The Arena's Favorite Baseball Player Tournament - winner announced!

Welcome to the Arena's Favorite Baseball Player tournament. A few notes before we begin:

This is a favorite player tournament, not best player tournament. So don't vote based on who was better, but just vote for the one you like more

Each round will last at least 24 hours, and possibly more depending on the number of votes received and my schedule. Later rounds (I will announce when this takes effect) will last at least 48 hours. Be sure to look at my most recent post for who is being voted upon currently. Votes for previous (or future) rounds will be ignored. You do not have to vote for every pairing in a round, however; you may abstain from some if you wish.

Each player's name will link to a wikipedia article to help you decide if you have trouble deciding

Feel free to discuss why you voted for a particular player, that is a large part of what makes these fun.

Voting with socks is prohibited. Such votes will be discounted and the user barred from future voting. Obviously, if you're game-banned, you can vote with that username as long as you do not vote with your regular name as well.

The bracket is divided into the AL and NL brackets, each of which has 8 divisions named after random teams in the league. Obviously, this means 16 teams have divisions named after then, and 14 do not. If your favorite team doesn't have a division, I'm sorry, but it really doesn't make a difference. Most divisions have 8 teams in them, but the first two (Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees) have more than this - an opening round will be used to bring the numbers in these divisions down to 8 apiece. There are 13 total opening round matchups (8 in the Red Sox division, 5 in the Yankees division) and all of these will be completed before moving on to the first round. The ordering of the players in the list, which includes the selection for who is in the opening round, was done at random.

For most of the tournament, there will be 4 pairs of names to vote on at a time. As the field narrows, this will drop to two and eventually only one pair. One of the opening round sets, however, will have 5 pairs (NYY opening round)

I will post the updated bracket on occasion, though not every time the round changes. The bracket will be kept in the second post of this thread, and will be updated more frequently, though again, not every time.

 

American League

Boston Red Sox

Rafael Furcal
Khalil Greene
Kenny Rogers
Kenny Lofton
"Pee Wee" Reese
Pete Rose
"Pokey" Reese
Preston Wilson
Paul Dee "Daffy" Dean
Paul Molitor.
Paul O'Neill
Pedro Martinez
Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd
Omar Vizquel
Orlando Cepeda
Ozzie Smith

New York Yankees

Nomar Garciaparra
Nolan Ryan
Nap Lajoie
Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown
Moonlight Graham
Michael Jordan
Mark McGuire
Mark Grace
Mark DeRosa
Mariano Rivera
--end opening rounds
Manny Ramirez
Luis Gonzalez
Lou Piniella

Chicago White Sox

Lou Gehrig
Kris Benson
Kirby Puckett
Kevin Youkilis
Willie McGee
Willie McCovey
Willie Mays
"Wee" Willie Keeler

Minnesota Twins

Will Clark
Warren Spahn
Walter Johnson
Wade Boggs
Ty Cobb
Troy Tulowitzki
Tony Batista
Tom Glavine

Oakland Athletics

Tino Martinez
Tim Lincecum
Thurman Munson
Ted Williams
Steve Pearce
Steve Olin
Stan Musial
Shoeless Joe Jackson

Baltimore Orioles

Satchel Paige

 

Opening Round, Part 1:

Boston Red Sox:

Rafael Furcal vs Khalil Greene

Kenny Rogers vs Kenny Lofton

"Pee Wee" Reese vs Pete Rose

"Pokey" Reese vs Preston Wilson

 

Furcal
Lofton
Rose
Pokey Reese

 

Khalil Greene
Kenny Lofton
"Pee Wee" Reese
Preston Wilson

 

Furcal
Lofton
Reese
Pokey Reese

:snoopy

 

Khalil Greene
Kenny Lofton
Pee-Wee Reese
Preston Wilson

 

Rafael Furcal
Kenny Lofton
Pete Rose
Preston Wilson

 

The all time hits leader can't get bounced in the first round can he?

 

Rafael Furcal

Kenny Rogers

Pete Rose

"Pokey" Reese

 

Furcal
Lofton
Pee Wee
Pokey

 

Lofton and Charlie Hustle. Abstain on the others.

 

Rafael Furcal
Kenny Lofton
"Pee Wee" Reese
"Pokey" Reese

 

Opening Round, Part 1:

Boston Red Sox:

Rafael Furcal 6, Khalil Greene 2
Kenny Lofton 8, Kenny Rogers 1
Pee Wee Reese 5, Pete Rose 4
Pokey Reese 5, Preston Wilson 3

 

Opening Round

Boston Red Sox

Paul Dee "Daffy" Dean vs Paul Molitor.

Paul O'Neill vs Pedro Martinez

Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd vs Omar Vizquel

Orlando Cepeda vs Ozzie Smith

 

Paul Molitor.
Pedro Martinez
Omar Vizquel
Ozzie Smith

 

daffy

abstain

oil can

abstain

:snoopy

 

Daffy Dean
Pedro Martinez
Omar Vizquel
Orlando Cepeda

 

Paul Dee "Daffy" Dean

Paul O'Neill

Omar Vizquel

Ozzie Smith

 

Molitor
Martinez
Boyd
Smith

 

Molitor
Pedro
Oil Can
Ozzie.

I was a huge Molitor fan growing up. Pauly! Pauly! Pauly! Ted Williams said he had one of the best swings in baseball.

 

Molitor
Martinez
Abstain
Smith

 

Daffy
Pedro
Omar (though I do love Oil Can)
Wizard of Oz

 

Paul Molitor - He came to the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993 and became a leader in their repeat championship run without stepping on anyone else's toes. In spite of a realtively short time with the team (about 3 years), he remains a favourite among Blue Jays fans. A great hitter.

Pedro Martinez - Another in a long line of Montreal players to move on for more money and success elsewhere. If only the Expos had money in the mid-90s, they could have dominated that decade.

Omar Vizquel

Ozzie Smith - I liked his Simpsons appearance .

 

Paul Molitor.
Pedro Martinez
Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd
Ozzie Smith