Warning: This page contains spoilers for the June 21, 2024, game of Jeopardy! — please do not scroll down if you wish to avoid being spoiled. Please note that the game airs as early as noon Eastern in some U.S. television markets.
Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Sports) for Friday, June 21, 2024 (Season 40, Game 205):
50 years ago Vin Scully announced he got “a standing ovation in the Deep South” for breaking a longtime record
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Josh Heit, a government relations professional from Silver Spring, Maryland
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Richelle Brown, a substitute teacher from Alexandria, Virginia
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Drew Basile, a graduate student from Birmingham, Michigan (2-day total: $33,282)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
After knocking off superchampion Adriana Harmeyer, Michigander Drew Basile is now a 2-day champion on Jeopardy. Today, he faces off against a couple of DC-area players in Arlington’s Richelle Brown and Silver Spring’s Josh Heit.
I have an occasional mailbag column where I answer fan & viewer questions regarding the show. If you have a question, feel free to send it to mailbag@thejeopardyfan.com!
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: Who is Hank Aaron?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2024 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
Vin Scully’s call of Hank Aaron’s 715th home run, surpassing Babe Ruth’s career total of 714, certainly is one of the more iconic in baseball history. “And it is a great moment for all of us and particularly for Henry Aaron.”
Hank Aaron, in 1974, received a record amount of mail in one year, nearly one million letters—a significant number of that number being hate mail in the lead-up to April of that year, as not everyone in America was happy that Babe Ruth’s all-time record was about to be broken.
Aaron finished his career in 1976 with 755 home runs and a still-record 2,297 runs batted in.
(And, yes, it’s great when a Final Jeopardy happens to use the same quote that is in one of my books.)
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, June 21, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: What A Lovely Smile!; Fictional Characters; On The Map; Multiple Meanings; Icons On Stamps; That Company’s History)
Drew and Josh had the best time early in this one with 5 correct responses apiece; Drew led after 15 despite 2 incorrect responses thanks to strong play at the bottom of the board. At the interviews, Drew had $2,800 to Josh’s $2,600 and Richelle’s $800.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Drew 5 correct 2 incorrect
Josh 5 correct 0 incorrect
Richelle 2 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Josh has performed at Carnegie Hall three times.
Richelle is a budding flamenco dancer.
Drew got a grant to go write in Italy—but didn’t write anything while there.
Josh got to the Daily Double, but an incorrect response dropped him back to $0. Richelle had a good segment as well, but Drew still lead after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Drew 8 correct 3 incorrect
Richelle 7 correct 1 incorrect
Josh 11 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Drew $4,400
Richelle $2,800
Josh $2,000
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: What A Lovely Mile!; Genres; Did You Get My Letter?; The Human Body; Abdications; Ends In Double “E”)
Richelle missed DD2, while Drew picked up $4,000 on DD3. Then, Josh picked up 4 of the final 6 clues to pull to within exactly 50% of Drew’s total. As Ken said, “very interesting!”
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Drew 20 correct 3 incorrect
Josh 18 correct 1 incorrect
Richelle 12 correct 4 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 20 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Drew $20,000
Josh $10,000
Richelle $1,000
Both Josh and Drew got Final correct. However, Drew bet $0, which means…
Tiebreaker round category: SCIENCE
Tiebreaker round clue: This phenomenon named for a 19th century man is apparent in moving light sources as well as moving sound sources
Tiebreaker round correct response, given by Drew: What is the Doppler effect?
Tonight’s results:
Richelle $1,000 – $5 = $995 (Who is ?)
Josh $10,000 + $10,000 = $20,000 (Who is Hank Aaron?)
Drew $20,000 + $0 = $20,000 (Who Hank Aaron) (3-day total: $53,282)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) THAT COMPANY’S HISTORY $1000 (clue #22)
Josh 3400 -3400 (Drew 3800 Richelle 2400)
2) THE HUMAN BODY $1600 (clue #5)
Richelle 4000 -3000 (Drew 5200 Josh 3200)
3) GENRES $2000 (clue #12, $19200 left on board)
Drew 11600 +4000 (Richelle 1000 Josh 4400)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -141
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Drew 3 4 3 5 2 5 2 3 5 2
Richelle 1 5 1 2 3
Josh 4 4 3 4 3 4 5*
DJ! Round:
Drew 3 4 5 3 4 5*
Richelle 3 4* 5†
Josh 2 2 2
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Josh 3.30
Drew 3.63
Richelle 3.00
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 20 (0.10 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Josh $13,400 Coryat, 18 correct, 1 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Drew $18,000 Coryat, 20 correct, 3 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Richelle $4,000 Coryat, 12 correct, 4 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $35,400
Lach Trash: $10,800 (on 8 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $7,800
Lead Changes: 3
Times Tied: 4
Player Statistics:
Drew Basile, career statistics:
66 correct, 14 incorrect
1/4 on rebound attempts (on 11 rebound opportunities)
40.12% in first on buzzer (69/172)
4/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $18,200)
1/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,733
Richelle Brown, career statistics:
12 correct, 5 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$3,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $4,000
Josh Heit, career statistics:
19 correct, 1 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
27.59% in first on buzzer (16/58)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$3,400)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,400
Drew Basile, to win:
4 games: 55.625%
5: 30.941%
6: 17.211%
7: 9.574%
8: 5.325%
Avg. streak: 4.254 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- This is the sixth regular-play game to end in a Tiebreaker Round since the rule was changed in November 2014. This rule change was made necessary, in my opinion, due to the increased opportunity for collusion in the Internet Era—something that did not exist when the show was created. Comments regarding the necessity of the tiebreaker rule will be considered out of order here on the site.
