2014 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions

As far as I'm concerned, the baseball card collecting season is near it's end. I expect to grab a few packs of Topps and Bowman Chrome. In October, Topps is supposed to release another chance at Stadium Club. BaseballCardPedia.com does not show Topps Update anytime this fall. Maybe that's an oversight.

With that preface, here is 2014 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions. Like Topps Allen & Ginter or Panini Golden Age, it isn't really a baseball card issue. But I buy some every year because it's fun and I like it. I'm not real fond of the design this year. In particalar I don't like the white text on black featured on the back. That works pretty well on white card stock but not so well of brown card stock. The 'wood-paneled' fronts are a bit too dark for my taste.

Except for several flavors of mini cards, there aren't many inserts in the set which aren't either relic cards or autographed cards. Since I only bought a couple of blasters, I didn't expect to see any of those.

#1 Frank Thomas

You can't go wrong starting the set off with 2014 Hall of Famer Frank Thomas. Frank was in last year's set also wearing a black shirt with the 'Big Hurt' logo.  See what I mean about the back? Pretty hard to read.

#11 Peyton Manning

 

You got your football players. Manning is featured with his college team, the Tennessee Volunteers.

#12 Bobby Hull

You got your toothless hockey players. There are a lot of hockey players this year. A mix of Hall of Fame players and newer players.

#40 Elvin Hayes

You got your basketball players. As with the baseball and hockey cards, none of the players are in a recognizable uniform and there are absolutely no logos. Upper Deck has learned their lesson.

#72 Glenn Anderson

 A lot of the hockey players are featured in suits, for some reason.

#81 Bo Jackson

Goodwin Champions hasn't shown Jackson as a baseball player since 2009, before they lost their license.

#98 Kevin Martin

You got your curlers. According to Wikipedia, Martin has been described as the "greatest curler of all time".

#100 Tiger Woods

You got your golfers.

#111 Bobby Clarke

I stopped following hockey in 1980 but was an avid fan of the Philadelphia Flyers all through the 1970s. So it was nice to see one of my Flyer favs, Bobby Clarke in the set. Another great player from that Flyers era, Bill Barber is also in the set (and in my possession).

#163 Pancho Villa

And you got your Mexican revolutionaries. There seem to be a lot less non-sports cards in this year's set. Cards 130-180 are supposed to be short prints. There doesn't seem to be anything to distinguish them from the other cards except that most of them seem a little darker.

#195 Joc Pederson

Cards 181-200 of the set are on-card autos. I was pretty surprised to pull this from a blaster. I didn't know anything about this kid but he's apparently a prized prospect in the Dodgers system. He has 31 home runs and is hitting .300 for Albuquerque this season and is sure to be called up in September.

Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Goudey

Beside the mini cards, the only inserts I pulled were from the 52-card Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Goudey set. I pulled 3 of these. Remember the weird 2009 Upper Deck Goudey set?  Two of the inserts didn't look to bad but the other has the 2009 vibe.