The Man From Nantucket

by stonewalter

There once was a man from Nantucket

Whose team was so bad he said, "suck it! " 

He then followed the Twins 

They piled up the wins 

He then changed his name to Puckett.

©Copyright 2013 stonwalter

Gift Card Sweepstakes After 121 Games

A little  past the 2/3 mark on the season and things have tightened up a bit in the standings for the two free $25 WIS Gift Cards. The numbers should explain themselves. The final number is the ranking at the 1/3 mark indicating a change since the last post. The important thing is that any of these 10 teams could still win if they get hot. Good luck the rest of the way.

TEAM                    OWNER                SEASON       SEASON         DIFFERENTIAL

                                                                   20                   21

Jacksonville         wrecks                         .370              .529                     + .159   (2)

Charleston            rookie30000                .389              .512                     + .123   (1)

New York (AL)      tah3306                     .377               .496                       + .119   (4)

Cincinnati             bbwinksdaddy             .346              .463                      + .117   (3)

Helena                  psychoch                    .444               .455                       + .011   (7)

Pittsburgh           ParrishM                     .469               .471                       + .002   (8)

Las Vegas            ukwildcats                   .451               .430                      - .021   (6)

El Paso                brentcnb                     .543               .504                        - .039   (9)

Salem                    kelly_mccann              .519              .455                       - .064   (5)

Chicago (NL)      jibe717                        .488               .471                      - .117   (10)

The Davis Cup

We promised a second half contest for a $25 WIS Gift Card that would be fun and unique. It will certainly be unique to HBD. Whether or not it is fun will be entirely up to you.

The Davis Cup

Hey, guess what? We're going to have a poetry contest.

A WHAT???????

A poetry contest. Ain't you cultured enough to read or rite poetry, son? Sure you are. The great thing is that even if you don't think of yourself as a poet--everybody can write poetry. It's like walking. Just put one word in front of the other. Before you know it--you've got a poem.

Here are just a few of the forms you are welcome to try:

• Couplet
• Haiku
• Sonnet
• Limerick
• Regular ol' rhyming poem in stanzas 'n everything
• Free verse (Free form)

And in case that doesn't give you enough ideas here's a whole list of poetic forms.

These will be baseball poems. Poems about the game we all know and love. Here are a few ideas:

• Ode to a Major Leaguer you love(d). 
• Poem about a great or awful play you made in Little League. 
• Fantasy baseball. 
• Love sonnet to your favorite HBD player. 
• Haiku about your least favorite HBD owner.
• Parody of Casey At The Bat or some other famous poem.

Here's what you need to know:

1. Your poem must be baseball themed.
2. Any form you choose.
3. Make it serious. Make it funny. Make it moving. Make it a farce. Just do your best and that will be good enough for this contest.
4. Maximum Limits: 300 words, 24 lines.
5. Work must be original. No plagiarism. 
6. All Entries must have a title
7. All entries will be published on The Crash Pad.
8. Entries must be submitted to sermonauthor by sitemail no later than Tuesday, December 4 at 11:59 PM, Pacific time.
9. Entries will be voted on by the owners of Crash Davis.
10. Winner receives a $25 WIS Gift Card and the undying admiration of the owners and honorary  title of Crash Davis Poet Laureate.

The key here is to have fun. Some of you have already told yourselves, "I don't write poetry." Hey, everyone has a poem in them. The trick is whether you are willing to take the time to unlock your inner Poe, Frost or Ogden Nash. 

Feel free to drop a line with any questions. I hope everyone will give this a shot.

You may recall in our recruiting drive for Season 21 we offered all owners new to Crash Davis--those who were not with us last season--2 chances to win a Free $25 WIS Gift Card courtesy of the generous CD owners who contributed to the cause. *

The cards will go to the two new owners who guide their clubs to the best improvement in winning percentage based on their franchise's record last season.**

There are 10 clubs competing for the cards. As we have just passed the 1/3 mark of the season it seems like a perfect place to give an update on the contest with Charleston and Jacksonville leading the charge so far. But it's a long season and a lot can happen in the final 2/3 of the season.

