Repack Haiku #18 (Jay Buhner)

Remind me again
Why Yankees traded away
Crusher of long balls?

1990 Donruss #448 Jay Buhner

SEC - "Sweet 16" Match Up #3

McCutchen advances!

Now that's what I'm talking about! A little pleading on the TCDB forums and I've set a new high in votes! Thanks to everyone that came and visited the blog! Let's keep it up! On to our next competitors:

2004 Topps World Champions Boston Red Sox #54 Team Celebration WS	VS	1987 Conlon World Wide Sports Series 2 #9 Al Schacht

2004 World Series Champion
Bracket Round: defeated Billy Martin (2-1)
Fun Fact:This historical World Series win forced the writers of the movie "Fever Pitch" to change the Jimmy Fallon/Drew Barrymore film from a shock horror gore-fest to a romantic comedy.

Al Schacht
Bracket Round: defeated William O'Leary (1-1 Tie Breaker)
Fun Fact: If you have a starring contest with this card, not only will Al Schacht always win, but he will also read your thoughts.

Payday Pack - Go Wahoos!

Normally, I'm not big on prospect/minor league cards, but I decided to give Bowman a try. The design isn't too bad, although I'm not sure what Topps is trying to do with that blob where the team  logo resides. I do like the look of the Bowman logo/baseball sun design. My pack is opened, and I'm ready to present my 3 favorites:

3rd Place

2017 Bowman #33 Ichiro

Not a lot to choose from, so I'm going with the future Hall of Famer. Is it me, or does something look off about his head? It doesn't look real, almost like it's made of wax. It's frankly a little disturbing...

2nd Place

2017 Bowman - Prospects Purple #BP35 Dane Dunning

I've never heard of this player, but that purple border sure does look fine! Bonus for being a serial numbered card!

1st Place

2017 Bowman - Prospects #BP64 Matt Thaiss

Matt is an alum of the University Of Virginia, and part of the team that won the 2015 College World Series. This makes him one of the few professional athletes I've seen play at the collegiate level. Somewhere in the future, I may start up a side collection of former Cavaliers in the majors. Thaiss hopefully will be part of that collection if I do.

The Others
#31 Josh Donaldson
#9 Carlos Correa
#13 Stephen Piscotty
#87 George Springer
#BCP79 Yu-Cheng Chang
#BCP7 Lucas Erceg
#BP95 Daz Cameron

Repack Haiku #17 (Scott Bailes)

Nineteen-ninety Fleer's
Vital Signs attempt to try
advanced statistics

1990 Fleer #484 Scott Bailes

I belong to the generation where the most complex baseball stat was ERA. I knew how to figure out a player's batting average, but that was about it. When different stats started showing up, it took a little thought to figure out.

Like when Fleer introduced a trio of new ways to evaluate players:

1990 Fleer #484 Scott Bailes (back)

Walk and Strikeout Ratios were new concepts to me. 15 year old me understood what these ratios represented, but didn't have enough context to know what was considered average, what was considered All-Star level, and what was downright historic. Was a .269 OBA good? (No, not really) Today, stats have gotten so complex that you need a mathematics degree to figure out how to calculate them. On one hand, it's fun, and great if you want to debate the merits of player X over player Y, but a part of me will still wish for simpler stats like we found on the back of our cards.

SEC - "Sweet 16" Match Up #2

Extra! Banks takes down Guillen!

An easy win for Ernie. I almost want to label him as the favorite to win it all.It's hard to bet against a playable record card, but who knows! Next up, we have two former MVPs squaring off for your votes.

1985 Leaf/Donruss #99 Roger Clemens	VS	2015 Topps Pittsburgh Pirates #PIP-1 Andrew McCutchen

Roger Clemens
Bracket Round: defeated Jose Berrios (3-2)
Fun Fact: Canadian company Leaf had to modify its original logo because too many people confused the maple leaf with a pot leaf.

Andrew McCutchen
Bracket Round: defeated Dustin Pedroia (3-1)
Fun Fact: Andrew's recent haircut was the result of losing a cage match to former wrestler Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake.

Your votes decide the winner! Comment below and let me know who is the real MVP!

Payday Pack - Head Strong

OK, Before I proceed with this week's Payday Pack, I need to make a small request: My Single Elimination Challenge has entered the next round, and I need voters! Just go to my latest SEC blog post and comment on the card you like best. It's that easy! Please take a second and check it out. Thanks!

