2014 Spirit Base: 826-840

#826 - Jeremy Jeffress, #827 - Ryan Pressly, #828 - Jenrry Mejia
All three dudes have their arms stretched wide apart.

#829 - David Phelps, #830 - Dan Otero, #831 - Justin de Fratus
The Otero image is probably too close to the edges but I didn't have any more canvas to work with.

#832 - Ernesto Frieri, #833 - Oscar Taveras, #834 - Kevin Quackenbush
Ernesto Frieri just chilling on the mound, checking out all the intricacies involved in stitching together a baseball. Ignore the runner in the background in the midst of his homerun trot.

#835 - Jeremy Affeldt, #836 - Chris Young, #837 - Drew Smyly
That's as smiley as I could find Smyly.

#838 - Shawn Tolleson, #839 - Aaron Loup, #840 - Craig Stammen
The off-centeredness of Loup's delivery bothers me here but that's the best solution I could find.

2014 Spirit Base: 491 - 500

#491 - Collin McHugh
He's been a pleasant surprise for the Astros this year. 25 games started with an ERA under 3. His ERA+ is 143. His previous season high was 51, as a reliever.

#492 - Norichika Aoki
Even though it was difficult, I found a normal-ish action shot of Aoki. As an aside, if you're on Twitter and you don't follow Grant Brisbee, you need to rectify that. Unless you prefer the dull "humor" you get from me.

#493 - Joe Smith
I thought the blurred out scoreboard in the back was kinda neat, along with the angle of his delivery.

#494 - Clayton Kershaw
Man, I'm really sick of Kershaw. I don't mean I'm sick of hearing about him or think he's overrated or anything stupid like that. He's so damn good. What I mean is I'm tired of the Giants having to face him every series (or so it seems.) It's not fair, I tell ya.

#495 - Derek Dietrich
They need to start incorporating those sound device things from greeting cards into baseball cards. This one would be perfect with a nice "BOING" sound effect.

#496 - Mark Reynolds
Something feels wrong about showing Reynolds with a glove instead of a bat but I liked this photo.

#497 - Jason Kubel
Kubel didn't have a lot of photo options for this current stint with the Twins. I figured the undershirt, hood and empty bleachers was the most Minnesotan I could get.

#498 - Chris Young
I wish there was more of his face showing here but I liked this pic a lot. Plus he'll have a Yankees card in the next series where I can hopefully find a more personal shot.

#499 - Kelly Johnson
Johnson had a nomadic 2014, playing on three different teams, most of it with the Yankees. He, too, will make another appearance as well.

#500 - Scott Kazmir
It's hard to believe Kazmir's only 30. He's been decent this year but will probably only get a postseason start if Oakland makes it to the ALCS.

Pennant: Chasing That Old Time Feeling

I've been able to resist it up to this point, but with Heritage and Gypsy Queen being the last two baseball releases, I couldn't help but work on an 'old-timey' set design. Instead of combing through the encyclopedia of trading cards, looking to resurrect the zombie of something 50-100 years old, I decided to just make something up. This is kind of a hybrid between the styles of the old and the current.

Say hi the Pennant line of Spirit trading cards. You'll notice some of the characteristics of other retro sets: photos doctored to look old and weathered, typefaces from decades past, not-quite-white borders. There's a team-color curve on the bottom to house the player name, team and position. I've used some similar curvilinear shapes throughout the other Spirit designs, so this helps keep them in the family. Another point of 'modernization' is the fact the player name is more than just their last name and first initial and it's actually bigger than the set name/logo.

The backside is pretty similar to retro sets of today: 1-color, vertical, a lot of non-informational elements, simple team logos. These here may be printed in a single color, but instead of just black, the ink is the same as their team color. I decided to include players' full names on the back since I really miss that from my youth. Also, there's a simple line of the previous season's stats (hits, homers, rbi, and average) that has numbers instead of 'two thousand and eleven' and such.


I may do some inserts for the Pennant line coming up in the future. I can see myself getting the itch after A&G hits the shelves.