Awesomest night card, round 2, part 1

We made it!

Did you see? Look at the post title! It's Round 2!

Good god, I thought we'd never get there.

It's totally my fault, I know. I take on these projects and have no idea how involved they're going to be. I have that problem in other areas, too. When writing feature stories for the paper, before I know it, the story has grown to 50 inches and I still have so much else to tell, but I know no one is going to read an 70-inch story. It's an issue I've been dealing with for just about my whole career.

But you don't need to read my issues. You want to read about the results of the final grouping of round 1 and get on to round 2 of the Awesomest Night Card Tournament!

OK, here you go. These are the vote totals for the final group:

1. 1992 Triple Play Wrigley Field, 16 votes
2. 1981 Donruss Mike Norris, 11 votes
3. 1991 Topps Traded Jack Morris, 7 votes
4. 1992 Stadium Club Ivan Rodriguez, 5 votes
5. 2010 Topps Brian McCann, 4 votes
6. 2008 UD Masterpieces Asdrubal Cabrera, 4 votes
7. 2010 Topps Franchise History Phillies, 2 votes
8. 2008 Allen & Ginter World's Greatest Victories Gary Carter, 1 vote
9. 2007 Fleer Ryan Theriot, 0 votes

The very excellent Wrigley Field card joins the other 14 cards in the second round.

And that means there is a problem, because that leaves 15 total second-rounders, which isn't a divisible-friendly number for tournament-style doings.

Therefore, I added one more card to get to an even 16 finalists. It's the night card that received the most votes without winning a round.

Here it is:

I'm very happy to have the bad-ass Bo Diaz card back in the contest.

As it turns out, Diaz will join the first group of contestants in round 2. Here is who he will be taking on:

The victorious Kirk Gibson was the first night card to advance. I really, really enjoy this card. It's as perfect as an Upper Deck card can be.

Here is the only non-baseball card to survive the first round. Someone at Score had a little fun cutting-and-pasting. But it's happy little card, isn't it? Good thing Warren's last name isn't "Sun" or he'd never be a finalist.

Another Upper Deck 1988 World Series card is the fourth and final contestant. If I wanted to be sneaky, I'd move this card to a different round, since I think the Hershiser and Gibson cards might cancel each other out. But I am trying not to tarnish the new year with backroom dealing three days into 2011. So, Hershiser was the third night card to advance, so he's in the first vote-off.

Hershiser's the Bulldog. He can handle anything.

Those are the folks you're voting on this time. The poll is up and ready to go. After this round, the choices will get a lot tougher.

I'll be spending all of January on the second round. That wasn't the original plan. But I've just got to drag things out.

I might need some help for that.