2018 Clubhouse: Washington Nationals

146. Bryce Harper

147. Anthony Rendon

148. Max Scherzer

149. Stephen Strasburg

150. Trea Turner

Here's the possibly/probably final Clubhouse card for Bryce Harper with the Nats. Fitting that it's the final Clubhouse post of the year. The team set is solid and probably perfect as-is once you take into account that it was made before Juan Soto was called up. He'd probably get Strasburg's spot today.

Rendon and Scherzer are the autographers. Rendon had a sneaky great season, so this is a pretty good non-hobby pairing.

And here's Max's luster parallel to finish of the 2018 Clubhouse posts.

2018 Spirit: NL East

#8. Ender Inciarte, Atlanta Braves

#153. J.T. Realmuto, Miami Marlins

#77. Amed Rosario, New York Mets

#3. Rhys Hoskins, Philadelphia Phillies

#99. Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals

With this batch, you can see how the RC logo looks with this design. There's a perfectly little spot in the corner almost made for it. Topps has gotten better about placing their RC logos but for a while there they seemed to be an afterthought. The other noteworthy thing about this batch is the color choices for the Marlins. Traditionally, I've treated them as a blue/orange team but since they only wear their black hats anymore and I've been doing the hat logos on all of the cards, it kinda forced my hand. Rumor is they're gonna do a rebrand in a couple years so hopefully they'll be able to add some clarity to their identity going forward. Thanks, Jeets!

2017 PENNANT BOX BREAK - PACK 21

127. A.J. Pollock

120. J.T. Realmuto

86. Manny Machado

7. Jay Bruce

77. David Freese

37. Alex Gordon

267. Cody Allen

79. Ian Kennedy

56. Brandon Belt

DT11. Max Scherzer - Dream Team

Lots of orange and yellow in this pack. Not much else to really say. 

2017 PENNANT BOX BREAK - PACK 2

4. Kevin Gausman

48. Madison Bumgarner

10. Denard Span

226. Roman Quinn

187. Max Scherzer

209. Wil Myers

219. Jonathan Lucroy

115. Gerrit Cole

3. Marcell Ozuna

TB2. Ian Kinsler - Throwbacks

Pack number two introduces insert number two, Throwbacks. I’ve done them twice before since the idea is perfectly suited for the Pennant brand. Featuring players in throwback uniforms is pretty much a no-brainer for retro sets like this. The Kinsler here may be a little weird since the Tigers were wearing uniforms of the Negro League’s Detroit Stars in the picture used here. The other cards in the insert set use the era-appropriate logos of the respective teams. I couldn’t find any kind of Detroit Stars logo so went with a simple red star like the one found on the hats. Hopefully that little background info clears things up in case it looks a little generic. The subsequent Throwbacks cards will help add context after the fact.

2017 SPIRIT BOX BREAK - PACK 4

94. Adam Duvall

158. Aaron Altherr

233. Ken Giles

146. Freddy Galvis

73. Ryan Buchter

74. Erasmo Ramirez

172. Mike Zunino

288. Corey Dickerson

270. Dansby Swanson (RC)

G33. Justin Grimm

K1. Max Scherzer - Kings

The Swanson rookie card is probably the noteworthy pull here. If he pans out like he’s hyped to, I think it has potential to become “iconic.” The Scherzer here introduces the Kings insert set. It features the 20-best strikeout pitchers of 2016. I went for a “regal” pattern to match the name of the set and decided to make it a K-shaped die-cut so it’d be a bit more unique. The only cut-out is on the right side, though, to reduce the likelihood of corner dings.

2014 Spirit Deluxe

Time to slow things down a bit on the Spirit base front since we're approaching the end of Series 1 and the season hasn't even started yet. Here's this year's "high-end" release, Spirit Deluxe.

The front features a full-bleed photo again, though this year the background is a shimmery, refractor-y, prismatic thing. I'm not sure I can replicate it digitally but I think this gives you an idea. It's a lot more prominent on the day game photos. At the bottom is a team-colored marble block with lots of silver foil accents. The thin rails on the left and right extend up into the photo space before softly fading out. It reminds me of a spotlight receding into the darkness of night.

On the back, the team-colored marble takes up about 2/3 of the bottom, leaving room for a brief write-up and some fine print along with the player name. The rail element from the front reappears, this time anchoring the bottom as well as separating the photo from the text block. The team logo sits inside a white circle centered where the 2 sections converge.

Here's a look at the standard auto and relic variations. The auto has a white glow for the player to sign. It covers up the light rails a bit but it's functionally necessary.

I think this is a nice evolution from the 2012 and 2013 versions. They aren't drastically different but hopefully you'll be able to distinguish from year to year. I just want to keep the full bleed, glossy thing going so there's consistency.

Thanks for checking this out.

2014 Spirit Base Series 1: 31-40

I'm gonna try a little bit of a format change here to keep these posts from getting stale. Let's see how this goes...

#31 Brandon McCarthy
McCarthy's a lanky fellow so I had to go with a torso-only shot to make the most of the space. If you're on Twitter and you don't follow him, I recommend you fix that. He's pretty funny and very insightful.

#32 Mike Minor
It may look a little like dust but those little specks are raindrops. I don't remember seeing too many rainy cards in the past.

#33 Manny Machado
You've probably seen a lot of Machado cards like this where he's stretched out making the throw to first. He's extra spread out in this one.

#34 Clay Buchholz
I had a hard time finding a photo of Buchholz where he didn't look like Falcor from The Neverending Story. This was the best I could find.

#35 Junior Lake
I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing that green ivy in Wrigley Field on a baseball card.

#36 Paul Konerko
Before making this card, I had never noticed Konerko's awesome K-face. It's probably too mean to put that on a card, though.

#37 Homer Bailey
"I'm Batman."

#38 Michael Bourn
I'm realizing it's a lot easier to find usable fielding photos than batting ones to fit this design. Whenever I come across one where a guy's limbs aren't hanging off the edges, I feel compelled to use it, even if he's known more for his glove than bat.

#39 Rex Brothers

#40 Max Scherzer
Scherzer's almost as prolific as Hunter Pence when it comes to goofy action faces.