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To get into the College World Series Contest. See the previous post to enter and good luck! If you want to get a bonus point for pimping the contest, that has to be done before 8:00 am Central time.

College World Series Contest

Earlier today, the NCAA announced the 64 teams that will be competing for the 2012 College World Series championship. To commemorate it, I am holding the third annual College World Series contest here at Autographed Cards. It is going to be a couple of weeks before the main phase of the contest starts, but you can earn some bonus points here that could make a difference when the main portion gets going. All you have to do right now is pick the eight teams that are going to be playing in Omaha. Here are the teams to choose from.

Slot One

1. Florida
1. North Carolina St
2. Georgia Tech
2. Vanderbilt
3. Charleston
3. UNC Wilmington
4. Bethune-Cookman
4. Sacred Heart

Slot 2

1. Virginia
1. South Carolina
2. Oklahoma
2. Clemson
3. Appalachian St
3. Coastal Carolina
4. Army
4. Manhattan

Slot 3

1. Oregon
1. Purdue
2. Cal St Fullerton
2. Kentucky
3. Indiana St
3. Kent St
4. Austin Peay
4. Valparaiso

Slot 4

1. Rice
1. Baylor
2. Arkansas
2. Dallas Baptist
3. Sam Houston St
3. UT Arlington
4. Prairie View
4. Oral Roberts

Slot 5

1. UCLA
1. Texas A&M
2. San Diego
2. TCU
3. New Mexico
3. Mississippi
4. Creighton
4. Dayton

Slot 6

1. Miami (FL)
1. LSU
2. UCF
2. Oregon St
3. Missouri St
3. Belmont
4. Stony Brook
4. La-Monroe

Slot 7

1. North Carolina
1. Arizona
2. East Carolina
2. New Mexico St
3. St. Johns
3. Louisville
4. Cornell
4. Missouri

Slot 8

1. Stanford
1. Florida St
2. Pepperdine
2. Mississippi St
3. Michigan St
3. Samford
4. Fresno St
4. UAB

All you have to do is pick one team from each slot for a total of eight teams. For every team that you pick that makes it into the College World Series, you will get one point and that point(s) could be the difference between winning and losing in the second round. If you don't feel like participating right now, that's fine. You can enter the second phase without participating in the first, but you might have some ground to make up.

I haven't figured out what the prizes are yet, but some of the prizes from the previous years include autographs from Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew, Jim Rice, Rod Carew, and Bruce Sutter. I have a few things laying around that I plan to give away, plus I usually end up with some really good stuff at the College World Series. I am going to try to keep all of the prizes autograph related this year. I just probably won't know what they are until I get back from Omaha on the 17th of June.

You can get one bonus point just by pimping this contest on your blog. Just leave a link in the comments and I will chalk you up a point (yes, I use a chalkboard for scoring this contest).

Here is the format that your entry (comment) should look like.

Slot one: Florida
Slot two: Army
Slot three: Kent St
Slot four: Dallas Baptist
Slot five: TCU
Slot six: Belmont
Slot seven: Missouri
Slot eight: UAB

Link to your blog (which can be in a separate comment).

If you have any questions, ask in the comments or email me at zman40 at hotmail dot com. The deadline to enter the first phase of this contest is 11:00 am (central)Friday . Good luck and thanks for playing.

Keep in mind that the main portion of this contest is filling out a College World Series bracket when that field is determined in a couple of weeks. Every year, there are a couple of people that enter the first phase of the contest that never end up filling out a bracket. Those people have yet to win this contest.

2006 Topps, Turkey Red, Clint Barmes

#TRA-CB Clint Barmes

Here is a card that I won in a contest about three years ago. The contest was held at "A Pack a Day" (remember that blog?) by skoormit. He had a bunch of packs of late '80s Topps and the contest was called "California vs The World". To win the contest, I think you had to pick if the cards would contain more California-born ballplayers or foreign players and how many more there would be. I guessed California and somehow managed to guess a closer amount than anyone else. Skoormit asked me what I wanted for a prize and, when I told him that I mainly just focus on autographs, he sent this card to me as the grand prize. He also included a Bo Jackson bat card that I thought was pretty cool and a bunch of random Royals cards.

Speaking of contests, the college baseball season is heating up and that can only mean one thing. It's about time for my third annual College World Series contest. On Monday, the 64 team field will be introduced and it will be on. I have to work all day tomorrow, so expect the contest to be posted later in the evening. The contest will be run like it has in the past and you can check out the past ones by clicking on the contest label on the right side of the blog.

2006 Topps Turkey Red, Brandon Inge

#512 Brandon Inge

Here is the second Brandon Inge card that I have to post. I got Brandon to sign for me once and it was before the Royals final game of the season last year. I got to the ballpark just in time to get Brandon as he arrived in his cab. He signed all three cards for me and seemed to sign everything for everyone that was out there.

I was surprised when the Tigers released Brandon last month. He was a life-long Tiger who had been with the team for a dozen years. He had an off year last season that included a mid-season demotion to AAA and then got off to a slow start this season, as well. Through nine games with Detroit, Brandon was only hitting .100 when he was let go. The A's picked him up on the cheap shortly thereafter and Brandon was hitting .227 with them before landing on the disabled list with a strained groin.