I recently found myself at the local Kmart, and decided to check out what cards they had. There wasn't much, although they did have some discounted packs from last year. I decided to take advantage of a cheap 20 card double-pack of last year's Heritage set. I like the 1967 design more than this year's 1968 design.

Here are my 3 Favorites from the pack:

3rd Place

2016 Topps Heritage #342 Boston Red Sox (CL)

The packaging on this pack was flimsy enough that I was able to make out the top cards on the pack. I clearly saw the words "Red Sox", and knew this was the pack I was going to buy. Here we see the 3 outfielders tipping their hats. They would later develop a dance routine that has become quite popular among Boston fans.

2nd Place

2016 Topps Heritage #177a 2016 AL Rookie Stars

I guess you can't really go wrong with a rookie card of young masher Sanchez...

1st Place

2016 Topps Heritage #134 Bartolo Colon

Since Heritage mimics the 1967 design, most of the player cards are simple head shots. I get it, it's how a lot of vintage cards were set up, but it's boring. It was refreshing to see Bartolo tossing a ball by contrast.

The Others:
#207 Brett Lawrie
#102 Scott Kazmir
#33 Jason Grilli
#196 Jorge De La Rosa
#340 Mark Teixeira
#161 2016 Cubs Rookie Stars (Schwarber/Edwards)
#NF-JH Jimmy Hoffa (1967 Flashbacks)
#372 Cody Allen
#248 A.J. Ramos
#355 Texas Rangers (CL)
#46 Marcus Semien
#66 Eddie Rosario
#49 Yonder Alonso
#295 Avisail Garcia
#68 Welington Castillo
#395 Jordy Mercer
#376 Neil Walker

Repack Hiaku #16 (Storm Davis)

Legend says Storm name
 came from mom's favorite book;
His real name is George.

1994 Topps #682 Storm Davis

SEC - "Sweet 16" Match Up #1

Read all about it! Final match up of round set!

And with that, the introductory round of the Single Elimination Challenge is complete! I'd like to thank everyone who voted! 10 different visitors cast a total of 39 votes, with 3 tiebreakers and 8 shutouts! I especially want to thank Kin, who voted in every single match up - 5 times he single handedly decided a bracket by casting the lone vote! Let's see if I can get more voters moving forward!

On to the "Sweet 16" round of the competition!

Made with printyourbrackets.com

Our opening match up features two of the more colorful characters in baseball history:

1962 Auravision Records Ernie Banks	VS	1990 Donruss #15 Ozzie Guillen DK

Ernie Banks
Bracket Round: defeated Tim Wallach (4-1)
Fun Fact: If you play this record backwards, you'll hear Eddie Vedder's "Bryzzo" jingle from the MLB commercial.

Ozzie Guillen
Bracket Round: defeated 2004 ALCS Game 7 Boston Red Sox (1-1 Tiebreaker)
Fun Fact: The original prints of every Dick Perez Diamond King are currently housed in a private wing at the Lourve.

Same rules as always - all you need to do to vote is comment on this post! Let me know which card is your favorite!

Repack Haiku #15 (Cliff Floyd)

Before the Expos
Cliff Floyd made himself a name
Thornwood High legend

1991 Classic Draft Picks #11 Cliff Floyd

You don't often see cards of established major leaguers when they were in high school. The 1991 Illinois Player of the Year certainly caught the Expos' attention.

SEC - Bracket Match Up #16

Extra! Extra! Griffey Gets One By Scherzer!

Happy Labor Day! I hope you're one of the lucky ones that have today off, and that today is nice and relaxing.

Well, this is it! The final match-up of the opening round! We'll start the "Sweet 16" next week, but before we do, our last contestant must be chosen. It's the greatest Red Sox player of all time against the greatest Red Sox manager of all time!

1985 Topps #578 Terry Francona	VS	1992 Upper Deck - Ted Williams Heroes  #30 Ted Williams

The Case For Terry Francona: Who doesn't love the Expos? Tito went from a promising but short baseball career to a almost certain Hall of Fame manager. Topps 1985 was an underrated design.

The Case For Ted Williams: Recently, Joey Votto almost broke Ted's record of consecutive multi-hit games. Ted keeps the record at 21 straight games with at least two hits. That's insane! This is a great sepia-toned photograph of the Hall of Famer doing what he did best.

As always, your votes decide the winner! Comment below and let me know which card you like best!