Wednesday Weekly Contest Results

I am a little behind in naming a winner, sorry about that - you all know about best intentions.  This will also probably be the last contest until I get settled after my move, we can start up again with Short Stops.

In all there were 26 entries.  There was a tie for the favorite Third Basemen with 2 players each getting 4 votes:

Mike Schmidt

and Scott Rolen

There were four players tied for second with 3 votes each - Adrian Beltre, George Brett, Ron Santo and Vinny Castilla.

Now for the contest results, here are all 26 entries put into random.org:

 Random #1......

Random #2....

 And the final Random results in....

 Captain Canuck as the winner.  Congratulations!  Let me know which of the prizes you are interested in and I will try to ship it out next weekend.

Thanks to all of you that entered and I appreciate you sharing your favorite 3B of all time.

Wednesday Weekly Contest

All right, no promises but I am going to try and get the Weekly Wednesday Contest back on track today.

Toward the end of the baseball season last year I held contests where your entry consisted of sharing you favorite First Baseman and Second Baseman of all time.  Let's move on to the next position on the diamond, Third Base.

For this week's contest, post a comment with your list of your 3 favorite Third Basemen of all time from your favorite team.  If you don't have a favorite team, just list your favorite 3 Third Basemen of all time.   I will close it out on Saturday night and all the people that enter will be randomed on Random.org 3 times to identify a winner. The winner can pick something off my prize page.   Should be pretty simple and lots of fun.

I will share mine now to get us started.  I had a hard time deciding between the first two:

1. Matt Williams - Matty was one of the best third baseman in the league for a pretty decent stretch.  He is probably best remembered for the strike year when he was on pace to break the single season home run record before play ended.  Nobody will ever know if he would have been the first to break Maris' record but my guess is he probably would have fallen short.  Not because he wasn't a great hitter, I just think the media pressure and difficulty in hitting that many homers without being chemically enhanced would have been too much. Williams fielding is often overlooked but he was strong defensively as well.

 2. Pablo Sandoval - The Kung Fu Panda may end up at the top of the list some day soon and his 3 homer performance in Game 1 of the World Series was historic and got him close to the top of my list.  For now though he needs a couple more All Star years under his belt (and what a belt it is!) to gain the top spot in my countdown.

3. Jim Davenport - I am going to go a little old school and somewhat obscure and pick Jim Davenport as my third favorite.  There were some other solid candidates like Darrell Evans, Jimmy Ray Hart, Bill Madlock, and Bill Mueller but I decided to go with Davenport.  He was the Giants manager for 1 year in 1985 and was an All Star and Gold Glove winner back in 1962.  Around the time that Davenport became manager of the Giants, my dad gave me his collection of cards that included Jim's 1959 and 1960 Topps cards.  As the Giants manager and third baseman of my dad's era, he became a favorite of mine.

Let's see your top 3 for an entry into the Wednesday Weekly Contest!

Wednesday Weekly Contest

Now that pitchers and catchers have reported, I am getting all geared up for baseball season.  Whenever I can I have the MLB Network on to listen to and watch preseason games to get myself back in gear and build to the excitement of opening day.

I am very much looking forward to this season with the Giants trying to defend their World Championship and fight off the (new Yankees of the west) Dodgers and the rest of their division foes.  Each year around this time I get excited in anticipation of all the great things that happen as a result of the starting of the baseball season.

For this week's contest, just share one or more things that you like about the start of the baseball season.  The deadline to enter will be Monday at 9 PM PST.  I will random off all the entries and the winner will get a prize from the Prize Page. If I can get up to date on some scanning, I should have some more options posted by the end of this contest.

Here are a few of my favorite things about this time of the year:

1. Reviewing all the preseason predictions and write ups for all the baseball teams - I used to go out and buy 2-3 of the magazines but now primarily serf the web for all I can find.
2. Preparing for my annual preseason fantasy baseball draft
3. Anticipating having a game to listen to almost every single night.  Outside of the final round or two of the playoffs and March Madness basketball can no longer hold my interest.
4. Spending my weekends out at the local field with my boys - this year is the first time both will be playing so it will be a lot of time.
5. Planning a trip to get up to SF to watch a Giants in AT&T Park - the best stadium in baseball.

This is a card blog so I can have a post without a card:

Check out this sweet blue bordered parallel from 2010 Opening Day featuring the 2012 MVP Buster Posey.  This card of his is one of the better rookie cards of the last few years with the dugout picture and his partial catchers gear.  The mask is sweet and I am loving the black Giants jersey.  I won this card in drawing at Valley Sports Cards (I actually passed up a signed Clayton Kershaw to get this card) a couple months back.  I can't wait for Opening Day.

Good luck in the contest!

Superbowl Contest Winner Announced

It is time to get over my moping about the 49ers loss and close out this contest.

I am not going to draw this out too much.

Everyone knows by now that the Ravens won the game.

Joe Flacco was the MVP.

The score of the game was 34-31 for 65 total points.  Kaepernick rushed for 62 yards for a total of 127.

A couple people nailed the first two and one person was within 9 of the points plus yards total.

The winner of the contest is:


Jeff W. of 2 by 3 Heroes!

Congratulations Jeff.  Take a look at the Contest Winners tab and let me know what you want as your prize.

Thanks to everyone who entered.  Look for some baseball related contests coming up very soon.  Congratulations to the Ravens as well, hopefully we will be back next year.
  

Wednesday Weekly Contest Winner(s)!

I am still working my way out of my celebratory stupor, I should be back on track with regular blog posts soon.

As you may recall, the contest was to predict the winner of the World Series, the number of games and the MVP.  The winner and games were awarded 2 points and the MVP 3 points.  Nobody swept the 3 questions but with Pablo Sandoval hitting 3 HRs in game 1, the MVP got pretty easy if you entered later in the contest so we actually had 4 people correctly pick the Giants as the winner and Kung Fu Panda as the MVP for a total of 5 points.

1. Mark Kaz - 39 runs
2. Ryan H - 41 runs
3. madding - 51 runs
4. Mariner1 - 42 runs

The tie breaker was total number of runs in the series.  It was pretty low scoring (at least for the Tigers) so the total number of runs was 22.  Therefore the winner is Mark Kaz, the owner of the blog This Way to the Clubhouse (who I actually made a recent trade with and owe him a trade post)!

As you might have seen in the blog title, I have decided to nominate a second winner - irondequoit36, owner of the blog Old Foul Cardboard.  While he only earned 4 points with the prediction of a Giants sweep, he was the only entry to have the confidence in my team plus he was only 3 runs off by predicting 19 total runs.

Congratulations to Mark Kaz and irondequoit36!!!  Let me know which prize you would like off the prize page.

Thanks for participation and check out this week's contest.

Wednesday Weekly Contest

I have been slacking a little bit with a post World Series Celebration "hangover".  I still need to put together a fitting tribute to my team and close out last week's contest.  All in good time.

But it is Wednesday again and time for another give away.  Let's go with another positional list this week, the first basemen seemed like a popular topic so for this week's contest, post a comment with your list of your 3 favorite second basemen of all time from your favorite team.  If you don't have a favorite team, just list your favorite 3 second basemen of all time.   I will close it out on Saturday night and all the people that enter will be randomed on Random.org 3 times to identify a winner. 

I will share mine to get everyone started.

1. Robby Thompson - Thompson was a very solid second basemen on the teams of the mid 80s to mid 90s - prime time for my Giants viewing. He finished 2nd in the ROY voting to Todd Worrell in 1986, was a 2-time All Star and 1-time Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner. I remember his first couple years he was Rob and switched to Robby once he established himself.  Lots of fond memories of seeing him play as I grew up.

2. Jeff Kent - Lots to like about Kent.  He has some of the best statistics of any second baseman in baseball history.  He had no issues standing up to Barry Bonds.  He is doing well on this season of Survivor, even getting the one person who recognized who he was voted off pretty early.  He wasn't too skilled at washing his truck but he was one of the best at his position.  I am very curious to see what happens when he is up for the HOF.

3. Joe Morgan - Yes he only played a couple years for the Giants and was on the downside of his career but I remember the excitement of the Giants getting the 2-time MVP and World Champion in the early 80s. He does have one of the more memorable Giants moments of the early 80s, hitting a HR to knock the Dodgers out of the playoffs - you have to respect that!

Let's see your top 3 for an entry into the Wednesday Weekly Contest!

Wednesday Weekly Contest

Here we go with another installment and of course we have to go with a World Series prediction contest this week.  I am going to keep this contest open until the first pitch of Game 3 on Saturday evening.  If the Giants have proven anything, the first few games of a Series really don't tell the entire story.

So here are the predictions you need to make with points, just want to weigh the MVP a little higher since it is a tough prediction to make.

1. Who will win the World Series - 2 points
2. How many games will the Series go - 2 points
3. Who will be the World Series MVP - 3 points

Tiebreaker - Total runs in the entire series

Good luck and Go Giants!!!

Wednesday Weekly Contest Winner

This week's contest was guessing which Gold Hall of Fame Plaque I pulled out of my Jumbo Box of 2012 Topps Update.  With only 25 choices, there was a 4% chance of picking the right player.  We ended up with 27 entries and exactly 1 person picked the right player.  Here is the card:

Congratulations to Spiegel83 for correctly guessing Braves HOFer Warren Spahn!  Take a look at the contest prize page and let me know what you would like.

BTW this card is up for trade, I would love to get the Rickey Henderson, Reggie Jackson or Willie Mays for this set but would also consider some other nice Giants card(s).

Thanks to everyone for your participation and keep your eyes open for next Wednesday's contest.  The World Series starts on Wednesday so it will probably be something related to the Fall Classic.

Wednesday Weekly Contest

It is that time again.  I am heading out of town for work so I am going to have to make this one a quick one.  I bought a Jumbo box of 2012 Topps Update when it came out recently and one of my pulls was a Gold Hall of Fame Plaque.  The contest for this week is to guess which HOFer I pulled.

Here is the checklist off Beckett.com to help you all out.  Since last week I had over 25 entries, I will allow for duplicate guesses.  If more than one person guesses the right HOFer, I will random off the winners to determine the overall winner for the week.

2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFBR Babe Ruth
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFCR Cal Ripken Jr.
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFCY Carl Yastrzemski
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFGB George Brett
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFGC Gary Carter
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFJB Johnny Bench
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFJP Jim Palmer
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFJR Jackie Robinson
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFLG Lou Gehrig
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFMM Mickey Mantle
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFMS Mike Schmidt
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFNR Nolan Ryan
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFOS Ozzie Smith
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFRC Roberto Clemente
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFRH Rickey Henderson
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFRJ Reggie Jackson
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFRS Ryne Sandberg
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFSK Sandy Koufax
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFSM Stan Musial
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFTC Ty Cobb
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFTS Tom Seaver
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFWB Wade Boggs
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFWM Willie Mays
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFWS Warren Spahn
2012 Topps Update Gold Hall of Fame Plaque #HOFYB Yogi Berra

I will keep the contest open until Saturday evening.  Good luck!

Wednesday Weekly Contest Winner

I was really happy with the participation in last Wednesday's contest - in total I had 35 entries. Looks like the position favorites will have to return - look for it to return and move around the diamond.

Before we get to the results, lets see who the favorite firstbasemen are in the blogging community:

 Tied for 3rd with 4 votes each are Mark Grace and Will Clark

In 2nd place, with 5 votes, as somewhat of a surprise to me is Carlos Delgado:

Speaking of surprises, the top vote getter, named by 8 of the 35 respondents is John Olerud!

