It's all over, including the crying, and we have a winner in the BCB 2012 Season Prediction Contest. This was a remarkably tough season to do this, as the team was terrible, I didn't want to watch many games (or comment on them), I was busier than ever with work/wedding/etc, and wasn't as diligent as I had hoped to be posting lines...

However, thanks to those that stuck with me. I hope you all had fun with this and maybe, just maybe, it made the season a bit more bearable. We ended up with a total of 107 players placing a total of 734 bets, with 358 (49%) of them being correct. All told, the house come out on top by just 18 total wagers, netting me exactly nothing but good times and a database for students to work on statistics theories in the future.

Our winner, with a grand total of 29 correct guesses was katie casey! For her efforts and proper selections, she gets the grand (and only) prize. I purchased this item from a Cubs charity auction some years back for $75 - who knows what it is worth now (hint: probably less than $75). Here it is:

An authentic Michael Barrett Team USA Inaugural World Baseball Classic locker tag!!!! (link) ...Okay, maybe four exclamation points is a bit much, but I think it is still a pretty cool thing to have for any baseball fan, especially a Cubs fan, despite the less-than-fond memories we have of old Mikey B.

Here's how the contest shook out, and I'll present it in a few ways. First, in order of number of correct guesses:

Perhaps a better way to think about who did the best is to say who would have won the most bets, so here it is the top 14:

Well then, if those were the rules, Clutch16 would have won... but they weren't. Maybe in another iteration?

So let's see, who "owes" me the most (the bottom 12)??

Oh my.

Congrats to katie casey, and may you all have a grand offseason. Perhaps if I can recharge my batteries for next year, AND there is interest, AND Al lets me, we can do this again next year.

Cheers, Cub fans!