A #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax delivers the art.
I'll preface this with a couple of disclaimers. One, I cannot, for the life of me, draw. I certainly can't draw humans any better than the most amateur random person you can find on the internet. My other disclaimer is that I bought into some group breaks and have no regrets (would do it again!) from the always excellent Crackin' Wax.
My gripes are with the dreadful Topps Gallery set. It's just not for me. It employs various artists, and some of the portraits are just face-meltingly evil. The rest are even worse! (Okay, fine, I'm half-kidding here.) So with my apologies to the probably completely normal and talented and nice gentleman who was responsible for the art on these cards, I just can't handle some of these. They're just shy of 2010 National Chicle levels of badness.
I'll direct some of my venom at Topps here (and Walmart by proxy). In what world would Paul Goldschmidt, a player who came to St. Louis a fully formed All-Star and perennial MVP candidate, become an apprentice of Stan the Man? That's now how this works. Also... I cringe at this.
Here's one that's up for grabs. It's a different artist. It looks a little cartoonish, but I don't immediately want to douse it in lighter fluid. It's also numbered to 25 and is a player I don't collect, so it ends up in the trade box.
Now I can relax and take a deep breath and look at something good. I also bought into another Ginter X break and knocked a few more Cardinals off my team want list. I still need a few more, but it's probably time to go hunting for singles.
The Heritage High Numbers break from last year also landed me this short printed Ryan Helsley rookie. Will Helsley figure prominently in the Cardinals plans this season, especially now that John Brebbia is going under the knife? Will there be a this season for real? (I am still skeptical.)
