04/23/24
October 03, 2006
World Series Confidence Pool!: If George Plimpton were alive today, he would join the SportsFilter World Series Confidence Pool and write a hilarious, first-hand account of his misadenventures of being a last-string confidence pooler, matching wits (and numbers) with us. However, he's dead, but you should join our pool anyway. Maybe you can be the one to "blog" about your hilarious misadventures of being a last-string confidence pooler.
I'm in too. We're in for a very low scoring affair this time around, what with the 1 point per win.
posted by NoMich at 10:42 AM on October 03, 2006
One point per series win or one point per game win?
posted by apoch at 10:43 AM on October 03, 2006
A pool so nice, I'm in it twice. (Is that legal? If not, kill the head and leave the heart.)
posted by BullpenPro at 11:13 AM on October 03, 2006
I'm in. It should be one point per win. You might need a tie-breaker, even with that.
posted by grum@work at 11:35 AM on October 03, 2006
I'm in even though I don't pay attention to baseball anymore.... Just tune into ESPN and it was good to see Peter Gammons back though.
posted by scully at 11:55 AM on October 03, 2006
I'm deeply committed.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:58 AM on October 03, 2006
I'm down like a clown Charlie Brown.
posted by HATER 187 at 01:07 PM on October 03, 2006
I'm in.
posted by jerseygirl at 01:58 PM on October 03, 2006
What's this baseball thing I keep hearing about? It's like cricket, right? In that case, I'm in, too.
posted by owlhouse at 02:49 PM on October 03, 2006
jerseygirl: our picks are almost exactly opposite, except we both bag on the Mets.
posted by dusted at 02:55 PM on October 03, 2006
I will give it a try. Whats this about needing soap on a rope terrapin?
posted by jojomfd1 at 03:16 PM on October 03, 2006
Hmm, no Red Sox this year. Shame.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 03:38 PM on October 03, 2006
When did you come out of the coma, yym?
posted by jerseygirl at 03:46 PM on October 03, 2006
Terrapin has a purty mouth.
posted by MrFrisby at 03:53 PM on October 03, 2006
Well, I tried to oh so subtley nudge this thread into a George Plimpton direction, but you inmates of a hillbilly prison just had to take your own base direction. Didn't you? Well, on the bright side, the mere mention of dropping soap in the shower brought YYM out of his coma.
posted by NoMich at 04:46 PM on October 03, 2006
I'm in
posted by cabuki at 05:07 PM on October 03, 2006
Welcome to SpoFi, Cabuki
posted by jerseygirl at 05:37 PM on October 03, 2006
I vote Weedy for best smack talk.
posted by tron7 at 05:53 PM on October 03, 2006
I am in.
posted by skydivemom at 05:57 PM on October 03, 2006
Hey, games are happening now. How come people have until Thursday night to sign up?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:04 PM on October 03, 2006
Well, I tried to oh so subtley nudge this thread into a George Plimpton direction well, this is kinda sorta Plimptonesque.
posted by goddam at 01:07 AM on October 04, 2006
So, when do we see points? Only after each round is complete?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:07 AM on October 04, 2006
Booya! Late, but in. Story of my life. Well, the late part, anyway.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 07:11 AM on October 04, 2006
Thanks goddam. My faith in you hillbilly prisoners is restored. l_l_b: Since the pool was only created yesterday, DrJohn felt that sign-ups should be open as long as possible to get stragglers in.
posted by NoMich at 07:42 AM on October 04, 2006
I'm in. Straggler present and accounted for. Now if I only knew what I was doing...
posted by yzelda4045 at 07:52 AM on October 04, 2006
So, when do we see points? As soon as registration is complete, the pool admin(s) can enter game results, and points will be seen.
posted by qbert72 at 07:56 AM on October 04, 2006
Im in. Is there a way to see other member's picks? Forgive me, i'm new here.
posted by louisville_slugger at 08:02 AM on October 04, 2006
If you go to the pool's home page, all participants are listed on the right, and are linked to their picks. There is also this all-in-one table, which I guess I shoud link to somewhere when the pool allows viewing the picks before the deadline.
posted by qbert72 at 08:55 AM on October 04, 2006
Thanks q
posted by louisville_slugger at 09:09 AM on October 04, 2006
We were running a little late, so I set the deadline as tomorrow to actually give people a chance to sign up. Sure, some games will have been played, but nothing too decisive will have been determined. Also, I can't enter scores until the deadline passes... so, late Thursday night. Or early Friday morning.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 11:16 AM on October 04, 2006
The cutoff should have been after last night, as some teams will have played two games after tonight, and that's a BIG advantage in determining the winner of the series.