- Today’s game is the 69th regular play game that had a non-zero tie at the end of Final Jeopardy. The full list can be found on the site here, and will be updated by 9:00 AM Eastern tomorrow with tonight’s result.
- The wording of the Final Jeopardy clue changed from what was published in the New York Times this morning. Strangely, last-minute changes to clues do not get reflected in the show’s database–which is what the Clue of the Day is pulled from. Interestingly, the change I was most expecting to see was not made.
- I was also not expecting to see an announcement that Alex Trebek was going to be honored by a stamp on today’s episode, but here we are.
- Viewers are reminded that, per the Site Comment Policy, “You’re welcome to voice objections to question material; however, your remarks must be reasonably sound with citations provided.”
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Drew $20,000 Josh $10,000 Richelle $1,000)
Drew: Bet $1. Do not risk the tiebreaker, especially considering that Josh had the run of the buzzer at the end of Double Jeopardy. (Actual bet: $0)
Richelle: Bet no more than $998. (Actual bet: $5)
Josh: You have one choice here: all $10,000. (Actual bet: $10,000)
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I see the answer but it’s not clear what it’s asking for…? The sport or person…maybe I’m wrong.
Yeah, the clue relies on knowing that the emphasis should be on “he”… I struggled for a while too and assumed there was a typo somewhere. Once I figured that out, I was able to get to the correct answer pretty easily.
Agree completely. Poorly written. Initially, I thought “he” referred to Vin, then realized it referred to another person.
I agree, too. I thought “he” was Vin and that the “answer” was Vin’s breaking of some record that we were supposed to form a question about. Since I am not a sports fan (especially not ball-oriented sports), I got him mixed up with Vince Lombardi and wasted my time trying to think of football records.
I wonder how the alternate version of this clue was worded. If that one was more clear, I wonder why it was changed. However, if it was worse, I can imagine that clouding their judgement as to how poorly worded this version was.
And regardless of my not being a sports fan, I was aware of the “Hank Aaron’s 715th home run event” (though admittedly not the exact count) and knew that he played for the Atlanta Braves at the time and that it was a home game. Even though I also did not remember that it was fifty years ago, I did remember it was decades ago, so if the clue had been worded “50 years ago he got a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a longtime record”, I think I might have GUESSED the correct response. So if even I probably could have gotten it from that, then the clue probably did need a bit of obfuscation, but I still feel that was poorly accomplished.
Hank Aaron popped into my head almost immediately but this clue is phrased awkwardly. I had to read it multiple times to ascertain exactly what it’s asking for. Never does it actually say it wants the record breaker’s name. It could just as easily be asking for the actual event itself or even perhaps the original record holder’s name. It seems to me that Babe Ruth or the breaking of the MLB home run record could also be considered legitimate responses.
The problem is that the use of the word “he” seemed to refer to Scully himself which threw me off. If they had used something along the lines of “this athlete” it would have made much more sense.
Babe Ruth was long dead before 1974.
What is going on? The clue is not asking for anything. It doesn’t say “breaking a record of this all-time sports idol.” So we don’t know what they’re looking for. That seems ridiculous to me
I don’t understand the problem here.
This was 100% abundantly clear to me.
I concur. 1974, and the emphasis that ‘he’ got a standing ovation in the deep south…I remember it well.
I have seen Vinny’s call many times over the years.
