2014 Spirit Base: 311-320

#311 - Brett Oberholtzer
I wish there was just a little bit more area all around the edges of this photo. His foot and glove are a little too close to the edge.

#312 - Billy Butler
Again with the crazy blue. At some point it matched the blue from the photo :/

#313 - Jered Weaver
The soft background focus is really nice here.

#314 - Dee Gordon
I really miss the pre-2014 Dee Gordon...

#315 - Jose Fernandez
I really wonder how the Marlins' season would've turned out if he hadn't gotten hurt. They've been respectable without him so one would think their fast start wasn't a fluke.

#316 - Khris Davis
Do the Brewers wear this gold jerseys very often? They're a nice change of pace from the dark navy.

#317 - Ricky Nolasco
Why, Twins?

#318 - David Wright
Those Steve Rogers comparisons really died down this year, huh?

#319 - Ichiro Suzuki
I'm curious to see if Ichiro quietly hangs them up after this season or if, after witnessing the Jeter Farewell Yankfest all season, he decides to stick around another year and get a taste of that action.

#320 - Josh Reddick
I guess it's Oakland's turn to do the AL West late-season collapse thing this year since the Rangers are nowhere in sight of the playoffs.

2013 Pennant Throwdown

Just like a most trends, I'm finally "down" with something just as it seems to be fizzling out. I'm talking, of course, about Puigmania. Even though we all knew his first month or so in the majors was pretty unsustainable for a whole season, the rest of the league does seem to be "figuring him out" of late. I'm sure he'll make the adjustments and stuff, but probably not late enough to help the Giants out. I imagine Topps' second half products will have no trouble selling.

With what would be the most highly sought-after card of 2013 up there, let's take a look at Pennant's next insert — Throwdown. These feature a pair of players on rival clubs. I know this is a lot like Topps' Legendary Lineage and Diamond Duos from a few years ago, but with only 15 subjects (all of which are actual rival teams), the connection is a lot less tenuous. Here's the checklist:

1. NYY v BOS: Rivera/Ortiz

2. NYY v NYM: Jeter/Wright

3. NYM v PHI: Harvey/Lee

4. STL v CHC: Beltran/Rizzo

5. SF v LAD: Cain/Kershaw

6. SF v OAK: Posey/Cespedes

7. LAD v LAA: Puig/Trout

8. TEX v HOU: Kinsler/Altuve

9. BAL v WAS: Machado/Harper

10. CLE v CIN: Jimenez/Votto

11. STL v KC: Wainwright/Butler

12. CHC v CHW: Castro/Sale

13. STL v CIN: Carpenter/Phillips

14. PIT v PHI: McCutchen/Howard

15. ATL v PHI: Hudson/Utley

A few teams have a couple of cards here but they're represented by different players. It would be nice to have all 30 squads featured but as you can tell from MLB's interleague scheduling, you can't force rivalries.

Design-wise, the front of the cards have a little vintage flavor to them like the rest of the Pennant cards but still look clean and modern. Embellishments like the rounded inset corners and the classic typography help add some age, along with the less-than-bright cardstock. The space is split down the middle with grainy team-color boxes housing single-color team logos behind player cut-outs. There's a faint white gradient billowing up over the photos to make room for the team name. It can also fade up a little farther to make room for the signatures on the autograph cards.

For the back, I kept it black & white while recreating similar design elements from the front. Black & white photos on the opposite edges leaves plenty of room in the middle for a brief history of the players' and teams' rivalry stories. The lines of stars can be removed for the authenticity statements on the auto versions.

I tend to shy away from horizontal cards due to format issues for the blog but I'm really pleased with these. They're bright but not too bright, retro but not too retro. It's always nice to feature more than one team on a card so you can have 2 fanbases chasing after them. And it helps take the sting out of pulling a Dodgers card if it features Matt Cain or Mike Trout. (Okay, I'll stop with the Dodgers jokes.)

2012 Spirit FanFare Autos

It's 2012 and time to reactive the blog here. We're less than month from the release of 2012 Topps Series I so hopefully we'll have some product review posts shortly. As for now...

Here's my first autograph insert set for Spirit. The 'FanFare' theme here highlights the players that are 'fan favorites' on each club. Sometimes they're the superstars, sometimes they're the local favorites. I know it'd probably be nearly impossible to have an auto checklist that wasn't littered with pinch hitters or bottom of the lineup guys, but you know that's what everybody wants.

The card design is pretty basic with team-color swatches in the bottom and also behind a full-action cutout.  The player name and Spirit logo are in a silver foil along with a thin frame inset around the edge. Peeking up just above the player name is a soft white gradient for the player's autograph. A nice touch to the autos would be having them sign them with a team-color ink.

The back of the card has team colors as well, but with a new 'wooden fence' texture to supplement the mesh fabric texture standard on most Spirit cards. With player names on the left and a candid portrait to the right, the next most prominent feature is the FanFare pennant with the team logos. Below the Spirit logo is the 'official' COA for each individual card.

My intentions were to have a 30-card set but I'm leaving the checklist open since I'm not 'in the know' for every fanbase as to which player would be the crowd favorite. Some would be obvious (Braun-Brewers; Hamilton-Rangers; Votto-Reds) while I wouldn't know where to begin with teams like Arizona or Houston or Baltimore.