posted by grum@work at 03:30 PM on October 04, 2006
Yeah... uh... can we edit picks? Thanks to the pool admins for correcting my blatant attempt to cheat. I don't know what came over me. I blame October. Next thing you know I'll be swatting at gloves trying to tag me.
posted by BullpenPro at 04:12 PM on October 04, 2006
Everything is horrible now! (please baby Jesus, stop Oakland from winning anymore games...)
posted by chris2sy at 06:07 PM on October 04, 2006
What grum said.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:16 PM on October 04, 2006
Its like buying a lottery ticket halfway into the drawing.
posted by jerseygirl at 08:39 PM on October 04, 2006
There I was, in front of the computer early on a Tuesday morning. I had a few hours to kill before I went off to work and I decided to check in on my prognostication skills on a sport I’d never seen, the mythical icicle football league of Greater Canada. To my disappointment the latest standings had not been yet posted. However, there was a glimmer of prognostication hope to be had. There before my lazy left eye, the right one was watching a cat, was a MLB confidence pool! Hastily I clicked on the link. The sudden movement startled the cat, which took off for the basement, dragging another one along in its dust. I made my picks. Picked a long shot first, and the favorite second. Down the line I picked my teams, a grim determined prognostication look on my face. The TV played an Imodium AD commercial in the background. That night I anxiously followed the results. Shock followed by dismay followed by lots of cursing as all my prognostications experienced eviscerations at the cruel hands of reality. With only the first night of games over I went back to the den of my despair, the SpoFi locker room. There I discovered the contest was still open to editing. Internally the debate raged between despair and glee, remorse and conscious until finally a dark horse candidate emerged! Whiskey won in faceslide off my keyboard, onto the ground. When the dump truck driving over my head that masqueraded as a beeping alarm clock finally stirred me, I knew I had no choice. I had to accept my previous picks and hope for the best, or at least plan to stop by the drive through window of the local party store.
posted by apoch at 09:01 PM on October 04, 2006
Sorry guys; grum is right about the deadline. Now that we're actually in that overlap time, it seems like far too much time. Unfortunately I don't think I can easily change it now. Is that possible, Q?
posted by DrJohnEvans at 09:39 PM on October 04, 2006
I changed it in the console. You've got five minutes left to panic.
posted by qbert72 at 09:47 PM on October 04, 2006
And I also entered the results up to now, so we've got standings now.
posted by qbert72 at 10:06 PM on October 04, 2006
Woohoo! Merci.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 12:54 AM on October 05, 2006
One team down. Glad I picked them a little differently in here then in the LDS pick em post.
posted by jojomfd1 at 07:10 PM on October 06, 2006
I have a feeling I screwed up the strategy for a confidence pool pretty badly. Oy vey. Putting the A's last is coming back to bite me pretty hard.
posted by apoch at 07:23 PM on October 06, 2006
What is the best strategy? Does the winner typically hedge its bets or would it do an 8-1, 7-2, 6-3, 5-4 type deal? Like if you give the Yankees an 8 should you give the Tigers a 1 or would the Mets being a 7 mean the Dodgers should be a 2? Or do you just mix it all up? Does it really matter?
posted by SummersEve at 05:47 AM on October 07, 2006
After thinking back about it makes sense (to me) to do it this way: 7&8: The two teams who you think will meet in the world series. They both will have at least 6 wins. 5&6: Losers of the LCS at least 3 wins 1-4: Losers of the LDS no more than 2 wins This maximizes points, if you are right about who wins each series. Of course, I didn't do it that way.
posted by apoch at 07:11 AM on October 07, 2006
That's how I picked mine. I think the real strategy is how you rank 1-6, meaning how far they can push a series before going out. I need a yankee comeback really bad.
posted by louisville_slugger at 07:30 AM on October 07, 2006
Someone needs to update the standings. Detroit doesn't even have a win yet...
posted by grum@work at 10:14 AM on October 07, 2006
I just entered the latest results, but I'm not taking care of it any longer. The pool creator can distribute the admin address to volunteers if he needs help.
posted by qbert72 at 11:28 AM on October 07, 2006
DrJohn gave me the pool's admin URL, so I'll take care of the updating. Thanks q!
posted by NoMich at 11:42 AM on October 07, 2006
WTF? I'm in third???
posted by mkn at 11:53 AM on October 07, 2006
Didn't mean to sound rude earlier, it's just that I will be very busy all of October, so you can't count on me for updates. Besides, the idea behind Project Confidence is to make the update task as small as possible and distribute it among volunteers. I must confess I miss grum and MrFrisby's usual statistical analysis of the picks. What are the SpoFi collective's picks? Who are farthest from the average pick?
