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A quarter-century in the making

Before the Commish gets to the results, he'd like to point out the callsign which impressed him the most this year was "Phillies 80-08."  Everybody probably has a good idea of what this particular BU'er was going after and that is the Phillies only other World Series Championship came in 1980.  Well, they did have a shot back in 1993 but, even if they had won, "Phillies 80-93-08" doesn't quite roll off the tongue like the original.  In any event, the Commish so likes the Phillies 80-08 callsign that he now plans to find a piece of apparel already embroidered with that slogan or have something custom made.

The second admin point the Commish needs to make is that he appreciates everyone's patience while waiting for these results to be posted.  But that wait was a drop in the bucket compared to how long the City of Brotherly Love has been waiting to hold another victory parade on Broad Street.  Consider the last time Philadelphia won a major professional sport championship was with their 1983 76'ers and that makes for a 25-year suspension of festivities.  Not done waiting yet, the delay continued when rain pushed back the start of Game 3 to the point that two World Series games were actually played on the same day. Still not done yet, play was suspended in Game 5 and wasn't restarted until two days later.  Yeah, even though half of the BU8 entries correctly had the Phillies as winners, it was starting to look like we weren't going to get this thing done until some time after the election.

But it did get done.  And it was the Phillies who got it done.  And it was seven BU'ers who ended the contest with perfect scores, having correctly predicted the outcome of each one of the seven playoff series match-ups.  That said, as is the case with the World Series itself, there can only be one winner.

Back-to-Back

Because we had so many entries with perfect finishes, we had to crack the glass on the tie-breaker rule of coming closest to predicting total runs scored in the final game played.  With that in mind, let's go back to Game 5 which was conducted over a three-day span. 

Play started on Monday and the Phils quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning.  Then the shaky weather started to turn ugly.  In the fourth, the Rays got one back.  Then the ugly weather turned miserable.  In the sixth, the Rays got another back to tie the game at two apiece.  Before the Phillies came to bat in the bottom of the sixth, play was suspended.  Tuesday came and went, well, came and was washed out.  Play resumed on Wednesday and, in their first at bat in the sixth, the Phils get a run to go up again.  Rays get it back in their half of the seventh and the Phils went back into the lead in their half of the seventh.  Nine outs later, pandemonium erupts at Citizen Ball Park, final score: Philadelphia Phillies 4 - Tampa Bay Rays 3.

Of the seven BU'ers who were contending for the win, only one had correctly predicted seven runs to be scored in the final game.  That BU"er was CaptainTrips.  Remember this guy?  Well, you should.  He's the same CaptainTrips who won BaseballUnlimited 2007.  So, although it took the Phillies nearly three decades to get their second big win, it only took CaptainTrips twelve months to get his. 

Fat Lady Sings

Okay, BaseballUnlimited 2008 is done.  Congrats to CaptainTrips -- he's taking home $115 for his second-consecutive win, a cash prize which is even bigger than what he hauled in last year.  And thanks to everyone who participated in BU08.  When you get your 2009 calendar, be sure to jot a note in the month of October that this contest will once again be up and running.

And here's hoping the new best callsign will be "Phillies 80-08-09."