The worst card of 2009, contestant #2

I may have gotten too caught up in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day with the last post. I fixated a little too much on the green color on the 1994 Topps cards. You see, while I look at '94 Topps and only see the color, it appears others look at it and see the home plate design that outlines the photo.

That, I think, made it too difficult for people to fit "green" into the title for their "Define the Design" guesses.

So this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to set aside '94 Topps for now. I'll think about it and come up with some sort of name that combines "home plate" and "green." It may take me a few years, but I'll find something.

But so you still have a chance to win some cards, I'm going to come right back with another Define the Design contest tomorrow. The set that I will be featuring will have no stipulations on it. You'll be free to guess away. And, the winner will still get the Shawn Green doubles that I offered in the previous post, some cards of their favorite team, PLUS an autograph card and a relic card. You can't go wrong there can you? So, tune in tomorrow.

Now, back to the card at hand, the goofy 2009 Topps card of Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston. This is the second contestant for "The Worst Card of 2009" contest. You'll notice that both entrants so far have been Topps cards. But don't get too smug, Upper Deck. I'll find something from you, I'm sure.

It pains me to feature this card as one of the worst, because it's a night card. But Topps basically buggered up this card with the crop. Who crops a photo like that?

I know all about cropping photos because of my job, and you never do things like what's shown on Gaston's card. I'm assuming that Gaston is talking to an umpire and Topps cropped out the ump because of some licensing issue. But, damn, find another photo of Gaston. Don't do that. All this photo does is confuse the viewer as to what's going on.

If you're going to show a candid shot, make sure you present the whole story. That's photography 101.

I apologize to Matt F. of Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius who sent me this card. I didn't mean to rip the card, man. I just saw it, and it struck me.

Matt sent me several night cards from the 2009 set. I've set them aside for future night card posts. It's always nice to restock the inventory, and Topps has a bunch of night cards in this year's set, so I should be set for awhile.

Matt also sent some key Dodgers cards:

A gold 2009 Topps card of ex-Dodger Brad Penny.

And a couple more Topps Black cards of Matt Kemp and Manny Ramirez (postseason edition). The Ramirez photo is odd. He looks like he's taking flight into the night sky. These came along with the Mark Sweeney black card that I featured earlier.

Many thanks for the cards, Matt. Even the Cito. But he still got jobbed on that card.