With a new year around the corner, it's not unusual to start reading about the year in review, best of lists, and memorable moments that defined 2019. That goes for the card collecting hobby as well. I myself have done posts reflecting on how my collection has changed over the year, and have been thinking about other "year end" ideas as well.
I had a thought that I felt had potential to be a fun blog-bat-a-round. I was toying with the idea of a baseball card "yearbook" page. Consider your standard 9-pocket binder page. Nine places to summarize 2019 in baseball card form. Which 9 would you choose? Which sets would you choose?
It was a fun exercise, and before I show off my 2019 page, I'm going to establish a few parameters.
1
| 2 | 3 |
4
| 5 | 6 |
7
|
8
|
9
|
Spot #1: Topps has the exclusive license, so a base card gets the honor of the first spot.
Spots #2-6: A base card from any other 5 sets produced this year.
Spots #7 and 8: Cards from any 2 inserts or parallels.
Spot #9: Wild card - any card you want from 2019.
I'd like to challenge you to not repeat designs. That means passing on sets like Topps Opening Day or Chrome (Wild Card excluded of course!) Also, this isn't a team yearbook, so try not to make all the cards from your favorite team. I'll allow an exception for the current World Champions, only because 2019 was their year!
Got it? Awesome. With that in mind, here's what I put together:
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
(1) 2019 Topps NNO Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: I could think of a better base card to represent this year than young Vlad's shoehorned inclusion to the set!
(2) 2019 Stadium Club #290 Stan Musial: Stadium Club's photography selection often gives us moments we haven't seen before. This is a great example of that.
(3) 2019 Topps Archives #158 Richie Ashburn: I've always enjoyed the hodgepodge of current players and legends on a multitude of base designs from collecting past.
(4) 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen #18 Cody Bellinger: Honestly, this could have been a toss up between GQ and A&G, but I've always been more of a Gypsy Queen fan.
(5) 2019 Topps Heritage #310 Red Sox Celebrate World Series Title Win!: If I'm going to limit myself to one red Sox card, I better make it count!
(6) 2019 Topps Living #132 Daniel Mengden: I felt one of Topps' online products should make the cut, and decided Mengden's beautifal 'stache should be commemorated!
(7) 2019 Topps - 150 Years of Professional Baseball #150-114 Ichiro: One of the best insert sets of the year celebrates MLB's 150 Years of baseball. I thought it'd be cool to show Ichiro's card since he also retired this year.
(8) 2019 Topps - Evolution Of #EO-22 Vintage/Modern Catcher's Mask: I also enjoyed this insert set showing how much things have changed over the course of those 150 years!
(9) 2019 Panini Diamond Kings #24 Christy Mathewson: For my Wild Card, I decided to include one of the better unlicensed products Panini was able to put out. The Diamond Kings set really shines when you have turn of the century ballplayers who don't necessarily need a team name or logo on the jersey.
So there you go! Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to create your own yearbook page and show it off. Let me know when it posts, and I'll gather it all together for future blogging enjoyment. Have fun!
*****New Blog Alert!*****
Last week I became aware of a new blogger in our little community. Go check out The Best Bubble!
This is an awesome idea, I can't wait to see what the cardsphere comes up with. I might give it a shot if I have enough new cards.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't have to be cards you own, more on what you think would best represent a yearbook page. I hope you give it a shot!
DeleteI'm on it!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to it!
DeleteCool BBA. I'd be down to join, but I don't think I have the cards to meet the criteria. I really liked the 2019 Topps design... so whenever I opened packs, it was of 2019 Chrome. I own two other sets, but one of them is the Holiday set. I might actually have some Ginter or Archives... but they'd only feature A's or Padres. Anyways... I look forward to seeing everyone else's submissions.
ReplyDeleteLike I told Chris, you don't have to own the cards to create the page. You just have to be familiar enough with what's out there to pick some favorites. I hope you give it a try!
DeleteSeems cool. I'm a bit concerned I'll repeat myself with a couple of other end-of-the-year posts I normally do. I'll see if I can work around that.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to lie. The possibility that my meager little bat-a-round might influence a post from a blogging legend makes me want to stifle a "little girl"-level squeal!
DeleteFascinating post. The big takeaway I get about the state of the hobby is that the base card is the only card on the page which shows a current player on non-nostalgic design. You've got four cards of retired legends (albeit one who retired quite recently), a card of a vintage piece of equipment, three cards on old Topps designs (one of which is of a legend), and the Bellinger GQ which is a new design but meant to evoke vintage cards.
ReplyDeleteTopps sure does love it's vintage designs! I suppose I could have modernized it more with some Bowman or Topps Fire, but those sets didn't hold as much appeal to me.
DeleteNo complaints about the Red Sox World Series card. With all the trade rumors circulating, it's refreshing to remember what this team did just a year ago.
ReplyDeleteCool idea!
ReplyDelete