One final look at 2022

 

 

I finished paging this weekend the complete 2022 Topps set I received for Christmas.

 

I don't know about you but paging a complete set is fraught with alarming moments throughout, most having to do with being thoroughly convinced that Topps shorted me a card, until I find that card misfiled or under a chair or whatever.

 

But the whole set of 660 cards is officially in a binder now, which means I get to write out my feelings on the set now that I've seen it all at once.

 

Overall, I enjoyed the set more than when I was paging the complete 2021 set at this time last year. No weird jagged razors infringing on the photo this time. And I could read the player names. In these days of all-action photos, there is a sense of sameness to a lot of the cards. For a moment there I though every Brewers pitcher card was going to show the player on the mound, facing left, while in mid-pitch. A lot of batters batting and pitchers pitching.

 

But I seemed to notice a lot more runners running photos than in the past. I've complained about a lack of players on the basepaths in sets going back to the 1970s and '80s so I'm glad to see one of the key elements of the game getting decent representation.

Sorting the set by card number, as is proper, I'm aware that Topps doesn't arrange its set as it did when I was a kid or even 30 years ago. Topps will give three players from the same team consecutive numbers in the set, so the cards of team members show up side-by-side-by-side. That was a no-no decades ago. But in this year's set, the Dodgers' David Price is #40 and Clayton Kershaw is #41 (more on hero numbers in a moment). The Royals' Greg Holland is #52 and Hanser Alberton #53. There are lots of examples of this.

As for "hero numbers" -- those card numbers ending in "0" and "5," Topps only recognized card numbers ending in "50" or "00." The rest of the hero numbers feature random players. An example for the first few "10"s:

10 - Austin Bradley

20 - Jake Cousins

30 - Kyle Muller

40 - David Price

50 - Mookie Betts

60 - Mike Moustakas

70 - Ryan Weathers

80 - Mitch Haniger

90 - Enrique Hernandez

100 - Fernando Tatis Jr.

110 - "Lift-Off" (Astros)

120 - Andrew Vaughn

130 - Tyler Gilbert

140 - Ryan Castillo

150 - Juan Soto

160 - Anthony Bender

170 - Kevin Pillar

180 - J.T.Realmuto

190 - Emmanuel Clase

200 - Ronald Acuna Jr.

 

The 50s and 100s:

 

50 - Mookie Betts

100 - Fernando Tatis Jr.

150 - Juan Soto

200 - Ronald Acuna Jr.

250 - Bryce Harper

300 - Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

350 - Justin Verlander

400 - Yadier Alvarez

450 - Francisco Lindor

500 - Eloy Jimenez

550 - Trea Turner

600 - Manny Machado

650 - Giancarlo Stanton

 

Some pitcher bias there. Verlander is the only pitcher and he didn't even play in 2021.

 

Last year I picked out some interesting cards and had my own little awards show. I'm much lazier a year later, so all I have are 12 interesting cards to me, in order of least interesting to most. Call them my favorite cards of 2022 Topps flagship with a Card of the Year for the finale if you want. It doesn't matter. It's 2023 and nobody cares.

 

12. Archie Bradley, No. 10

 

Topps did a similar photo for Randy Johnson about 10 years ago. Even though Johnson was shown from the back and Bradley from the front, I think it was more effective with Johnson, probably because he's a lot taller than Bradley.

11. Manny Machado, #600

Topps has got to stop treating players I don't like right. This a nifty use of the landscape photo, getting every ounce of that bat in.

10. Harrison Bader, #225

Bonus points for showing the ball, but this guy just reminds me that we're going to have to deal with miked-up players in the middle of the game again this year and we're very close to me watching entire games on mute.

9. Carson Kelly, #177

I named this my favorite night card of the 2022 set and it's good enough to make the top 10 for the entire set. Shiny, shiny lights.

8. Roman Quinn, #577

This card would probably be ranked higher if I knew Quinn came down with the ball, but laziness has struck again and I can't be bothered to look that up. Still Quinn gets bonus points for his ups, plus shrubbery!

7. Andy Ibanez, #383

 

Andy looks like he's in pain, and for good reason. It may be in vain, too, because I don't see a ball in the frame but the runner is about to step on first base.

6. Willy Adames, #378

Adames appears to be high-fiving Andre The Giant. Don't tell me that's not happening because then the card won't be on the list. 

5. Byron Buxton, #576

By now I think it's occurred to you that the only qualification for being on this list is that the player is airborne.

4. Enrique Hernandez, #90

Hernandez is clearly a future Legend Of Cardboard entrant, even though he's well-known for some his on-field achievements. He repeatedly has the best cards in sets. I always feel sorry for ballplayers who pull off this move. It seems like a good way to lose an entire arm all the way up the shoulder.

 

3. Myles Straw, #654

A sweet moment of Straw in mid-air, one foot awkwardly attached to the fence, as he watches the ball settle into his glove. A strike against it though as Topps has photoshopped "Guardians" onto his uniform as this photo was taken in 2021 when Cleveland was still the "Indians." But with the original photo, it's tough to tell what it reads with his arm blocking the name so why the fiddling?

 

 

2. Jonah Heim, #230

I called this the Card of the Year a few times during 2022. Ask me tomorrow and it probably will be again. It just doesn't match up to all the daring-do of the other cards, but this photo stopped me in my tracks when I first saw it. I've already seen a few different card rainbows of this card from collectors.

 

 

1. Tony Kemp, #104

"Show me a photo that you've never seen on a card before."

There you go.

There is one card that would have been a candidate for the best of 2022 but it didn't show up in the flagship set for who knows why.

Chris Taylor does not get his own card in flagship (he is shown in the "Moving On" checklist card). Taylor appeared 148 games for the Dodgers in 2021 with 507 at-bats and 20 home runs. He was a key player, yet all we have is this team-set card. This card features a photo of Taylor's catch during the 2021 playoff series against the Giants.

Taylor could have squeezed into the set if Topps didn't throw so many rookies into everything (there are just about 100 rookie card logos in this set). They could cut down on those checklist cards, too. There doesn't need to be that many, especially if you're skipping over players on the field for 150 games.

The complete set comes with five shiny foil parallel thingies. I didn't fair too well with those in last year's complete set. But I pulled a Dodger this time.

Yay, me!

The set also comes with five rookie variation cards. This is what I got:

The Cruz is for Dave, who just sent me a bushel full of cards for Christmas, if he needs it.

So, that's my review of the 2022 set, a mere month or so before the 2023 set comes out. That's the way we operate here.

Now it's time to see if I can jam the 2021 and 2022 sets into one binder and conserve some card room space.