by: JamieD 9/3/10, Total ProSports.com. (If you’ve never seen, or want to see the Abbott-Costello piece Who’s on 1st: http://bit.ly/1mV1fyH)
Baseball Fans:
Now that it is officially 2015, and we are all freezing, my thoughts naturally turn to the upcoming baseball season and the annual MillersTime Baseball Contests.
And I’m asking for some help.
I’ve listed below the questions/contests from last year and would like your ideas and suggestions about this year’s contest. Particularly,
a. Which of these, if any, would you keep?
b. What new questions would you suggest?
c. How else would you modify the contests (fewer questions, different prizes, etc.)?
Last year’s contests:
1. Make a prediction about the 2014 MLB season.
2. Pick any MLB team and predict what their regular season record will be in 2014. Also, will they make the playoffs, and how far will they go if they do?
3. What will the Washington Nationals’ record be this year? Tie Breakers: Will they make the playoffs, and how far will they go?
4. Will the Red Sox or Yankees have a better won-loss regular season record this year? Will either or both make the playoffs? Tie-Breaker: What will the split be in the 19 games they play against each other?
5. Pick a player whose batting average (sans decimal) and RBIs combined will add up closest to 406. Tie-Breaker: How many Home Runs will the player of your choice hit?
6. Who will be in the World Series? Who will win it all? Who will be the WS MVP?
Last year #5 was suggested by a reader, and I adjusted some of the others to make it less Sox/Yankee focused and more inclusive of other teams.
Please take a few moments and give some suggestions for the 2015 contests.
(If a bribe will help, if you suggest a question that is chosen for 2015, your ‘prize’ will be the choice between going to a Nats’ game with me or receiving a copy of the wonderful A Great and Glorious Games: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti.)
Thanx.
Justin Stoyer said:
How about a prediction on who wins each division and who the wild cards are!!!!
Ed Scholl said:
Of last year’s questions, I like # 2 and 6 the best. I also like Justin’s suggestion. Another possible question is “Pick the league MVPs and Cy Young Award winners” (winner is the one with the most correct answers up to the maximum of 4).
Tiffany said:
How about a contest to see which readers attend the most MLB games in-person, location and team agnostic.
Same question, but with the most different cities.
Will you go to a game in Japan?
Chris said:
I liked #’s 1,2,4 & 6. Nat’s question less interesting to this Red Sox fan but so is NL in general. The .406 contest (my submission) was hard to get excited about until late in the season (if ever, thanks Paul Goldschmidt) and then required too much math. With such a long season it’s hard to conceive a contest that keeps a contestant interested on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. I did appreciate your (August?) update on a contestant that was doing especially well and access to the overall spreadsheet of answers might keep me more engaged. My thought for this year is an “Absolutely Average” contest where players choose two teams (maybe one from each league) whose combined winning percentage comes closest to .500. On a daily basis if one team wins a player could root for their other team to lose.
Brian Steinbach said:
I like Chris’s idea. Good for interest.
I thought about this one: “Which team will have a player accused of domestic violence?” But that probably is better for football. But maybe something around the idea of which team will have to deal with some kind of player misconduct scandal? Just to bring in something from off the field.
Larry Longenecker said:
How about which team in each league is the most improved and which teams drops the most?