Monday, April 8, 2013

Some Things Never Change

When Panini announced they had been granted an MLBPA license three years ago, I thought it would significantly change the market.  Though the overall quality of their football and hockey products can be debated, the brand offered fun and exciting cards that fit my collecting interests.

And then, of course, Panini essentially sat on the license, releasing little of note until the recent baseball greats-themed sets.  But with the unveiling of plans for Panini Prizm and Pinnacle baseball sets in the coming months, I instantly became excited.  Both sets utilize quite a bit of "throwback" technology and design; finally the 90's inserts the Pirates were never worthy of will be revitalized, and the black and gold (well, at least those colors, not the logos) will finally be immortalized in their shiny glory.

Apparently I missed the memo that the Pirates still aren't particularly hobby-friendly.

The checklist for Prizm is as follows:

Base Set:
23 Andrew McCutchen - Pittsburgh Pirates
117 Garrett Jones - Pittsburgh Pirates
181 Starling Marte RC - Pittsburgh Pirates

Autographs:
TA Jose Tabata - Pittsburgh Pirates

Team MVP
MVP22 Andrew McCutchen - Pittsburgh Pirates

Top Prospects
TP4 Gerrit Cole - Pittsburgh Pirates

And yes, there will be a number of parallels for each card.  But still, the set is incredibly light on Pirates - no Neil Walker, A.J. Burnett, Pedro Alvarez.  Some new Jones cards will be nice, since Topps largely ignores him.  But at this point I'm really getting sick of Jose Tabata autos, and that's coming from one of the few people who still thinks he could develop into an MLB regular.  That noise you hear is me audibly weeping in the corner.  Some days I just can't win.

I'll be off admiring my 90's inserts in a fashion best resembling some hybrid of Dr. Evil and Gollum
, patiently waiting for the Pirates to field a team worthy of pretty, pretty baseball cards.

2 comments:

  1. Pinnacle parallels have always been my favorites of all time.

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  2. II feel your pain on Jose Tabata autos. Id rather have autos of Clint Barmes and Travis Snyder in Bucs uniforms over Tabata all the time. Some new GI Jones will be fun tho.

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