Monthly Archives: October 2020

MillersTime Baseball Contest Winners and Losers: 2020*

29 Thursday Oct 2020

Posted by in Go Sox

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2020 MLB Opening Night- Nats’ Park – (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Winners and Losers of the 2020 MillersTime Baseball Contests

Question #I: Name your favorite team and predict their won-loss record for the 60 games. Will they make the playoffs? Will they make it to the WS? Will they win the WS? Tie-breaker: Name thee Division winners in the AL & NL.

This question is meant to separate the ‘Homers” from those who truly know their teams.

Although the 19 contestants below had some flaws in their assessments of their favorite team, they should not be considered “Homers” but generally good evaluators of their ‘home’ team:

Land Wayland, Jeff Friedman, Rob Higdon, Colin Wilson, Daniel Fischberg, Jimmy 2 Wires, Maury Maniff, Sean Scarlett, Nich Nyhart, Justin Barasso, Tim Malieckal, Tova Wang, Kevin Curtin, Sam Poland, Mat Wax-Krell, Robert & Lynn Shilling, Matt Galati, and Jere Smith.

On the other hand, the following 25 are found wanting in this regard, with particular egregious performances by David Price & Chris Eacho:

Ed Scholl, Joe Higdon, Larry Longenecker, Chris Boutourline, Zach Haile, Todd Endo, Monica McHugh, Elizabeth & Brooke Tilis, Nicholas Lamanna, Andrew & Noah Cate, David Meyers, Romana Campos & Drew, Brian Steinbach, Jesse Maniff, Ellen Miller, Dan Fisher, Ron Davis, Jerome Green, Jon Frank, and Chris Ballard,

Winner and Runners-Up:

Bill Barnwell and Steve Kemp were quite close on their teams’ record and playoff performances. They are declared Runner-Ups and are entitled to a MillersTime Baseball Contest ‘Winner’ T-Shirt (please send size and address).

Dawn Wilson, however, is declared the Winner as she accurately predicted her Dodgers’ record of 43-17 and ultimate WS victory.

Prize: Assuming fans can safely attend games in 2021, Dawn will join me for a Nats’ game of her choice.

Question #II: True / False:

  1. The entire 60 game season will not happen. FALSE
  2. There will be at least one hitter with at least 100 AB who will hit. 400 or higher (submitted by Zach Haile). FALSE (Highest BA was LeMahieu’s .364)
  3. There will be no starting pitcher who wins 10 games or more. TRUE (Darvis & Bieber led with eight wins)
  4. No one will hit more than 23 HRs (submitted by Rob Higdon). TRUE (Volt hit 22)
  5. At least one team in each league will win 42 or more games. FALSE (only the Dodgers who won 43, qualify. The Rays, the next closest, won 40)
  6. One or more games in each of the three Divisions will be played in front of a crowd. FALSE.
  7. Only one Division winner will make it to the World Series. FALSE (Both the Dodgers and the Rays did)
  8. At least one MLB starting pitcher will win eight games or more without a loss and at least one MLB pitcher will lose lose eight games or more without a win. FALSE
  9. Over the course of the 60-game season (or even if the season is shortened), the National League will outscore the American League for the first time in 45 seasons (submitted by Ron Davis). TRUE (NL teams scored 4227 runs, AL scored 4177)
  10. At least one of these teams (Red Sox, Angels, Giants, White Sox will make it to the playoffs. TRUE. (White Sox did)

No one got all 10 questions correct.

Zach Haile, Tom Schultz, Andrew & Noah Cate, Maury Maniff, Justin Barasso, Ron Davis, Matt Galati, Jere Smith, and Bill Barnell all got seven correct.

Ed Scholl, Land Wayland, Daniel Fischberg, Tim Malieckal, Steve Veltri, Ellen Miller, and Sam Poland got eight right.

Chris Boutourline and Doug Wang got nine.

Chris is the Winner as his submission was July 11 at 2:31 PM. Doug’s was July 22 at 11:10 AM, and he is the Runner-Up and is entitled to a MillersTime Baseball Contest ‘Winner’ T-Shirt (please send size and address).

Prize: Assuming there is a season next year, Chris and a friend can join me for a Nats’ game in 2021. If Chris is not able to make it to DC, perhaps I can make it to where he is, and we’ll see a game together.

Contest III: Assuming there is a World Series, name the two teams who will make it to the WS. Which one will win, and in how many games? Tie-Breaker: Which AL or NL Division will have the most wins? Which AL or NL Division Winner will have the least wins?

