Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Will the Voting Ever End?

Yes. And relatively soon. We're in the Thirsty Thirty-Two (there's the Final Four, Elite Eight, and Sweet Sixteen, so why doesn't thirty-two get an alliterative handle?). We'll settle the top half of the bracket with this vote.

Voting ends Saturday at noon eastern. Go Reds.

(1) 1973 Topps Johnny Bench vs. (33) 1959 Topps Dutch Dotterer





(16) 1986 Topps Tony Perez vs. (17) 1965 Topps Frank Robinson




(57) 1991 Stadium Club Chris Sabo vs. (25) 1959 Topps Frank Robinson

(9) 1976 Topps Johnny Bench vs. (24) 1966 Topps Tony Perez




(4) 1971 Topps Pete Rose vs. (29) 1953 Topps Joe Nuxhall




(13) 1972 Topps Tony Perez vs. (45) 1958 Topps Frank Robinson




(5) 1973 Topps Joe Morgan vs. (37) 1974 Topps Pete Rose




(53) 1959 Topps Ed Bailey vs. (21) 1953 Topps Ted Kluszewski

One Round Down in the Finals Bracket

The latest leg of The Ridiculous Card Tournament Finals Bracket saw only one upset (a 38 over a 27) and a near upset, that would've been HUGE. You cheeky monkeys decided the (57) 1976 SSPC Dave Concepcion was equally as good as the (8) 1968 Topps Johnny Bench RC. The Bench only moves on due the higher-seed-gets-the-tie-breaker rule. Bunch of weirdos.


In the 32 match-ups we saw 8 upsets. Below are the 8 winners from the latest vote. We're officially down to 32 from the original 512. The next leg will be up later today. Go Reds.









Monday, December 30, 2013

Completely Red: 1976 Topps

Today let's check out the first Topps release after the Big Red Machine's 1975 World Series triumph over the Red Sox. The '76 Topps set is pretty simple. Multi-colored stripe with the name/team/position and a miniature avatar of the player's position (or an All Star star, if warranted). Clean and crisp. Left ample room for a photo. The set had a mix of posed, candid, and action shots, mostly the former two. The few action shots are pretty great. Note the Concepcion and an all-time great Topps card of Johnny Bench. The Reds set is obviously loaded with stars since this team, coming off the '75 World Series win, would win another in '76, sweeping the Yankees. This is arguably the best offensive roster in the history of baseball (apologies to the '27 Yankees). One more note: That is not a Ron Guidry rookie card toward the end. It's a Pat Zachry rookie card. Let's check the stats.

STATS:

Cards - (36)

RC's - 3 (Doug Flynn, Santo Alcala, Pat Zachry)

All Stars - 15 (Dave Concepcion, Gus Bell, Ken Griffey, Jack Billingham, George Foster, Clay Carroll, Johnny Bench x2, Tony Perez x2, Joe Morgan x2, Pete Rose, Gary Nolan, Pat Zachry)

Hall of Famers - 6 (Johnny Bench x2, Tony Perez x2, Joe Morgan x2)

Reds Hall of Famers - 17 (Gus Bell, Clay Carroll, Gary Nolan, Jack Billingham, Johnny Bench x2, Joe Morgan x2, Tony Perez x2, Dave Concepcion, Don Gullett, George Foster, Ken Griffey, Cesar Geronimo, Pedro Borbon, Dan Driessen)

Sweet Shades - 2 (Pete Rose, Bill Plummer)

Catchers Emerging from a Cloud of Dust - 1 (Johnny Bench)


Checklist:

24 Cesar Geronimo
48 Dave Concepcion 
66 Gus Bell & Buddy Bell
77 Pedro Borbon
104 Sparky Anderson
128 Ken Griffey
155 Jack Billingham
179 George Foster 
195 NL RBI Leaders 
197 NL Stolen Base Leaders 
211 Clay Carroll
240 Pete Rose
259 Darrel Chaney
283 Merv Rettenmund
300 Johnny Bench
325 Tony Perez
362 Will McEnaney
390 Don Gullett
420 Joe Morgan
444 Gary Nolan 
461 NL & AL Championship
462 1975 World Series
469 Rawly Eastwick
491 Terry Crowley
514 Dan Driessen
518 Doug Flynn
538 Pat Darcy
561 Tom Carroll
579 Clay Kirby
589 Rookie Pitchers
599 Rookie Pitchers 
609 Fred Norman
627 Bill Plummer
652 Ed Armbrister 

Go Reds.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Let's Get Ridiculous. Vote, vote, vote.

Last leg of the first round of the finals brackets, baby. We've come a long way, kiddies. Check out the tab up top and you'll see how much work you wonderful readers have done. After this vote, the initial 512 will be down to 32. Amazing. Let's roll.

Voting closes Tuesday at noon eastern. Go Reds.

(3) 1970 Topps Johnny Bench vs. (62) 2013 Topps Zack Cozart

(30) 1977 Topps NL Championship vs. (35) 1971 Topps Lee May

(14) 1973 NL Playoffs vs. (51) 1994 Upper Deck Joe Oliver
 
(19) 2002 Ultra Ken Griffey Jr. vs. (46) 1991 Fleer Mariano Duncan

(6) 1968 Topps Johnny Bench vs. (59) 1976 SSPC Dave Concepcion

(27) 1965 Topps Jim Maloney vs. (38) 1970 Topps Tony Perez

(11) 1972 Topps Johnny Bench vs. (54) 1956 Topps Gus Bell

(22) 1957 Topps Ted Kluszewski vs. (43) 1950 Bowman Bob Scheffing

Recent Ridiculous Bracket Results

Eight more cards have moved on. The most recent leg saw two upsets: the (50) seed take down the (15) and the (39) take down the (26). Nice.

Current progress can be found here. The next leg will be up shortly. Go Reds.