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

 

This past week's round of Cardboard Appreciation Hall of Fame candidates were a bit underwhelming according to voters.

The cards racked up the least amount of votes for a group so far, though that may be related to a dip in readership over the last week or so.

And we have a bit of a surprise for the fourth winner of the first round of Cardboard Appreciation, the review 5. For the first time, a vintage card did not win (don't you dare tell me an early '90s card is "vintage."). The '92 Pinnacle David Cone/Jackie Gleason card squeaked out the victory, meaning an insert, of all things, is advancing!

 

The final tally after 37 votes:

 

1.  1992 Pinnacle David Cone/Jackie Gleason Idols - 14 votes

2. 1972 Topps Willie McCovey - 11 votes

3. 1978 Topps Bucky Dent - 7  votes

4. 1983 Fleer Salome Barojas - 2 votes

5. 1993 Upper Deck Pat Mahomes - 2 votes

6. 1970 Topps Ron Stone - 1 votes

7. 2008 Upper Deck Yankee Stadium Legacy #4263 Ron Guidry and 2019 Topps Heritage American League HR Leaders - 0 votes

Bang! Zoom! Cone and Gleason crack jokes all the way to the second round, joining three vintage cards.

Let's see if we can add another newer card to the advancers. There is only one card that could be considered vintage in this group.

1. 1981 Fleer Tim Flannery

I showed this card after finding out from Pete Rose, of all people, that this is the corrected version of Flannery's card and there is another version of the card -- that Rose actually pulled on Mike Oz's old youtube baseball card show -- in which Flannery is shown batting lefty, in a reverse image. Rose picked up right away that something was wrong because he knew Flannery wasn't a lefty. I was impressed.

2. 1989 Bill Pucko Cards U.L. Washington

This card arrived in my collection in May of 2019. I wanted it because Washington was the first major league player I ever interviewed and I interviewed him while he was the manager of the 1989 Welland Pirates. He had a toothpick in his mouth, as he did as a player. And that's what clinches this card for me.

3. 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter World's Greatest Victories Man Walks On The Moon

Posting appropriate cards on anniversaries is fun. This one appeared on my blog on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. I don't expect the card to get a lot of votes, but I'm glad I have it.

4. 2019 Topps Stadium Club Christy Mathewson

Um, this card is still great, if only for the impression it gives that ballplayers used to play games when it was 20 degrees. I mentioned in this post that I wanted to track the patterns of the legends players that showed up in Topps each year. I started to do that on my own, but it got really complicated (some legends appear only in relics or autographs but not base cards -- stuff like that will make me quit researching).

5. 1974 Topps Bill Grief 'Washington Nat'l Lea.' variation

 

This was the first '74 Washington card that I added to my 1974 Topps set. It's still the only one in my collection. Part of the reason is I found it at a card show for a quarter and that's not what these cards usually go for.

 

 

 6. 2017 Panini Chronicles Yu Darvish

Bluh! Not a good card. I tried to explain my appreciation for the Chronicles set in this post, specifically, it's fun to go on wild rides sometimes. I also totaled up the Dodgers cards in my collection and came to 22,070. Less than three years later, I'm closing in on 25,000.

7. 2008 Topps Stadium Club Justin Upton

This was a celebration post as I finally completed the fiasco of a set, 2008 Stadium Club, with the Upton card. Technically I did not complete it, because there is an impossible-to-find Joe DiMaggio base card in it, plus all of the divisible-by-three card numbers also feature a more-difficult-to-track non-first-day-issue version. And there's weird stuff going on with the rookies in the set, too. Man, what a dumb decision I made trying to complete this. Topps really took advantage of first-time card bloggers in 2008.

8. 1992 Fleer Chris Cron

Chris Cron is part of a very select group who has fathered two major league players and played in the majors as well. Cron got into just 12 MLB games while his sons have combined for more than 900 (the majority of the credit for that goes to C.J. Cron. Kevin Cron is playing in Korea now).

So, those are the selections. Maybe not the most interesting cards in themselves, but I love the stories behind them, and that's what Cardboard Appreciation is all about.

If you would be so kind, cast your vote by copy-and-pasting this link to the poll:

https://vote.easypolls.net/62ab88285617e80062b60897

Or you can cast your vote in the comments (please mention that you did not vote in the poll if you want your comment to be your vote).

Looking forward to more than 37 votes this time.