2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 17

76. Kaleb Cowart

242. Mac Williamson

70. Cody Allen

109. Joey Gallo

241. Jonathan Villar

160. Aaron Blair

157. Justin Bour

123. Wily Peralta

22. Tyler Glasnow (RC)

G66. Joc Pederson

AW4. Brandon Crawford/Francisco Liriano - Award Winners (Gold Glove)

Another Award Winners insert, this time for a Gold Glove tandem. Hence the gold foil instead of the silver on the previous one. Pretty pleased with the Lindor pic I found for the card.

2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 14

213. Buster Posey

227. Melvin Upton, Jr.

59. Chase Anderson

108. Chris Tillman

112. Joe Ross

162. James McCann

12. Nate Jones

69. Chad Bettis

54. Omar Narvaez (RC)

G211. Wade Miley

AW20. Jose Altuve/Daniel Murphy - Award Winners (Silver Slugger)

Lots of orange in this pack. Also, another new insert. This one is for the Gold Glove/Silver Slugger Award Winners. This year I decided to have the players 2-up, featuring the winners for both leagues at each respective position. The abstract AW “logo” allows the cards to be rotated 180° and still be interchangeable. I included both here so you don’t have to strain your neck to see each perspective.

2016 Spirit Award Winners

Now that the base design has been unveiled, I'm keeping with tradition and presenting the Spirit Award Winners as the first insert design of the season. You know the drill by now — 18 Gold Glovers (9 AL/9 NL) with gold foil and 18 Silver Sluggers (9 AL/9 NL) with shiny, shiny silver. After starting out super gaudy like disco balls and gold bars, the foil has been a little more subdued in the past couple years. That's also meant a little bit more actual designing on my part.

The gold and silver is mostly found in the four corners with a little bit of deckled texture added in. These make for a nice way to frame the player cutouts. The backgrounds are once again blue and red, respective to each league. The texture is just stormy/grungy enough to keep things interesting without going overboard. It's a good match for all the clean, modernistic lines everywhere else.

The backs are basically the same design as the front, only flipped vertically with text replacing the cutouts. The small mug shot along the top gives you another chance to see these superstar honorees up close. Overall it's a pretty efficient design with just enough ornamentation to add interest without overwhelming you.

2015 Spirit Award Winners

Well I guess baseball is officially back now that pitchers and catchers are starting to report to camp. I guess the Design On Deck equivalent to that is the unveiling of the Award Winners insert design. It's traditionally the first insert I tackle each season. Once again, it there are four segments: NL Gold Glove, AL Gold Glove, NL Silver Sluggers, AL Silver Sluggers. In the past they've been very shiny with an overwhelming amount of silver and gold foil. Last season they were a little more subdued and I followed that sensibility again this time around. Oh yeah, the both NL segments feature red while the AL ones use blue. Again.

The Gold Gloves feature a fielding shot cutout over a gold-ish background. The foil has been pared down to just borders around the design elements along with the player name and "Spirit Award Winners" text. The Silver Sluggers are the same only with silver instead and a batting shot, naturally. I thought the banner motif worked well for the subject matter and helped keep things clean but not too dull. I like that you can make out the background of the photos instead of just having the players cut out and removed from the context of a stadium. You'll probably be seeing more of that from the rest of this year's Spirit designs.

On the back, the banner design reappears but is paired with black and white instead of the shininess. The top half is reserved for a sizable photo plus team logo in the corner. Below, there's room for a brief write-up set on top of a watermarked league logo.

Four years in I think the 2016 version will have to change things up a bit. Perhaps I can add stuff like MVPs and Rookies of the Year?

2014 Spirit Award Winners

After hitting the halfway mark of the base set project, let's take a break and check in with some Series 1 inserts. For the third year in a row, the inaugural insert design is the Award Winners set. This year brings some familiar motifs along with some changes. We're still alternating between gold and silver foil for the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove winners, though I decided to subdue the blinginess a bit. Now there are just a few strips of foil instead of a huge shiny background.

The NL cards feature red again and the AL guys are blue. With this system, you can easily distinguish which award each player won just by glancing at the foil color and background. Just to be safe, I added another visual cue with the Gold Glovers having a leather background and the Sluggers a wooden bat. And to make things even more clear cut, the NL and AL logos are screened on upper fabric swatch thing.

