The Barry Larkin Experiment: Round 1H (Plus Results)

The voting for the next round of the Barry Larkin Experiment is now open, but before I unveil the next batch of nominees let's take a look at the previous two rounds of voting that have now ended.

In round 1F, All-Star cards ruled the day.  The winning card ('92 Fleer All-Star) pulled in 9 votes while the second place card ('92 Score All-Star) acquired 6 votes.  The race for second place was close though with the 1992 Donruss Triple Play card just missing the cut with 5 votes.

In round 1G, there was no such close competition.  In the first instance of a "hit" in the competition, voters proved why manufacturers go to such great lengths to include hits...The 2008 Donruss Prime Cut Relic scored 9 votes to lead the pack while the '93 Fleer Ultra base ended with 6 votes which was enough for second place.  We had our second shutout card of the break, this time it was the 1992 Upper Deck base card that found no love.

Now, it's time to take a look at the nominees for Round 1H.  As always for the first round, the top two vote getters move on to the next round.

1993 Score Select base:

The '93 Score Select Larkin card was probably the first "high end" Larkin card that I owned.  I'm not exactly sure whether or not Score Select was considered high end by most collectors...but by my standards the cards were much nicer than the typical Topps or Score base cards of the era.  That said, while the card does have a lot of nostalgic value to me, it is plagued by the same overwhelming greenness that has befallen other cards already (1990 Score anyone)?

1993 Topps Stadium Club base:

Another card from a higher end set.  I always liked when Stadium Club included the player's rookie card somewhere on the card back.  Oh sure, it was just Topps propaganda but it was still kind of fun. The '93 set is a bit all over the place in terms of card design but the photography is nice enough that it might pass through to the next round regardless.  Until I wrote this post, I don't think I ever saw the background on the card back...it's Larkin's arm and his glove!  Actually, I have no idea if it really is Larkin but the colors suggest it is.  If so, that's a piece of a fourth photo of Barry on a single card, impressive at least!

1993 Topps base:

While the '93 Score Select and '93 Stadium Club cards may be the front runners for this round, the 1993 Topps set certainly could provide a surprise dark horse.  A simplistic design (compare it the Stadium Club card above), full career stats, and a nice white border make this a typical Topps base card.  Will the general familiarity of Topps base be enough to knock off either of the first two competitors in the round?

1993 Topps All-Star:

The first time we had a Larkin card featured with a second player (1991 Fleer Team Leaders), the card garnered exactly one vote.  Will this card prove to be any better than that one?  The out-of-this-world design is a bit goofy, but sometimes goofy wins.  Personally, I see this card as more likely to end up with zero votes than to end up winning the round but I could be wrong (and I've been wrong before... *cought* '91 Donruss Diamond King *cough*).

Those are your four nominees, top two vote getters move on to the next round!  At this point, the only thing I know for sure is that the year 1993 will have at least three representatives in the next round (the 1993 Fleer Ultra card made it already from Round 1G).  I appreciate the votes - let's keep 'em coming as we continue through the competition!