It was to me too Andy and being the good and loyal Dodgers fan that I am, I knew this immediately. I didn’t start paying attention to baseball until the 1977 season (I was 8 when it started), but thanks to some neighbors that became surrogate grandparents to me, they taught me the sport. The husband was born in 1908 and the wife in 1911. I still have a clipboard he gave me to keep score of baseball games the way that he did. It definitely wasn’t the standard way. This guy’s last name was Kleinfelter and he inscribed his K onto metal part used to open the clip. 🙂
😄
Okay, I’ve calmed down now 😂, and I see how this clue is supposed to be structured. Still not super acceptable in my view, but I wonder if Ken’s recitation of the clue will avoid the worst of the confusion for the players
I thought it was worded awkwardly too, but knowing that Vin Scully was best known as a baseball announcer, and that in 1974 (“50 years ago”), the biggest event in baseball was Hank Aaron’s 715th homerun, it was clear that this was what they were going for.
We have definitely seen FJ clues made more complicated than they could have been because they don’t want them to be too easy, so I wonder if this one was deliberately obfuscated to make a clue about a VERY famous “50 years ago baseball event” possibly take more than 30 seconds to even understand.
I knew that the “HE” was not referring to Vin Scully. However I was watching this particular game with my father. Not only was Vin excited about the new record, so was my father. And my father was around when Babe Ruth got his record way back when. As for me, I was not into baseball then, but was still happy for Hank Aaron breaking a longstanding record.
Thank you for sharing that memory.
I also thought of Hank Aaron but still wondered if “he” was referring to Vin Scully.
I agree with others who pointed out how unclear this clue was. It was very easy to think the announcer was the one who had received the ovation. The use of the words “this athlete had gotten” would have made it much clearer. Have there been instances of the show inviting a contestant back due to a confusingly-worded clue?
Yes, but any contestant in contention for victory in this game was clearly not affected by the wording of the clue.
Agreed, but had the contestants been clearly affected by the wording of the clue that would have only reinforced our judgement — the fact that 2 of them [the 2 men] figured it out doesn’t disprove our criticism of it. I feel like game shows are FOR the viewers MORE THAN for the contestants. Perhaps some viewers are just enthralled to see how good the show’s players are, but most try to play along. Therefore, for home viewers’ sake, I think the clue at the climax of the game should not be as twisted around as this one was (thus ending the episode with annoyed viewers).
Agree about the awkward wording of Final. Otherwise, this was easy-peasy for a longtime sports fan. I still remember that moment!
It sounds like Vin Scully got the standing ovation from the wording of the clue.
Exactly what I thought! Read it three times and still didn’t get what they were asking for. Not having a single clue who Vin Scully was, didn’t help. LOL. Hopefully Ken will emphasize the “he” when reading it aloud, so as to make it clear.
I was pretty sure Vin Scully was a sports announcer, but did not realize they specialized in one sport. I also assumed that he (as most other sports announcers) was a pro player prior to announcing, thus could have broken records himself. However, I now find he only played up though college and immediately went into announcing (having studied broadcasting in college).
I was just thinking about the doppler effect the other day (which is maybe why I knew it right away), when an ice cream truck passed me so quickly that the music it was playing was distorted by the doppler effect – at which point I thought an ice cream truck should not be going that fast.
Fast food? 🙂
Nicely played!
Your comment made me think of the trope of drugs being sold out of ice cream trucks, so presumably would occasionally have to run from police.
🙂 nice Lisa!
The great Hank Aaron- the first player to hit 500 HRs and 3000 base hits…Willie Mays was the 2nd
This… confuses me.
Babe Ruth was the first to have 500 home runs and 2,873 hits 🙂
Oh, H. A. was the first to have both of those SIMULTANEOUSLY. Yeah, I should’ve realized that. facepalm
How did I not know you’ve written books? That’s pretty cool. I’m going to have to read that “Greatest Games” book.
They’ll have headphones on to hear the difference between “Bryan” and “Bryant” and “Johnston” and “Johnson” from contestants but let that Final Jeopardy out as written? I was really wondering what record Vin Scully had broken beacause I was a blank.
That’s a good point. [I also thought it was saying that Vin Scully broke the record “in question” and that he announced that when interviewed afterward.]
Also, I was just thinking yesterday that with headphones or not, distinguishing whether a person said (not wrote) “Wimbledon” with a “T” instead of a “D” is inappropriate (unless the person emphasized the ‘T’) because based on a person’s mouth, teeth, and tongue structure (plus the dialect/accent they were raised with), the word would sound identical either way. [Try saying “Wimbledon, Wimbleton, Wimbledon, Wimbleton, Wimbledon” fast and see if you can really tell the difference. I had a 62-yr old co-worker that ALWAYS pronounced ‘corner’ as ‘conner’. I immediately realized from context what she meant, but I often heard other people being stumped by it. Some would question her and she never seemed to realize she was saying it any differently than anyone else. Based on what I knew of her personal history, I was always sure she had learned it that way as a child (in 1949-1955) due to her social-climbing mother’s “airs”.]
