Duke '05 Grad on Jeopardy Tonight

[blazindw]

Just wanted to let you know a good friend of mine, Matt DeTura, a 2005 Duke grad, won Jeopardy last night and seeks to continue his run tonight! He won $22,200 last night, defeating the previous champ who had held the spot for 3 days.

It should be on at 7:30pm tonight on the East Coast, so tune in and cheer on a fellow Blue Devil!!

[snowdenscold]

Just wanted to let you know a good friend of mine, Matt DeTura, a 2005 Duke grad, won Jeopardy last night and seeks to continue his run tonight! He won $22,200 last night, defeating the previous champ who had held the spot for 3 days.

It should be on at 7:30pm tonight on the East Coast, so tune in and cheer on a fellow Blue Devil!!

Wow, I remember that guy (CS 100 partner)... congrats to him!

My good high school friend made it on to Jeopardy awhile back but had the unfortunate luck of running into Ken Jennings.

[blazindw]

Well, Matt's win streak is at 2 after tonight's win! He easily defeated his two opponents, taking his haul to over $45,000 in the process!

Tune in tomorrow to see Matt in night #3. Hoping the streak continues for a deserving guy!

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Well, Matt's win streak is at 2 after tonight's win! He easily defeated his two opponents, taking his haul to over $45,000 in the process!

Tune in tomorrow to see Matt in night #3. Hoping the streak continues for a deserving guy!

Good luck to Matt!

Anyone remember Tom Walsh? He was the Duke grad who had the first "more than 5 day run" on Jeopardy when they changed the rules. Tom won 7 matches. His record was subsequently obliterated by Ken Jennings.

[JasonEvans]

A Duke buddy of mine who sometimes posts to this board (Spencer's Daddy) was a 4-time Jep champ back in the mid-90s. He was the fastest "Fastest Finger" in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire history in practice rounds when he was on that show but he flubbed when the actual show came on the air and never made it into the hot seat. I am sure he would have won a ton of money at that program. Dude is a trivia master like none other.

-Jason "CF-62 can confirm this!" Evans

[cf-62]

A Duke buddy of mine who sometimes posts to this board (Spencer's Daddy) was a 4-time Jep champ back in the mid-90s. He was the fastest "Fastest Finger" in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire history in practice rounds when he was on that show but he flubbed when the actual show came on the air and never made it into the hot seat. I am sure he would have won a ton of money at that program. Dude is a trivia master like none other.

-Jason "CF-62 can confirm this!" Evans

Yes, dude made me feel like an idiot (and my nickname is the "autistic XXXX" among our trivia friends). And that was back when "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" was an awesome show. It was a meritocracy to figure out who got to be in the hot seat. Now, you pretty much need to be an unemployed ex-school teacher who is a single parent of 3 special children - then people cry for joy when you emotionally walk away with $15,000 because you don't know that the largest land-locked country in Africa is The Sudan (with the answers in front of you).

Yes, I'm bitter. I tried to get on Millionaire the week our friend was on. I missed a trip to New York by two tenths of a second.

Then I passed their test after syndication only to find out the producers really only select emotional tear-jerking cases for the show.

Oh well - maybe I can get on Jeopardy one day.

Amusing tidbit about our friend's stint though. He got Final Jeopardy wrong every night.

[blazindw]

Matt is 3 for 3!! He won again tonight, bringing his total to over $61,000! Tune in tomorrow as he tries for 4 straight!

[Mike Corey]

Really exciting for Matt.

He is wicked smart.

Thanks for the updates, Blazin'.

[Spencer's Daddy]

Yes, dude made me feel like an idiot (and my nickname is the "autistic XXXX" among our trivia friends). And that was back when "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" was an awesome show. It was a meritocracy to figure out who got to be in the hot seat. Now, you pretty much need to be an unemployed ex-school teacher who is a single parent of 3 special children - then people cry for joy when you emotionally walk away with $15,000 because you don't know that the largest land-locked country in Africa is The Sudan (with the answers in front of you).

Yes, I'm bitter. I tried to get on Millionaire the week our friend was on. I missed a trip to New York by two tenths of a second.

Then I passed their test after syndication only to find out the producers really only select emotional tear-jerking cases for the show.

Oh well - maybe I can get on Jeopardy one day.

