Announcing A Contest for All Loyal Readers

This is a first for this Blog.  The Grandstander is using the occasion of Opening Day of the baseball season to announce a contest that I hope will be fun for all.  The name of the contest is....

"THE 10,000th WIN CONTEST"

As out favorite baseball team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, embark upon the 2013 season this afternoon, the franchise, according to www.baseball-reference.com, has recorded 9,961 victories.  That means that with their 39th win in 2013 the Pirates will become only the sixth franchise in Major League history to reach that victory plateau. 

You would think that someone in the Pirates marketing / public relations department would be beating the drums over this, but, no, they have chosen to pretty much ignore this, if they are even aware of it at all.  The Grandstander, however, is not going to let this pass.  Thus, The 10,000th Win Contest.  It costs nothing to enter.  This truly is for amusement purposes only.

The rules are simple:

• Predict the game in which the Pirates will win their 10,000th game, or their 39th win of the season.  You do not have to state the date of the game or the opponent.  Just state something along the lines of "the Pirates will get their 39th win in the 60th (or 85th or 95th) game of the season".  Simple, right?

Of course, there will no doubt be ties, so the tiebreakers will be as follows:

• First tiebreaker:  Who will be the winning pitcher for the Pirates in the game?
• Second tiebreaker: What Pirate will record the Pirates first hit in the game?
• Third tiebreaker: What Pirate will hit the Pirates first home run in the game?
• Fourth tiebreaker: How many hits will the Pirates record in the game?

Please email your entries to me at rfsmms@verizon.net. I will record them all, track the contest, and report progress of the contest as the magic 39th victory approaches.  You have until April 15 to get your entries in to me.

Every contest should have a prize, right?  At this point, the only prize we know of for certain is that the winner will be the respect and admiration of all Grandstand readers and Facebook Pirate Chat members.  I will consider another prize in the days ahead, so long as it doesn't cost me a lot of money.  So far, though, only "bragging rights" are up for grabs.

My thanks go out to friend, SABR member, and Pirate Chat Founder Jim Haller who is the one who pointed out in the first place that the Pirates were on the brink of their 10,000th victory.   If there was a trophy for this contest, it would be called the "Jim Haller Trophy".

Thank you and get those entries in the email to me as soon as possible!!