackadaisical hitter?
37 Habitual drinkers
39 Opposed (to)
40 *Apprentice
groundskeepers?
46 Singer/songwriter Parks with the 2021 album ‘‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’’
47 It might get pulled in
both directions
50 New York’s Mount
____ Hospital
51 Dark wine grape
52 Part of a heartbeat
54 Diplomatic official:
Abbr.
55 Corn core 57 Cancels
60 Alacrity
61 Afternoon socials
63 Where dreams are
made
65 *Overenthusiastic description of a routine base hit?
68 Stand-in for Middle
America
71 Pair of socks?
72 *Umpire’s aid in
judging foul balls?
78 GPS approximation
79 Sgt. and cpl., e.g.
83 Airer of ‘‘Nancy
Drew’’
84 Old salt
86 Fury
88 State where M.L.K.
marched: Abbr.
89 Some fins
92 King James on a court
94 Do as Henry VI did
96 Letters on some
foundations
97 Jumpy sorts, in brief
99 *Long hours of
fielding practice?
101 ____ only
103 Tilting
104 *Imperceptible
fastball movement?
109 All over the place
113 Jimmy ____ (luxury shoe brand)
114 Scientist buried in Westminster Abbey 115 Pop artist who sings ‘‘Satisfied’’ on ‘‘The Hamilton Mixtape’’ 116 New ____ (cap brand)
117 Trouble, metaphorically 120 Ballgame extenders . . . and what can literally be found in the answers to the asterisked clues
124 Beekeeper
125 ____ to go
126 Run-D.M.C. and the Jonas Brothers, for example
127 Bands’ performance sheets
128 Unruffled
129 ____ Domingo
DOWN
1 Bird that can spend up to 10 months in the air without landing
2 Absolute bottom
3 Digital assistant
4 Food packaging abbr.,
once
5 What’s heard at many
a coffeehouse
6 Group sometimes said
to be ‘‘out’’
7 French article
8 Pampering place
9 In use
10 Candle choice
11 Gumbo pods
12 Goddess with a sacred
owl
13 Designers’ studios
14 Its capital is Sydney:
Abbr.
15 ‘‘Uh-uh’’
16 Go by
17 Compete with
18 Part of EGBDF
19 Places to play cards,
often
24 The Daily ____
(online news site)
29 ____ culpa
32 It plays a role in armtwisting
33 ‘‘Venerable’’ saint
34 Manual readers
35 Air France hub
36 It brought Hope to
the world
38 When doubled, a
Nabokov protagonist
40 Pre-bar challenge,
briefly
41 ‘‘Je t’____’’
42 Org. with Fire and
Sparks
43 It was first won by
the N.Y. Mets in 1969
44 Snowblower brand
45 Word on some Oreo
packages
47 Nothing special
48 Tina Turner,
voicewise
49 Goldenrod, e.g.
53 Append
56 Instrument with a
flared end
58 Chinese steamed bun
59 Ratio of an angle’s opposite side to the hypotenuse
62 Blueprint details
64 Runs out of juice
66 Eye cream ingredient
67 Symbol on Captain
America’s shield
69 Villainous English
king in ‘‘Braveheart’’ 70 Outstanding pitcher
72 Former Ford models
73 Seller of Belgian waffles and French toast (fittingly, considering the ‘‘I’’ in its name)
74 Super Soaker
Soakzooka brand
75 Like some orders
76 Ancient halls
77 Eldest Stark son on
‘‘Game of Thrones’’
80 G.I.’s garb, at times
81 Speedskater Johann ____ Koss, winner of four Olympic golds 82 One-named Nigerian
Grammy winner
85 Pained sound
87 In the Renaissance, they were known as ‘‘mala insana’’ (‘‘mad apples’’)
90 Baseball’s Gehrig and
Piniella
91 Most reliable
93 Russian city on the
Ural River 95 Butterlike spread
98 French West Indies resort island, familiarly
100 Keep from flying,
maybe
101 Profession
102 Camera inits.
104 ‘‘With any luck . . . ’’
105 Tag line?
106 Fancy pourers
107 Paper route hour, maybe
108 Headliner’s cue
110 Land between Togo and Nigeria
111 Insider’s vocabulary
112 Catch with a throw
113 Alternative to Chuck
115 Wistful sound
118 Man’s name that’s
123-Down reversed
119 Stanza contraction
121 Home of the world’s largest carnival 122 Word with red or army
123 Man’s name that’s 118-Down reversed