My Target trip yesterday yielded a lot of good stuff. One of the more interesting items (to me) that I found in one of my repack purchases was a 1992 Topps Gold Winners card. Why I found it interesting was that it featured noted "winner" Dave Otto.
I don't mean any disrespect to Dave Otto by this post -- I mean, he's an excellent baseball player by the mere fact that he made it to the major leagues and, in fact, he has been inducted into the University of Missouri's Sports Hall of Fame. But, the idea of labeling every single player in a set as a winner -- which is what Topps did -- is ridiculous. For instance, in 1991 (the season before this card), Otto went 2-8 with a
4.23 ERA (nearly league average) but with just 4.2 K/9 and allowing 9.7 H/9...and, to be clear, this was probably his best Major League Season.
Labeling Otto as a winner after that season is like giving every kid in a league a trophy for participating.
Speaking of giving kids trophies for participation, I present the following insert from the 2013 Panini Elite Extra Edition from a blaster I bought at Target.
Relic inserts for guys who played major league baseball is okay. I'm not a huge fan -- I'd rather have the
entire jersey if I'm going to collect something like that -- but they don't offend me too much.
But this relic creeps me out.
Did Panini
really get the jersey from a
14-year-old kid, cut it up, insert it into cards, print them up, and think "I bet the collectors will really love these cards"?
Seriously?
I suppose it is only a matter of time before some entrepreneurial sort starts releasing releasing cards for highly recruited high school football players.
What's that you say?
UGH.
