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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Baseball Card Tournament: First Round - Tampa

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.

First Round - Tampa

Midwest Region

#5 2003 Topps Fan Favorites Monte Irvin No Sig Variation

Monte Irvin is one of my favorites and this not-scarce variation card eluded me for years. (Thanks, Andy)
vs.
#12 2007 Topps Heritage WWE John Cena Allen & Ginter
I don't even know who this guy is, but it's an A&G mini, which is all that counts. What the heck is on that shirt? It looks like a bulldog with a cabbage for a hat.


#4 2006 Topps Co-Signers Tim Hudson/Andruw Jones Duo
I'm sorry, but Co-Signers is not an attractive set. This card has Huddy and Druw on it though so it's all good. Well, not all good... Tim doesn't need extreme close ups on his cards. Very few baseball players do, actually.
vs.
#12 2006 Grandstand Southern League Joey Votto
Another neat card from a reader in Alabama. The set this came in is freakin' loaded, I chose Votto for the cool Chattanooga Lookouts logo.



West Region

#5 2007 Bowman Chrome Draft Yunel Escobar Refractor

Watching Yunel in Spring Training is giving me Rafael Furcal flashbacks. Oh yes, this is a good thing. A very, very good thing.
vs.
#12 2002 Donruss Super Estrella Mariano Rivera Nacion De Origen
So who else bought up a few boxes of this Spanish-language Donruss product when it was dirt cheap at Wal-Mart? Let me guess, you didn't finish your set either.




#4 1995 Score Don Mattingly Platinum Team Set
This is my second-favorite Score set and it kills me that it's totally ignored. I got this redemption-only parallel card out of a dollar grab bag. No respect. No respect at all.
vs.
#13 1995 Topps Royce Clayton Cyber Stats
Between the glowy foil, bullet-time and cyberstats, Royce Clayton is apparently playing in The Matrix. Take the blue pill, Royce, the blue one!

Final Scores:

Monte Irvin 6, John Cena 1
Hudson/Jones 1, Joey Votto 6
Yunel Escobar 6, Mariano Rivera 1
Don Mattingly 5, Royce Clayton 2

7 comments:

Bay Rat North West said...

Todya we have our first 12 over 5 upset: Cena, the man that introduced SPINNING Championship belts and grunted his way through The Marine bodyslams poor Monte and the over hyped Giants of Gonza.. I mean San Fran on a last minute 3 pointer.
75 - 73

In a bracket filled with upsets we have Votto In Action on his card. Not smiling while on the DL. Votto lazily tosses to his pitcher to take out a 250 lb., out of breath Jones on a weak dribble to first.
Lookouts win!
Infinity +2 - 10


Game 3
Braves vs. freaakin new york american league team. Escobar beats out a bunt to Rivera to score a time expiring free throw for the win.
68 - 67

Game 4 brings some sembalance of balance as the Capitan leads his shiny team mates against a team of dance troupe clones. For the Tennessee like blowout over an over matched opponent.
72 - 54

Kevin said...

Irvin, Votto, Escobar, and Clayton.

Though I'm a wrestling fan, Cena really bugs me.

Billy Suter said...

Irvin/Votto/Escobar/Mattingly

ernest of canada said...

Irvin/Votto/Escobar/Mattingly!

Fleerfan said...

Irvin, Votto, Escobar, Mattingly.

mmosley said...

Monte - I really like the fan favorites set.

Votto - not a brave and he needs this win since Hatteberg will start at first for the Reds

Escobar - he is now on my simulation league team. That means he's my boy despite his team.

Clayton - 3 Royces beat out a glitzy Mattingly

MMayes said...

#5 Monte Irvin dominates the boards on Cena.

#4 Hudson moves on despite having to lug around Andruw Jones' weight.

#12 Rivera. Between a card that I can't read and a card that has all that shiny crap on it, I'll take the one that's not shiny.

#4 Mattingly. Playing despite the silly shiny surface, Mattingly guts out the win over Royce Clayton's silliness.