As I ripped through the packs I had one eye on the cards and one eye on Hailey as she seemed determined to topple a pile of unsorted Halos off my desk. Even with only one eye trained on the action, a few things stood out.
1. The StarQuest cards are pointless. Hooray, I got a Nick Markakis Emerald Super Rare! Now what the hell does super rare even mean? Consider me a confused collector.
2. I don't really get the reason for the Goodwin Champions preview cards. Losing a baseball card from my pack for your advertisement doesn't inspire me to want to buy this future set. Especially when the subject on the card looks like the old guy who walks around my neighbor every evening.
3. The last thing I noticed, this set is an outfielder's dream. As evidenced below, there were a number of cards featuring outfielders making great diving catches. Don't believe me? Keep scrollin'.
I really appreciate that UD actually featured pictures of defensive plays on their Gold Glove Award Winner cards, at least the 2 I received. I get easily annoyed by cards like these that show the player hitting or high fiving a teammate.
Not as dramatic as teammate McLouth's leaping grab, but pretty decent nonetheless.
I'm thinking it may be time for the Pirates to invest in some ground ball pitchers. These outfielders are having to work way too hard.
Just a base card, but I much prefer this to my Emerald Super Rare StarQuestpalooza card I also pulled.
Perfect mid-action shot. The look on his face is one that is only seen right after the look of "I can do this" and right before the look of "Holy crap I better not blow this".
Probably my favorite of all the outfield play cards. If you're Trevor Crowe, you've gotta pretty stoked to have this as your rookie card. Beats the hell out of posing in front of the batting cage.
So is 2009 Upper Deck superior to Topps? After ripping through some retail I'd have to give that one a big nuh-uhh. But it's a worthy effort, especially if you're a fan of outfield defense.
Go Halos!
