The wait is over and now APBA baseball fans can order the 2023 season on APBA GO. More to the point of this article, we can find out who won this year’s APBA Blog Pitching Grade Challenge. I ordered the 2023 season last night. I checked the 20 pitchers’ grades from the Challenge then double-checked and triple-checked.
We have a clear winner.
Put your hands together for Tom Doran who was the only one out of a record 245 participants who guessed all 20 pitchers correctly!
It seemed like a more difficult challenge this season but Tom was up for the task. Nice work, Mr. Doran!
I have notified John Herson of APBA Games of Tom’s win. He will now be able to claim his grand prize. Enjoy Tom!
Honorable mention
Thomas Battiato did phenomenal as well. He was alone in second place with 19 correct predictions. Good going, Thomas!
Eight fans were tied for third with 18 correct guesses:
- Mark Fitzkee
- Dean Piotrowski
- Gary Alderson
- Terry Huseth
- Dave Branagan
- John Clingan
- Rick Christianson
I see Mark Fitzkee’s name on that list. Mark was a winner in the 2021 APBA Blog Pitching Grade Challenge and has consistently done well in the Challenge.
We can’t just chalk it up to luck when it comes to doing well in these Challenges. For Tom Doran to guess all twenty pitchers correctly, he had to be on the right side of a lot of pitchers that so many of us were on the fence on. Collectively, we were generally 50-50 on pitchers like Drew Smyly, Bobby Miller and Emmet Sheehan. And Tom got every one of those pitchers correct.
I’ll be coming out with a breakdown soon of how we as a group did, which pitchers we collectively guessed correctly and which ones we missed the boat on.
Congratulations again, Tom! A job well done!
