I often criticize my favorite set in the whole wide world for any number of reasons, but the main thing that I hate about triple threads has a lot to do with this mega pull that just surfaced. The card (pictured above) is no doubt ridiculous, mainly because it features the name plate from a game used Ruth bat, but I cant help but shake my head on the way it turned out.
First off, you have two whole goddamned cards to get a picture of Ruth on there, and that is how you choose to do it? That is a complete failure when it comes to use of space. For a card that will be as important as this one is for the general product, why in the world wouldn’t you want it to look the best it can possibly be? I know most of the people who drool over the horrid crap that comes out of this product wont care, but that doesn’t make it right. Design has always been the main problem with Triple Threads and this card is a casualty of Topps’ design team, no doubt about it.
I mean, check out all those awkward shooting lines that criss cross the card fronts. That is more important than a larger picture of the most iconic baseball player of the entire history of the game? Fucking stupid. It is completely distracting in the overall make up of this card(s), and that sucks beyond belief when you see some of the stuff that could have been done with the card.
All of this discussion is pretty useless without mentioning the fact that Topps is destroying parts of American history by cutting up Ruth bats and jerseys, but when you defile that kind of legacy with a disgusting display like this, it bears even more of a need for my anger. I hate, hate, HATE booklet cards in general for the reasons that Triple Threads makes infamous, but this takes that to another level previously unexplored even by Topps Sterling.
We really need more stuff like we got in the preview for Five Star Football, and less reliance on rainbow neon colored foil that encapsulates a treasured part of the national past time.
Who is Rge Ruth? I hate this stuff getting cut up in the first place as well, but then when they destroy it even more because it won’t fit into a standard sized card it makes me sick. This is why redemption cards should exist and not because some rookie who only played 2 games in his rookie season didn’t sign his stickers in time. Upper Deck had the right idea with their redemptions for historical relics and bugs that were in cards bigger than your normal sized card. I just wish other companies would catch on instead of wrecking cool stuff like this.
Topps has failed again. I am so dumbfounded that I don’t know what to say about this card. Thank you topps for ruining a piece of America’s baseball history.
A direct result of caring more about making a buck than preserving national history and the collecting genre. Well done, douchebags.
that picture is absolute crap. There needs to be a special agent in charge of high dollae cards at topps.
Topps should have cut the bat nameplate to read (George “Ba) one one card and (be” Ruth) on the other so you could make 2 copies and cause some collector who cares to try to acquire both copies to get the full bat barrel nameplate of (George “Babe” Ruth).
Triple Threads needs to just disappear off in to the sunset. I know people love pulling a card with 52 die-cut windows covering up a single jersey swatch, but why create something horrific like this card and call it a masterpiece?
Logic would suggest cutting the barrel off so it read “Babe” Ruth only or like Robert suggested and make it two seperate barrel cards. Add in to it that Topps designers apprently are taking notes from Panini and tossing in vertigo inducing lines just makes this card more of a failure.
And chances are the bat isn’t even Ruth’s anyway…I wonder who did the certifying???
It makes me ill to see what these fucktards at Topps are doing to my legacy. The only thing I hate more than Topps overproducing craptastic things of me is the Red Sox, but it’s neck and neck at this point. If you’re going to make a card with my bat’s name plate, why would you put 2 more pieces of bat on the opposite card instead of some jersey pieces or, God forbid, a bigger picture of me? Do those 2 little squares of bat really make that big of a difference when you have 90% of the bat name plate next to it? Do they REALLY increase the value that much? I know if I collected my own cards, I’d rather see a bigger picture of me that 2 shitty pieces of bat that first off probably arent even from my bat, and secondly add NOTHING to the card, either value or aesthetics. Add for God’s sake stop making cards of me that make my dead eyes bleed because they are so fucking bright and ugly.
I think I’m done with my rant. Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner want to go grab a beer and Cobb gets pissy when he doesn’t get to go to the bar. I’ll make sure to tell Ted Williams and Roberto Clemente they’re lucky their families sold their rights to Upper Deck. At least those crooked bastards know how to make a good looking card. I’m going to haunt my family for this…
The Babe
It just doesn’t make any sense that it’s a booklet in the first place. What is the card on the left adding? You could fit a same-size picture of the Babe on the right side and ditch the stupid square bat relics and it wouldn’t lose a penny of value. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that the card on the left doesn’t have bat relics in shapes abbreviations that require a cryptographer to figure out, like:
GRGHRNRTH
714CRRHRS
Ugh.
If you are going to wreck a piece of history, which i am completely opposed to, then make this card a redemption card and do something proper with the barrel, maybe a 5 x7 card or an 8-1/2 x 11 framed card where you do not cut off part of the name… so disgraceful!