Saturday, December 12, 2009

Bettin' on Baseball

Hola amigos. I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but I been dealing with a metric shitton of stuff in my life.

This post is about baseball (and ultimately, beer). It's been a couple months since baseball ended, so let's review the regular season winners as a reminder:

2009 Winners
DivisionWinner
AL EastYankees
AL CentralTwins
AL WestAngels
AL Wild CardRed Sox
NL EastPhillies
NL CentralCardinals
NL WestDodgers
NL Wild CardRockies

In the divisional series, the Phillies beat the Rockies and the Dodgers beat the Cardinals. The Yanks swept the Twins (sorry Craig) and the Angels swept the Red Sox. In the World Series, the Yankees beat the Phils.

Now let's see who the co-authors picked.

TM Picks
DivisionWinner
AL EastRed Sox
AL CentralIndians
AL WestAngels
AL Wild CardRays
NL EastMetsies
NL CentralCubbies
NL WestDodgers
NL Wild CardReds
AL ChampRed Sox
NL ChampCubs
World ChampRed Sox

Hmmm. She got the Los Angeles area correct, but the rest of the country: not so much. She did get the Red Sox correct, for three out of eight playoff teams. The apocalypse World Series of Cubs/Sox did not come to fruition.

Now to MPF004!!

MPF's Picks
DivisionWinner
AL EastRed Sox
AL CentralTwins
AL WestA's
AL Wild Cardyankers
NL EastPhillies
NL CentralCardinals
NL WestGiants
NL Wild CardDodgers
AL ChampRed Sox
NL ChampPhillies
World ChampRed Sox

Three division winners correct, plus three more playoff teams slotted as wild cards instead of division winners or vice versa. In fact, I pulled the opposite of Tina Marie: I whiffed on the Bay Area but got the rest of the country partially correct. I said the AL East champ would beat the Phillies in the World Series, but I picked the good guys, not the bad guys.

So I got a couple more correct than TM. Big deal, right?

To quote a prominent sports announcer: Not so fast my friend! We have been predicting the baseball winners for four years now. Back in March, when I was in the process of winning the NCAA tournament pool, she and I made a side wager for a six-pack of beer. TM, being a big baseball fan, proposed that we make a similar wager on this sports' pick set. To clarify that picking the World Series champ should be valued higher than picking a divisional winner, we decided upon a point system that awards 1 point for correctly naming the division and wild card winners, 2 points for the pennant and 3 points for the World Series champ.

Let's look at those predictions again:

The Picks and the Points
TMMPF
Red SoxRed Sox
IndiansTwins (1)
Angels (1)A's
Raysyankers
MetsiesPhillies (1)
CubbiesCardinals (1)
Dodgers (1)Giants
RockiesDodgers
Red SoxRed Sox
CubsPhillies (2)
Red SoxRed Sox

Final score: 5-2. Congratulations to me! To honor the Minnesota Twins, who fought valiantly for the AL Central title and tried in vain to make America a better place by eliminating the Yankees, the six-pack of beer shall be: Summit Brewing from St. Paul, Minnesota. Either the Hefe Weizen or the new Red Ale would be fine.

Beer of Champions. (Girl in background not included.)

12 comments:

Scott Mortimer said...

Finally a baseball post? What motivated you? The declaration of victory which leads to the awarding of the 6-pack?

By the way, what if you had a standard American shitton instead of a metric shitton to do? Would that have been more manageable?

Unknown said...

Can we extend the wager to a few more people for the 2010 season?

TinaMarie said...

I think thats a great idea Don! Although it would hard to send beer to Mort (because I'm pretty sure he'd win).

mpf004 said...

well, it certainly would have been more patriotic.

What motivated me? I finished dead last in one of my football pick'em games and finished first in the other. It reminded me about the baseball, and that we'd never checked the results.

The beauty of a long season is you pretty much forget who you picked. Exception: when you see right through the consensus pick with flaws (Chicago) in favor of the rival lurking with better pitching (St. Louis).

So therefore, I wouldn't be so sure Mort would win. We may have to discuss this further.

Don said...

If Mort was to win... I'm sure we could find a way. Or maybe do like the mayors... Deep Dish Pizza vs Lobster.

Why can't I ever get my Blogger account name to work?

TinaMarie said...

Pizza for Lobster... I think thats a great trade!

Scott Mortimer said...

Probably wouldn't win. I'm convinced the less you know about a pick 'em contest, the better you do.

Two examples:

About five years ago at my last job, I had Molly enter the NCAA Hoop pool. She watched/read/understood as much hoops that year as MPF follows the NBA. The result? She won it all.

Second, MPF can vouch, I entered a Chicago Tribune Bowl Pick contest in 2006. Going into the final Bowl game yours truly was in first place nationally. If USC had beaten Texas, I would've won. Again, my time watching football is equivalent to MPF's time watching the NBA.

But, I'd be up for a prediction contest! But not just which-team-finishes-first. How about ... how many times Soriano strikes out? Or his HR/RBI ratio? Stuff like that. :)

TinaMarie said...

I know! I know! How about pick the day the Cubs will be eliminated from contention...

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I agree with what wujing said!

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