Amusing tidbit about our friend's stint though. He got Final Jeopardy wrong every night.

Ahhhh, the years make all of our memories fade...

3-time champ only. Managed to win $30,000 (before the prize money doubled).

Did manage to get 1 out of 4 Final Jeopardy questions correct. (Who is Emma Thompson?)

Missed Fastest Finger question the first two times, then got the third one right but lost by 0.21 seconds to a guy who ultimately won $32,000 but didn't know that Linus and Lucy's little brother was named Rerun.

[JasonEvans]

Ahhhh, the years make all of our memories fade...

3-time champ only. Managed to win $30,000 (before the prize money doubled).

Did manage to get 1 out of 4 Final Jeopardy questions correct. (Who is Emma Thompson?)

Missed Fastest Finger question the first two times, then got the third one right but lost by 0.21 seconds to a guy who ultimately won $32,000 but didn't know that Linus and Lucy's little brother was named Rerun.

SD, do you still try to go on gameshows? Dude, you were DA MAN back in the day.

SD captained the winning trivia team in a competition on Cable 13 at Duke. As I recall, the winning question was -- name the winning pitcher in the longest professional baseball game ever played.

--Jason "here's a hint, the pitcher came from the Pawtucket Red Sox" Evans

[Deslok]

SD, do you still try to go on gameshows? Dude, you were DA MAN back in the day.

SD captained the winning trivia team in a competition on Cable 13 at Duke. As I recall, the winning question was -- name the winning pitcher in the longest professional baseball game ever played.

--Jason "here's a hint, the pitcher came from the Pawtucket Red Sox" Evans

Bobby Ojeda in his one inning of work, taking over for Bruce Hurst(also appearing in the game were Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr... some others I'm sure but I don't recall who else). Was a game from the early 80s at the PawSox stadium. I used to drop in for a game every time I'd head up to visit a friend of mine(and fellow Red Sox fan) at Brown, who stayed in Providence for another 4 years after graduating. I think I still have the plastic cup that commemorates that game. Started on like April 23, ended on June 25th or something. The game had like 4 separate occasions where in extra innings one team scored, and the PawSox tied it up in the bottom of the inning. Went 33 innings I think.

[Tom B.]

Bobby Ojeda in his one inning of work, taking over for Bruce Hurst(also appearing in the game were Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr... some others I'm sure but I don't recall who else). Was a game from the early 80s at the PawSox stadium. I used to drop in for a game every time I'd head up to visit a friend of mine(and fellow Red Sox fan) at Brown, who stayed in Providence for another 4 years after graduating. I think I still have the plastic cup that commemorates that game. Started on like April 23, ended on June 25th or something. The game had like 4 separate occasions where in extra innings one team scored, and the PawSox tied it up in the bottom of the inning. Went 33 innings I think.

Correct on most counts. According to Wikipedia, Ojeda was indeed the winning pitcher and took over for Bruce Hurst. Both of them would go on to the majors and would appear in the 1986 World Series -- Hurst for the Red Sox and Ojeda for the Mets. Ojeda started Game 6 of that World Series, the famous "Buckner game" in which the Mets came back to win after being down 5-3 with two outs and nobody on base, and twice being down to their final strike, in the bottom of the 10th (Ojeda got a no-decision). Hurst was the starter in Game 7 (which the Mets won), and also took a no-decision.

There were some eye-popping stats from that Pawtucket-Rochester game in 1981. It did indeed go 33 innings. It began on the evening of April 18 and was not stopped until just after 4:00 AM on the morning of April 19, after 32 innings. It was resumed on June 23, and took exactly one inning and 18 minutes to finish.

There was only one occasion during the extra innings in which Rochester went ahead in the top of the inning, only to have Pawtucket tie the game in the bottom of the inning and force it to continue. That was in the 21st inning.

For as long as the game lasted, there wasn't much offense. The teams did combine for 39 hits, but hardly any of them translated into runs. The score was 1-1 after nine innings, and the final score was 3-2. One player went 0-for-13. Two others went 0-for-11, one with seven strikeouts. The teams combined for 60 strikeouts in 219 at bats.

[blazindw]

Well, Matt had a great run, but met his match in this evening's episode. He still made a nice chunk of change, walking out of there with over $61,000. Matt = THE MAN!