C.A., the review 5 (first semifinal)

 

Woo, I guess no one was in the mood for a 2009-style blog post yesterday!

Well, it's too late now. I love the Head Count series and will be posting it, for apparently my own amusement, a few more times because that's the kind of blog content I live for! It still intrigues me that a throw-away post like this can spawn so much engagement (I'm really not all that fired up over the '08 Heritage High Numbers guys), while one I spend so much time planning gets as many views as my old awesome night card posts. That's the life of a blogger.

 

OK, moving on to something else that doesn't get a lot of views, but at least people are (sort of) voting!

 

The final vote-off the first round produced a fairly close race, but J.R. Richard and his satin jacket proved too formidable. The '76 Topps Richard is the final of eight cards to advance to the semifinals of Cardboard Appreciation, The Review 5 as I seek a fifth entrant into the C.A. Hall of Fame.

 

Here are the vote totals for the past week. Forty of you were brave enough to cast a vote:

1. 1976 Topps J.R. Richard - 16 votes

2. 1960 Morrell Meats Don Drysdale - 10 votes

3. 1961 Topps Jack Meyer - 5 votes

4. 1992 Upper Deck Eric Karros - 4 votes

5. 1981 Topps Traded Bruce Sutter - 2 votes

6. 1995 Stadium Club Mark Whiten (Cardinals) - 2 votes

7. 1997 Pinnacle Inside Chan Ho Park - 1 vote

8. 1991 Score Frank Reich and 1995 Stadium Club Mark Whiten (Red Sox) - 0 votes

 

So now we're in the semifinals already.

 

There are four cards to consider for each semifinal. I think the first semifinal has more heavy hitters than the second one, so we may not get a classic matchup in the final. But heck, I think they're all great cards -- that's why I featured them in the first place! -- so whatever wins will be good with me.

 

This is the first batch of semifinalists:

 

1. 1980 Topps Garry Templeton, 1979 Highlights

Fascinating card. Fascinating player. Some nice early '80s (actually late '70s) action.

2. 1959 Fleer Ted Williams, Ted Relaxes

It's fishing-on-a-boat weather. Doesn't it seem like this card should win?

3. 1958 Topps Rival Fence Busters

Willie and The Duke getting touchy-feely. If you need your cardboard to showcase stars, this is as powerful as it gets.

4. 1992 Pinnacle David Cone/Jackie Gleason, The Idols subset

Maybe the wild card in this group as it's mostly comic genius. Although, David Cone IS the only one holding the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball broadcasting jokefest together.

So there you are. You have a week to vote in the first semifinals. Leave your choice in the comments or copy-and-paste the following link to vote:

https://vote.easypolls.net/62d093b28d44710062531dc2

Thanks for reading. Especially if you voted.