College World Series Finale

For the first time since I started running this contest, it has lasted through the finals. In the previous years, the winner had been determined by the time the finals were set. This was by far the closest finish I had ever had and it almost came down to the tie-breaker. This year's winner rode UCLA from the get-go, picking them to advance to the CWS and then to win it all. In fact, his pick for them was the only one that he got right in the initial round. Had he picked another team to advance besides UCLA, he would have lost in a tie-breaker. So, this year's winner is Greg Zakwin, from the blog Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle. Congrats Greg! Here is what you won.

Last year, I gave away autos from Hall of Famers. This year, it is a couple of autographs from future Hall of Famers John Smoltz and Ivan Rodriguez.

Greg, send me your address as soon as possible to I can get these items mailed out to you. My email is zman40 at hotmail dot com.

Thanks to everyone who participated and I look forward to doing this again next year.

*editor's note: in my last post, I basically said that the series needed to go to three games for Greg to win. I honestly thought that and was prepared to name spankee the winner before I double checked myself before I posted. Somehow, I missed one of Greg's points, eliminating the need for the tie-breaker. If anyone is unsure of the scoring, you get one point for each team you pick to advance to the CWS, and then one point for games 1,2,4, and 5, two points for game two, and three points for games 6/7 and the finals with any extra point if you pick the correct number of games.

Here are the final standings
Greg: 12 (11 bracket points and 1 advancing point)
Spankee: 11 (8+3)
Joey Dean and Wilson: 10 (7+3)
Ryan: 4
The Lost Collector: 3 (1+2)