As we all know now, the World Series featured the two teams with the best 60–game ‘season’ record – Tampa Bay Rays (40-20) and the LA Dodgers (43-17).

Dem Bums (I’m still mad that they left Brooklyn), clearly the stronger team, with their ‘unfortunate’ acquisition of Mookie Betts, broke their 32-year drought of not winning the WS and won in six games.

No MillersTime contestant had both the Rays and Bums as the finalists. (most predicted the Yunkees and Dodgers would make it to the WS). One contestant did have the Rays winning it all, but unfortunately pared them with the Nats. Thirty of you did have the Dodgers as one of the two teams.

So in these circumstances, I looked at the Dodgers in six and the Tie-Breaking questions to come up with a winner. Unfortunately, a number of you either didn’t answer that question or misinterpreted it. The NL West had the most wins, 160. The NL East had the least wins, 118.

Runners-Up (Dodgers in six but lost out on the Tie-Breaker questions): Jeff Friedman, Larry Longenecker, Rob Higdon, Todd Endo, Nicholas Lamanna, Andrew & Noah Cate, Dawn Wilson, Ben Senturia, Bill Barnwell

The Winner is Nick Nyhart who had the Dodgers in six and got one of the two Tie-Breaker questions correct.

Contest #IV: What will be the main takeaways from having a 60-game, or shorter, season?

Lots of terrific submissions (see an early list of Your Predictions). I’ve promised that this Contest would be settled by crowd sourcing from Contest participants. So I’ve picked five of the more than 50 possibilities and ask that you send me your choice for the Winner.

Which ONE of the following five submissions, in your view, should be the main takeaway from the shortened season?

  1. NL Designated Hitter is a good idea that should be permanently adopted.
  2. Play without fans sucks/Fans matter.
  3. They should try the runner on second rule in extra innings during the 162 games season but not in the playoffs.
  4. The 2020 season will forever have an asterisk.
  5. Spouses of baseball fans will not be as aggravated as usual because the season is shorter.

Please send me your answer in an email: Samesty84@gmail.com or put it in the Comment section of this post by Sunday, Nov. 8., and I’ll post the Winner shortly thereafter, tho it may be hard as a number of you had similar potential take-aways.

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The Qayaq Finds Its Home: Part IV

06 Tuesday Oct 2020

Posted by in Escapes and Pleasures

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As some of you may have read in earlier posts on this website, thirteen months ago on a trip to Greenland I purchased a 65 inch model kayak replica entitled Qayag (which is the name of the traditional Inuit sealskin hunting boat). It had been created more than 50 years ago by an artist, Jesse Thorn, who is no longer alive.

(If you missed the first Parts of this saga, and you have time on your hands, see these two posts – A Qayaq (Kayak) Saga and Continuing the Saga of the Kayak – for the details of its disputed’ purchase: Ellen had told me, “Don’t. Even.­­­­ Consider. It.” Then, it took almost seven months to get it home, unpacked, and into house.

Now, after another extended period, the Qayag has finally found its resting place.

As you will see in the picture below, it now ‘floats’ out from the wall of our living room (where we display some of the crafts gathered over the years from our many trips). It is on the wall, below one of our stained glass windows created by a friend 50 years ago.

We never thought it would take so long for the Qayag to settle on its final resting place. Actually, Ellen had warned me that we didn’t really have room for it, and it would overwhelm any place we tried to put it in our house. I had three possible places for it and several back up plans if those didn’t work.

None of my carefully considered placements made Ellen, the Qayaq, or me very happy.

So we called upon Vincent Sagart, the wonderful designer who has had such a significant influence on many rooms in our house. He immediately saw where it wanted to go and over the next month or so figured out how to get it there.

It took another two months to get it there successfully. COVID-19 caused interruptions, including time for a metal worker to fashion an 11 by 17 inch platform on which it could rest, Petr to affix it to the wall, and Vincent to be satisfied with the exact placement. He had Petr reverse the platform and then reattach it to the wall.

But as the Little Prince has taught us, “It’s the time you spend for your ‘Qayaq’ that makes your Qayaq so important.”

And I’m happy to write that Ellen and I have survived this 13-month effort and to report that Ellen readily agreed to use her photographic skills so MillersTime readers can see how happy the Qayaq is in its new home. Indeed, Ellen not only approves of its placement, she readily says she likes it.

For me, I’m beyond thrilled as every time I pass anywhere near the living room, which is easily 20 times a day, I look at it and appreciate this truly wonderful treasure.

If you’re ever in DC, and if we are allowed to be together, you are invited to come visit the Qayag.

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