Tigers Gallery & Review: 2011 Topps Opening Day

I'm sure right now everyone cares about bigger and better things. Well that's fine. I just got a package that contained team sets of Opening Day, Attax(!) and yes, Bowman. I'll be posting Galleries & Reviews for all of them this week, as well as filling in the rest of the year's sets. Opening Day starts things off because it is fun, quick and easy.

Every year I consider Opening Day a throwaway set, and every year I find that I like it as much, if not more, than the regular Topps offering. The 2011 edition continues in that tradition in many ways.

Take a look at the full team set in the gallery below. My take on the set can be found after the jump.

#16 Max Scherzer	#82 Brennan Boesch	#100 Miguel Cabrera	#104 Victor Martinez

#177 Magglio Ordonez	#184 Austin Jackson	#188 Justin Verlander	#M9 Paws

#OD55 Miguel Cabrera	#UL5 Miguel Cabrera	TTOD21 Austin Jackson

Opening Day Is Go

Tigers vs. Yankees in the first game of the season on ESPN.

Go.

More Wantlist Whittling

It's been a good couple of week for me on the wantlist front. Today I get to chop three more off of my Big Ten list (although nothing quite as dramatic as last time)

Let's go in reverse order this time.

#11: Popeye Aah-guh-guh-guh-guh-guh

2010 Topps Gold #575 Ryan Perry (#/2010)

#10: The Gambler

2008 Topps - Gold Foil #634 Kenny Rogers

That card completes my 2008 Topps Gold Foil set!

...And, the leader in the clubhouse for Tigers card of the year, perhaps?
#4: Paws

2010 Topps Opening Day #M9 Paws

That's the last card I needed from 2010 Topps Opening Day too!

I'm hoping to spend a little time (and very little money) knocking out some more off of this list on my little winter break, and until I can do a proper inventory of my cards, these ones are going to be replaced by TBAs for now.

Grand Galleries: 2010 Topps Opening Day

Topps Opening Day is one of those sets that is relatively useless, but I tend to kind of enjoy nonetheless. I profiled the Detroit Tigers in the Opening Day set earlier this year, and Yes, it's taken me this long to find the necessary images to post a Granderson gallery. Of two cards.

Granderson's card is notable in that it is the first non-secret short printed card of him as a Yankee. It uses the same photoshopped picture as his Topps Series 1 card (#222b), but is in portrait layout instead of landscape. The main feature of Opening Day that I have always liked--different color schemes--is absent in this set, but finds its way in parallel form. A very nice looking blue-bordered parallel (#/2010) is the second Granderson card in the set. Four printing plates round out his offerings--in the interest of aesthetics, I'll show those if and when I ever find an image of them, instead of sticking placeholders in there. Luckily, we've got the Cyan one to kick us off.

As 2010 card sets go, Opening Day is the most meager of Granderson offerings. Shocking that it took me so long to find what I was looking for. Lackluster though it may be, we can't just pick and choose what cards are out there, now can we?

#98 Curtis Granderson	#98 Curtis Granderson Blue (#/2010)	#98 Curtis Granderson Printing Plate (Cyan) 1/1

Tigers Gallery Checklist: 2010 Topps Opening Day

I was that guy who was secretly disappointed when Topps Opening Day wasn't released last year. Yep, that one guy. I'm really not exactly sure what it is. At least in years past, they've modified the regular Topps set with some different color borders or different color foil or something like that. This year it is the exact same set except that the foil is gone and there is an "Opening Day" logo on the card. Yet here I am, liking it again for some reason. I think it's because I'm a sucker for logos. That, and the fact that I love Opening Day--the actual day--as much as I love any "officially recognized" holiday. So, 2010 marks the return of Topps Opening Day and Topps has made that one guy smile again.

