..to get the photography right where Topps couldn’t. I am pretty easy going when it comes to my cards. I like to be informed, but I can’t say I get incredibly emotionally involved in them. I don’t love Upper Deck, nor do I hate Topps. Both companies produce some cards I like, some cards I hate, and some cards that are like oatmeal – bland, but it serves a purpose. I don’t like reading rants, and I certainly don’t like writing them, so the biggest rise that is likely to come out of this blog is a rather mellow ‘yuck’.
The one area where Upper Deck consistently one ups Topps in is photography. I don’t consider this a rant, its been consistent enough that I chalk it up there as a fact right now. For any sport – base Upper Deck captures some of the greatest photos put on cardboard. Its not the foil, or the layout, its just stunning photography. A few posts ago I complained about what I figured was Topps’s lame effort in selecting a photo for Josh Hamilton’s Home Run Derby card. Luckily, Upper Deck came along with a card in Timelines to give me a nice piece of Home Run Derby on cardboard. Behold, the beauty that is 2008 Upper Deck Timelines card #308….
The Hamiltonian 
It seems the image for the Topps Update card was selected for more of a ‘symbolic’ gesture by Hamilton as opposed to a typical shot of Hamilton hitting the ball or something ‘ordinary,’ during his magical night.
Looking at the card, it was too bad they missed the concept by not selecting an image showing more of his face.
If the image was on a full bleed card perhaps, it would have been a better image to use.
I like the idea of what Topps tried to do, but they needed to improve a couple things. Have Hamilton facing the camera, and then crop it from about the waist or maybe his ribs (just below the jersey logo) up. As it was – he kind of got ‘lost’ in the crowd background.