I am having lots of fun leafing through my binder of 2014 Topps Stadium Club and trying to figure out what is the best card in the set. To date, I've looked at the first eight pages and chosen one card per page for consideration. Now, it's time to take a peek at the next four pages in the set.
Page 9 - Cards 73 - 81:
The Kaline and Clemens cards are both solid and I like the floating baseball on the Anibal Sanchez card but for me there's only one option for best card here: Brandon Phillips.
Cincinnati Reds bias or not, this is an awesome card showing what appears to be a rundown of sorts. Certainly a fairly common play in baseball but not one you see show up on baseball cards all that often.
Page 10 - Cards 82 - 90:
Despite there being two Reds on this page, I think this is the most boring page in the set thus far in terms of photos used. To be honest, only the Evan Longoria helmet flying off or the Jose Altuve jumping card are of any interest to me. I don't expect that either card will make it much further in this "Just for Fun" competition but I have to pick a page winner so I'm going with Jose Atluve turning a double play.
Moving right along...
Page 11 - Cards 91 - 99:
I kind of like the Springer card with his tongue sticking out (and it doesn't hurt that it is his rookie card) but I have to give the nod to the wonderfully framed Victor Martinez card (also up for consideration here is the Wild Horse, Yasiel Puig but he only earns a bronze medal for this page).
I love the way the baseball is suspended in the air in the photo...there's such an element of mystery here as to what is about to transpire. Even the fan in the stands looks kind of tense with his clasped hands!
Page 12 - Cards 100 - 108:
We end today's post with a doozy of page. We've got the World Series trophy (or a "hunk of metal" as some call it), horses, and a plethora of flags...not to mention a sliding play in the field and a Jose Abreu rookie card. You could probably make an argument for at least four of these cards as being the "best" on the page but I have to go with the horses, er, Nolan Ryan.
Rancher Nolan Ryan, cowboy legend and pitcher extraordinaire. How can you go wrong?
Speaking of wrong, how many picks did I get wrong this time around? I love hearing what you all think is the best card on each page...and the fun thing about Stadium Club is that usually you can have a legitimate argument on almost every page!
Al Kaline
ReplyDeleteBrooks Robinson
Victor Martinez
Nolan Ryan.
I'm gonna need to find all of these, plus the Miguel Cabrera card.
Good Job. 👍
- Page 9: Pandaval, Josh Hamilton, and Brandon Phillips. The last row were my three favorite photos on the page, so the Phillips takes it overall.
ReplyDelete- Page 10: Brooks Robinson, David Wright, and Jose Altuve. Altuve almost by default on a page of many standard photos.
- Page 11: Chris Owings, George Springer, and Puig Your Friend. Puig emerges on top.
- Page 12: Adam Jones, Nolan Ryan, and Pedro Alvarez. Jones ekes it out.
I agree with you fully on Phillips and Altuve. Martinez and Puig are a coin flip for me, I could be convinced of either one. I'm going to let my bias show and pick Napoli for the last one. There's a decent amount of "Cowboy Ryan" cards out there already, so I'd probably have that one 3rd behind Napoli and Jones.
ReplyDelete9. Brandon Phillips, barely over a young Clemens. I agree, rundowns need to appear in photos more often, not just in cards, but sports photos in general.
ReplyDelete10. Altuve. Rough page.
11. PUIG
12. Adam Jones. (I would have gone with Ryan but Ryan in a cowboy hat had been done to death by this point).
Page 9: Phillips
ReplyDeletePage 10: Altuve
Page 11: Puig
Page 12: Ryan or Tulo. I'll give the edge to Ryan.
Clemens (but if that Kaline photo had been taken in color...), Brooks (but that Flores is a close second), Puig, Álvarez
ReplyDeleteWe were the same, except I went with Longoria...but yes, that was a tough page!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite was the Kaline
ReplyDeleteKaline. Altuve. Martinez. And Ryan. I almost went with the Springer, but after getting a closer look at the Marinez, I noticed the Pabst Blue Light ad in the background. I don't drink beer, but I thought it was pretty cool to see a beer advertisement on a baseball card from this decade.
ReplyDelete