March Madness

For the first time ever, I've managed to pick the final four correctly in my bracket. If Florida can beat Georgetown in the championship game, I'll have my own trophy to put up on the shelf. Now as long as no one finds out I filled out my brackets 15 minutes before the tipoff on the first game (and actually flipped a coin on about half the first round's games), I can play it off like I actually know what I'm doing. Good thing no one reads this blog!

So, inspired by my dubious achievement and by the Baseball Card Blog's live pack blogging and team card bracket, I've decided to have my own baseball card mini-tourney to coincide with the fun in Atlanta this weekend. I've got 8 packs of cards lined up to go head to head to see which one takes the prize as the best product released by opening day that I could actually afford. And no, I don't have 40 bucks to drop on a mini box of Finest right now, and I sure as HELL ain't buying a box of Upper Deck Ultimate for whatever ungodly amount that costs. Ok, so a few 2006 packs got shuffled in the mix. Not my fault they stopped releasing the next year's product weeks before thanksgiving.

Here are my contenders:

#1 seed: 2007 Topps (Wal-Mart pack)
Jeter photoshop freakout cements Topps' #1 ranking.

#2 seed: 2007 Upper Deck First Edition
I'm dubious about this First Edition/Predictor Edition stuff, but it's Upper Deck, so they get a bump in the polls.

#3 seed: 2007 Topps Heritage
It's Heritage, so automatically a favorite to make the championship game.

#4 seed: 2007 Fleer
I have to give Upper deck credit, their take on the Fleer brand is very... Fleery. That's a complement, I think.

#5 seed: 2006 Bowman Heritage
Surprisingly high seed considering what a mess this product turned out to be.

#6 seed: 2006 Topps '52 Rookie card
Would have rated higher if most of the 'rookies' didn't have legit cards floating around already.

#7 seed: 2007 Topps Opening Day
I wonder it Target will have the monster packs of Opening Day with the Jersey card inserts again this year. Or was that Topps Total? Man, all these cheapo products kinda blend together after a while.

#8 seed: 2006 Topps Updates & Highlights
The basement dweller came down to a choice between this pack and a pack of '06 Fleer Tradition languishing at a Quik Trip. The Topps pack was dustier and had a bit of sticky schmutz on the side so it got the nod.

Winners will be determined using the following criteria:

~ Number of cards in the pack
~ Number of cards that are actually good
~ Number of inserts and short prints pulled
~ Attractiveness of the design
~ Best card in the pack
~ Spokesman on the pack wrapper
~ Intangibles, so I can screw over Upper Deck, whom I hate

When a pack advances to the next round I'll buy another pack to open for the next matchup. This gives me a convenient excuse to buy six more packs of cards. Like I really needed one. Plus I can milk this for 8 more blog posts! It's a win-win for everybody.