Allen & Ginter Insert Overview Series #80

Set: 2011 Allen & Ginter Baseball Highlight Sketches

            Total Cards: 25

            Stated Odds: 1:15

Bubba’s Derived Odds: 1:6

           # of Hobby Boxes Needed to Obtain Set: 6.25

Favorite (Owned) Card:

Let's start with the good.  The goal of the design is fabulous; old-time font on cardboard made to look like parchment on a set that "looks back" at the past year.  I love it.  I chose the card above as my "favorite," not because I like the card all that much, but because it executes the design goal the best of any card in the set.

I see the above card, and I know what its referring to: the Twins leaving the Metrodome for Target Field. 

Notes and Comments:
Here's where everything else about the set starts falling apart.  If you'll note from that first Twins card, there is no nameplate on the card whatsoever.  Nothing to indicate what this card is about or whom it features except on the back.  I'm actually surprisingly okay with this as long as I can tell what the card is referencing.

Problem: very few of these cards succeed at this goal.

Take my friends Heyward, Pujols and Wright here.  Yes, they're probably instantly recognizable players, but all we have is a close-up with zero context.  These are supposed games in which these players respectively: hit a HR on his first swing, hit HR #400, and became the youngest Met to reach 1,000 hits.

Possibly my biggest frustration with this set is this card of Armando Galarraga.

Possibly one of the most memorable moments in baseball from the past decade (let alone 2010), and this is the photo that we get???  There is zero indication of that famous play with Jim Joyce.  There are so many great photos out there that could have been used...

I get that Topps has restricted photo access, but these all took me roughly 45 seconds to find... I'm sure Getty Images has something like one of the above.

Oh well.

One last thing I should mention.  This...

...it irks me greatly.  I don't enjoy twisting my head to read text.

I'm very critical with my baseball inserts.  Despite being an above average design, the flawed execution makes it the worst of the run of four Ginter sets from 2009-2012 that featured this type of insert.  So much opportunity wasted.

Arbitrary Rating (out of 100): 34

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% of Set Completed: 100%

Missing Cards: NONE!!!

Extra Cards: BHS-3, BHS-4, BHS-5, BHS-7, BHS-8, BHS-10, BHS-13, BHS-14, BHS-15, BHS-16, BHS-17, BHS-18, BHS-19, BHS-20, BHS-21, BHS-22, BHS-24, BHS-25