IMPORTANT NOTE: As of February 2020 MGWCC is available only to subscribers at my Patreon page. A subscription costs $3/month.

Title: “Team Meta”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a Major League Baseball team.
Answer: THE SAN DIEGO PADRES
Correct entries: 662

Five theme entries (team entries?) in this one. They are:

17-A: [Went all-out] = SPARED NO EXPENSE
23-A: [Bookie’s number] = POINT SPREAD
33-A/41-A: [With 41-Across, unceremoniously preparing to take a rival’s job] = MEASURING / THE DRAPES
46-A: [He played Robert California on “The Office”] = JAMES SPADER
57-A: [Did some grammatical work] = PARSED A SENTENCE. Is this a valid crossword entry? Discuss. Correct answer: Probably.

One six-letter word in each of those anagrams to PADRES, making that San Diego team our meta answer. Personal trivia: San Diego is the only city in California I’ve ever been to.

DIS says:

Good thing the Reds don’t play in Pennsylvania.

Because that would be REDS + PA. 11 solvers did submit REDS, but I couldn’t accept that since the six-letter-words that anagram to Padres are much clearer. Theoretically I would’ve had to accept A’s if I’d accepted REDS.

Brent Holman had no trouble:

I’ve played this exact game with my daughter! I take her to a few Giants games every year, and we sometimes play anagramming games between innings. It was definitely good fodder when San Diego was in town.

BrianT is improving his meta swing:

First time I’ve finished same day and made a guess – fingers crossed!

PaulTK had home crowd advantage:

My PADRES! Amazing how long it took me to rearrange those letters into my favorite team.

LyleW is back in the meta-fold:

I promised myself I’d start doing these again now that I’m retired!

And finally, Not Walter points out:

You really did spare no expense on 17A: It has the Padres, Red Sox, Reds, and [the defunct Montreal] Expos.

Practically a whole divison in one entry!

LOLLAPUZZOOLA 13:

Lollapuzzoola 13 is tomorrow! Virtually this year, but directed as usual by Patrick Blindauer and Brian Cimmet. Register here if you haven’t already. This is always an extremely fun tournament, so I’m curious to see what these guys have planned for this year’s virtual version.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a phrase.