You never know what might break out at the old ballpark… or when watching at home.
This was kinda weird. And it’s not the first time we’ve had this come up, either. But tonight I apparently hit the jackpot.
So I’m watching the game on TV – sound off – and monitoring tweets about bizarre trade ideas involving half of the Braves’ and Astros’ prospects when this tweet comes up from one of my loyal local followers both on radio and here:
@carpengui @thomabrahamshow carp, just heard Don Sutton you won $1,600 for the Beckham HR. Congrats!! You need to send him a thank you card
— Zack Greene (@BamaZack) May 26, 2016
Wut?
The Contest
The sixth inning is the Georgia Home Run Lottery inning. If a Braves’ player launches one, some lucky entrant wins the jackpot, which started at $1000 and escalates $150 for every day that passes without a well-timed dinger.
So I’m like watching the game… and Gordon Beckham launches one to dead straight-away center field. And then Bama Zack sends this tweet. And… wow.
The past couple of years, I’ve thought enough to enter the contests at 680 The Fan early. Not only is there the hope of actually getting picked, there’s the hope of having a full 162 chances to get picked… and maybe there are fewer entries in April and May and …. you know… odds and stuff.
Yeah – about the odds… I was trying to work on that:
- Braves now have 19 home runs on the season
- They’ve played 407 innings…but of course every game has had a 6th inning
- There have been 1716 plate appearances.
Near as I can calculate it, that’s 4.21 batters per inning on average, so 19 / 1716 * 4.21 or 4.6% chance of a home run in any given inning. The fact that this had to occur in the 6th inning and then one particular name is attached to that… now the numbers get pretty small. But as I say, it’s happened at least 3 times this season.
I guess that’s working, since – as I say – it’s happened before. Last year it was something around $2500 I missed out on. But no, I’m not complaining a bit that it’s “only” $1600 this year!
More from Tomahawk Take
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- The Weakest Braves Homers Since 2015
- Atlanta Braves Sign Joshua Fuentes to Minor League Deal
- Braves News: New Year’s Eve comes with several questions about the 2023 Braves
Then I have to admit… I was wondering… this team isn’t exactly a home run juggernaut. When was the last time Atlanta hit a homer in the sixth inning?? Ever?
Turns out that it happened twice in a row last week: Tyler Flowers in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, then Jeff Francoeur on Thursday.
That means the jackpot reset to $1000 for Friday…and added each $150 for Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Off day, and today: yep… $1600.
I really do wish I could stream the local radio feed from the Internet. Yeah, I know… MLB.TV (and I have it), but phone charging, data, delay from the TV feed, etc. It’s just not the same when at home. But it would seem that this would have been the night to break that pattern!
Big shout-out to Zack (@BamaZack) for letting me in on the secret! And in case you’re curious… I have a daughter graduating from high school tomorrow and a son in college summer school – that check is already well spent!
Next: Braves Add Another Southpaw
As I type this, I just need one more thing: another homer to give the Braves a win!