Congratulations to Warren Morris of Orange, CA for becoming our second two-time winner as he rallied to finish four points ahead of Matthew Cataldo of Fontana, CA and eleven points ahead of, first time player, Paul Leoncavallo of Boston.

Warren first took the lead on July 8th and led most of the way for the rest of the season. He held an eighteen point lead on Labor Day. Warren lost the lead three times to four different people but he was never more than four points behind or lower than third place in the player standings. This is Warren's 32nd year in the game since he first entered in 1978. He won the game in 1985 and has finished fifth twice. Warren was ninth last season and his son, Pat, won in 2009. Warren is also one of four former members of the Rockwell International Space Shuttle Contracts and Pricing group to win the game. The others are Bob Thomas (164t) who won in 1982, Tony Chase (dec) in 1986 and Al Green (111) in 1995.

Rick Higgins (135) of Reynoldsville, OH was our first two-time champ, winning in 1976 and 1983.

The player standings were run 50 times this season. There were twelve different leaders and seventeen lead changes. Warren was the leader 23 times.

Early leaders included Matthew Cataldo (2), Nancy Jo Michael (55) and Quinn Campuzano (154). Matthew was the leader when the spreadsheet was first computed in late April. Playing partners, Tony John (25) and Jamie Gehrke (52), both of Kansas City, each held the lead in late May. Jamie would remain in contention though June trading the lead with, first Pete Palmer (5) and then Dave Hatfield (101). First time player, Chad Sparling (28) took the lead on July 1st and held it until Warren moved in front on July 8th. Warren retained the lead, except for three brief interruptions. Randy Nichols (61) led in early August, fellow Buckeye and game founder, Nelson Slagle (6) led for a week in mid-August while both Alexis Hauck (4) and Matthew Cataldo (2) led briefly in late September.

Division Leaders: There were 75 perfect division level predictions this year, nearly all of them in the AL West (67). AJ Julian (36), Ron Mize (45), Chuck Averill (72) and Terry Bushay (75) each managed to get two divisions correct. Matthew Cataldo (2), Caleb Whitaker (32) and Chris Smith (112) each made the top ten in three divisions while 37 others (not all listed) were among the top 10 in two divisions. Here is the listing of this year's top ten predictors including the most common and average scores for each division:

Tie-Breaker: The tie-breaker represents the points accumulated by each players projected division winners. Caleb Whitaker (32) and Dirk Soeterik (156) had the low tiebreaker with 21.0 points, each missing on the Redsox, Cardinals and Giants.

CumStats: Josh Sinnett, of Bellingham, WA is our new CumStat leader with an eight year average of 19.91% and a 2.2 point lead over new three year player, Rafael Gonzalez, of Huntington Beach, CA and a 3.3 point lead Brian Greiving of Parker, CO. Gerry Hamilton, of Trinidad, CA remains the top veteran player with a 34 year average of 28.99% and a 2.1 point lead over the Player Consensus and a 5.1 point lead over Nelson Slagle of Westminster, CA. Below is a list of the top ten players in each group:

Correspondence: This year I heard from 28 players during the season and I even heard from a couple of past players that are no longer in the game. I want to give a special thanks to Brent, Dave and Gail for the their thoughtful responses.

Now for the really tough part: If you have stayed with me this far, you might be interested in the rest of it. Four years ago I first expressed a need to be moving on but then found a way of rekindling my interest in the game and decided to stay with it for a few more years. Well it seems that I have once again hit the wall and this time it feels terminal. My problem is occurring on several levels. First of all I've lost touch with the game as would be apparent by my recent performance. Also there isn't a great deal of interactive return to sustain my interest during the season.

More importantly there is a growing problem with the software. As it turns out my eleven year old operating system has been left behind on the internet highway and I no longer have access to many of the the sports networks like CBS and ESPN. I can log in but all that I see is black screens and they don't do me much good. My own OpSys can easily be upgraded but it comes with a heavy penalty that I am not willing to accept. The new OpSys would not be compatible with any of the applications that I am currently using and they would have to be replaced. Even if I wanted to upgrade these applications I am simply not interested in relearning any new applications. I'm simply too old to be starting over and what guarantee is there that it won't happen again a couple of years down the road.

So here's the deal. I will not be continuing with our game for very much longer. In the interim I am seeking someone, anyone who might be interested in assuming responsibility for maintaining the annual baseball predictions. This would include maintaining a mailing list, building a set of spreadsheets, setting up a web site and maintaining the status of the game on a regular basis during the season. Anyone interested in stepping up would need to have a working knowledge of a good spreadsheet application, an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) application for preparing web pages and access to a web site. For anyone who is a member of the United Leagues, Atticus would probably give you access to the existing site.

I am interested in hearing from anyone that has anything to offer in regard to this project, even if you are not willing to take it on yourself - your comments, your questions, your suggestions, anything that you might have to offer. For those that might be interested I am willing to share any/all of my spreadsheets/database plus any knowledge that would be helpful in running the game and I am willing to work with that person until their site and game are up and running. There is one other option and I will discuss that option with anyone who might be interested in where this game is ultimately headed.

Thanks and keep in touch,

Gerry Hamilton
Trinidad, CA
October 10, 2011
ggh1@suddenlink.net
http://bbpredicts.unitedleagues.net/