Optimal Nine
Baseball lineup stat puzzle
Only for iPhone
Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPhone. Not verified for macOS.
iPhone
Fill nine slots. Beat the number.
Every day, Optimal Nine deals one board: a franchise, a stat, and an era. Name players who appeared for that team inside the era — one per slot — and build the highest-scoring lineup you can. One season with the club unlocks a player's whole career: Lou Brock was a Cub for three years, and all 3,023 of his hits count on a Cubs board.
THREE MEDALS ON EVERY BOARD
Bronze, silver, and gold targets give beginners something to clear and experts something to chase. Take the one you can.
HOW IT PLAYS
• Search all of MLB history since 1871
• Values reveal when you lock a pick
• Every board opens with four players' initials. Stuck? Hints reveal two players' career years or one name
• Hard mode hides the opening initials. Same medals, no head start
• Give up any time: the board scores as it stands and the optimal nine is revealed
DAILY, ARCHIVE, AND FREE PLAY
Everyone gets the same Daily, resetting at midnight UTC. Free Play deals a random franchise, stat, and era — three boards a day, or watch a short ad for one more. Some boards are a batting lineup, some a pitching staff.
MISSED A DAY? PLAY IT BACK
The Archive is a calendar of every past Daily. Medal dots mark the ones you've cleared; tap any day you missed and play it. Unlock the Archive once and you also get no ads, free hints, and unlimited Free Play.
SHARE THE GRID, SPOIL NOTHING
Your result shares as a nine-square grid with your medal and score — no player names, so nothing gets ruined for friends.
Statistics from the Lahman Baseball Database, maintained by SABR. Career totals through 2025.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Major League Baseball or any MLB club.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Cleaned up a few fielding errors. We now also count anonymous gameplay stats to help tune puzzle difficulty; see the privacy policy.
The developer, Salvatore Aparo, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Used to Track You
The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:
- Identifiers
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
- Location
- Identifiers
- Usage Data
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Diagnostics
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Salvatore Aparo
- Size
- 37.9 MB
- Category
- Trivia
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 17.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Contains
Advertising
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- Unlock the Archive $2.99
- Copyright
- © 2026 1+1=2 LLC