Usually the third part of a trilogy is by far the worst. Return of the Jedi, The Matrix Revolutions, The Godfather Part III, The Dark Knight Returns, Spider Man 3, X Men The Last Stand, and many, many other have proven this to be true. However on occasion you get the likes of Revenge of the Sith, LOTR: Return of the King, and Toy Story 3. In those cases the third part of a trilogy is equal to or even far superior to the first two installments. I would like to think that the 2014 Quarry Unlimited set is closer to the second group than the first. Although I am very proud of my first two sets, I feel I did my best work with this year's set. I hope you have enjoyed the third year of the Quarry Unlimited set. Before I put this year's set into the archives, let's take a look at the best cards from the set, as voted by you. For the first time, we have a tie for first place which will bring out the tiebreaker. As in past years, let's take a look at every card which got 3 or more votes.
3 votes
4 votes
5 votes
6 votes
8 votes
I mentioned when I listed the nominees for you to vote on that I would not be listing my personal top 10. I had two reasons for that. First, I didn't want to influence anyone's votes either positively or negatively. Second, and most importantly, I needed some kind of tiebreaker. I made my top ten, in order, before the voting started. Whichever card ended up higher on that list is going to be crowned, Best Card of the Set for 2014. Like Mel Brooks famously said, "It's good to be the king."
Without further adieu.
THE BEST OF THE SET WITH 8 VOTES
1. L.J. Hoes
2. Mike Aviles
3. David Price
4. Roman Mendez
5. Jason Rogers
6. Allen Craig
7. Devin Mesoraco AS
8. Reid Brignac
9. Starling Marte
10. Darwin Barney
This is actually the first time in the three sets that my personal #1 and the voters #1 were in agreement. Some of you mentioned how difficult it was to narrow it down to 10, and I fully agree. There were at least 10-15 others that I could have made an argument for being included in my top 10. In fact, 35 of the 42 cards got at least 1 vote. My final cut was Hanley Ramirez who was one of the seven that didn't get a single vote. To me that gives an indication there were far more great cards this year than in other years. Just a fantastic group.
In 2012, the Royals were easily the Best Team of the Set. In 2013, the Phillies were even more easily the Best Team of the Set. 2014 was no so easy. The top 16 cards represented 16 different teams. The highest wild cards actually finished with a higher vote total than the #1 card from their team, so it really was difficult to pick a best team set. In the end, I just have to go with my first instinct and award the 2014 Best Team of the Set to the Cleveland Indians with the Mets a very close second.
I had a blast once again doing this even though the amount of time put into this project is just crazy. In fact, I had so much fun with this set in 2014 that I will not be hedging at all. Barring unforeseen circumstances, there will DEFINITELY be a 2015 Quarry Unlimited set. I already have a set in mind and, as with past years, I will go ahead and showcase a blank template as a teaser.
The 2015 Quarry Unlimited set will be based on 1976 Hostess. Don't you just love the cut marks on the edges? Like other sets, there will be a couple of slight changes. The "patriotic" color scheme, which worked really well for the Bicentennial, will be replaced by a team color palette. The other change will be less noticeable. I will be resizing the card to the standard size as opposed to the original smaller panels. Who knows? I may even try to do a little bit of three panel work as well.
Thank you guys so much for making this a wholly enjoyable project once again.
Thanx for reading.
