#tbt other designs

Topps has been digging into their old designs on cards for many many decades.  In 1975 collectors got images of cards featuring MVP winners from previous seasons using the cards from their MVP season.  In 1987 Topps used the Turn Back the Clock design to highlight some more older designed cards from their vault of designs.  

With that it shouldn't be a surprise that Topps has used some of their non baseball card designs to highlight baseball players in their online exclusive sets #TBT Throwback Thursday releases.

Unfortunately despite appearing in three of these #TBT sets, Cutch has only gotten the treatment of 1 non baseball card set design.  

I will look at each of these 3 #TBT sets over the course of the next three Thursdays and evaluate what could have been done differently based on the previous set homage and following set homage.

Today we are looking at

2017 #TBT card #112

This set was based on the Player Nickname Weekend event and included The Machine (Albert Pujols), All Rise (Aaron Judge), Cutch, Buster (Posey), Chuck Nasty (Charlie Blackmon), and Mookie (Betts)

The set used the 1984 Topps design which has been produced in several other reprint themed sets over the years.  The players nickname is featured going down the side of the card where the traditional team name would go.  The images used all feature the Player Weekend jerseys shown.

When the online exclusive set was first released I enjoyed it as it gave me a Cutch card using the 1984 design, but now that Topps has used the 1984 set in Archives, #TBT, an insert set, and Project 2020 and Project 70 I am kind of over seeing this set.

The next set began with card number #116 and was based on the 1984 football design

It was meant to look at players who may have excelled on the gridiron had they not chosen baseball as their career choice.  Cutch was originally a high school star wide receiver before injuring his ACL which made him focus on baseball.  He is a Steelers fan and has been seen attending the Steelers games at Heinz Field.  

The set preceding the Player Nicknames #TBT based on the 1984 design was the 1991 Beverly Hills 90210 set

The set featured the hottest hitters of the summer

This would have been a fun set for player's weekend.  Similar to what was done with the Arenado card above Topps could have used the player's nickname instead of their first name on the cards.  

Are there any Topps designs you want to see get used?

I'm holding out hope that Topps produces a #TBT set based on the Dick Tracy stickers at the trade deadline based on the criminals of the film.  

Keep the WANTED poster idea

Replace the villain with a player like Trevor Story (or any other trade candidate)

Replace the crime with what they could provide to the new team (Home Runs, Stolen Bases, Strikeouts, Leadership, etc etc etc)

And last you can replace the sticker number with either the player's number or position abbreviation

Throwback Thursday: My First 2017 Cutch

2017  Topps has been out for a lil over a week now. I have kept quiet showing off any thoughts about the flagship release because I needed a Thursday to reveal this card first.

I bought a blaster at Target last Friday.  Unlike many others, I showed resistance (for a few extra days) of not buying 2017 Topps because I knew Cutch didn't have a base card in Series 1.

Cutch has a bunch of inserts and parallels though.
Jackie Robinson patch and insert
Spring Training Pin
5 Tools Insert
1987 Retro
1987 Color Refractors

Like everyone else I love the 5 Tool Talents and enjoy the 1987 cards.  I actually already bought a bunch of the color parallels from eBay.

Here's some other cards I got in my blaster.

Nothing really exciting in the blaster so I am just showing off a few of my favorites from the packs I opened.

This was my first pack and my first card of 2017 was Lucas Duda. Yuck!  The rest of pack was so bad I didn't even want to show it.

Wil Myers had a great year last year. The Steve Avery rediscover Topps card reminds me how much I hate the Braves

Jose Fernandez R.I.P.
The Beltran is gold /2017
The Chris Davis card is really neat looking.  I miss those subtle moments from the game being on cardboard.
Victoria Justice? Yes Please!!!

I like the inserts a lot this year, but the rookie class is really good for series one. I hear that Gary Sanchez guy is supposed to be good.

The team celebration cards are awesome as are the 5 Tool Talents.  The D'arnaud is rainbow foil.  It's amazing how Zach Duke has turned his career around to be a dominant lefty out of the pen.

My Jackie Robinson patch was Miguel Sano

Here's the other Pirates I got