#levinger

Well, there you have it folks: The Boston Red Sox are World Champions for the third time in a decade, and newcomer Ben Levinger (123 points) is your victor in the Fourth Annual Big League Ballcap Bet. It was a hard fought battle by the other contestants, but with the sole Boston World Series Bracket Pick in hand, Levinger ended up walking away with it.

David Benanav took second with 98 points, and Joe Klueh third with 96. Both were in it until the end—neck and neck—but thanks to a few extra points in Game Five, Benanav edged Klueh for the bragging rights.

Cale Drange pulled in 88 points for fourth, while Todd Pitman and Joe Schweigert—a last second addition to this year's Bet—tied for fifth with 76. (Worth noting is the fact that Todd Pitman is the Ballcap Bet's only four-time non-loser.)

And Matt Robshaw missed a number of picks, but still eked out seventh place due to William Riley's absolutely egregious showing this postseason.

Riley scored only seven points on game picks—averaging one per game he bothered to make picks for.

It was piddling. Pitiful. Pathetic. Pick your synonym: Whatever it was, it was enough of it to earn William Riley his rightful spot as this year's loser in The Great Annual Big League Ballcap Bet Hall of Shame.

We're still 186 days from getting started on the Fourth Annual Big League Ballcap Bet.

And, of course, right now folks are still far more interested in the upcoming two-thousand-plus regular season ballgames than in our ridiculous and Byzantine predictions and prognostications.

That said, the honor is again mine to announce the growing of our gentry by two:

C. Matthew Robshaw (alias Chewklais) is a Sagittarius from the Midway whose hobbies include philately and Mahjongg. He lives in Minneapolis, but vacations in the Kamchatka Peninsula with a very large, very secret family and two Pekingese.