Card of the Year

It took over a month, but what I consider the front-runner for Tigers' Card of the Year has made its way into the "wild."



Pixelated as that eBay screen grab may be, this Miguel Cabrera auto/relic boxtopper is awesome. It also has what I believe to be a very reasonable BIN price of $250, which, as these things go, is not totally crazy.

I mean, it's Miguel Cabrera, with a nice big, on-card autograph, on a great looking card, (with a relic piece that I could take or leave) numbered by hand to 5 copies. Show me a better Tigers card from these year. Go ahead. Anyway, $250 is out of my price range at the moment so I'll just have to file this away under "someday..."

But don't cry for me, folks. It just so happened that I picked up what very well may be last year's card of the year just before the National came to town, and for a bargain:

2009 Goodwin Champions #GCA-AK Al Kaline Autograph

While not numbered, I'm pretty sure that WOTS was that this card was limited to 50 copies. It enjoys the rare combination of an excellent looking card plus a big, crisp, clean, on-card autograph from the greatest living Tiger. I'd say that the only other real contender for the best card of 2009 is this guy, so either way I think I've got it covered.

We'll have to see whether this Cabrera can hold on to the tentative top spot with just under half of the year to go. Could be tough to unseat.

Tigers Checklist: 2009 Goodwin Champions

Upper Deck's Goodwin Champions release may have the most beautiful cards of 2009. People who tried to collect the set complained about things like cheap feeling card stock, too few cards per pack, too many stupid Upper Deck 20th Anniversary inserts per pack and a strange distribution of short prints, super-short prints and other odd things.

However, for someone like me who only cares about cards from one team, I can say with confidence that these are the most beautiful cards of 2009. Not all of them are gems, but the Kaline and Granderson cards are outstanding and the Verlander card may prove to be the best card ever produced of him. Take a look and you'll see what I mean.

Your 2009 Goodwin Champions Detroit Tigers:

Base Set

#30 Al Kaline	#102 Curtis Granderson	#131 Miguel Cabrera
#140 Gordie Howe	#172 Justin Verlander (SP)

In addition to this base set, there are two card that don't fit the regular schema of a card set. Gordie Howe has a short-printed parallel version with a different background. Similarly, Carlos Guillen has a card that only exists in mini form--this is the opposite of the Verlander short print, which is full-sized only and doesn't have any of the mini parallels that the rest of the base set enjoys. Still, these are different from regular parallels, so I feel compelled to include them:

Night Sky & Mini Exclusives

#140 Gordie Howe (Moonlight Variation)	#241 Carlos Guillen

Of course, there are relics and autographs as well--the "hits" of the set. The Kaline is the clear winner here.

Relics

#GCM-CG Curtis Granderson	#GCM-JV Justin Verlander	#GCM-MC Miguel Cabrera

Autographs

#GCA-AK Al Kaline

Four.

Sometimes, everything just comes together.

Curtis has a four game hit streak.

2009 Goodwin Champions #102 Curtis Granderson

And four straight multi-hit games.

2009 Goodwin Champions #102 Curtis Granderson Mini

And four straight games with extra base hits.

2009 Goodwin Champions #102 Curtis Granderson Black Mini (Gypsy Queen Back)

And four straight games with an RBI and a Run.

2009 Goodwin Champions #GCM-CG Curtis Granderson

If I didn't know better, I'd say that four was the Tigers' magic number.

These are my first four Curtis Granderson cards from Goodwin Champions, a set that only features four Tigers in its base set. On a non-four related note, Curtis hit two home runs yesterday, one in each end of a doubleheader, to give him 30 on the season...which puts him fourth among AL outfielders in that category. Oh, I guess that does tie in. Did I mention that this is only Curtis' fourth full major league season? Cosmos, align yourselves.