One card only - leading the league

The second card in the couple that Brian sent me was an insert card from the Topps flagship set in 1995. It's definitely a contender for cards with backs more interesting than fronts.

Card Number 578: Topps (League Leaders), 1995; #LL4

The front has a dark background and the Topps logo and Tony's name are in hard-to-scan foil.

However, on the back we have a colourful list of names and a graph!

Cardback graphs are usually poorly annotated. This one looks like it might actually be in proportion. 

Another odd quirk on this cardback is showing the batting leaders for the National League and the National League West. The other players in the NL West top 5 in 1994 were Bip Roberts, who was back in San Diego after two seasons with the Reds, Andres Galarraga who played for the Rockies that year, and Mike Piazza and Brett Butler who were both playing for the Dodgers. (As an aside, I always smile when I see a Bip Roberts card. It wasn't his given name though. His given name was Leon.)

None of those four players featured in the top 5 for the National League, where only Jeff Bagwell of the Astros came anywhere near Tony's post-war record batting average score, and even Jeff was some way behind.

A final note is the consistency of the font used for Tony's name on the back and the caption to the left of the graph. This is the font used for player names on the front of the base cards in the 1995 set. 

I appreciate the consistency in font use - bonus point for this card!

Another thank you to Brian for sending me these cards. Keep busting those wax boxes!

Total: 578 cards

Number One Card Only

Sundays are posts when I just show one card. Today the one card is a #1 card, because it was the very first card in the Topps 1996 flagship set.

Card Number 120: Topps, 1996; #1 (Star Power series)
Jasper recently sent me a dozen cards from the Nineties and this is the most Nineties-looking of all of them.

It looks like the animated titles to a long-forgotten terrible TV show. I think what really makes this card epic is the Nineties design crime of using different fonts everywhere! (I lived through the "desktop publishing" era. I have scars.)

I haven't identified the main Star Power font on the front. A huge tip of the hat to blogger Junior Junkie who noticed that it's the same font used in the Hall of Violence in Demolition Man (released in 1993). There's a picture on that link that proves Junior Junkie isn't crazy.

On the cardback you can really appreciate  the quirky "digital" font, which Topps uses on the front with added drop shadow! (Why, Topps? Why?)

It's not the most exciting cardback, compared to the front. However, I also learned from that Junior Junkie post that there were Chrome versions of this card that look even more awesome. The hunt is on!

Total: 120/394