Better late than whatever

Topps released its design for 2022 flagship on Thursday.

This is super early for an announcement that usually takes place in August, at least since I've been following such things on the blog. In fact, the last time Topps released its flagship design in July, two years ago, I was aghast. And this 2022 announcement is 10 days earlier than that date.

So, obviously, I was caught off guard.

I'm late. But it doesn't matter much for the blog. Reacting to card design announcements is very much a Twitter thing now and everybody couldn't wait to get their two pennies in over there, including me.

I do like the design. ... well, it's OK. I like it in comparison to what we've seen from Topps lately. It's mostly a feeling of relief because we're not going to get garbage like 2020 and 2021 flagship for the rest of the decade and beyond. The 2022 design is simple, there's nothing interfering with the photo, it appears to be team-color-coded and there is a border. Those are all good things, and it shows what can be produced when you stop trying too hard and just make something that looks like a baseball card.

It's this decade's version of 2013 Topps, which I liked a lot. Yeah, there's still a Bowman vibe with it, but it's reined in enough that I don't notice it if I don't look too hard.

A lot of people got distracted by the rookie card logo on the Wander Franco sample card and what's that mean for Franco in Update this year, blah, blah, blah. I care zero about this. So let's move on.

Another aspect about the design that was mentioned was that you can read the names of the players on the front of the card. That's a pretty sad commentary on 2021 Topps. People obviously were freaked out that we were going to see tiny type on cards for the foreseeable future. It is, without a doubt, the worst gaffe in baseball cards this year -- making your main flagship brand unreadable.

So, 2022 Topps is moving things in the right direction even if it's not the greatest. We're probably back in 2018 now, which was an acceptable set after the abominations of 2016 and 2017. And -- yay! -- there's a (half) baseball in the design, the first baseball design since 2011!

 

Per usual since 2016, I probably won't buy much of this -- there's always the question about how available it will be. But I'm not into current players like I once was and I see that trend continuing and less and less trips to the card aisle.

 

But card design is always interesting to me and so I'll always talk about Topps' new flagship design. I can't imagine ignoring an announcement like this.

 

That's because Topps' new flagship design announcement is like seeing the new record album of your favorite group for the first time, or that cover of that new comic book issue that you've waited for. That is a real fun part of collecting for me, even if the players on the cards aren't as interesting to me.

And some day maybe some design will come along again, like 2015, and I'll just have to collect the whole damn thing.