1989 All-Star Ballot

Voting opened for the All-Star game a little while ago, and this made me nostalgic for the All-Star balloting of my youth.  Back then we voted on punchcards.  Really.  This isn't like how when my dad was in college they programmed computers on punchards, in the 60s and 70s.  This was circa 1990, albeit many years before punchcard ballots became famous again in Florida in 2000.  Fortunately for my nostalgic streak, you can buy old All-Star ballots on eBay for a few bucks.  So I ordered a 1989 All-Star ballot.

Front side of ballot and some promotional offers.

You would punch out the hole next to the players you were voting for.  If you wanted to write in a name not already there, you could punch out the write-in circle and then write them in.  They would have these ballots at the seats at games; Dad and I went to a lot of games back then, so we would vote a fair number of times.

Back of ballot with other promotional offers.

There are ballots from different years available on eBay, but I picked 1989 because that's a special year for the Phillies fans as concerns the All-Star game.  Mike Schmidt retired early in the season, before the All-Star break, and we all kept voting for him.  He was elected to be the starter, and suited up and was introduced with the rest of the NL lineup.  He didn't play, of course, because he was retired.  But it was a nice last chance for the fans to honor Schmitty.  He got an extended standing ovation from the fans in Anaheim.  I've heard some people say that this episode demonstrates why fans shouldn't pick the All-Stars.  But we were glad to have the chance to vote for him after all he did for Philadelphia baseball.

So, not a baseball card today exactly, but also not all that different from a card.  It even has Johnny Bench's picture on it.  Thanks for reading!