Topps Stadium Club baseball offers a nice look at baseball’s past and present, but what I really enjoyed about this set is the fun spirit in the photography. There are some unusual shots, some celebration shots, some dump-water-on-his-head moments. That’s a good thing. Baseball players don’t always have to be somber or offer up tired, cliché-like poses. And Stadium Club lets the photography tell the tale without cluttering up the design.
There is card No. 271, with Martin Prado about to be soaked by a bucket of ice as he is being interviewed. Or card No. 120 of Mike Moustakas, tearing off his uniform. Or even card No. 129, which shows Adam Jones holding a pie as he sneaks up on an unsuspecting victim. Those are photographs that took some thought and forward thinking.
The design of Stadium Club remains attractive. Full-bleed photography is used, and the players’ names are depicted with large stencil block lettering. What’s also nice are the black-and-white shots of Hall of Famers like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Sandy Koufax and Harmon Killebrew.
A hobby box contains 16 packs, with eight cards to a pack. The base set consists of 300 cards, and there are 25 variations. In the box I opened, there 110 base cards, and I also found six gold and two black foil parallels.
The design of Stadium Club remains attractive. Full-bleed photography is used, and the players’ names are depicted with large stencil block lettering. What’s also nice are the black-and-white shots of Hall of Famers like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Sandy Koufax and Harmon Killebrew.
A hobby box contains 16 packs, with eight cards to a pack. The base set consists of 300 cards, and there are 25 variations. In the box I opened, there 110 base cards, and I also found six gold and two black foil parallels.
Topps promises two on-card signatures per hobby box, and that was the case in the box I sampled. The design is very close to the base card, but there is a line beneath the player’s name to identify it as a “certified autograph issue.” The autographs I found belonged to a pair of pitchers — Brian Johnson (Red Sox) and Trevor May (Twins).
Several of the insert sets should be familiar to collectors. Legends Die-Cuts contains 10 cards and fall one per box. The card I pulled was Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig. What’s interesting about the card is the New York World’s Fair patch on Gehrig’s left-hand sleeve. The World’s Fair was held in New York in 1939-40, and of course Gehrig played very little in 1939. However, these patches were put on the uniforms of the New York Yankees, New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938 to celebrate the upcoming event. The photo, therefore, shows the Iron Horse in his final full season.
Several of the insert sets should be familiar to collectors. Legends Die-Cuts contains 10 cards and fall one per box. The card I pulled was Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig. What’s interesting about the card is the New York World’s Fair patch on Gehrig’s left-hand sleeve. The World’s Fair was held in New York in 1939-40, and of course Gehrig played very little in 1939. However, these patches were put on the uniforms of the New York Yankees, New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938 to celebrate the upcoming event. The photo, therefore, shows the Iron Horse in his final full season.
Another familiar die-cut insert is Triumvirates, a 30-card set that is divided into 10 different sets of three. Collectors can fit three specific inserts together into a puzzle. Luminous is the most common Triumvirate card, but there also is a Luminescent version that falls once every 64 packs. That was the insert I pulled: a Luminescent card of Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner.
Beam Team is another familiar subset, with one per hobby box. There are 25 different cards, and I pulled one of Mets pitcher Matt Harvey.
ISOmetrics makes its debut this year, and there are three cards per hobby box. This card combines photography with certain relevant statistics. I pulled two regular inserts and a gold parallel of Joey Votto; the gold cards fall one to a case. And finally, Contact Sheet takes on a look that old photographers will remember. You know, before digital, when you had to develop your own film. There are 10 cards in the subset and two on average per hobby box.
Beam Team is another familiar subset, with one per hobby box. There are 25 different cards, and I pulled one of Mets pitcher Matt Harvey.
ISOmetrics makes its debut this year, and there are three cards per hobby box. This card combines photography with certain relevant statistics. I pulled two regular inserts and a gold parallel of Joey Votto; the gold cards fall one to a case. And finally, Contact Sheet takes on a look that old photographers will remember. You know, before digital, when you had to develop your own film. There are 10 cards in the subset and two on average per hobby box.
RSS Feed
