Baseball Card Tournament: First Round - Birmingham

It's tourney time, so let's have a tournament. Here are 64 random cards from my archive of scans. I will seed them and match them up into brackets. Each card that advances to the next round gets more written about it. If you want to know more about a card, vote for it - your votes determine the winner. Feel free to vote for the other first round matchups as well. Voting is open until Wednesday or so so we can start the second round on Thursday.

First Round - Birmingham

East Region

#6 2005 Upper Deck Origins Travis Hafner Old Judge
It amazes me how Pronk always manages to look Pronky on his cards. One of these days I am going to find a cheap set of UD Origins on eBay, pull out a sharp pair of scissors, and cut off all those ugly green borders so the set can be enjoyed the way it was supposed to be.
vs.
#11 1991 Conlon Collection Honus Wagner
The Flying Dutchman is looking particularly crotchety on this card. I love the Conlon set, I don't love how eBay scam artists try to sell them for 5-10 bucks a pop as a card from "1939" or whatever date is on the card. Lousy rip offs.



#3 1992 Upper Deck Tom Selleck Mr. Baseball
Frank Thomas in a Yankees uniform is one of those things that scared me to death about 10 years ago. Magnum PI is the bomb though, so I'll let it slide.
vs.
#14 2001 Upper Deck Rafael Soriano
I found this card out of nowhere looking for Steve's St. Patty's day contest prize. I still can't believe we got him for Horacio Ramirez.



#7 1976 Topps Marvel Howard The Duck sticker
Ok, ok. HEAR ME OUT. I know what you're thinking, but Howard the Duck is GOOD. No, seriously. It's that idiot Lucas who screwed him up so badly. The moron should have stuck to Star Wars. The actual comic from the 70's is pure genius. Here's a cool interview from his creator, Steve Gerber, who recently passed away. Somebody please back me up on this... Thorzul? Anyone?
vs.
#10 1987 Topps Jay Howell
I unexpectedly got this guy's autograph at the Braves Fan Fest this winter. The guy big-timed me while he was signing, but oh well. Everyone loves '87 Topps so poor Howard is doooomed.



#2 2005 Donruss Studio Portraits Mark Teixeira #22/30
I love love love these old retro inserts from Donruss, even though the byzantine serial numbering system that depends on the border color, color or sepia photo, ad back, phase of the moon and player's I Ching reading make the Moments and Milestones checklist look positively obvious. The design is ripped off from the Honest Cabinet series from Duke cigarettes, ACC designation N142. I probably shouldn't have told you that since you guys are killing my Nineteenth century cards.
vs.
#15 1981 Fleer Football Halftime
Fleer Action football sets are a neat obscure 80's set for the football fans out there. I chose this one because of the dudes playing tuba on the card.

Final Scores:

Travis Hafner 4, Honus Wagner 3 (ot)
Tom Selleck 2, Rafael Soriano 4
Howard the Duck 5, Jay Howell 2
Mark Teixeira 4, Halftime 3 (ot)