big league rip

i thought that topps big league was ok when it came out in 2018, and again in 2019. i liked that they brought box cards back with the blasters, but the design was nothing special - still better than opening day, however. then, in 2020, i really liked the simple design, and i had fun busting a box and putting together the set. unfortunately, 2021 was a complete disaster, so i was skeptical last year. 

it turned out that the 2023 set was fine even though the tiered checklist annoyed me to a slight degree. i knew i wasn't going to complete the set, so it didn't really bother me too much, and i've added a few of the dodger short prints as time has passed. coming in to this year, i wasn't planning on purchasing another box, but given where 2024 big league fell in the release calendar, i bit. i didn't want to buy anymore series 1, and heritage was still a ways out, so i bought a box. tiered checklist and all.

pack 1

the way the packs open, the foil cards are facing out, so the first card i saw was marcus stroman

from here on out, i am going to list the base cards first, followed by the foils and then the inserts.

justin lawrence

chas mccormick

james outman

joey gallo

masyn winn

jonathan ornelas

marcus stroman uncommon foil

christian encarnacion-strand to the moon die-cut

the design is similar to last year's with the parallelogram photo window. there's a weak effort at color coordination of the vertical color streaks over the overexposed image that bleeds outside of the main photo window. maybe not an effort at all, but seeing lawrence's card with purple first made me think the cards would be color coordinated.

pack 2

ryan pressley

bobby miller

george springer

corey seager

mookie betts

ozzie albies uncommon foil

become a big leaguer insert

swinging friar mascots

i am doing pretty well so far as far as dodgers go. i thought that the seager was a parallel of some sort, but it turns out topps just didn't overexpose the image for some reason. 

pack 3

willy adames

elly de la cruz

seiya suzuki

marco luciano

quinn priester

weston wilson

dansby swanson uncommon foil

andrew mccutchen topps big leaguer

the mccutchen card is a "topps big leaguer" insert - a continuation of the same insert set last year that had a few different backgrounds. this one is strange with all the cherries.

pack 4

jordan westburg

colton cowser

allan winans

starling marte

ryan jeffers

emerson hancock

william contreras uncommon foil

fernando tatis jr to the moon die-cut

so at this point i realized that the "to the moon" cards are all die-cut. i also realized that there are a lot of players i don't know. i didn't feel quite as badly when i saw that emerson hancock had only appeared in three major league games before getting a card in this set. 

pack 5

taylor ward

mickey moniak

cedanne rafaela

lane thomas

austin wells

aroldis chapman

anthony rizzo uncommon foil

noelvi marte good vibrations

so far there has been good variation of inserts, and i think this good vibrations insert is the last to surface. as for the backs of the base cards, let's see chapman's:

pretty basic backs, with varying number of years shown for players. this layout is interesting to me because topps put his royals' stats last, rather than the rangers. chapman started 2023 in kc but finished in texas.

pack 6

hunter goodman

jake rogers

jonny deluca

osleivis basabe

luken baker

whit merrifield

ke'bryan hayes uncommon foil

manny machado topps big leaguer

another dodger is always nice! and i'm hoping to find a big leaguer insert without the cherries.

pack 7

jorge soler

ronald acuna jr

kris bryant

julio rodriguez

brett baty

lawrence butler

logan webb uncommon foil

jose ramirez to the moon die-cut

acuna always seems to have such fun photos on cards.

pack 8

justin turner

cedric mullins

gunnar henderson

henry davis

wade meckler

miles mikolas

byron buxton uncommon foil

randy arozarena good vibrations

looks like the good vibrations inserts have the same palm tree and sunset design. i am wondering if arozarena will get a card this year that doesn't show him with his arms crossed.

pack 9

ketel marte

trey cabbage

tanner bibee

ezequiel duran

kevin gausman

keibert ruiz

jeremy pena uncommon foil

screech mascots

one of the things that can't be avoided is how prevalent the advertising patches are on cards now. in this pack i scanned a card of an angel and an astro that both have patches prominently displayed.

