I am not saying that Brad ISN'T hot. Its just that he is not quite the level of the others... it isn't fair to compare him to 20-somethings who are in an earlier prime. All of these guys are hot...

And the Asian bodybuilder was one of my fave first rounders, MDG. I also loved Koji.

1 day left to vote and Old Man Brad has a slight lead over young David.

It looks like the winner of the America match is going to face David "The Wolf man" Williams unless Mr. Youngquest can make a huge rally.

Obviously no one will ever be satisfied because they are actually naive enough to think that everyone else should have the same taste as them. All of the gentlemen nominated in this contest are attractive and unfortunately most of them couldn't give a rat's ass what "we" think about them.

Sorry Eddie- I still love ya!

and don't you forget it either,young man! XO

Voting is open for the King of the Hardwood Championship VI.

America Champion: Brad Ausmus - Baseball

vs.

World Champion: David Williams - Rugby League


VOTE HERE

Brackets

Mariner? Where did you find that pic of Brad? The one of Brad in his Dodger uniform, playing on th KoTH slide show. I must have it. PLEASE !!!!

I was disappointed to see Nick Youngquest fall in the tournament. Kenneth in the (212) posted several pictures of a photo shoot and YouTube video of this great-looking athlete. The photos and video show an athlete very comfortable in his own skin and in no way shy about showing that skin! I dare say the same is not the same with Ausmus, fine looker though he may be, or any other American athlete!

Kenneth in the (212)
More pictures of Nick in his Glory!

Go Wolfman Williams!!!

Boy please. You know you have to go to Rod 2.0 to see the hot boys of flava.

I smell that the fix is in for the finals. Williams led 58% to 42% yesterday and now has a bare 50.8 to 49.2 lead. No way this many votes could have come in just for Ausmus in so short a time to switch the % that quickly.

As I wrote before, MDG is using the same polling software we did for our local contests. We discovered that someone was able to manipulate the system to vote multiple times from the same computer. Same thing is happening here. Someone is a huge Ausmus fan and skewing the system. I hope Ausmus is not included next year. This is zero fault of MDG, BTW, who does an amazing job with this contest.

I just want to say that MDG rocks and works his ass off on this project...

Whoever the Ausmus fan/manipulator is, you really, truly suck.

Oh well.... guess it isn't worth getting THAT upset about- but it just sucks for one person to ruin what should be such a fun event...

I voted for Williams. No contest as far as I'm concerned.

It's so sad that the same moral rot that is ruining our country, the one that says it's okay to take steroids if you don't think you'll ever be caught, or that it's okay to torture prisoners because political hacks posing as legal thinkers justify it, has manifested itself here at Outsports.

I believe that any study of the recent swing in the voting in Ausmus's favor that incorporates statistical analysis will demonstrate a very, very high probability that such a swing is not random and is thus almost certainly an instance of ballot box stuffing. Under these circumstances, I would suggest that Ausmus should be disqualified from the competition, and so by default, the crown would go to Youngquest. I am not at all happy about making this suggestion, and I'm sure many here will oppose it, but I just don't believe that cheating should be rewarded, and the odds are quite slim now that no cheating on Ausmus's behalf took place.

Dishonesty should not be rewarded, because if no steps at all are taken to redress the wrong that has quite likely been done (namely, the unfair elimination of at least one of Ausmus's head to head competitors), or to redress the wrong that is soon to be done (a last minute come from behind "win" by Ausmus), then this competition will be rendered totally empty and meaningless. If cheating is allowed to win out, then the site would be far better off just doing away with the competition altogether.

So many wrongs that are being done in the wider world and in the arena of sports have disproportionately destructive consequences not because significant numbers of people are actively malicious, but rather because significant numbers of people see wrongs being done but in effect condone the wrongs with their silence and their tacit acceptance. I would call on everyone here who believes in justice, and in doing what is right, even if no one but Heaven sees it, to join with me in saying NO to the manipulations and dishonest deeds of one boorish lout who is attempting to bring dishonor into this honorable community.

Certainly, the attempted theft of the crown of the King of the Hardwood competition is not that big a deal in the greater scheme of things, but cheating is never right, and being complacent or indifferent in the face of cheating is never a good thing for one's character, no matter how minor the infraction is in the "big picture."

