Proof That Topps Has Indeed Learned Something (!!!)

(once I get a good enough photo of 2015 Topps' base set, I will paste it here)

Well, it finally happened. D'you see the border of the upcoming Topps' set? What color is that border?

If you said any variant of the word 'white', for the first time since 2007, you're WRONG! 

The border for this year's base cards will VARY with team colors, which is usually reserved for some insignificant decal hidden somewhere amidst the white. 

I bring this up because I was talking about THIS EXACT THING earlier in the year. I even said that if Topps made a set with a varying border for each team, I'd even stop talking crap about their products. And while I should be clear and say that the whole border isn't all in on this (it trickles down and starts at about halfway down the card), it's still better than basically doing a variation on the same formula for five straight years. 

So...the base set is different, finally. It looks nothing like any of the last five Topps sets. One could even argue that it has more similarities to a Topps Magic Football set than a Topps Baseball set. Plus, they've made the decision to raise the number of base-cards to 350, meaning that our final tally could be around 700, not counting Update. That means that there are FORTY MORE CARDS, which could either be FORTY PLAYERS that have not been on Topps cards before (one of which better freaking be Matt Wieters), or FORTY BULLSHIT SUBSETS that we really didn't need. I, obviously, would prefer the former.

So...JUST FROM THE BASE SET ALONE...Topps is really hooking me in. I usually back into contrarian stance whenever the new Topps subset comes out, but the base set alone is really impressing me, and I say this with definite shock in my fingers.

Plus, the insert sets, while not entirely progressive, are a lot better than the same tired cliches. I mean, there is a Legendary Lineage kind of set, but that's basically it. The one Baseball/History set that they're putting out looks pretty cool, and definitely a step up. I like the Free Agency one, as it may produce some very nice cards of signed-players, doing exactly what the 2012 Update Insert Series did painfully wrong. 

For the first time in a while, I haven't found too many things wrong with the Topps set. Give me time, they'll turn up eventually.

The Future

Change can be a very good thing sometimes.

I mean, it's daunting as hell, and going in is a little uneasy, but it can turn out to be something really cool.

This post is a bit of a transitional one for me, and a pretty momentous one, for a few reasons. And before you ask, no, I am not leaving the blog. I'd probably tell you first, anyway.

The first reason for all this change is that today I graduated from high school. I walked onstage at Temple's Liacorus Center in Philadelphia, which my high school had rented out, got handed a diploma, waved, shook hands, and walked off. That was it. Something that had taken me twelve years of training and preparation had ended with nothing more than a few handshakes and a piece of paper. And it's eerie, how it just goes by like that and it ends without really...ending.

But yeah. This custom is the first one I am posting as a high school graduate. My tassel's on the left side now. And don't be surprised if it shows in this blog's content over the rest of the ride.

The second bit of change also has to do with my future, and I figured I might as well get it out of the way. You see, next year I won't be blogging from my usual place of leisure. As with most eighteen year olds, I'm going to college.

No, I didn't get into Harvard.

Above all else, my passion is writing, as you may have noticed. So, for the next four years, I'm going to a quirky artsy school in the Westchester area of New York, in an effort to speed along my dream of being a professional screenwriter. The upside to being in Westchester is that I'm near White Plains. And yeah, I've heard they have a fairly large card show over there from time to time...

The downside is that I'll be away from my PC, which has been producing my customs for the last five going on six years. I thought about being away from customs, and Photoshop, and all the stuff I'd been doing for most of my blogging career, and I decided I didn't want the heartbreak.

So I got a laptop.

The custom attached to this post is the first ever custom made with my laptop. Even more, it was made with ACTUAL Photoshop, as in NOT Photoshop Elements, which I'd been using since the blog's inception. So this Matt Holliday custom is really the beginning of a new era for me. Which is kinda nice.

So yeah. New laptop, new photoshop, a change of venue around August-ish, and a new...motivation. That's all you can expect to change. I'll try to be the same old guy.