Greatest Red Sox Cards By Year: Stadium Club

I've been scrounging for blog content lately. I haven't purchased any new cards lately, and all of the trades I've done have been tied to my Time Travel Trading Project. I've been trying to come up with some new ideas, or at least revisit some old ones. I've also thought it might be good to use this down time to lay the foundation for some future posts I plan on publishing later in the year. Specifically, the Top 10 Red Sox Cards list I've done for the past two years. Rather than wait until the last moment (like I did last year), I can start looking at sets that have been released and see what cards might make that final cut.

 

Queue my tangent to a recent blog post that Night Owl did where he feature the glorious Mike Napoli card from Stadium Club's 2014 set. I love that card. I don't own it, I need to rectify that, and it led to me thinking of other glorious Red Sox cards I need to put on my Christmas wish list.

Queue yet another tangent to yet another recent blog post by Night Owl. This time he listed the greatest Dodgers card from each Stadium Club set. Lots of great cards featuring the awesome photos of Stadium Club!

So to recap...scrounging for blog post ideas, looking at Red Sox cards from this year's Stadium Club set, appreciating an earlier Stadium Club card, and reading about a team-specific list involving Stadium Club cards. You can say things started to converge and this post started to emerge. 

 

Yeah, I'm stealing Night Owl's idea here. Without further ado, here's my picks for the greatest Red Sox cards from the release of Stadium Club since it got relaunched!

2014

 

Like I said, this card is glorious. Obviously, you have the majestic beauty of the World Series trophy. In the foreground, you have Napoli and his perfectly sculpted beard, gazing at that trophy with a mixture of awe and pure joy. In the background, nothing but rows upon rows of people with enough camera flashes to make you think you were at a rock concert.

 

Honorable Mentions: Pedro Martinez, Koji Uehara

2015

 

This year doesn't have as much choices in outstanding photography. This unique shot of Hanley up against the Fenway scoreboard is easily the best. My apologies to any Red Sox fans triggered by the reminder of Hanley playing outfield.

Honorable Mentions: Mookie Betts, David Ortiz

2016

 

On the flip side, I had more trouble deciding on this year. I kept going back and forth between Mookie and Yaz, with Mookie winning out in the end.

Honorable Mentions: Nomar Garciaparra, Carl Yastrzemski

2017

 

Forget what I said earlier. This set had the toughest choice, with two cards I adore for completely different reasons. I couldn't decide between the larger than life Ted Williams or Porcello's candidly fun group shot, so it's a tie!

Honorable Mentions: Xander Bogaerts, Dustin Pedroia

2018

 

I was not expecting Hanley Ramirez to be the most represented player in this list, but here he is for the third time (technically second, but let's be honest here - he's the reason the Porcello card is as awesome as it is!) You can't go wrong with a mascot cameo!

Honorable Mentions: Tzu-Wei Lin, Dustin Pedroia

2019

 

If I had to pick the year that had the greatest overall quality of cards for the Red Sox, this would be it. The best card in the set was an easy pick, but I could have listed 9 cards in the honorable mentions. They're that good - fitting for that year's reigning World Series Champions!

Honorable Mentions: Andrew Benintendi, Chris Sale

2020

 

Simple, yet brilliantly captured. It reminds me of those photos you see in the first few pages of Sports Illustrated. I bet this would look amazing autographed.

 

Honorable Mentions: Xander Bogaerts, Ted Williams

2021

 

How much do I like this card? It's my computer desktop background at work. It's fitting that since I borrowed this blog post idea from Night Owl that a night card caps off the list!

Honorable Mentions: Bobby Dalbec, Rafael Devers