Wow, I haven’t done one of these in a while. It almost feels cliche to say it at this point, but I think the last one I did was for 2020 Topps Heritage and I think that would have been right before the start of the Pandemic.
I’ve opened some blasters in that time, but I never got my butt in gear to put together one of these posts. Most of my blaster purchases have been in the last year or so. There was just never much product in the stores and to be honest, that was kind of a good thing.
My problem tends to be that if it’s there, I might buy it. So in a way a lack of product on the shelves saved me from myself. I’ve been tending to buy other things like older wax boxes and other sports and things like that.
Let’s see if I can remember how this goes.
2022 Topps Series 2
I’d like to try to avoid comments on the design because at this point you’ve heard them all. On top of that the 2023 design came out already too so that’s old news. But I also never posted about the Series 1 boxes that I opened. So I need to say something…
I like it…
OK, it’s more than that. I really loved the design this year. There’s not a whole lot of it, but at the same time, there’s a whole lot of it. The little baseball where the logo goes, the place for the position, the thin lines and shadows, all pretty cool. I think some of the text could be more significant, but overall I like it.
I always used to pull some of the better players for the first pictures. The one that’s my favorite is the Machado. That image reminded me of the 1988 Score set where they seemed to want to fit the whole bat onto the card with a player in their batting stance. I always thought that was pretty cool.
Meet the Mets
…both of them.
It is just two of them because Lindor is on both cards. This was definitely a disappointment because there are a good amount of cards in the box and there were only these two Mets cards. I like them both, but I’d like a couple more please.
The “Stars of the Game” I think is one of the most inserted inserts for this year and then the other is the team card. I like those in general. I think I might have to send that one to Buck Showalter to sign.
Flyin’ High
As I was going through I seemed to notice a little bit of a theme. Do these guys seem to be gliding to you? Looks like Herrera and Goodrum are trying to pull a bit of a Superman move or something. Margot and O’Neill on the other hand are going in a little more foot first into it.
While these are all cool images, there’s something about them…
Floaters… And Stuff I Don’t Like
That something about them is that these players are all FLOATING. Yuck!
I really don’t like the way the bottoms of these cards are faded, but then they cut the player out and put it on top of the fade. It really doesn’t work with the bottom of the card. If I had to choose the approach of fading everything or just no fade, I would choose the later. No fade for me.
Black shoes are you crazy!
So we’re going to float the players and then when we photoshop new uniforms on them we’ll just give them black shoes. That won’t stick out at all. Oh, and don’t forget to fill the shoes with a big Nike logo.
These just look so awkward.
The other thing I don’t like is the inclusion of players on the wrong team or that aren’t even playing. We’re into the end of the season right. Don’t we know that Gerardo Parra isn’t playing. Did we REALLY NEED a Parra card in Series 2? There’s gotta be some alternatives to these.
This just tells you a little about when decisions on these sets are made… and if anyone cares.
Insertables
I like the “No Hit Club” insert. Other than that… meh.
Some of these are just getting kind of tired I guess. And damn that helmet card is heavy as all get out. Those are just blaster things I guess. If I don’t want them I shouldn’t bother with blasters.
Parallelogram
And last but not least the parallels. I almost thought I had opened a holiday box when I saw that last one. I guess that’s just because of the green plus the shiny. And oh joy, a parallel of someone not playing for the team pictured.
I like the design and it was fun to open up a blaster again. I set aside a few packs like I usually do. Hopefully I won’t let it go so long between opening blasters going forward. Although the price has gone up just like everything else on top of all this.
I believe that’s the third straight year that the “Mets team” care prominently featured Pete Alonso. For a while the “teams cards” were “a mob of players celebrating”, now they’re “two or three guys celebrating.” Dumb. If they can’t do team pictures then do team leaders or something. Or just ditch the team cards for stadium cards, manager cards, or more players. Something.
Yeah – definitely would like to see those mixed up more. There are plenty of interesting celebrations and pictures that can be included and not the same people every time.