2023 Topps Rob Manfred

 As promised yesterday, here is the 2023 Topps card of our beloved Comissioner Rob Manfred!

Rob is probably holding his head from embarassment from the gambling sites taking the game over. Or maybe it is from the backdoor deal with Fanatics that he made so the Murdock deal with Topps would fall through. Or maybe it is from some of the preposterous rule changes he has allowed like starting a runner at second base in extra innings. Or maybe it is from embarassment after letting the Chicago-heavy veterans committee elect fellow-Chicagoan and mediocre slugger 20-HR threat Harold Baines to the Hall of Fame. Or maybe it's from letting half the league into the playoffs. Maybe it's from how he handled the positive Covid test of Justin Turner in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series (we know that it had to have been a rapid test, which means the League officials, the Dodgers, the Dodgers trainer who tested Turner, and Turner himself all knew before the game started and still let him play; probably factoring into Manfred making a decision to pay off Stu $ternberg to have his Rays manager Kevin Cash pull Blake Snell with 1 out in the 5th with just a runner on 1st and have the Rays just basically play dead so the Dodgers would wrap up the Series and no executive decision on Turner would have to be made for Game 7 and the coverup wouldn't get out). Maybe Rob is upset that more middle class teams are either being forced to become small-market perennial non-contenders like the Diamondbacks, Reds, Rockies, Marlins, Pirates, Orioles, Tigers, Royals, and Athletics. Maybe he's upset that teams that will barely make the playoffs like the Braves, Phillies, Brewers, Giants, White Sox, Angels, Twins, Mariners, Rays, Rangers, and Blue Jays are 99% not going to win it all because of the huge payrolls and lavish spending of big market owners. Maybe he is upset that he can't control the huge spending of big market owners that the Dodgers, Cardinals, Padres, Red Sox, and Yankee$ do which drives free agent salaries up and cuts his profits down. Maybe he is embarassed how he gave a hard deadline of having a shortened season during the lockout, then when the owners caved and the players gave up some of thier demands that he seemed like a liar and told fans that they WOULD actually have a 162 game season. Msybe he is embarassed of all of it. Either way, with the looks of both of those photos, I know this is a card I DON'T want to be pulling from a pack of 2023 Topps. 

Now that the Manfred jokes are out of my system, I thought I would try to make a different version of the 2023 Topps design. 

That is my version. Still has some of the angles, but much more room on the bottom, still a logo on the side, but not as big, a bigger nameplate where even a big name (like Adley Rutschman) can fit, still a position, and even added room on a 3rd corner (bottom right) where Topps could put their logo, instead of only on the top 2 corners on their design. 

That is them next to each other. My version kind of looks a little like the 2004 Topps Total set. I think the actual 2023 Topps design kind of borrows from it a little, with the scoreboardy elements and the angles (more on the back).

I don't know if anyone's made that comparision or not. I really hope the '23 design grows on me in time. I just felt like '21 was a little different, but way better than 2016-2020, and the 2021 design was one of the best one it's had in almost a decade. The 2023 design took a step back. Hopefully that is the fault of the people at Topps that might be on their way out and not Fanatics. We don't need another company that doesn't care about the true fans who actually watch the games and aren't in to flip and make a profit. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy