Thursday, March 25, 2010

Tournament of Gimmicks: Round Two

The First Round is in the books, time for the Second Round.


Game #1



1) 2008 Topps #FS1 Kazuo Uzuki

A runaway winner in the First Round, easily defeating the 16-seed 1994 Score R/T September Call-Up Redemption. "The Uzi" looks like a lock to win the Jefferson Burdick region.

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9) 2007 Topps Alex Rodriguez Road to 500

Easily defeated the Ken Griffey, Jr. gimmick from last year's Upper Deck in the 8/9 matchup. The "mirror" insert that, like Kyle's cousin, just won't go away.

Game #2





4) 2008 Topps Updates & Highlights "Upside-Down" Longoria, Bruce, and Fukudome

Another first-round walkover, beating Donruss Triple Play to advance. Like Hand Collated said, there could be a whole wing in the Gimmick Hall of Shame dedicated to what Topps did to poor Kosuke Fukudome in 2008.

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5) 2010 Topps Yankee-Pie-In-The-Face

The 5/12 matchup traditionally is ripe for an upset, but not in the Jefferson Burdick bracket, as Yan-kkake beat the 2001 Donruss single-card Retroactive packs.

Game #3



6) 1997-98 Pinnacle Mint

A close win over the Adrian Gonzalez "Rangers" card from last year's Topps Heritage put Pinnacle Mint into the Second Round. I still have no idea what Pinnacle was thinking with this.

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3) 1989 Fleer #616 Billy Ripken "Fuck Face"

The Billy Ripken Fuck Face card may be the only competition Kazuo Uzuki has on The Road to the Gimmick Final Four. Fuck Face easily dispatched the Leaf Materials inserts of the mid-90s.

Game #4


10) 1998 Pinnacle Multi-Stat-Backs

The biggest First Round upset in the Jefferson Burdick region was the #10 seeded '98 Pinnacle Multi-Stat Backs edging out the 2008 Topps Heritage Johan Santana "Mets" SP.

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2) Manufactured Letter Patches

An easy First Round win over the Gimmmick equivilant of a Historically Black College that always gets rolled in the First Round of the real NCAA Tournament. Letter Patches face a pretty tough Second Round matchup against a strong mid-major.



You have until Monday at 12:01AM (ET) to cast your vote.

1 comment:

Joe S. said...

People who love these gimmicks spend a lot of money chasing them. Ironically, the people who hate them do nothing but talk about them, either.

I don't mind the autographed manufactured patches - it's better than a hashed photo with a sticker in the middle - but I will fully agree that the 'plain' manufactured patch cards are stupid.