Above, you will find a blank bracket that you can use to predict the winners in our eventual coaches' poll. And don't forget that you can vote already for the 'play-in' matchup between George Davis and John Clarkson, to see who gets the final 16-seed in the Infielders Region.
I highly recommend that you DO NOT try "penning" them onto the .jpg using MS-Paint, but maybe some other photoshop program wouldn't take as long. Here is what took me an hour to "handwrite":
[UPDATE: April 2nd]
The first round of polling now complete, we can see that there were many upsets and several places where my own predicted backet was busted. Here are the results:
[UPDATE: April 8th]
After two rounds, we have narrowed things down to the Sweet Sixteen. My own personal bracket (above) is now thoroughly busted, as Babe Ruth was upset by Ted Williams. Here are the rest of the scores:
[UPDATE: April 10th]
After three rounds, we are down to the Elite Eight, with each "region" pitting its two "best" players against each other. Here is the new bracket:
[UPDATE: April 11th]
After four rounds, we have finally reached the Final Four, with no two same seeds having advanced this far. We are down to a single one-seed (Cy Young), and single two-seed (Rogers Hornsby), a single five-seed (Christy Mathewson), and the nominal Cinderella, Ted Williams, the eight-seed from the Outfielders. Here are the deets:
[UPDATE: April 13th]
Just to wrap things up over here on the blog, we ended up voting, 5 to 1, for Cy Young as the top pitcher, and voted 4 to 2 for Ted Williams as the top hitter. We followed that up with Ted Williams besting Cy Young by 4 votes to 2, to capture the title of Best Baller in Baseball History.
Thanks to all for participating in this lengthy, and not always interesting exercise.
So get this, I spent three hours looking up stats to determine the best outfielders of all time. I just get finished, edit a few mistakes and then hit the "Submit" button, only to get the following message from Yahoo:
"Invalid Message- Error #113"
So, as you may have guessed, I'm pretty pissed off about that. All my work just disappeared. I'm tired, half drunk and really sore from sitting at my computer so long, so now I am going to enjoy the rest of my my cold 2-4 of Kokanee. Without further ado, here are the Left Fielders.
10. "Bucketfoot" Al Simmons(Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, Boston Bees, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox 1924-1944) 2215 GP, 8759 AB, 1507 R, 2927 H, 539 D, 149 T, 307 HR, 1827 RBI, 88 SB, .334 AVG, .982 FPCT
2x American League Batting Crown winner (1930, 1931) American League RBI Crown winner (1929) Hall of Fame 1953
9. Tim "Rock" Raines(Montreal Expos, Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, Florida Marlins 1979-2002) 2502 GP, 8872 AB, 1571 R, 2605 H, 430 D, 113 T, 170 HR, 980 RBI, 808 SB, .294 AVG, .987 FPCT
National League Batting Crown winner (1986) All-Star Game MVP (1987) Silver Slugger Award winner (1986) 7x All-Star (1981-1987)
8. Stan "The Man" Musial(St. Louis Cardinals 1941-1963) 3026 GP, 10972 AB, 1949 R, 3630 H, 725 D, 177 T, 475 HR, 1951 RBI, 78 SB, .331 AVG, .989 FPCT
2x TSN Player of the Year Award winner (1946, 1951) 3x National League MVP (1943, 1946, 1948) 7x National League Batting Crown winner (1943, 1946, 1948, 1950-1952, 1957) 2x National League RBI Crown winner (1948, 1956) 3x World Series Champion (1942, 1944, 1946) 20x All-Star (1943, 1944, 1946-1963) Hall of Fame 1969
Won American League's 9th of 9 Triple Crowns; MLB's 16th of 16 (1967) TSN Player of the Year Award winner (1967) All-Star Game MVP (1970) American League MVP (1967) 3x American League Batting Crown winner (1963, 1967, 1968) 7x Gold Glove Award winner (1963, 1965, 1967-1969, 1971, 1977) 18x All-Star (1963, 1965-1979, 1982, 1983) Hall of Fame 1989
TSN Player of the Year Award (1974) Babe Ruth Award (1967) 2x World Series Champion (1964, 1967) 6x All-Star (1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1979) Hall of Fame 1985
4. Manny "Man-Ram" Ramirez(Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers 1993-present) 2164 GP, 7820 AB, 1484 R, 2459 H, 525 D, 19 T, 540 HR, 1769 RBI, 37 SB, .314 AVG, .979 FPCT
Won inaugural American League Hank Aaron Award as the top hitter (1999) American League Hank Aaron Award winner (2004) American League Batting Crown winner (2002) American League Home Run Crown winner (2004) American League RBI Crown winner (1999) World Series MVP (2004) 2004's Highest Salary ($22,500,000.00) 9x American League Silver Slugger Award winner (1995, 1999-2006) 2x World Series Champion (2004, 2007) 12x All-Star (1995, 1998-2008)
3. Rickey "Man of Steal" Henderson(Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, San Diego Padres, Anaheim Angels, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers 1979-2003) 3081 GP, 10961 AB, 2295 Runs*, 3055 H, 510 D, 66 T, 297 HR, 1115 RBI, 1406 Stolen Bases*, .279 AVG, .979 FPCT
Holds MLB record for career Runs (2295) Holds MLB record for career Stolen Bases (1406) Holds MLB record for career Caught Stealing (335) Holds MLB record for single-season Stolen Bases (130), 1982 Holds MLB record for single-season Caught Stealing (42), 1982 American League MVP (1990) ALCS MVP (1989) American League Gold Glove Award winner (1981) 3x American League Silver Slugger Award winner (1981, 1985, 1990) 2x World Series Champion (1989, 1993) 10x All-Star (1980, 1982-1988, 1990, 1991) Hall of Fame 2009
Holds MLB record for career On Base Percentage (.482) Holds MLB record for career Triple Crowns (2) Won American League's 5th and 6th Triple Crowns (1942, 1947) 5x TSN Player of the Year Award winner (1941, 1942, 1947, 1949, 1957) 2x American League MVP (1946, 1949) 6x American League Batting Crown winner (1941, 1942, 1947, 1948, 1957, 1958) 4x American League Home Run Crown winner (1941, 1942, 1947, 1949) 4x American League RBI Crown winner (1939, 1942, 1947, 1949) 17x All-Star (1940-1942, 1946-1951, 1953-1960) Hall of Fame 1966
1. Barry Bonds(Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants 1986-2007) 2986 GP, 9847 AB, 2227 R, 2935 H, 601 D, 77 T, 762 Home Runs*, 1996 RBI, 514 SB, .298 AVG, .984 FPCT
Holds MLB record for career Home Runs (762) Holds MLB record for single-season Home Runs (73), 2001 Holds MLB record for single-season Slugging Percentage (.863), 2001 Holds MLB record for single-season On-Base Percentage (.601), 2004 Holds MLB record for single-season Walks (232), 2004 Holds MLB record for single-season Intentional Walks (120), 2004 Holds MLB record for career MVP Awards (7) Holds MLB record for career Player of the Month Awards (13) 3x TSN Player of the Year Award winner (1990, 2001, 2004) 7x National League MVP (1990, 1992, 1993, 2001-2004) 3x National League Hank Aaron Award winner (2001, 2002, 2004) 2x National League Batting Crown winner (2002, 2004) 2x National League Home Run Crown winner (1993, 2001) National League RBI Crown winner (1993) 8x National League Gold Glove Award winner (1990-1994, 1996-1998) 12x National League Silver Slugger Award winner (1990-1994, 1996, 1997, 2000-2004) 14x All-Star (1990, 1992-1998, 2000-2004, 2007)