And now Ausmus is ahead, which means he went from getting slightly more than 40% of the vote to all of a sudden around 60% in a day and a half, which is statistically highly, highly unlikely.

Also, in 4 of his 6 wins, Ausmus won 51-49 (3 times) and 50.2-49.8 once, in most (if not all) after trailing the whole period until the end. And even though I am no Jeremy Bloom fan, I find it impossible to think Ausmus beat him 57-43%.

Something about this just rubs me the wrong way, even though it's just for fun -- maybe that's the reason, that someone has no life that they have to manipulate an online contest like this. Also bummed since Williams' rep said he would be able to get quotes from him should he win, which would have been cool.

As you write, Jim, it's all in good fun, but what a damn shame! It would have been nice to hear from an athlete, like "Wolfman" Williams, who's willing to give a nod to his gay fans!

Still, MarinerDuckGuy does a great job with this year after year. Thanks, MDG!

And remember 1948 with Truman and Dewey. It may not be over, until the Fat Lady sings, or at least until the polls close!

Yes, I wholeheartedly second this!

Hey everyone. Thanks for the kind words. I have been having laptop problems so I have not been able to post sooner.

I actually had my suspicions from round 1 but let it go. However, when Ausmus made up a 11 point deficit overnight, which is almost impossible to do considering the amount of vote that would have had to been cast for him, it was then I made a decision. Therefore, for the first time in KOTH history, a contestant has been disqualified. All votes cast for Brad Ausmus are null and void.

To whoever pulled a Dial Idol and power voted for Ausmus, thank you for ruining everyone's fun and tainting this year's competition. This was Brad's swan song (and a few others as well) so it would have been nice if he went out legitimately.

That being said, as creator of the King of the Hardwood competition, I hereby declare the official winner of King of the Hardwood VI to be David "Wolf Man" Williams. Even on an even playing field, I think Mr. Williams would have won over any of the KOTH challengers.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's competition. A special thank you goes out to Jim and Cyd for their support and promotion. I look forward to KOTH VII. Keep up with the action on the King of the Hardwood facebook page. Look for it and send me a request!

CONGRATULATIONS DAVID WILLIAMS!

Good decision, Mariner Duck Guy. Even though I'm a big fan of Ausmus and voted for him in every round last year, David Williams got my vote this year.

Thanks for the great job you did. I look forward to KOTH every year. Let's hope no one tries to screw it up next year.

Yep, I concur...even though my gay-friendly furball, Ben Cohen, didn't make it 2 in a row, I am satisfied with this executive decision.

...thanks again, Mariner Duck Guy!

Hey MDG:
This is the proper decision, but I am sure Brad's mom is quite upset that her vote-stuffing was for naught!

As do we all. Great job once again, MDG.

I wonder if there were any ballot-stuffing attempts for other guys, that perhaps went unnoticed because they weren't successful?

Now, at the end of the day, are there really any losers in ANY of this?


I say not.

The winner David Williams did a Q&A with me and he seems pretty cool. Will post early next week, along with some new photos.

One of his answers:
"I''m very honored! It’s most definitely better than being crowned ‘king of the softwood’! [laughs]"

Just posted our Q&A with David Williams.

Thanks for obtaining the interview. He seems just as cool as Ben Cohen and is a worthy successor to the crown!

Jim, you should have asked him if he was willing to a do a nekkid celebratory dance for us on video.

That was a great interview! I'm so glad to see that the winner of the contest is secure enough in his orientation to appreciate his gay fans. Thanks, Jim, for posting the interview, many thanks to MDG for all his hard work in making the contest happen, and thanks to everyone here who helps to make this site such a great place to visit!

Thanks, Jim, for the interview.

A man comfortable in his own skin!

If I understood the podcast correctly, the interview was conducted by e-mails to the publicist and to Williams, or to the publicist, who forwarded the questions to Williams? So it sort of seems like the questions (and perhaps his replies) were screened. Not ideal by any means, but I know you have to work with whatever access they give.

Personally, I wouldn't go proclaiming him some kind of hero of the straight community based on this. I'm not saying he's being dishonest and he's actually anti-gay. I just think people shouldn't get too carried away.