Good luck to all!





TEAM                    OWNER                SEASON       SEASON         DIFFERENTIAL
                                                                   20                   21

Charleston rookie30000 .389             .564                      + .175

Jacksonville wrecks .370             .545                     + .175

Cincinnati bbwinksdaddy .346             .509                      + .163

New York (AL) tah3306 .377              .509                      + .132

Salem kelly_mccann .519             .582                      + .063

Las Vegas ukwildcats .451              .491                      + .040

Helena                 psychoch .444              .473                      + .029

Pittsburgh           ParrishM .469              .473                      + .004

El Paso               brentcnb .543              .509                       - .034

Chicago (NL)      jibe717 .488              .382                      - .106

*Actually, there were 3 cards total. But 1 is being used in a league-wide contest that will be announced later and begin over the All Star Break.

**Ties will be broken using the same tiebreaker rules HBD employs.

For those of us pondering the upcoming free agent market, wondering will we land the ace of our dreams or the CF who is the very last piece of the championship puzzle, we have the prudent words of Yankee legend Willie Randolph to ponder:

"Aint no sense worrying about things you got no control over . . . . 'cause if you got no control over 'em . . . aint no sense worrying. And aint no sense worrying about things you got control over . . . 'cause if you got control over 'em . . . aint no sense worrying."

If only our Congress made this much sense . . .

sermonauthor 

This should be of particular interest to all NEW OWNERS in Crash Davis. As you know we offered a chance to win 3 free seasons to come give us a chance at The New Crash Davis™ . To be eligible you have to be completely new to this world. Owners who left after last season and then returned are owed a great debt of gratitude—but they are not eligible for the prizes.

Eligible owners:

tah3306   (61-101   .377)

kelly_mccann   (84-78   .519)

bbwinksdaddy   (56-106   .346)

jibe717   (79-83   .488)

ParrishM   (76-86   .469)

rookie30000   (63-99   .389)

wrecks   (60-102   .370)

brentcnb   (88-74   .543)

ukwildcats   (73-89   .451)

psychoch   (72-90   .444)

I originally thought there would be 12 new owners, then 11. But two more previous owners returned so the odds of winning are reduced even further than originally thought. 

The 10 owners are listed above. To the right of each name is their franchise's won/loss record for last season along with its winning percentage. 

The contest is a simple one. The top 2 teams with the most improved winning percentage based on Season 20 will each win a $25 WhatIfSports Gift Card. The following are tiebreakers:

1. The team with the FEWEST wins in Season 20 as, theoretically they had a worse team to ride to an improved record.

2. The team with the best win/loss record in Season 21.

3.  Coin flip.


Wa-a-a-a-a-a-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-t just a damn minute, Mister Commish! You said their were 3 WIS Gift Cards to distribute. What's up with that?

So I did . . . so I did . . . I'm setting the third $25 WIS Gift Card aside and saving it for a contest the whole of Crash Davis will be eligible for. This contest will be announced during the All Star Game. So stay tuned for the excitement. Meantime, if I left anyone off the list please send a TC or sitemail. We'll do periodic updates on the list above to see who is currently in position to win the gift cards

sermonauthor

Welcome to The Crash Pad, the new blog home of the WhatIfSports HBD world now known as Crash Davis. I thought it might be instructive to post the results for the final round vote of our world's new name as they have yet to be revealed.

If you'll recall, when the deadline came we had a dead heat. For the sake of fairness the tied nominees (Crash Davis and Pedro Cerrano) were not revealed. We extended the voting six extra hours which brought in a third vote for The Boys of Summer and a fifth and deciding vote for the legendary Crash Davis of Bull Durham fame.

We came this close to honoring this guy:

Pedro Cerrano from Major League

Come to think of it . . . . that wouldn't have been too bad at all. We had many excellent nominees and three great finalists.
                                                                                                           

—sermonauthor