The (Second) Dime Box Frankenset Bracket: The Play-Ins (Pt. 2)

The bracket madness is underway, and we've already got some surprises and drama -- let's take a look at how the first batch of play-in matchups turned out.

Play-In Seed #1 (Page 42) -- 1992 Stadium Club #376 Greg Gagne (27 votes)

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Play-In Seed #20 (Page 66) -- 1991 Upper Deck #587 Kurt Stillwell (14 votes)

#2 (Page 53) -- 1991 Score #475 Andy Van Slyke (23 votes)

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#19 (Page 59) -- 1995 Score #525 Kent Mercker (17 votes)

#18 (Page 7) -- 2008 Bowman Prospects #BP58 Scott Van Slyke (20 votes + tie-breaking vote)

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#3 (Page 63) -- 1993 Topps #565 Jerald Clark (20 votes)

#17 (Page 5) -- 1973 Topps #38 Mike Epstein (27 votes)

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#4 (Page 14) -- 1998 Topps #119 Orlando Merced (13 votes)

#5 (Page 24) -- 1970 Topps #213 Andy Etchebarren (22 votes)

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#16 (Page 3) -- 1995 Stadium Club #24 Julian Tavarez (19 votes)

First off: the bracket's already seeing excellent voter turnout, so much thanks to my awesome readers for that! Seed-wise, the Epstein was the only upset in the bunch -- but is '73 Topps really ever the underdog in any matchup? Hard to think so.

Also, as you may have noticed...we already have a tie! Jerald Clark and Scott Van Slyke were neck-and-neck all week until inevitably winding up in a 20-to-20 deadlock on the final day. As was the protocol for the ties we had with individual pages, I ask the first five people who care to comment on this post to leave their choice between Clark and Van Slyke. The first to receive three of these tie-breaking votes will move on to the bracket.

I'll update this post (and the bracket) once we have a winner.

(EDIT: Van Slyke wins!)

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In the meantime, we still have another batch of play-in battles to get to before the tournament gets fully underway -- here's a look at our remaining bracket hopefuls.

#6 (Page 26) -- 1973 Topps #231 Bill Parsons

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#15 (Page 73) -- 2013 Topps #649 Ryan Hanigan

#7 (Page 36) -- 1993 Donruss #319 Geno Petralli

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#14 (Page 70) -- 1993 Topps #623 Al Martin

#8 (Page 49) -- 1996 Upper Deck #434 Al Martin

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#13 (Page 65) -- 1993 Upper Deck #582 Brian Hunter

#9 (Page 20) -- 1996 Collector's Choice #173 Gary Gaetti

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#12 (Page 56) -- 2017 Topps #499 Danny Valencia

#10 (Page 27) -- 1974 Topps #238 Fran Healy

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#11 (Page 48) -- 1992 Stadium Club #430 Howard Johnson

Them's the matchups -- the polls are now on the sidebar. (And help break last week's tie!)

Happy voting!