These Best of Fan Club cards look good but scan very bad!

All 4 cards are for trade if you happen to need a card of your favorite.

Now to the contest. As mentioned we had 35 entires and I placed all 35 into Random.org:

 Random #1:

 Random #2:

 And the winner is:

The Dimwit!  Nice going Sam and for the record, Sam's favorite firstbasemen are:

1. Jeff Bagwell
2. Lance Berkman
3. Will Clark

Check out the prize page and let me know what you want me to send your way.  Another contest will be coming your way this Wednesday.  Thanks for the participation, I really enjoyed reading everyone's lists.

Wednesday Weekly Contest

It is Wednesday again and time for another give away.  I think last Wednesday's contest was a huge success with 25 entries, hopefully you will continue to enjoy these as we move forward.  Congrats again to The Diamond King for winning the first contest - he selected a 2009 Goodwin Miguel Cabrera GU card as his prize.  I will try to add a few more to the list prior to ending this weeks contest.

I am a big fan of lists.  At work and at home the only way that I can ever get anything done or keep track of anything is through making a list.  I have thought about a feature for the blog of listing my favorite players by position for the Giants but I have decided to turn it into a periodic feature of the weekly contest.

For this week's contest, post a comment with your list of your 3 favorite first basemen of all time from your favorite team.  If you don't have a favorite team, just list your favorite 3 first basemen of all time.   I will close it out on Saturday night and all the people that enter will be randomed on Random.org 3 times to identify a winner.  Should be pretty simple and lots of fun.

I will share mine to get everyone started.

1. Willie McCovey - What a Surprise!  I think everyone who periodically frequents the blog knows McCovey is my favorite player. He was aging when I started following baseball but was my first baseball hero.  I did tons of reading about him and he and Rickey Henderson were the first players I started collecting.

2. Will Clark - Such a sweet swing and had a stretch where he was one of the best first basemen in the league. He famously homered off Nolan Ryan in his first at bat and had a number of very nice years on the Giants during the late 80s and early 90s.

3. J.T. Snow - He was one of the top fielding first baseman in all of baseball (he was a 2-time Gold Glove winner with the Angels before coming to the Giants then won 4 straight in SF) and a solid hitter and team leader.  He came up big in the clutch including a pinch-hit 3-run homer to tie and NLDS game in 2000 and a 2-run homer to help win Game 1 of the 2002 World Series.

Let's see your top 3 for an entry into the Wednesday Weekly Contest!

Wednesday Weekly Contest

I have been trying to think up a new idea for a contest on the blog and I am going to give something a try. Maybe it has been done before but either way I think it will be a fun way to engage the readers in the blog, reduce my inventory of cards that don't quite fit into the sweet spot of my collection and hopefully give the readers something they like and appreciate.

So here's the deal, each Wednesday I will be having a contest. How it will operate will vary.  There could be some predictions for games, trivia, a poll with an automatic entry if you answer or some other sort of idea that I hatch up.  Not too different yet but here is where I hope to generate a little excitement and interest.  I will have a list of prizes for the winner to choose from.  Each weekly winner will be able to pick a prize from the list and I will continue to add cards or items to the pick list over time.

I am hoping this gives you a chance to pick the prize that fits best into your collection or that you are most interested in owning. I will announce the winner the following Wednesday when I launch the next weekly contest and the winner will have until the following week to let me know which prize they are interested in.  Simple enough?  If you have ideas on how to enhance the idea drop me note and I will consider a tweak.

So here is the contest for my first Wednesday Weekly Contest:

Who will win the two Wild Card games on Friday?  Give the name of the two teams you think will win.  As a tiebreaker, guess the total number of runs scored combined in the two games.

The NL matchup is decided.

Still a few different matchup possibilities in the AL, make sure to wait until the teams are decided.

Good luck!  The prizes to choose from will be posted on the Prizes tab at the top of the blog.  I plan on adding the first batch of prizes in the next couple days.