You mean like how Arnold Schwarzenegger pronounces “neighbor” in those State Farm commercials and it sounds like he says “neibah.” 🙂
RIGHT, I hate that ad! EVERY TIME, I think “what is supposed to be the point of getting Arnold for the commercial-within-the-commercial instead of say Chris Pratt or The Rock, if you don’t want the whole package, accent and all?” I do get their [surrounding] point, but just do not like a stupid premise as the basis of a comic bit unless the WHOLE thing is intended to be comically stupid (like the apartments.com ads).
Oopsie, my bad! 😉
Jeff, I’m not sure what you are “oopsie” about. I was adding in the commercials with Heidi Gardner and Dan Levy. I said they were for apartments.com, but it may be homes.com (or both, as they are owned by the same parent company).
[The best I can tell, there is only one of Arnold’s State Farm commercial, though sometimes a shorted version is shown. Heidi Gardner and Dan Levy have at least 3 different ones but all of them are the same stupid funny style.]
Oopsie was in relation to me bringing up a commercial that you hate. 😉
Trivia question from my childhood was what do Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron have in common other than they are the only players (at that time) to have hit 600 home runs. And the answer was that they all finished their major league careers in the city they started with, but for a different team. Babe Ruth started with the Boston Red Sox and finished with the Boston Braves. Will Mays started with the New York Giants and finished with the New York Mets. And Hank Aaron started with the Milwaukee Braves and finished with the Milwaukee Brewers.
I love sports questions as I had 3 brothers and my favorite reading material was sports biographies at the library.
I like this tidbit about the 3 600 Hr players. I had forgotten that Aaron had ever played for the Brewers.
For me an instant get, because I am old enough to remember the actual event, and I have seen/heard replays of Scully’s call (as a reminder, what is easy for me might not be easy for you, and vice versa. We come from different backgrounds, educations, life experiences, etc.) After revisiting the clue I do see the confusion; the subject of the sentence is not clear. Because I instantly knew it was Aaron, the grammar was not a hindrance for me. But I do think it could have been written better.
I am more perplexed by Andy’s recommendation that Drew bet $1. I believe Drew bet appropriately, but I am more than open to Andy’s perspective as he has studied these things far more than I have.
The link under “Bet $1.” in the Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions details how Andy arrived at his conclusion.
It might be worthwhile to update the data upon which it relies (the article being nearly eight and a half years old), but I suspect that it would continue to support the conclusion that $1 is the most strategically sound play.
I personally don’t agree with the “Bet $1” strategy, but understand its benefits. I figure in for a penny, in for a pound. If you miss you are likely losing and if you get it right, might as well take as much money home as you can (not Cliff Clavin bet, but maybe $9K today). I think the go for the tie strategy is defensible as well. I think any of these should also take into account the comfort of the final jeopardy category.
The reason why the suggestion is not $1 instead of $9,000 (or even $18,000) is because second is not guaranteed to make the rational bet themselves—in fact, second place has failed to bet enough somewhere around 20% of the time in this situation.
I wasn’t confused as to what the Final Jeopardy “answer” (clue) meenat. It refered to someone breaking a baseball record in an MLB game played in the “deep (US) south” 50 years ago. Like more than a few others here, I immediately said “Who is Hank Aaron?” A quick Googling confirmed I was right, before Drew and Josh’s responses were revealed.
I understood the tie breaker, I know a little about the correct response, but Doppler effect didn’t come to me. Hard to tell if Josh had it ad well, but ELVIS said Drew was first in, and, after Ken asking for more information, had the correct response.
Any bets that today’s Final Jeopardy “answer” (clue) will become another “clickbait” controversey from the US edition of a British tabloid website, as was Monday’s?
I got Hank Aaron pretty easily. Was not hard to get there since it was obviously baseball. Don’t blame Drew for betting $0 on a category he wasn’t confident with, but he got it right so I hope he learned that he really should bet on himself. Josh made the right call and I’m sure we’ll see him in Second Chance since he went to a tiebreaker based on his endgame play (plus going all-in on his Daily Double always helps).
I did not get the tiebreaker question and I really should brush up on my physics. But still, what a thrilling game that became!
I did quickly get the tiebreaker correct.
I didn’t have time to, as Drew was too quick!
Thanks for posting that link about tied games. I remember looking at it in the past but never realized that they had 2 ties in 3 games (and 4 ties over the course of 25 games) before changing the rules.
Add me to the list of people who didn’t get the FJ clue because I thought “he” referred to Vin Scully. I was confused and tried to answer “who was the LA Dodgers radio announcer”.
I was impressed that one lady had 2 tie games within days of each other.