Five perfect for Pitching Grade Challenge 7!

What a year for the Pitching Grade Challenge!

At some point during the balloting process, I wondered if I made it too easy. Indeed, I think I did. There were five participants out of the record 259 voters who were 20 out of 20 perfect. You’ll find out more when I break down the aggregate voting in a couple days.

The winners of the Pitching Grade Challenge 7 are in alphabetical order:

• Tom Doran
• Robert Hartman
• Dennis Jennings
• Scott Miller
• Nick Tegeler

Because five is a big number, I implemented a randomized tie-breaker which I didn’t want to do but felt it was needed. When all was said and done, Scott Miller was the grand prize winner! He has been put in touch with John Herson of APBA to claim his prize.

Congrats to all!

Pete and Repeat

This year, the Pitching Grade Challenge has experienced its first repeat winner. In fact, two of winners have won in the past.

Tom Doran won just last year in the 2023 Pitching Grade Challenge all by himself. Like this year, Tom scored 20 out of 20.

Not only that, Nick Tegeler scored 19 out of 20 to tie for first place in the 2021 Pitching Grade Challenge.

I’m in a smart league

Not only did we have repeat winners but two of the five perfect scorers are in the Illowa APBA League that I am in. If you knew the fine gentleman Nick Tegeler and Dennis Jennings like I do, you wouldn’t be too surprised they are good at predicting grades. Both are pretty knowledgable about such matters.

As it turned out, I received emails from both Nick and Dennis last night… but it wasn’t about the Challenge. Both wanted to talk trade. Nick did mention that he thought he got all the grades correct.

Indeed he did.

Moving forward

All five winners have been contacted about their results. In a couple days, I’ll post a breakdown of the Challenge. This was a different year, that’s for sure.

As for next year, I have ideas for implementing a tie-breaker into the ballot itself. I will also be a little more diligent about picking pitchers for the ballot.

Thanks to everyone for taking part in the Pitching Grade Challenge 7!