Fantasy baseball earns Greencreek pig farmer his 15 minutes of fame

1. New York Times story on Hinkelman

Maybe you wouldn't expect it, but Greencreek pig farmer Lindy Hinkelman knows a lot about baseball.

And this week, he's learned how blindingly fast the 24-7 news media can move.

Hinkelman, 59, has turned his baseball acumen into big bucks over the last three years, winning more than $300,000 in fantasy baseball contests. His most astounding accomplishment is winning the National Fantasy Baseball Championship in 2009 and again this year, titles that were worth $100,000 apiece.

A pig farmer? From Idaho? Beating a slew of stat geeks and high rollers?

It's certainly an interesting story, and New York Times freelancer Dan Fost sniffed it out.

Through the NFBC organization, Fost learned about Hinkelman's unlikely accomplishment and contacted him for a story.

"The (NFBC) guys there told (Fost) about me, that I had won twice in the last three years, and raised pigs," Hinkelman told the Tribune this week. "That was kind of the selling point - combining two really different aspects of my life there. The fact that I raise pigs and win fantasy baseball, somehow those don't fit together, or people don't think they do."

Fost's story - along with a photo shot at Hinkelman's farm by Spokane photographer Rajah Bose - were posted on the Times' website on Monday. It was quickly re-posted on deadspin.com, and "that's when it really broke," Hinkelman said.

Hinkelman was on a morning radio show in Boston on Tuesday, and was expecting visits from Boise and Spokane TV stations on Wednesday. There was a rumor that the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show might want him as a guest, but he said he hasn't heard anything official yet.

"It'll probably last three or four days here," Hinkelman said, "and then everyone will forget about it, which is fine."

The entry fee for the NFBC league is $1,400. Hinkelman and other contestants travel to Las Vegas for the draft at the start of the Major League Baseball season, then track their clubs' progress and making roster changes throughout the season. Hinkelman will spend as much as six hours a day watching games on television.

And during the winter, he studies for the season ahead, which he finds relaxing.

"That fantasy stuff, when you're competing for the top and you have a bad day, boy, you don't feel good," Hinkelman said. "And when you have a good day, you're exhilarated. So there's a lot of ups and downs."

Hinkelman has lived his entire life in Greencreek - a town of 211 near Cottonwood - other than the four years he spent studying at the University of Idaho.

As he told Fost, he didn't play baseball growing up because the sport wasn't offered in his small hometown. He did play prep basketball for St. Gertrude's Academy, and was a reserve on the UI hoops team during his college days.

Hinkelman won this year's NFBC contest by 21/2 points over K.J. Duke, a San Diego investment portfolio manager. So Hinkelman claimed $100,000 and Duke was left with $20,000.

"If I would have had one less stolen base or one less home run ... I would have lost," Hinkelman said. "It was that close. ... You can tell how agonizing that was watching a few games there at the end of the season."

Hinkelman and his wife, Patty, have three sons, Gabe, Zach and Jake, and a daughter, Tracy.