Brandon's signature isn't exactly readable, but whose is anymore? At least I can make out his initials.

2006 Topps Turkey Red, David DeJesus

#464 David DeJesus

Here is the third David DeJesus card that I have posted on here. This signature was obtained by the Royals parking lot prior to a game in 2009.

Anyone notice anything funny about the picture on this card? For some reason, David is wearing a right-handed glove on his left hand (which is his throwing hand) and the glove is backwards. I would hope that David is smart enough to wear a glove the correct way and on the correct hand, but you never know. He could have been just goofing around. Or, maybe Topps decided to photoshop the glove in and do a terrible job of it in the process.

David had an off year last season with the A's. He is now a Cub and is off to a decent start. He is hitting .282 so far this season and a quarter of his hits are for extra bases. Too bad the rest of the team isn't playing any better as the Cubs are only 15-29 right now after dropping their last nine contests. Unfortunately, my Royals have already had a twelve game skid this year, so I don't feel sorry for the Cub fans yet.

On Tuesday, I went to my first Wingnut game of the season and I think I might have had my best autograph day ever. I came home with 34 signed cards and I got every single card that I took with me signed. A lot of the cards were doubles as many of those players are lucky enough to just have one card, but is was still a good day. The two best signatures I got were from former National Matt Chico and the 2003 American League Rookie of the Year, Angel Berroa, who signed a bat card.

2006 Topps Turkey Red, Coco Crisp

#378 Coco Crisp

Here is the third and final card that I got signed by Coco Crisp at Royals Fanfest in 2009. That year was Coco's only season with the Royals and he only got into 49 games with them as he battled injury problems all season long. He ended up having surgery on both shoulders that season and the Royals didn't re-sign him. Because of that, these three cards that I got signed at Fanfest are the only three autographs that I have of him.

Coco has been playing for the A's since leaving Kansas City and, after battling injury problems his first season there, he had a productive year with them last year. He played in 136 games and hit .264 while sharing the lead league in stolen bases with 49. He is off to a bit of a slow start this year, though, as he is only hitting .197 through 19 games. Having played in so few games makes me wonder if he is battling the injury woes again this season.

I really liked this Turkey Red set when it came out in 2006. For me, it was so much more different than any of the other sets with its look and feel. But, I am not as pleased with it any more. Once I finally got some cards from the set signed, I started to change my opinion. It would seem like a great set to get signed except for the fact that the pictures are so dark that the autograph isn't as easy to make out as it should be. Luckily Topps fixed that aspect of the set by the time it had been reduced to an insert. But, by that time, it was too late.

On a personal note, I have now been to five Royals games this year and the team is a whopping 0-5 in the games I have been to. Welcome to the life of a Royals fan. I'm going to my first Wingnuts game of the year tonight and I am really looking forward to that. It seems like I have more cards to take with me to get signed than usual, so I am hoping to come home with a big score. It helps that the visiting New Jersey Jackals has former big leaguers Matt Chico and Angel Berroa on their roster.

2006 Tristar Prospects Plus, Brad Lincoln

#P-12 Brad Lincoln

Here is a card that I got signed at the Futures Game in St. Louis, Missouri in 2009. Brad was in AA at the time and he got picked to represent the USA team before getting bumped up to AAA in the second half of the season. I was lucky enough to get this card signed by Brad during the pre-game workouts. It was a madhouse there and I am hoping that there will be fewer 'graphers at the event this summer in Kansas City. I'm sure that is just wishful thinking, but you never know.

The Futures Game in 2009 will best be remembered by me for the four hour rain delay that struck in the middle of the first. Halfway through the delay, Brad decided that he wanted to play some frisbee out on the field and, to his dismay, the frisbee landed on the tarp covering the infield. So, being the good-hearted ballplayer that he is and not wanting to tear up the tarp with his spikes, Brad removed his cleats before retrieving his frisbee. He then proceeded to remove his socks and then hike his pants up. I took a picture of it and I was far away, so it is not that great. But, this will always be how I remember Brad Lincoln.

Brad broke into the Majors with the Pirates in 2010. He pitched in 11 games that year and posted a 1-4 record with a 6.67 ERA. He got into 12 games last season and increased his win/loss record to 2-3 while dropping his ERA to 4.72. After mostly starting games his first two seasons, Brad has mainly pitched out of the pen so far this season and he has had much better results. Through 8 outings thus far, Brad is 3-0 with a 1.34 ERA while almost striking out a batter per inning.

On a completely unrelated note, I did something really stupid yesterday. I went to the Royals game and 'graphed the players parking lot afterwards. When I was done with that, I went to my car to leave and set my autograph book on the roof while I got settled inside. I then drove off and left my precious little book behind. I only lost three autographs, but I lost about fifty cards including cards from three different minor league team sets. Stupid, stupid, stupid!!! Needless so say, I was a little more than bummed out when I got home last night and realized what I had done. Oh well. It will be the last time I ever make that mistake.

Brad is playing for the Hickory Crawdads in this card. The Crawdads were the Pirates A team when this card came out, but they have since switched to the Rangers. They are a part of the South Atlantic League and they play in Hickory, North Carolina.