The back of the card has the same elements from the front repeated, other than the foil of course. They actually look pretty similar to the 2012 ones I did, though the overall composition fits this design better.

2013 Spirit Award Winners

Hello to all out there in blogland. As you can tell things have slowed down a bit here with the off season in full swing. Baseball has been so far from my mind that I even overlooked my one year blogiversary. Oh well. I've got a few things planned for upcoming posts but don't expect the pace to really pick up until late January or so. In the meantime, here's a look at the 2013 edition of the Award Winners insert set.

For those that remember, I did this set last year with a similar set up: 9 AL Silver Sluggers, 9 NL Silver Sluggers, 9 AL Gold Gloves and 9 NL Gold Gloves for a total of 36-cards. The main distinguishing factor is the Silver Sluggers are bright and shiny silver and the Gold Gloves are bright and shiny gold. Horizontal stacks of each color are found in the background with the respective award names lined inside. These would have a kind of x-fractor feel with a smooth surface but the light refracting in different ways to make out the letters and such. The next layer features a player cutout (sluggers slugging and glovers gloving) with a colored band in the foreground to house the name and award info. Again, the AL guys have a blue bar with red found on the NL ones.

On the back side, we have the same horizontal stacks but this time screen back in black. To the left and right of the player portrait is their team logo and the Spirit logo. The colored bar has moved towards the top and houses the player name, team and position. A brief write-up of their respective award-winning seasons finishes out the design.

After two years, I'm not sure if this insert set will make its way into the 2014 product or if a break is in order. If it does make an appearance, I'll probably need to make sure the design take a 180-degree turn as this year's design plays kind of a like a sequel to the 2012 look. There's something to be said for subtle changes and evolutions of a standby insert, though. I suppose I have a year to figure that one out.

2012 Spirit Award Winners

I really miss having an insert set devoted to MLB award winners. To me, it seems like an easy way to chronicle the best players from year to year instead of finding some abstract thread to tie together certain players. What are the criteria to make the 'Diamond Stars' set? Or how about the neverending 'Topps 60'? Instead of trying to figure out a new way to produce another A-Rod or Joe Mauer card even when their on-field production takes a hit, let's give some love to the guys who really stand out each season, even if they aren't household names.

The 2012 Spirit Award Winners insert set consist of each Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner from the NL and AL. That means 36 cards total with 4 different subsets (wow, an insert set with subsets.) There are a few guys that overlap but those are mostly superstars you can't argue with.

The Gold Glove cards have a nice shiny gold disco ball-like pattern. This is the first Spirit design that's employed on the 'oooh, shiny' factor. The defensive stars are cut-out from a photo of them flashing their gold glovework. For the Silver Sluggers, the pattern is silver with a nice batting image displayed. Toward the bottom of a card is a block for the player name and info. The NL guys have a red mesh backdrop while the AL players have a blue one. So each subset is differentiated by background color (gold or silver) and text box color (red or blue), depending on the league and award depicted.

The back of the cards only have the league color designation with the awards being notated to the left of the mugshot and also the numbering in the upper left corner. Below the player name is their position and ballclub followed by a brief write-up about their award-winning season.

Below is the checklist for all 4 subsets. There are 6 players that appear in both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger subsets but they definitely earned their spots. If you finished the set, it would fit perfectly in 4 consecutive pages in your binder and look pretty handsome flipping between them.

NLGG
1. Clayton Kershaw
2. Yadier Molina
3. Joey Votto
4. Brandon Phillips
5. Placido Polanco
6. Troy Tulowitzki
7. Gerardo Parra
8. Matt Kemp
9. Andre Ethier

ALGG
1. Mark Buehrle
2. Matt Wieters
3. Adrian Gonzalez
4. Dustin Pedroia
5. Adrian Beltre
6. Erick Aybar
7. Alex Gordon
8. Nick Markakis
9. Jacoby Ellsbury

NL SS
1. Tim Hudson
2. Brian McCann
3. Prince Fielder
4. Brandon Phillips
5. Aramis Ramirez
6. Troy Tulowitzki
7. Justin Upton
8. Matt Kemp
9. Ryan Braun

AL SS
1. David Ortiz
2. Alex Avila
3. Adrian Gonzalez
4. Robinson Cano
5. Adrian Beltre
6. Asdrubal Cabrera
7. Curtis Granderson
8. Jacoby Ellsbury
9. Jose Bautista