Crossing Over to the Dark Side

No logos here. 

I've long had an aversion to buying unlicensed cards that probably has roots in always feeling like someone or something was trying to get one over on me as a kid consumer. Store brand chips? Not great. Generic soda? Awful. And you can clearly tell that Safeway boxed mac & cheese is nothing closed to the Kraft blue box stuff. I don't exactly feel like it's a snobbish attitude, as I like saving money just as much as the next guy. I even use coupons. It was always hard for me to take baseball cards with airbrushed logos very seriously.

So it was in a fit of boredom (or maybe something else?) that I picked up a fat pack of the new 2017 Panini Donruss product last night. This is the first unlicensed pack of anything I've intentionally bought, maybe... ever? I guess I was looking for something new, or at least something that was not Topps flagship. I don't hate the design, even though it's a nod to one of the worst Donruss sets (1990, of course). The new-fangled Donruss cards are always more substantial (i.e. thicker) than Topps, which is another thing I like. But, you know, logos.

This year's retro inserts are a nod to the 1983 Donruss set, the one with the mitt and bat instead of 1982's ball and bat. The Wizard plays for the St. Louis Strategically Placed Arms.

All of the photos are closely cropped of players in action, in frame. This would be great if they mixed some other kinds of shots in here, but nope. Instead, almost every card of a position player features this pre-swing pose.

Samesies. Well, they didn't actually use the exact same photo, but it looks like it's a different frame from the same sequence of shots.

Rated Rookies are still a thing (thankfully, that logo is timeless!) but I don't know who this is at all.

I did get one sort of kind of hit, in this serial numbered card of fantasy stud Jonathan Villar. It and anything non-Cardinals you see here is available, of course. And if you are collecting this set, I do want your Cardinals doubles. Thanks!