By Michael Miner
Normally the BAT (for Baseball Acumen Test) recognizes “least unsatisfactory” or “closest to pretty good” performance in the larger context of mediocrity, but once in a great while a scrivener truly excels. The winner of the 1997 BAT is such a champion, the Tribune’s electrifying Bernie Lincicome. Two years ago we hailed Lincicome for a “great, great historic effort” in naming five of the eight ’94 playoff teams (not that there were any playoff teams that miserable year, but at least those teams were in playoff positions when the season was canceled). Last spring he outdid himself, identifying seven of the eight teams that would wind up in the postseason.
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Lincicome picked Atlanta winning in the NL East, Saint Louis in the NL Central, Cleveland in the division, and Texas in the AL West. His pick in the AL East was Baltimore, which wound up the American League wild card, and his choice for wild card was New York, which won the division. Lincicome predicted Los Angeles would take the NL West; instead the Dodgers finished second behind San Diego but made the playoffs as the league’s wild card. The only playoff team he missed was the Padres.
Such are the vicissitudes of punditry that Lincicome sandwiched his triumphs of ’95 and ’97 around the Whiffle BAT in ’96. This year Hot Type breaks with precedent to give him yet another Whiffle. For the first time, the grand prize and the booby prize go to the same sportswriter in the same year.
According to King Features, only two major papers in the entire country decided not to get in on the fun. The New York Post was one, and you already know the other. If you read the April 1 Tribune, which carried more than a dozen switcheroonies, and the same day’s Sun-Times, which ran none, you may have wondered why Chicago’s tabloid woke up with a pickle in its mouth.
This week Crain’s Chicago Business made itself look silly–or worse. It carried an article that began like this: “Chicago landlords overwhelmingly support electrical deregulation–and many of them can’t wait to unplug Commonwealth Edison Co.”
In other words, BOMA asked its members what they thought, and Crain’s published the results. Despite the way its story was written, Crain’s essentially reprinted a press release.
