MrMopar's 3rd Annual Baseball's Back Contest

[mrmopar]

I am a little late and didn't need to be timely after all, but locking the contest to new entries after the first pitch of the first game of the season, just to be official. Baseball season has started! Good luck to all! I'll check in periodically throughout the season to see where everyone stands.

 

[mrmopar]

First check in on the contest. The MLB leaders in your 6 statistical categories are, as of today:

H - Bo Bichette
HR - Pete Alonso
RBI - Adolis Garcia

W - Joe Ryan/Shane McClanahan
K - Spencer Strider
ERA - Sonny Gray

@Dazed and @banjar are on the right track at this time, but don't count out @joey12508 with the Freeman H pick or @dano7 with the Judge HR pick either. Heck, there is still a lot of season to go. Good Luck!

 

[dano7]

First check in on the contest. The MLB leaders in your 6 statistical categories are, as of today:

H - Bo Bichette
HR - Pete Alonso
RBI - Adolis Garcia

W - Joe Ryan/Shane McClanahan
K - Spencer Strider
ERA - Sonny Gray

@Dazed and @banjar are on the right track at this time, but don't count out @joey12508 with the Freeman H pick or @dano7 with the Judge HR pick either. Heck, there is still a lot of season to go. Good Luck!

Thanks for the update!

 

[Dazed]

Thanks for the update!

Agreed! Thanks

 

[mrmopar]

I usually did an ASG update in the past, but forgot. The season is heading into the final stretch. Here is how it looks now

The MLB leaders in your 6 statistical categories are, as of today:

H - Ronald Acuna Jr (181)
HR - Shohei Ohtani (44)
RBI - Matt Olson (112) - Monster Year!

W - Spencer Strider (16)
K - Spencer Strider (245)
ERA - Blake Snell (2.60) - Where has this guy been hiding since his CY in 2018?

Nobody is on the leaderboard currently, but I think 3 of you realistically still have a shot, including @thelesquad @Dazed and @joey12508 . Freeman is having a career season, so that is where my money would be if I were betting.

 

[mrmopar]

Well, it looks like nobody picked a stat leader this year. it was close, but here are the final Major League leaders:

Hits - Ronald Acuna Jr (217)
HR - Matt Olson (54)
RBI - Matt Olson (139)

W - Spencer Strider (20)
K - Spencer Strider (281)
ERA - Blake Snell (2.25)

I think I will go ahead and award a random consolation prize winner though. It sucks to have a year long contast with no winner! I'll do a random drawing with the participants and announce the winner shortly. I then need to get off my butt and gather up some stuff to mail out to the 2023 winner, as well as the 2022 winners, whom I still own (big sorry about that)!

 

[JEBJJA]

Well, it looks like nobody picked a stat leader this year. it was close, but here are the final Major League leaders:

Hits - Ronald Acuna Jr (217)
HR - Matt Olson (54)
RBI - Matt Olson (139)

W - Spencer Strider (20)
K - Spencer Strider (281)
ERA - Blake Snell (2.25)

I think I will go ahead and award a random consolation prize winner though. It sucks to have a year long contast with no winner! I'll do a random drawing with the participants and announce the winner shortly. I then need to get off my butt and gather up some stuff to mail out to the 2023 winner, as well as the 2022 winners, whom I still own (big sorry about that)!

It was fun! Thank you.

 

[dano7]

We tried! I was done in by a toe!!!!!!!!!

 

[thelesquad]

These are always fun! Thanks for another season!

 

[mrmopar]

This morning, I listed all contestants by number, in order of how they appear on post #2 (I think that was the order you entered the contest). I then randomized that list, so it was mixed up. Finally, I decided spot 5 would be the drawing winner, so I randomized the list for a final time to see who landed on spot 5.

The drawing winner for 2023 is @CardBoredom

Please PM me your mailing address and a list of sports, teams and finally players that you like. No guarantee that I'll be able to hit specifics, but will do my best to try.

I'll be assembling the prize package for you and the 2 2022 winners @dano7 & @WizardofOz1982 in the next couple of weeks and will let you know when they are ready to ship. If your mailing addresses have happened to change since you gave them to me last year, please update.

 

[dano7]

My package arrived today! Thanks for a nice variety and the 3 Yankee autographs, one of which was new!!! I'll post them on my Yankees autographs thread.

 

[CardBoredom]

My package arrived today as well. When @mrmopar reached out and asked if I had any specific collecting interests, I gave a rather vague answer that I was looking for junk wax era Jose Canseco items. Today's mail included a very large envelope stuffed with goodies.

The item that first caught my attention was a "Jose Canseco Baseball Card Kit" from 1989. It was issued by CMC, the publisher of the Collect-A-Books issue in the following year. This kit consists of a 20-card set of green bordered cards and a binder store them in. I have seen these cards floating around but had never seen the method in which they were originally distributed. Also included in the kit was a booklet titled "The Jose Canseco Story" and a "Talking Baseball Card" that could be played like a vinyl record on a record player. I had fun going through this.

In addition to the kit, there was a wide array of items. A collapsed 1986 Donruss wax box was present. Turning it onto the back I was happy to see the box bottom cards were still intact. This one includes the Hank Aaron puzzle, as well as Willie Hernandez, the subject of a recent 1988 Topps Podcast episode. An intact Kraft Macaroni box from 1987 was included that featured Canseco and Glenn Davis as cards on the back. A separate cut out Darryl Strawberry card was included from the same issue. A notebook paper-sized profile of Canseco from the '90s was also present. I remember purchasing sheets of these in grade school and hadn't seen them in quite a while. The bombastic quotes are just as I remember them ("Some sluggers just hit home runs. I murder the ball"). An unpopped 1977 George Foster MSA Pepsi disc was also tucked inside. Foster is perhaps my favorite player from the Big Red Machine, largely because of his late-career arguments with the management of the NY Mets.

Finally, this wouldn't be from mrmopar without having someone included in a Dodgers uniform. A 1992 Front Row Roy Campanella hologram rounded out the package, complete with serial numbering on the back out of 100,000. The hologram was one of three players available from Front Row when it introduced a series of 5-card mini-sets chronicling the careers of several top retired players.

Thanks for the opportunity to go through these mrmopar!