As spring training has officially arrived with a handful of position players having reported as well as all pitchers and catchers in camp, we are but a couple weeks away from actual baseball being played.  It’s not exactly a real game in that it doesn’t actually count in the standings, but it is, at least for a few innings every day, a bunch of our favorite players going out and playing baseball.  The real stuff will come on April 5 when the Cubs open their season at Wrigley Field, but for now, we’ll take what we can get.

We’re also trying to grow our blog and following, so with the new season just around the corner, let’s have ourselves a contest!  Read on for the details…

As you know, we run a facebook page that’s fairly popular and active.  We enjoy doing that and it’s always fun and educational to interact with all of you.  Now we need some of you to migrate over to this corner of the internet and help drive this blog up on search results and to make this not look like a ghost town, even though we’re sure most of you actually do read what we write.

We have a lot of fun joking about the Cubs here at World Series Dreaming, and one of our favorite foils is light-hitting but lightning-fast outfielder, Tony Campana.  Even wrote a top ten list about him.  Check out his inside-the-park home run from last season.  Thanks to GBTS over at Two Teams, One Cup for SenorGiffing that for all to enjoy.  No one doubts that he could do this again with his blazing speed, but can Tony actually get one over the fence, between the foul lines?  He’s never actually done that in professional ball at any level (seriously, check his stats page), so signs point to “no.”  But he also has been working out and putting on some muscle, so maybe he can get it not just past the infield, but past the basket as well.  Maybe he needs a gust of wind or for every fan in Wrigley Field to blow out to right center at the same time, but it might happen.

So that will become the premise of our new contest where you can win some swag from our World Series Dreaming store!  New designs are coming thanks to our friend El, who can draw better than all of us combined.  However, the current designs are pretty cool.  But we’ve jabbered long enough, here are the rules…

World Series Dreaming Contest

Based on Tony Campana’s Feats of Strength, Or Lack Thereof

Premise: Predict how many OUTSIDE-the-park home runs Tony Campana will hit for the Cubs during April of 2012.  You can also predict “0″ if you do not have faith in the powers of the Campana.  Your predicted total stands even if Tony Campana gets injured or gets demoted at any time during the season.  As a tie-breaker, also include the date on which you think Tony will hit his first home run of the season.  You may use the 2012 Cubs schedule as a guide to make your predictions.  Do not include spring training home runs, regular season only.  (There are a few spring training games straggling at the end of April.)

General Rules:

1. You must enter your prediction within this blog post in the form of a comment.  Entries left on Anno’s Twitter feed or on our facebook page are ineligible.  The easiest thing for you to do in order to make sure your comment isn’t killed off by our insanely powerful spam filter is to sign up for an account on our blog, which will help your comment bypass the spam filter.
2. The period in question is between April 5, 2012 and April 30, 2012, inclusive.  Rainouts that are not made up within the month of April will not count and home runs hit during those makeup dates outside of April, if any, will not count towards Tony’s total.  We don’t control the weather so if it rains/snows/asteroids, you’re out of luck.  Sorry.  But those of you who picked “0″ won’t be affected.
3. You may enter only once, and remember to submit both the total number of home runs as well as the date of first home run as the tiebreaker.  If you enter multiple times, we will only take the last registered comment you left in this thread.
4. The first tie-breaker, as noted in 2. above, is the date of first homer.  If there are multiple folks who guessed the right number of home runs over the course of April, then we will put the names in a hat and draw by random.  If Tony disappoints us all and hits no homers, then we’ll put all the folks who predicted “0″ in a hat and draw by random.
5. Home run will be a ball that leaves the field of play between the two foul markers while in the air.  A ball that bounces off a guy’s glove or head as he attempts to field it will count only if the official scorer has declared it a homer.  So, basically, if it is listed as a home run in the scoresheet and looks like a home run on the replay and not a stupid error, then it counts.
6. All entries must be posted by Wednesday, April 4th at 11:59 PM Central Time.  This is the day before the Cubs’ home opener.  Your comments are time-stamped so late comments will be obvious and will not be accepted.
7. And no, WSD employees (even though we don’t get paid, booooooo) and family aren’t eligible.

Prize:

There will be only one (1) winner for this contest.  The winner will be able to choose one (1) T-shirt or hat item from our store.  The winner will be picked from the comments in this thread as prescribed above and will be contacted by a World Series Dreaming administrator (probably Rice, haha).  The winner will be able to choose any design they want.  Cool?  Cool.

Good luck everyone!