This is pretty much THE image that I now connect to on any stray thought of the 2012 World Series, and as a Tigers fan, I have more stray thoughts on it than most. But to have this image in my mind about that Series pretty much indicates how much time I have spent with this set over the years.
And some of that might actually flow from my experiences with the 2016 World Series, which has some definitely more well-known images of Bryant-to-Rizzo-to-History from the fielding of the final out there. Which is something I never saw on TV and in fact actually heard called by the great Cleveland radio broadcaster Tom Allen. But afterwards, Topps came to my rescue on that with several cards depicting the play, and in their low end sets, too.
So it goes here. I think most collectors would prefer some World Series cards in their Topps Baseball set, even if it is a card depicting basically the lowest point for their favorite franchise in an entire decade.
One thing that is striking about being a Tigers fan is the high levels of bitter vitriol one will encounter in the fan base. In the 2010s, Detroit went on a roll winning 5 straight AL Central titles. But not only did they not "win it all" in the end of any of those 5 years, their one World Series trip resulted in a sweep. And to twist the knife just a touch more, it is worth recalling that the photograph used on this card was shot on the Tigers Home field. It is quite easy to miss that Romo and Posey are wearing their road greys here, amidst all the other baseball goodness. I have long thought that if Detroit could have at least played a 6 or 7 game Series in 2012, Tigers fans wouldn't be quite so cynical and bitter about things, ever afterwards, really. It also doesn't help that by being swept, the Tigers didn't get even one World Series card of their own.
Another angle to the sadness of it all, for a Tigers fan, can be seen in one of the Associated Press photos from the game, which also captures just about this exact same moment:
FILE - In this Oct. 28, 2012 file photo, Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera walks away after striking out to end Game 4 of baseball's World Series against the San Francisco Giants in Detroit. Cabrera will be remembered for two things during the baseball season of 2012: Becoming baseball's first Triple Crown winner in 45 years, and striking out on an 89 mph, belt-high fastball to end the Giants' 4-3, title-clinching win. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
Yes in a phrase 20th Century Tigers fans can connect to this all too very well, Miggy stood there like the house by the side of the road to officially end the 2012 World Series. It was almost a bit of a blessing that Ernie didn't have to see this one.
Despite all that, I do like this baseball card quite a bit. Even half-sleepy baseball fans who can't even pick a favorite to win a given World Series will stir to action in the bottom of the 9th (or later) inning when the Series is on the line and the big celebration is about to erupt. So this is an excellent moment to immortalize on cardboard. Topps had no shortage of photos to pick for this particular card, from multiple photogs and angles, but this was a good choice.
Minor things I like on this card include seeing all the orange accents on Posey's catcher gear, and the way the World Series logo gets repeated on the card and on Romo's right shoulder. I work with trees for a living, and routinely work in Oak trees, so to get a few Oak leaves mixed in with my love of baseball is always nice, for me.
Uniform Hero? I wish I could tell you that Topps slyly gave some baseball card love to that one bench player who had that key hit in the middle of Game 2 of the Series, but neither S.F. nor Detroit had a player wearing #67 in 2012.
One thing I completely do not understand about this card is why it appears as the first World Series card on the checklist. What does this mean? Will there be other World Series cards? I wish I had a shelf full of perfectly organized Topps Baseball sets to consult on this question - how have other Topps Baseball sets handled this, of which World Series card goes where on the checklist. All I can note here is - I will be looking into that particular bit of baseball card trivia when I read about other World Series in other sets of Topps Baseball.
One thing I completely do not understand about this card is why it appears as the first World Series card on the checklist. What does this mean? Will there be other World Series cards? I wish I had a shelf full of perfectly organized Topps Baseball sets to consult on this question - how have other Topps Baseball sets handled this, of which World Series card goes where on the checklist. All I can note here is - I will be looking into that particular bit of baseball card trivia when I read about other World Series in other sets of Topps Baseball.
Where’d the egg hatch? The San Francisco Giants were organized in 1883 as the New York Gothams, only becoming the Giants in 1886.
How about the migrations? One can only imagine what it must have been like to be a huge baseball fan in New York in the 1950s, when not one but two NYC teams moved to California; the Giants became the San Francisco Giants in 1958.
Don’t flip over real Turtles.
I noted on the first post-season card back in this set how there often seems to be only a 50-50 chance that the hero of the card back is the hero on the front of the card. So it is nice that Sergio Romo makes the cut here; Closing games in the World Series is a definite feat of skill. But there will be many more Giants-in-the-Postseason cards to come in the set, so I think the other Giants mentioned will be OK.
But overall, given how it must often be a four letter word spelled w-o-r-k to create baseball card backs, I often wonder why the post-season cards can feel so phoned in, quite often. A line score reveals so very little about a baseball game, compared to a box score, or even just two paragraphs of easy to compose text, rather than this short one.
Bling That Shell Of all the parallels of the 2013 Topps Baseball set, I think there is only one that is just exactly perfect enough for each card, such that complete binder pages of just that parallel would actually look nice. And that is the classic Topps Gold. So for such a key card in the set, it feels like the right choice:
No comments:
Post a Comment