Back in the winter, I had a plan.  I’d been playing the YNOTs on the Montreal board for a while and thought it might be a good addition to Cardinal Nation.  So I checked with the posters there (figured it was “their” game, so I didn’t want to just steal it) and brought it to the board in time for Opening Day 2002.  I took the schedule and planned the 25 series that I would do games for.

 

                Obviously I had underestimated the following the game would have.  After three series, I knew that I faced cyber-lynching if I didn’t post questions for a series.  Showing the rugged determination of the board, all but one series (the Milwaukee series after the passing of Darryl Kile) were played and enjoyed.

 

                So, for the statistically-inclined, I bring you the wrapup of the 2002 YNOT season.  I apologize in advance if I get any pronouns wrong.  (After getting busted on Swampturkey earlier in the year, I’ve been paranoid about it!)

 

                Cal Ripken Award—There were 121 different posters who played at least one YNOT this year.  Only 1 can claim he posted in 51.  That’s 0.83% of all the posters.  MadHungo was there from the beginning and never let up.  A show of determination that is all-too-appropriate for this baseball season.

 

                Shooting Stars—Like flashes across the skies, three posters played only one time, but left their mark nonetheless.  Maybe not coincidentally, all three were fans of the visiting team.  Pierre (Game 8, Montreal), Gomez (36, Montreal) and brian rodgers (39, Philadelphia) all ended the season with winning percentages of 1.000.

 

                Flameouts—Then there was the opposite of the shooting stars.  Both Wheeling Eagle (Game 22, Kansas City) and old style (51, Milwaukee) graced the playing field once, but never wanted to try again.  Old style does get an asterisk since he played only the last game of the year.

 

                Sidd Finch Award—He came out of nowhere, and immediately showed talent at the YNOT.  Then, as suddenly as he appeared, he vanished.  STL FANATIC won his first game, posted a double-digit score his second, and won his third……and then was never seen again in the YNOT.  Myth or legend?  You decide.

 

                New York Yankees Award—This is the award given to the poster with the most wins over the season.  With wins in games 20 (Kansas City), 23 (Anaheim), 41 (Philadelphia) and 50 (Arizona), our beloved moderator Gagliano takes home the hardware.  Next highest: Nighthawk, with 3.

 

                Detroit Tigers Award—Given to the poster with the most losses this year.  Swampturkey’s habit of jinxing the other team by selecting them to win the series was fairly effective, however, it helped her land 4 losses.  In games 3 (Milwaukee), 13 (Chicago—tied for last), 15 (Houston) and 33 (Chicago), Swampturkey wound up with the lowest score.  Whether tired of losing or other reasons, after her last loss she only played one more game.

 

                Repeaters—It took us until the second half of the season before any poster went back-to-back, but we wound up with it happening three times this year.  Kappy (games 32-33) led it off, followed by costrike (37-38) and leftfield (46-47).

 

                The Top 5—Entries so good, they deserve to be listed again.

1.        MadHungo 28 (Game 26—San Diego)

2.        Amberelise 23 (Game 33—Chicago)

3.        Tulcard 23 (Game 51—Milwaukee)

4.        bschulte 22 (Game 22—Kansas City)

5.        Gagliano 21 (Game 23—Anaheim)

 

The Original Series—Ten posters played the first ever Cardinal YNOT.  In order of finish (with total number of games played following): cardinalsfan! (40), Cardinal70 (49), SkinnyPimp (33), Kodiak (50), M Y T H (47), Gagliano (49), MadHungo (51), BigMotDaddy66 (36), Sergev (4), and leftfield (42).  Ironic that our eventual overall champ lost the first one, huh?

 

Tampa Bay Award—Only one poster wound up losing back-to-back games.  cardinalsfan_22 wound up not only losing two in a row, but 3 in a six game span.  And still he wound up with a 9.6 average over 14 games, which would have placed third overall if he’d been eligible.

 

Mark Grace Award—He labored through 50 YNOTs.  Never good enough to win, never bad enough to lose.  Finally, on the last YNOT of the year, Tulcard broke through for a victory.

 

Starting Lineup—After a few games, people tended to refer to their finish as “batting cleanup” or “on the bench.”  So I started listing out the results in that manner.  The number of times eligible posters finished in the top 9:

 

                                Kodiak 27

                                MadHungo 22

                                Nighthawk 21

                                Gagliano 20

                                Cardinal70 18

                                leftfield 18

                                Kappy 17

                        Tulcard 15

                                cardinalsfan! 14

                                BigMotDaddy66 12

                                costrike 11

                                ipitch20 11

                                M Y T H 11

                                roebirds 11

                                SMSCardFan 10

                                SportsFreak 6

 

                Stat Corner—A myriad of assorted stats:

 

·         The largest number of posters was 42 (game 36—Montreal).  The smallest: 10 (game 1-Colorado).

·         The average number of posters was 27.2.

·         The largest margin of victory was 8 (MadHungo 28, Gagliano 20).

·         The largest drop in points after a victory was 24 (MadHungo from 28 to 4).  The largest increase after a loss: 15 (Kodiak 0-15).

·         The most dominating performance of the year was by MadHungo.  His total of 28 was 12.9 points above average.  The next four:

10.9—Amberelise (game 33)

10.6—Tulcard (game 51)

10.6—bschulte (game 22)

10.1—Bucky Red Nole (game 35)

·         The least stellar performance was turned in by morrisfan4life, who was 10.9 under the average in game 29.  The next four:

9.6—costrike (game 42)

9.4—Wheeling Eagle (game 22)

8.4—Pancho (game 49)

8.4—old style (game 51)

·         The winner, on average, dropped 6.6 points the next game.  6 winners did not play the next game and one won the last game and couldn’t.  The loser usually increased 6.7 points.  21 losers didn’t play the next one and one lost the last game.

·         The YNOT bullpen filled in for me when I went on vacation this summer.  The average high score of those games was 13.75.  The average high of the games I created was 16.43.  So never complain that I make them too hard.

 

Thanks to everyone for playing this year.  I had a great time doing all the work and creating the questions.  Looking forward to a great playoff run and another fun year in 2003!!