Tournament of Gimmicks - TEH CHAMPEENSHIPP

Tournament of Gimmicks Final
2007 Topps #40 Jeter/Bush/Mantle
2008-09 Upper Deck Yankee Stadium Legacy
See Results

Vote for the worst gimmick of all time!

Yankee Tedium Lunacy

VS

2007 Topps Derek Jeter

My God, what a choice!

Jackie vs. Mickey: Teh Winnar

Chris Carpenter won in a rout so as promised, I picked up a pack of series 2 with Robinson on the wrapper when I stopped by the card shop for some bubble mailers today. Here are the results:

453 Javier Valentin

Full catcher's gear throwin out a RUNNER! Awwww yeah.

520 Adrian Gonzalez

Does he have a nickname? 22 homers in two months you need a nickname. Gonzo perhaps? A-Gon? Skippy? Yeah, that sounds right. Skippy with the mighty cut.

583 Francisco Cordero

The joys of cropping. I think part of my obsession with this is that I'm becoming an old geezer very quickly and the eyes (which were never good to begin with) are starting to go.

607 Jarrod Washburn
636 Armando Galarraga
Not interesting enough for scans.

416 Josh Whitesell RC

The red jersey and border and orange dirt make this a nifty looking card. Is he playing on Mars or something? Did the bag get swiped by a Mars rover?

606 Nick Johnson black border #17/58

These black border cards are nifty. I like the sparkly on the border. I've got an autographed minor league ball of Nick in my collection for some reason. It seemed like a good deal at the time.

TTT48 Blech.
536 Khalil Greene
Boring

325 Jim Thome

Posed shot of a 500 home run hitter! Do this more often Topps!

595 Vernon Wells

Crash imminent!

Pretty good pack, it was the last Jackie in the box too. Lots of David Wright packs in the box for some unknown reason.

As for the next war, 17 of you wanted to see Jumbo packs of Topps and UD, 5 of you wanted to see a 1989 Topps 100 card pack fight with a First Edition basketball blaster, 7 preverts wanted me to make love not war and the winner with 25 votes was...

2009 Topps Heritage Jumbo

vs. 2009 Upper Deck Goudey Jumbo

But wait, there's more! A third party has jumped into the ring!!!

2008 Topps Baseball Updates and Highlights presents 2009 Topps Heritage High Number Series with Three Completely Superfluous Updates and Highlights Cards Per Jumbo Pack!!! AND GUUUUUM!!!!!111ONE

A three way battle for Retro Supremacy! I think the High Series pack may have snuck in a FOREIGN OBJECT! Stay tuned for this one folks! But don't hold your breath, I have 46 cards to scan for this thing. I'll start this puppy by Monday at the latest.

2008 NL Central Champs

Well, they won the division fair and square, so I guess they deserve a sticker post....

2008 NL Central Division Champions:

Chicago Cubs

Congratulations to the Cubs, I'll certainly be rooting for Chicago's team this October.

Tribecards Scratch-Off Tournament Champion!

The Atlanta Braves have brought you a championship! A championship of the Tribe Cards Triple Play scratch off game tournament, but hey, a Championship is a Championship... I don't know how the heck I won, but win I did. I guess it was due to all the packs of that junk I opened back in the '90s that helped me out. To the victor go the spoils, and David sent me a 100 count box full of goodies as a reward for my masterful scratch off guessing. Here are the 10 prizes I received as Tournament Champion:

2007 SP Legendary Cuts Gaylord Perry Jersey

I'm a fan of Gaylord. He pitched for the Braves for about 15 minutes and I appreciate pitchers who make a successful career out of throwing junk. His junk had a little extra junk on them perhaps... but if ya ain't cheatin' ya ain't tryin'. This card has what appears to be a powder blue Rangers uni on it, but you never know... it could actually be a powder blue Braves uniform. The back is vague enough about the jersey's provenance that I can easily delude myself into thinking that.

2008 UD A Piece of History/Archives John Smoltz Timeless Moments #036/149

The card is nice enough, but the timeless moment is spectacular. "During a 8/19/07 game against the Diamondbacks, Smoltz passed Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro (2,913) to become the Braves all-time leader in career strikeouts." Love it.

2002 Upper Deck Andruw Jones Game Used Base

In the early days of memorabilia cards, the card companies would pretty much chop up anything and slap it on a card. This card of Andruw has a shred off of a base from the 2001 All Star Game at Safeco Field. A game where Jones did not appear.

2002 Topps Gold Wilson Betemit Class 1 Gold # 251/500

I always liked Wilson and I was pissed when the Braves traded him for magic beans the moment he started contributing to the team. He's languishing as a reserve for the Yankees right now, but I hold out hope that the prodigal son will return one day. This card is a Topps Gold parallel I've never seen before. It also scans a whole lot better than most Chrome cards, especially the gold foil. Hey Topps, whatever you did on this set, do it again.

2005 Bowman Andy Marte Futures Game Gear

Andy Marte and a clipping of his Futures game jersey adorn this card. Marte got the Braves two seasons of Edgar Renteria, who in turn got us hopefully many, many years of Jair Jurrjens, so Andy is just GREAT with me. I'm actually surprised that the Indians fan didn't decide to keep this card of their third base prospect. Oh wait, no I'm not.

2008 Allen & Ginter Carlos Zambrano jersey

I'm not a fan of the Cubs at all, but Z-man is a helluva pitcher. Nice blue jersey swatch too.

