C.A., the review 5 (part 2)

 

We're off to a hotly contested start in the bid to add a fifth card to the Cardboard Appreciation Hall of Fame.

In the first vote-off, the 1991 BBM Hideo Nomo jumped out to an early lead and looked like it would hang on for the victory, but the 1980 Topps Highlights Garry Templeton, in the second-place slot for days, made a late charge and pulled out a one-vote victory.

Here is the vote total for the first group of cards:

1. 1980 Topps '79 Highlights Garry Templeton, 14 votes

2. 1991 BBM Hideo Nomo, 13 votes

3. 2008 Upper Deck Rookie Exclusives James Hardy, 10 votes

4. 1991 Score Rick Dempsey, 8 votes

5. 1993 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes Joe Black, 3 votes

6. 2013 Chattanooga Lookouts Luis Vazquez, 2 votes

7. 2009 Bowman World Baseball Classic Gift Ngoepe, 1 vote

8. 2011 Pacific Coast League Top Prospects Eric Thames, 0 votes

 

So, the Templeton card takes its place in the second-round of voting.

 

We're still in the first round here and will be for the next seven weeks. This is the next group you're voting on. I see some key favorites right away -- and a couple that will be lucky to get a single vote. Here we go:

 

1981 Topps 1980 Record Breaker Ron LeFlore and Rodney Scott

It's another record-breaker card! Although with this one, the consensus is that LeFlore and Scott indeed combined for a record 160 stolen bases in a single season. That record stood for just five years as Vince Coleman and Willie McGee combined for 166 stolen bases in 1985. I believe that's still the record today, which was the point of the post -- nobody stole bases like they stole bases in the '80s.

2017 Topps Gypsy Queen Sandy Koufax

I made this Cardboard Appreciation post on the occasion of National Left-Handers' Day, which is actually coming up in a little less than three months. Have you bought your favorite left-hander a Left-Handers' Day gift yet?

 

 

 

2016 Topps Steve Johnson

 

This card is Steve Johnson's first card in a major release since 2005 Bowman. That's 11 years! He'd never get another card. Although maybe I should wait until 2027 to say that.

 

 

 

2017 Topps Allen & Ginter U.S. National Park Service

Ha, ha, let's see if this card gets a vote. I posted it on Labor Day, which is the busiest day of the year for national parks. This post also kicked off my practice of listing all the non-baseball players in A&G with each yearly release. So at least some good came out of that post (or that was probably bad, too, for all those Every Set Must Have Baseball Players On Every Card folks).

 

1981 Fleer Fernand(o) Valenzuela

Fernando Valenzuela is the most notable September call-up of my lifetime as a Dodgers fan. That's what this post was about. Thank goodness he got that call in September of 1980, enabling Fleer to rush the card into production for '81 and goofing up his name.

1982 Donruss Rick Cerone

One of Donruss' first early card highlights, I posted this card after watching Game 6 of the 1981 World Series for the first time since it happened. The pace of the game surprised me, and Cerone's reaction to being walked late in the game while down by seven runs surprised me, too. The write-up on the back of this card?

 

 

 Another surprise.

 

 

1989 Topps Big Baseball Jim Poole

Nothing super special about this card except it was the last card I needed to finish off all the Dodgers from the run of Topps Big sets from 1988-90. I swear it's a Dodgers card.

 

1959 Fleer Ted Williams, Ted Relaxes

I landed this card after looking at the short-prints of legend players in 2017 Topps Update. The '59 Fleer Williams cards were much more reasonably priced and made a lot more sense to me without the modern-day "TV graphics" look of the Update cards.

 

I wanted a playing-days Williams to recognize my dad's fandom of Williams. I picked up the card less than four months before we learned that my mom was having health issues, which would eventually lead to both my mom and dad's passing in less than two years. I had an even greater desire to find playing days Williams cards after that and I landed a couple more '59 Fleer cards and ... oh yeah, the 1956 Topps card of Ted.

So, there you go, those are the eight to vote on this time around. You've got a week to do it.

Like last week either mention in the comments which card you're voting for or copy-and-paste this link to vote in the poll:

 

https://vote.easypolls.net/628fc6ee5617e80062b0b1dd

I'd prefer poll-voting, it makes things less confusing, but if you make it clear in your comment that you did not vote in the poll and are casting your vote in the comment then I'll know what to do.

Don't blame me for all this, it's Blogger's fault for removing the poll widget.