taking a stand against fun and bubble gum

night owl recently posted this card in his bat around submission. i agree that it is a fun, frivolous card. what he didn't show was the back of the card and the brackets showing just how kurt bevacqua was crowned the champion.apparently, each team had a contest to determine who their rep would be (rick rhoden was the dodgers' entry) and then the brackets were drawn up. i am assuming that these matchups were not conducted face to face, by the way, but i really don't know. i also find it curious that angel mangual won the a's team contest, but was not their representative in the final tournament. that honor went to glenn abbott.

anyway, rhoden beat mike sadek in a first round rivalry matchup against the giants, and then beat john stearns of the mets (who had a first round bye) to advance to the three way semi-finals where he and the astros' mike cosgrove fell to johnny "satchmo" oates of the phillies. bevacqua, meanwhile, had a first round bye before beating walt williams of the yankees in round 2, followed by mickey scott of the angels and eric raich of the indians in the semis. i am assuming that he destroyed johnny oates in the finals.

why were there two first round byes, you might ask? well, it seems that the tigers and pirates declined to participate in the contest. i would guess that the pirates were to face the mets, and the tigers were to battle the brewers, and it was too late to change the matchups.

i am also guessing that joe garagiola was using this event to promote alternatives to tobacco use. i think he used to go around to teams during spring training and talk about the perils of chewing tobacco. maybe that's why the tigers and pirates both passed - they didn't want to sit through the lecture.