2005 Topps Updates and Highlights Dontrelle Willis All-Star Stitches

This card of Dontrelle looks like it got kicked by a donkey, but it's got a bright orange All-Star workout jersey piece on it. Also known as the jersey he wore while watching the Home Run Derby.

2002 Donruss Classics Steve Bechler autograph #417/500

This card makes me sad. I'll talk about it later.

2001 Upper Deck Evolution Billy Sylvester prospect #0255/2250

Billy was a balleyhooed pitching prospect for the Braves who never actually pitched an inning in the bigs. It's a short print for a largely forgotten set so it has that going for it I suppose.

2002 Topps Gold Label Roberto Alomar MLB Awards Ceremony bat

Not a fan of Roberto since his fake chop in the 1992 World Series. This is a neat card though, as it has Alomar's 1998 Topps card barely visible in the background to honor his '98 All Star MVP award. Also, the bat chunk appears to be held on with a piece of saran wrap. This is a very strange looking card.

In addition to these cards David also stuffed the box with 84 additional Braves cards from 1987 to 2008. It's a good mix of new, old, superstar and scrub. There's even two Tom Glavine rookies in there. Here's a top ten of these Bravos.

1991 Score Jimmy Kremers

'91 Score had some good photos...

2005 Topps Fan Favorites Zane Smith

Sorry Topps, but a 15 win season for a terrible club does not make one a Fan Favorite. Zane was actually a better pitcher for the Pirates, and won 16 for them in '91.

1992 Front Row Michael Warner

The card is from a lousy set, the picture on the front is awful and the guy topped out at Triple-A in a 12 year minor league career, but the back has a picture of him as a kid and that counts for something.

1994 Ultra Javy Lopez

Javy looks like he's eight feet tall in this picture.

2008 Bowman Josh Anderson RC

I thought back in spring training that the Braves should have just let the rookies fight it out to be the one to replace Andruw in centerfield, but they went out and got Kotsay anyway. Josh has looked pretty good once he finally started getting some playing time in the bigs, which just proves my theory. Heck, we could have finished in fourth with Josh playing all year, couldn't we?

1991 Score Oddibe McDowell

Two '91 Score cards in the top 10? Who'd a thunk it? Can't argue with this picture though.

2007 Upper Deck First Edition Brian McCann

Brian McCann is Samwise to Chipper's Frodo. Too bad we're all stuck in Mordor without asbestos underwear right now.

1991 Topps Mark Lemke

The one thing I am going to miss most when the Braves' season is over is Mark doing radio broadcasts with Pete Van Weiren. Man, I hope they bring Lemmer back next year. He's low man on the broadcasting totum pole though, so I'm scared they won't. I can't handle losing Skip, Larry and Lemmer from the broadcast booth all in the same year.

1993 Upper Deck Chipper Jones

Chipper Jones is King Arthur to Brian McCann's Sir Bedevere. Too bad the Phillies are farting in our general direction and waving their private parts at our aunties.

1988 Fleer Glenn Hubbard autograph

Wow, didn't expect that... I already have Hubbard's 1984 Fleer card autographed. Maybe I should try to get all his Fleer cards autographed? It would be an interesting collection at least.

Nice bunch of cards from David once again! Thanks man, great tournament, I look forward to the next one. Time to start adding to that Indians pile once again...

Congratulations Red Wings

2007-2008 Stanley Cup Champs. In honor of your achievement, I will post cards of the Red Wing players in EA NHL Hockey '94 for the Super Nintendo. With these players I kicked major ass, just as the Wings have kicked ass this season.

Steve Yzerman scored at will. Pansies would try to play me using Gretzky or Mario, and they would all be pwned by Stevie Y.

After a line change my opponents would breath a sigh of relief, then Federov would take the ice and skate circles around the chumps. Literally.

BEST. DEFENSEMAN. EVAR.* Scored more than Federov when I played.

Tim Cheveldae? Who the hell is he? I'm playing with Roy. Many games started with that statement from my opponent, and ended with great expletives from him instead.

Slava Kozlov was good for the occasional goal, more if I blinded my opponent with this shiny Leaf Limited card.

Every once in a while someone would get hot, and play me to a tie, and take me to overtime, and just when they thought they had a chance... WHAMMO Dino comes out of nowhere for the game winning goal.

Nicklas Lidstrom = shutout for Chevy. Hell, he's still with the team. Hell, he's the freakin' CAPTAIN.

Vladdie eats your puny forwards.

FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGHHHHTTTTT!!!!!!!!

* not named Chris Chelios.

Baseball Card Tournament Champion

By popular demand, the Baseball Card Tournament has been fast forwarded to the championship game and in an upset Howard the Duck has been defeated by none other than Jim Breazeale!


Howard started off hot and got off to a big lead at halftime, but forfeited when he didn't return for the second half. He was later found in a supply closet playing "Duck, Duck, Goose" with a Miss Beverly Switzler. Officials were planning to replay the game when they looked into...

THE GLASSES

and unanimously crowned Jim the 2008 Baseball Card Tournament Champ. All hail Jim Breazeale! Champion of the woooooorld!

Hail To the Champs

The 2007 World Series Champion
Boston Red Sox

Sorry I didn't get this out sooner, but I forgot where I put the thing. In the next few weeks look for eleven cards from eleven Boston Red Sox players, one for each playoff victory. As always I take requests...