1976 Topps Card of the Year - Semi-Finals

• Johnny Bench and the Oscar Gamble Traded card advance to the semi-finals

• The first semi-final round pits Pete Rose against the Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing Champion card. Please pick your favorite. The top vote-getter will advance to the finals.

Pete Rose #240

Kurt Bevacqua Bubble-Blowing Champion #564

1976 Topps Card of the Year (Round 4) - the final eight!

• We're down to the final eight cards. Steve Garvey, Johnny Bench, Oscar Gamble Traded, and Carl Yastrzemski advanced from round 3 group 2.

• Please vote for your favorite card from round 4, group 1. The top two vote-getters will advance to the semi-finals. Some really cool cards are going to be voted off in this round (especially in the other bracket)

Dave Parker #185

Pete Rose #240

Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing Champion #564

World Series Champions #462

1976 Topps Card of the Year - on to round 3!

• Dave Parker, Pete Rose, Tito Fuentes, and World Series Champs advanced to round 3.
• We're down to 16 cards. We'll do two groups of eight. The top four cards from each group will advance to round 4.
• Here are the competitors in the first group:

Dave Parker #185

Pete Rose #240

Tito Fuentes #8

World Series Champs #462

Mike Schmidt #480

Rick Manning #275

Luis Tiant #130

Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing #564

1976 Topps Card of the Year (Round 2, Group 3)

• Oscar Gamble Traded, Steve Garvey, Carl Yastrzemski, and Jerry Reuss all made it to the next round. Jerry Reuss and Sal Bando were tied for the fourth spot so I made an "executive decision"
• Please vote for your favorite(s) from Group 3. The top four cards will advance to the next round.
• The following cards comprise Group 3 of round 2:

Greg Luzinski #610

Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing Championship #564

Dave Lopes RB #4

Luis Tiant #130

Gene Tenace #165

Rick Manning #275

Al Oliver #260

Mike Schmidt #480

1976 Topps Card of the Year (Round 1, Group 5)

• The top four vote-getters from group 4 were Hank Aaron Record Breaker, Jerry Reuss, Jim Palmer, and Johnny Bench. Those cards will move on to the next round.

• Here are the competitors in group 5. Please vote for your four favorites from this group. The top four cards will move on to the next round.

Ken Henderson #464

Kurt Bevacqua Bazooka Bubble Blowing Championship #564

Lou Brock #10

Luis Tiant #130

Manny Sanguillen #220

Mickey Lolich #385

Mike Cuellar #285

Mike Marshall #465

1976 Topps #564 - Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing Champion

• This card is awesome. There is nothing else to say about it. They should do more fun stuff like this. But that is a weird-looking bracket

.

Part 1 of the bubble blowing championship:



Part 2 of the bubble blowing championship:

1976 Topps #427 - Kurt Bevacqua

• Kurt Bevacqua was a utilityman and pinch hitter for six teams from 1971-1985. Bevacqua was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in 1967 and played in the Reds’ system from 1967-1971. On May 8, 1971 Kurt was traded to the Cleveland Indians for Buddy Bradford. Bevacqua finished the 1971 season with the Indians and batted .204 in 137 at bats.

• Kurt batted .313 for AAA Portland in 145 games. He was recalled in September of 1972 and batted .114 in 35 at bats. After the 1972 season Bevacqua was traded to the Kansas City Royals for Mike Hedlund.

• Bevacqua batted .257 in 276 at bats in 1973. After the 1973 season he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates with Ed Kirkpatrick and a minor leaguer for Nelson Briles and Fernando Gonzalez. Kurt batted .114 in 35 at bats (sound familiar?) with the Pirates before being traded back to the Royals for a minor leaguer and cash. Bevacqua batted .211 in 90 at bats for the Royals to finish the 1974 season.

• During spring training in 1975 Bevacqua was purchased by the Milwaukee Brewers. Kurt got some playing time with the Brewers and batted .229 in 258 at bats. He had one big highlight during the 1975 season, but that will be addressed when his other 1976 Topps card comes up. Bevacqua played for AAA Spokane for most of the 1976 season and batted .337. He went 1 for 7 with the Brewers at the end of the ’76 season.

• After the 1976 season Kurt was sold to the Seattle Mariners. He was cut during spring training in 1977 and he signed with the Texas Rangers. Kurt played in 94 games for AAA Tucson and batted .352. He came back to the majors in late July and batted .333 in 96 at bats. Kurt batted .222 in 248 at bats for the Rangers in 1978. After the 1978 season he was traded with Bill Fahey and Mike Hargrove to the San Diego Padres for Oscar Gamble, Dave Roberts and $300,000.

• In 1979 Bevacqua got the most playing time of his career. He started 53 games at third base and played in a total of 114 games, batting .253 in 297 at bats. Kurt was batting .268 in 71 at bats for the Padres in 1980 when he was traded to the Pirates on August 8. Bevacqua batted .163 in 43 at bats for the Pirates at the end of the 1980 season.

• Kurt split time between the minors and the Pirates in 1981. He batted .259 in 27 at bats for the Pirates and was released after the 1981 season. Bevacqua was resigned by the Padres before the 1982 season.

• In 1983 Kurt batted .244 in 156 at bats. He batted .200 in 80 at bats in 1984. Bevacqua was 0 for 2 as a pinch hitter in the 1984 NLCS. He homered in game 2 of the World Series to help the Padres to their only win in the series. Kurt batted .412 in 17 at bats in the Series.

• Bevacqua batted .239 in 138 at bats in 1985. He retired after the 1985 season. Life and Times of A Big League Utility Player – February 1985 Baseball Digest. He Has Hung Around the Major Leagues Since 1971, Exceling as a Kind of Zany Pinch-Hitter's Pinch-Hitter – March 27, 1985 Los Angeles Times.

• Bevacqua is now the president of the Celebrity Players Tour (celebrity golf) and also owns Major League Protection Systems, which sells various aftermarket car parts to dealers. He met his current wife during a golf tournament in 1998 and they now have four children. Here is a “where are they now” article from 2002.
• Kurt had a feud with Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda in the early 1980s. This site has the story plus a wav file of Tommy saying what he thought of the whole thing (some naughty language here).

• Liked to face: Pete Falcone/Doyle Alexander (.500 in 10 AB); Bob Knepper (.375 in 24 AB)

• Hated to face: Dave McNally (.000 in 15 AB); Ken Holtzman (.063 in 16 AB); Atlee Hammaker (.125 in 24 AB)