pack 10

hunter greene

elias diaz

javier baez

joc pederson

willson contreras

jonah heim

adolis garcia uncommon foil

david ortiz to the moon die-cut

the patch on baez's card is for a store that sells cards which is something. i am sort of surprised that fanatics hasn't shelled out for a topps patch on some team's jersey. it was weird to find ortiz in a pack as he was the first retired player i came across.

pack 11

noelvi marte

oscar colas

jordan wicks

evan carter

aaron judge

eury perez uncommon foil

freddie freeman good vibrations

cody bellinger rare blue foil

this was an interesting pack. evan carter is wearing the gimmicky mlb debut patch, so we know that photo comes from september 8, 2023. it blew my mind when the yankees announced that they were going to add an advertising patch to their uniforms after they were initially upset at the big nike swoosh. the bellinger wound up being the only colored foil card in my box. last year i got a rarer red foil so was a bit disappointed at the blue showing up.

nice to get a dodger insert. here's the back of freeman's good vibrations card

good, good, good, good vibrations

pack 12

chris sale

forrest wall

merrill kelly

vladimir guerrero jr

gary sanchez

yu darvish

nick castellanos uncommon foil

mookie betts topps big leaguer

sale was traded to the braves at the end of last december, and it's nice to see topps get him in his new team's gear. it makes sense given how they've made ohtani a dodger in a couple of sets now. mookie's topps big leaguer insert has a more sensible bunting design. here's the back:

tomorrow, he's making waffles!

pack 13

zach neto

michael harris ii

michael lorenzen

zack gelof

jorge polanco

lars nootbar uncommon foil

shohei ohtani to the moon die-cut

bryce miller electric orange big league autograph /25

and my dodger luck continues with the ohtani insert, but the star of the pack is my guaranteed auto. i would have preferred a different miller auto, but i wasn't allowed to choose. here's the back

and here's the back of the ohtani insert

i can't believe how the dodgers (allegedly) bungled the transfer of his first dodger home run ball from the fan to ohtani.

pack 14

eddie rosario

kenley jansen

justin steele

bryan reynolds

junior caminero 

max scherzer

josh jung uncommon foil

baxter mascots

i've had the experience of seeing the diamondbacks' mascot in person, but i don't really feel the need for mascot cards anymore. i was sort of hoping big league would go with some stadium inserts as it's been a few years since topps has done that. here's the back of a mascots' insert just to complete the insert back sharing

pack 15

jonathan india

ryan mcmahon

grae kessinger

davis schneider

brandon nimmo

tony kemp

blake snell uncommon foil

ronny mauricio good vibrations

schneider is giving some wayne tolleson vibes.

pack 16

jason heyward

freddy peralta

andrew vaughn

tyler glasnow

alex speas

ronny mauricio

sonny gray uncommon foil

evan carter to the moon die-cut

another good dodger pack!

pack 17

tim anderson

brayan bello

vaughn grissom 

owen white

jarred kelenic

curtis mead

matt mclain uncommon foil

george brett topps big leaguer

the brett card was a surprise!

pack 18

geraldo perdomo

nolan schanuel

ian happ

joey wiemer

alec bohm 

josh hader

masataka yoshida uncommon foil

francisco lindor good vibrations

i think the diamondbacks were smart in finding a sponsor whose logo is a capital a. it's hard to tell that it's not just a team logo on perdomo's sleeve.

so that's that. there was perfect collation - no duplicates whatsoever.  so, better than 2021 and pretty much the same as 2023. still not 2020.

speaking of last year's release, i found a couple of 2023 big league cards in my scanned folder, so i'll add them here. i think i am still short of the complete dodger team set, although i am just down to the short prints. here's james outman

with a photo from when he was wearing 77.

mookie betts' city slickers insert

wearing the first iteration of dodger city connect uniforms.

and finally, i did go out and pick up clayton kershaw's red foil card

thankfully the seller noted the slight ding to the lower right corner and priced it at a pretty good discount.

as for next year, who knows. maybe i'll continue to give big league a shot.