Base Set There's not much to say about these cards that hasn't already been said about Topps Series 1, with one exception. They do a great job of using Series 1 cards and either previewing some of the Series 2 offerings or giving us new cards altogether (we'll have to wait and see which is which). Here, we get a nice photoshopped action-shot of new Tiger Max Scherzer, as well as franchise cornerstones Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander, who are conspicuously absent from Series 1. Opening Day also returns with it's now-customary "Mascot" card. It is technically an insert, but has the same design as the base set, so I'm lumping it in. Of course, I can't find a good picture of it, so right now you get bupkis. Sorry. (Update: Paws image found. This is easily the best card in the set, hands down.)

#16 Aubrey Huff	#18 Rick Porcello	#36 Brandon Inge
#95 Magglio Ordonez	#97 Max Scherzer	#124 Gerald Laird
#150 Miguel Cabrera	#165 Justin Verlander	#M9 Paws

Inserts The inserts in Opening Day are really interesting. There are three Tigers inserts (plus the Mascot card), all of Miguel Cabrera. One of these, is essentially a preview card for Topps Attax, which is fine given the kid-centric cross promotion opportunities. Another, is a "Toppstown" card with a completely different design from the Toppstown cards in the regular Topps set. What's more, it is a significantly better looking card--generic design be damned--that is really nice. Except for that huge white code box on the front. That couldn't go on the back, why?

The last insert is the only one worth talking about. Although it has the least catchy name this side of "Cards Your Mother Threw Out", the "Where'd You Go Bazooka Joe" may be the best insert set that I've seen in some time. It is original, it is fun and it harkens back to tons and tons of awesome cartoony baseball cards that I collected as a kid. It is fantastic.

In all, a generally fine but unremarkable series of inserts. The most important feature of which is that there aren't a bazillion of them to worry about. What a refreshing concept.

#TTS11 Miguel Cabrera	#WBJ3 Miguel Cabrera	#ODTA3 Miguel Cabrera

The End is Nigh!

It started innocently enough:


Then today, we're hit with this:


For those of you not in the know, these are the two most recent releases from Topps. Sure, they already had Curtis Granderson as a Yankee in Topps Series 1--but it was in Short-Printed, stealth form. These cards are the regular cards from the set. Curtis Granderson is now officially a Yankee in cardboard.

And I, for one, don't have a problem with that. He is a Yankee after all. The big question is, is this the end of Granderson as a Tiger in baseball cards? I'd like to think that the answer is Yes. Now, don't get me wrong. I love Curtis as a player and more 2010 cards of him as a Tiger would be fine, but I feel like once you've started a path--e.g. including him as a Yankee in each of your first three releases--that you should stick with it. I'm not on board with the back and forth that, say, Thorzul has experienced in trying to chase down CC Sabathia-as-Brewer cards. A chase that has spanned releases over two full years, despite a mere couple of months of playing time. From here on out, if I see a checklist and I see Granderson, I want to know "Yankee." That's just the way it is.

But is this the end? Is it upon us? Or am I bound to see Curtis in the Old English D once more this year. I'd imagine that I will, but given the card companies' love of the Yankees, and the much, much bigger market that they can tap into by slapping him with the ol' NY, I wouldn't be surprised if those chances are few and far between from here on out.

Ultimate Checklist: 2008 Topps Opening Day

Here's a quick lunchtime update:

"Opening Day" is the much derided throwaway set from Topps that shows little creativity and adds nothing to Topps' main set. However, it is red.

From Curtis Granderson Collection

Terrible for a whole set, perfectly fine for an individual card. I do like the "Opening Day" logo on the cards, but feel like this would be more fun as a parallel (get rid of gold foil and first edition stamps, perhaps) than a separate set. (My head just exploded with cries of NOOOOO! from across the card blogging universe)

Granderson is Card #32 in the set. A Gold version of the card, which is white (??) is serial numbered to 2199, and has date of Opening Day stamped on it.

From Curtis Granderson Collection

Just my two cents, but that card is much uglier than the regular version. By removing the circles from around the team name you zapped the design of any character it might have had. I also don't understand why it is numbered to 2199, but whatever.

To sum up: #32 base, #32 "Gold" (#/2199) and printing plates. With that, I think Opening Day has gotten about as much post space as it deserves.