Cyclical paradox discussed in "Gödel, Escher, Bach" / MON 4-12-21 / Sports metaphor used to describe esoteric knowledge / Hypothetical musings / Modern pet name

Constructor: Aimee Lucido and Ella Dershowitz

Relative difficulty: Challenging (LOL, slow Tuesday time for me)

THEME: INSIDE BASEBALL (62A: Sports metaphor used to describe esoteric knowledge ... with a hint to the circled letters) — circled letters contain the names for single members of three completely random MLB teams:

Theme answers:

• BREAKFAST ROLLS (16A: Cinnamon buns and such)
• STRANGE LOOP (29A: Cyclical paradox discussed in "Gödel, Escher, Bach")
• "THE WEST WING" (48A: Onetime TV political drama set in Washington)

Word of the Day: STRANGE LOOP (29A) —

A strange loop is a cyclic structure that goes through several levels in a  hierarchical system. It arises when, by moving only upwards or downwards through the system, one finds oneself back where one started. Strange loops may involve self-reference and paradox. The concept of a strange loop was proposed and extensively discussed by Douglas Hofstadter in Gödel, Escher, Bach, and is further elaborated in Hofstadter's book I Am a Strange Loop, published in 2007.

A tangled hierarchy is a hierarchical consciousness system in which a strange loop appears. (wikipedia)

So many problems today. Let's start with the stuff that's intrinsically wrong, and then we can move on to the stuff that's not really the puzzle's fault. The theme just doesn't work. I say this as a fairly serious baseball fan. Multiple-podcast-listening serious. Watch-my-Tigers-even-though-they're-awful serious. 43-years-of-fandom serious. First, INSIDE BASEBALL means what it says; it doesn't mean BASEBALL INSIDE. Second, what is "inside" is not ... "baseball." It is three totally arbitrary team names, and not even team names, but the name that you would call a single player on that team. So "a single baseball player inside" is what is happening. And the teams involved have nothing in common except that they're all in the American League, which ... I don't think is relevant to how the theme works. No MET, no RED, no idea why. So the group isn't even tight. The themer set is just way, way too loose an expression of the revealer phrase. Further ... BREAKFAST ROLLS are not a category that exists in my head, and since only one type of "roll" was in the clue, I thought the answer was going to be way broader. Had BREAKFAST and then ... nothing. FOODS? Who knows. Also STRANGE LOOP, LOL, what. Nothing about the answer, nothing about the clue, Nothing About The Wikipedia Definition Posted Above has me any closer to understanding what that is. I mean, BRANGELINA is sitting right there and you just leave it? So what if it's not the same length as "THE WEST WING," find a new themer with RED or MET in it ... something. STRANGE LOOP is bizarro, and it's especially bizarro *on a Monday*. Wow. OK.