A Bracket, Sponsored by Dime Boxes

I've been sitting on this PWE of awesomeness for about five days now and I've finally reached an idea on how to post the 18 cards, which hopefully will do them justice.

Nick, he of Dime Boxes lore, authors one of my favorite blogs. In fact, I've started my own "Folder of Fun" which is a knock-off version of his wonderful Frankensets. Maybe someday I'll get around to posting the pages, but that's another blog post for another month. In the meantime, I think creating a bracket, in a vein similar to Nick's, is the best way to go.

You might be thinking, "How does one fit eighteen of anything into a bracket?"  Well, if you're a nerdy math teacher who is hung up on symmetry, then you don't.

These two cards, which would be the only duplicate additions to my collect, will not be entered in the bracket.

 These will go out as part of a prize package at the end of the tournament, along with some other cards in a PWE. Once the contest starts, post a comment with your winners for that round. Each participant will be given one entry per post. Feel free to expound on your ballot if you choose! Only one entry, per person, per each of the five posts.

Here's a quick screenshot of the contestants in our 16-card bracket. The details of the cards have been removed to keep the intrigue intact.

Each of the quadrants represents a "division" the Cubs have played in over the years. At first it was just the AL and NL, but then the NL East came to be with the expansion in 1969. You remember those times when Atlanta was in the NL West?  Weird. Then the Cubs were part of the newly formed NL Central in 1994 when the wildcard was added. I needed a fourth and because it feels like we're still stuck in Spring Training the "Cactus" bracket made sense.

This should be a fun little exercise. The seeding is based upon my favorite cards in the PWE. Dave Kingman gets the highest seed because it's one of the oldest "cards" and simply stated it is the bee's knees. Ernie Banks and Anthony Rizzo are bringing up the rear? Crazy, I know.

Look for a post tomorrow which will spotlight the four match-ups on the left side of the bracket. Leave a comment with your four winners in the comment section. I think two days between posts should be plenty and then we'll knock out the right side of the bracket. Two more days down the road and I'll post the Elite Eight, then the Final Four, and then somewhere around the latter half of next week we'll have a champion.

I hope you enjoy this mini-series. Thanks for stopping by!