Saturday, May 10, 2014 — From Dugouts to Pits

Introduction

Today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon starts out at the ballpark and finishes at the symphony.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - yet to be solved

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue
	Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in all-in-one (& lit.) clues, semi-all-in-one (semi-& lit.) clues and cryptic definitions.

Across

1a   Baseball manager with dollar and change catching exhibition (4,9)

BUCK (SHOW)ALTER — {BUCK (dollar) + (and) ALTER (change)} containing (catching) SHOW (exhibition)

Buck Showalter^[7] is manager of the Baltimore Orioles, a team in the East Division of the American League of Major League Baseball (MLB).

9a   Fictional story about a sheep town in Wyoming (7)

L(A|RAM)IE — LIE (fictional story) containing (about) {A (†) + RAM (sheep)}

Laramie^[5] is a city in southeastern Wyoming; population 27,664 (est. 2008). It was first settled in 1868, during the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad.

10a   Tundra dweller's auto payment pledge gaining good grade (7)

CAR|I(B)OU — CAR (auto) + IOU (payment pledge) containing (gaining) B (good grade)

11a   English girl's name for a little uniform decoration (9)

E|PAULETTE — E (English) + PAULETTE (girl's name)

12a   Vocally refuse middle section (5)

WAIST~ — sounds like (vocally) WASTE (refuse)

13a   Composer: "I live right and true" (5)

I|BE|R|T — I (†) + BE (live) + R (right) + (and) T (true)

Jacques Ibert^[7] (1890–1962) was a French composer.

14a   Member of a secret society seen from a convertible (9)

FREEMASON* — anagram (convertible) of SEEN FROM A

16a   Pair of comedians sound asinine about pair of rings (3.3,3)

B(O|B AND) RAY — BRAY (sound asinine; i.e., sound like an ass or donkey) containing (about) {O ([letter that looks like a] ring [the first of the pair]) + BAND (ring [the second of the pair])}

The American comedy team of Bob and Ray^[7] was comprised of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding (1922–1990).

18a   Roman Catholic collecting high priest's souvenir (5)

R(ELI)C —RC (Roman Catholic) containing (collecting) ELI (high priest)

In the Bible, Eli^[5] is a priest who acted as a teacher to the prophet Samuel (1 Sam. 1-3).

20a   Legendary ship captain's central dialect (5)

ARGO|T — ARGO (legendary ship) + T (capTain's central [letter])

In Greek mythology, the Argo^[10] was the ship in which Jason sailed in search of the Golden Fleece.

22a   Somebody laughing about western user of a social network (9)

T(W)ITTERER — TITTERER (someone laughing) containing (about) W (western)

24a   Exposes the flaws in exits from a barracks bed? (7)

DEBUNKS — double definition; the second being somewhat whimsical [as the question mark suggests]

25a   Someone let out cheer, interrupting shave (7)

PAR(OLE)E — OLE ([Spanish] cheer) contained in (interrupting) PARE (shave)

26a   Stratospheric flying where some winds are encountered (9,4)

ORCHESTRA PITS — anagram (flying) of STRATOSPHERIC

Down

1d   Slug popular poets conveying love in tacky places? (8,6)

BULLET|IN| B(O)ARDS — BULLET (slug) + IN (popular) + BARDS (poets) containing (conveying) O (love; nil score in tennis)

... where "tacky places" are places where tacks may be found.

2d   Bunch of flowers get droopy, in essence (7)

COR(SAG)E — SAG (get droopy) contained in (in) CORE (essence)

3d   Small mischievous child gave away fool (9)

S|IMP||LET|ON — S (small) + IMP (mischievous child) + LET ON (gave away; divulged)

4d   Open on Tuesday, at first (5)

OVER|T — OVER (on; above) + T (Tuesday, at first; first letter of Tuesday)

5d   Henry came ill-prepared for main foe (9)

ARCHENEMY* — anagram (ill-prepared) of HENRY CAME

6d   Did the pitching, and finished for audience (5)

THREW~_ — sounds like (for audience) THROUGH (finished)

7d   Teacher's keeping time for some fast runners (7)

RABBI(T)S — RABBIS (teachers) containing (keeping) T (time)

In addition to being the title applied to a Jewish religious leader, rabbi^[5] is also a term for a Jewish scholar or teacher, especially one who studies or teaches Jewish law.

8d   Reconstructing novel, taking the easy way out (7,7)

{CUTTING CORNERS}* — anagram (novel) of RECONSTRUCTING

14d   Anticipation of Greek characters in strength (9)

FOR(ETAS)TE — ETAS (Greek characters) contained in (in) FORTE (strength)

Eta^[5] is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet (Η, η).

15d   Good talker adopted by Farrow rests (9)

M(ORATOR)IA — ORATOR (good talker) contained in (adopted by) MIA ([American actress Mia] Farrow)

Mia Farrow^[7] is an American actress.

17d   Secretly listen to a ghost's word for a hobgoblin (7)

BUG|A|BOO — BUG (secretly listen to) + A (†) + BOO (ghost's word)

19d   Garland, after learning "Siren" (7)

LORE|LEI — LEI (garland) following (after) LORE (learning)

The surface reading suggests American singer Judy Garland^[7] (1922-1969). Several songs have been entitled "Siren"^[7].

In Greek mythology, a siren^[5] was a woman or winged creature whose singing lured unwary sailors on to rocks.

Lorelei^[5] is a siren said to live on the Lorelei rock, a rock on the bank of the Rhine.

21d   Bracing, running into jerk (5)

T(ON)IC — ON (running; operating) contained in (into) TIC (jerk)

23d   Some advice with bad pun in it (5)

I(NPU*)T — anagram (bad) of PUN contained in (in) IT (†)

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon