Time To Vote for Card #1 for the 2018 Topps Set

For the third year in a row, Topps is allowing fans and collectors to select the first card in their eponymous set. For the 2016 Topps set, Mike Trout was the subject of card #1, after beating a 34-player field that whittled down to 5 for the final ballot. Last year, Kris Bryant took the honors of being #1 for the 2017 set after besting a pool of 16 players. There are 14 candidates deemed worth by Topps to be the flag-bearer for the 2018 Topps set. And if you go onto the Topps site, prepared to be disappointed. Because instead of showing images of the player's possible 2018 Topps card, we get to see what each player's cards looked like...in 2017 (with some exceptions).

The players for this year's ballot:

• Jose Altuve, Houston Astros
• Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies
• Adrian Beltre, Texas Rangers
• Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs (and last year's #1)
• Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers
• Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks
• Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals
• Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
• Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
• Francisco Lindor, Cleveland Indians
• Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants
• Chris Sale, Boston Red Sox
• Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins
• Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels (there is no "of Anaheim" anymore...although Topps still insists of still on leaving any city off the team name)
• Other/Write-In (yes, you can pick anyone else besides the 14 listed above)
  

Now having fewer players in the pool is fine, and I can see now who would be the favorites (cough...Judge...cough). I voted for Bryant last year (for obvious reasons). This year? I might vote for him again (depending on how far the Cubs get into the postseason), or maybe go with Altuve. Want to vote? Click here. Voting will run through Friday, October 6, 2017, and the winner will be announced a couple of weeks before Series 1 comes out at the end of January, 2018.

To sweeten the pot, Topps will be giving away prizes to random voters. These prizes include a Hobby box of 2017 editions of Triple Threads, Bowman Chrome, A&G, Clearly Authentic, a 2017 Topps factory set, autograph cards from Topps' Hobby Continuity Program (Marcus Stroman), Bowman Platinum (Braxton Garrett), Museum Collection (Alex Gordon dual relic) Clearly Authentic (Ty Blach), or a relic card from Topps Tribute (David Ortiz)

October is usually a busy month for this humble, little blog. I still hope to get my 2015 and 2016 End of Year All-Star Team selections posted before announcing the 2017 squads. Then from there, finish up the comparisons between the 1996 and 2016 MLB debut classes before working on the 1997 and 2017 class comparison.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama