Friday, October 31, 2014

2014 Stadium Club - The Base Cards

Last Friday I teased Stadium Club with just a photo of the box. I was just going to post another tease today consisting of this:
But I want to see these cards.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the set. My two complaints: 1) the backs are not glossy; 2) the card stock could be heavier. #1 is a minor complaint, #2 is a major. But the design is good, very minimalistic, the photos are good, and the backs have a nice design, somewhat reminiscent of early Stadium Club. There were 90 cards in the box, 75 of them base cards, with no duplicates. That means I got about 37% of the 200-card set. I'm not a set collector so I'm happy with that. The base cards, like early Stadium Club have no real subsets. There are rookie cards and there are some retired veterans included. By my count, only one card featured a batting stance (refer to my Topps Update post of a few days ago). Even though only 15 cards were parallels and inserts, I got a reasonable cross-section. There is an on-card auto in each mini-box, so there are guaranteed 3 hits per box. 

Today I'm going to just feature some base cards. I'll get to the inserts and parallels on Monday.

#13 Stan Musial
You can't go wrong with Stan the Man. The sharp-eyed among you may notice that a severely cropped version of this photo is on Musial's 2014 Gypsy Queen card. This was the only instance of photo sharing I found.

#24 Anthony Rizzo
Glad to see some throw-back kinds of photos, like players signing autographs.

#34 Jordan Zimmermann
Nice overhead shot.

#44 Hank Aaron
Some of the retired cards feature b/w photos.

#103 Adam Eaton
Green grass, player concentration and a good catch to be made. All while rocking a retro uniform.

#120 Jose Bautista
The old bat-over-the-shoulders-behind-the-neck pose. Oh, wait, that's a golf club.

#126 Torii Hunter
I love cards with a recognizable guest star.

#150 Clayton Kershaw
Lots of big stars.

#163 Masahiro Tanaka
And big name rookies.

#173 Mike Schmidt
And Mike Schmidt!

#174 Yadier Molina
And scary tattoos.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Every Madison Bumgarner Card I Own

Part 2 of my John Kruk post will be delayed until next week.

After his masterful World Series performance, this is the best tribute I can make.

2007 Bowman Draft Draft Picks Gold #61
2010 Bowman Gold #206
2010 Bowman Chrome Draft #9
2010 Topps 2020 #9
2010 Topps Allen and Ginter #6
2010 Topps Heritage #107
2010 Topps National Chicle #257
2011 Topps Heritage #107
2011 Topps Heritage #235
 2011 Topps Opening Day #201
2011 Topps Gypsy Queen #158
2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini  #158
 2012 Topps #103
2012 Topps Chrome #102
2012 Topps Gold Futures #33
2012 Topps Archives #15
2012 Topps Allen and Ginter #130
2012 Topps Opening Day #70
2012 Topps Gypsy Queen #45
2013 Bowman #97

2013 Topps Emerald Foil #256
2013 Topps Blue Walmart #256
2014 Bowman Gold #211
2014 Topps #537
2014 Topps Chrome Refractors #189
2014 Topps Chrome Purple Refractors #189
2014 Topps Archives #149
2014 Topps Allen and Ginter #96