posted by qbert72 at 12:22 PM on October 07, 2006
SpoFi Collective (rank - team, average pick): 8 - New York Yankees, 6.666 7 - Minnesota Twins, 4.916 6 - Los Angeles Dodgers, 4.777 5 - New York Mets, 4.5 4 - Oakland Athletics, 4.194 3 - St Louis Cardinals, 3.888 2 - San Diego Padres, 3.861 1 - Detroit Tigers, 3.194
posted by MrFrisby at 01:51 PM on October 07, 2006
Only three people have picked the Tigers to go all the way. I really hope some people will regret not doing that.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 02:01 PM on October 07, 2006
Oof. Yankees bow out in 4. Chances of winning = gone (even though I didn't have them making the WS) The only enjoyable thing about that is listening to the usually pro-Yankee broadcast crew turn on the Yankee organization like a bunch of hyenas.
posted by grum@work at 06:29 PM on October 07, 2006
Updated standings from today's (Saturday) SD/StL and Det/NYY scores.
posted by NoMich at 08:02 PM on October 07, 2006
Damn Yankee's. There is another reason to hate them now!
posted by jojomfd1 at 10:31 PM on October 07, 2006
Last place no more!
posted by jerseygirl at 10:32 PM on October 07, 2006
By the way, thanks for taking care of the updates NoMich.
posted by jojomfd1 at 10:33 PM on October 07, 2006
The standings are now completely updated.
posted by NoMich at 08:46 AM on October 08, 2006
NoMich (and Q), you rock. I completely forgot to send you an email to ask you to update the standings while I was out of town for Thanksgiving. D'oh!
posted by DrJohnEvans at 05:42 PM on October 08, 2006
Can we downdate the standings? Or maybe undate them?
posted by SummersEve at 07:12 PM on October 08, 2006
Updated standings through the Division Championship Series. Top 10: mbd1 - 81 mkn - 78 dusted - 77 Folkways - 76 The Barrie Platypuses - 72 MrFrisby - 72 NoMich - 70 tselson - 69 louisville_slugger - 69 Ying Yang Mafia - 66 Costanza Standings: Yukon - 41 gspm - 42 trox - 43 DrJohnEvans - 43 Eve o' Summer - 43 jerseygirl - 43
posted by NoMich at 10:43 PM on October 08, 2006
I think the only way I can beat mdb1 is to have the Tigers win a couple... but then mkn would benefit. Not that it matters to me: I'll take a trip to the World Series for the A's over a pool win, ohhhhh every time.
posted by dusted at 11:57 PM on October 08, 2006
I can't see my self winning this thing unless both the Tigers and the Mets move on in sweeps. They are the only thing keeping me alive, since I gave only one point to Oakland and three to St. Louis.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:15 AM on October 09, 2006
I've only got my picks 1, 2, 4 and 5 left. There's only one way to go for me, and it's down.
posted by qbert72 at 01:05 PM on October 09, 2006
Only the A's can save me from Costanza-land. My 7-, 6-, and 5-point teams have been eliminated. Some quick statistical number crunching says that Folkways has the best chance of being the leader at the end of the league championship series.
posted by grum@work at 01:55 PM on October 09, 2006
There's only one way to go for me, and it's down. That sounds oddly like a Dio song.
posted by NoMich at 02:15 PM on October 09, 2006
Grum, I think you're safe from Costanza-land. Me, jerseygirl, gspm, trox and Yukon all lost our 5-,6-,7-, and 8-point picks. But we all have a different bottom 4. Starting with the 4 point pick down to the 1: Yukon: A's, Mets, Tigers, Cardinals gspm: Mets, Tigers, A's, Cardinals Summers: A's, Cardinals, Tigers, Mets jersey: Tigers, Cardinals, Mets, A's Trox: Mets, A's, Tigers, Cardinals Never before have I spent so much time evaluating last place. Good luck to the rest of the clowns.
posted by SummersEve at 06:52 PM on October 09, 2006
Thanks Grumdie for the vote of confidence , but I fear riding on the back of Pokie may slow me down a bit and the Block-Heads will block my path to sucess.
posted by Folkways at 07:30 PM on October 09, 2006
I hate this game.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:32 AM on October 10, 2006
I'm pretty sure being 0-4 puts me into the Constanza running. Stupid fucking baseball.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 10:50 AM on October 10, 2006
There's no way that you'll be able to reach the bottom (or would that be "top"?) 3, Weedy.
posted by NoMich at 12:34 PM on October 10, 2006
All the cool kids want to be losers.
posted by jerseygirl at 01:06 PM on October 10, 2006
Updated with Game 1 of the ALCS.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 10:08 AM on October 11, 2006
heeh. I am so amused that I'm winning this. I honestly couldn't tell you what division half of these teams are in.
posted by mkn at 09:02 PM on October 11, 2006
So how about those Tigers, hey? We collectively blew it.
posted by qbert72 at 07:17 AM on October 12, 2006
Not just in, but so in.