Contest: Round 1 Results!

Before I unveil the results of Round 1, I have a request for all vanquished competitors.  You aren't done yet - if you'd like to, send me a scan of a single baseball card that might make for a fun writing prompt.  In this way, you might be able to get a little "revenge" by having your card chosen as a writing prompt in a future round.  Please note:  I reserve the right to use as many (or as few) card submissions as I please.  It's my contest, it's my rules!

And now, the results of Round 1 (note the number next to the name is the seed which was determined in Round 0).

1 Carlos Salgada vs. bye:  
Carlos earned the bye thanks to his #1 seed from Round 0 - but he still submitted an entry as a good sport!  Carlos was the only competitor guaranteed to move on to Round 2 since no one else earned a bye.

16.  Richard Nebe Jr. vs. 17.  Scott Sawyer

You don't get much closer that that!  Congrats to Scott for the win - but a congrats to Richard Nebe Jr. for putting up a tough, tough fight!  Even though this is a bracket contest with one winner at the end, I'm hopeful that everyone who participates in the contest will consider themselves a winner (at the very least, hopefully you got some new readers for your individual blogs)!

8.  Dan vs. 25.  Mark 

Mark had a nice showing in Round 1 and is the second lower seed to advance (so far both lower seeds have moved on).  Maybe some people decided to use Round 0 as a warm-up and/or sandbag a bit?  A bold strategy to be sure, we'll see if it works in the end I suppose.

9.  dkwilson vs. 24.  Eric L.

Another vote that quite close.  I think it's impressive that even in a loss Eric L. managed to garner 14 votes saying his post was "the best."  I think it says something about the collective blogging whole - lots of different ideas of what is good/bad (which is what makes blogging so fun...and probably what makes designing baseball cards so difficult for companies like Topps).

4.  Wilson vs. 29.  Tom 

Based on the initial seedings, this was almost a huge upset!  Of course, given the talents of both bloggers I don't think it really would have been much an upset, each person is quite talented!!  Even so, this is a contest where a single vote can make the difference between moving on and going home (this is the second 1-vote win of the round)!

13.  30 Years of Cardboard vs. 20.  unclemoe  (no entry - disqualified)
30 Years of Cardboard earned an easy victory since unclemoe didn't show up for Round 1.  Unfortunately for the contest, unclemoe wasn't the only no show of the round.   For the bracket, I've entered scores of 0 for both competitors (but the one who had an entry, in this case 30YoC, is the one moving on).

5.  BA Benny vs. 28.  Baseball Dad

BA Benny was a vocal supporter of the contest on his blog - and he was rewarded with a 21-5 victory of Baseball Dad.  I have a feeling that we will see a bit more campaigning for votes in the next round since I expect the contests to be very close!

12.  opoohwan vs. 21.  Josh D. 

As the host of the contest, I found it interesting that there was such a wide spread in terms of total votes cast for each pairing.  As a best guess, I would assume people didn't vote when they couldn't choose which was better (which if true would suggest this match up was even closer than the 5 point spread appears)!

2.  Play at the Plate vs. 31.  superduperman99 (no entry - disqualified)
Our second no show of the round was turned in by superduperman99.  Once again, disappointing but I guess it's good news for our second seed Play at the Plate - an easy entry into Round 2.

15.  dhoff vs. 18.  arpsmith (no entry - disqualified)
Hot on the heels of superduperman99's no show, arpsmith also failed to complete an entry in time for the contest.  As such, it means that there was no (true) competition for the Willie McGee card prompt which was also too bad since it's a fun card!

7.  Alfredo Ortega vs. 26.  Matt Pederson (no entry - disqualified)
Yet another no show...Alfredo moves on without a challenge.

10.  gcrl vs. 23.  Robert 

This was another round with a relatively low number of votes.  Perhaps both gcrl and Robert should have campaigned a bit more on their respective blogs for votes!

3.  dayf vs. 30.  High-Five Man (no entry - disqualified)
This is the first documented case where a participant seemed "scared off" by his or her competition.  In this case, High-Five Man conceeded to dayf without a vote-off.  I don't recommend that because you never know what will happen until you try!

14.  madding vs. 19.  Kyle4KC 

Another "upset" in terms of seeding.  #19 Kyle4KC will now square off against #3 seed Dayf.  There are five different match-ups in the second round where the seeds are separated by 16 spots!  March Madness has nothing on our bracket!

6.  Spankee vs. 27.  PAB 

This poll was posted close to the bottom of the page (and notice the larger number of voters).  I wonder if people just skipped over the middle of the post and only voted for contests near the top and bottom of the page?  Weird.

11.  Jason vs. 22.  Kirk Jacobson 

You can ignore my previous idea - this poll was at the bottom of the page and it only garnered 19 votes.  I guess some people did a better job at driving traffic from their blog to the poll than others...

I plan to have the Round 2 prompts post up before too long.  I need to update the bracket first (and scan some cards).  For the record, I plan (hope) to have the Round 2 post go live at 9:00 AM EST tomorrow (Monday) morning.