Upper Deck's Baseball Swan Song?

So 2010 Upper Deck Baseball Series I is out. There were rack packs hanging like the forbidden apple, waiting to be picked and given a good home. I keep telling myself I can't collect baseball so I am going to view this as an experiment. Yeah, that's it. An experiment.

As everyone already knows, the lawsuits that threaten to take down Upper Deck are largely based on this issue of cards released for the 2010 baseball season. The fact that Topps owns the exclusive rights to all likenesses owned by Major League Baseball is the primary issue at hand. It would appear that UD has, for the most part, ignored the fact that they couldn't print team emblems, logos, and names and went through with production as planned.

While you can see that many of the photos do somewhat of an effort to obscure from view those logos, there are still many, especially on the card backs that made it through their "quality control" check points. I will say this...if this is any indication of how this years Upper Deck product is going to be, I may be really disappointed.

The photos on the cards are typical Upper Deck full color, full action shots that we have become accustomed to for years. However, there just seems to be something dark and ominous about them. I'm not sure if it is the small B&W photo inset at the bottom or the fact that the borders are dark colored. Maybe I'm just tired and my eyes are playing a trick on me. Maybe it's the lighting in my room. Maybe I'm imagining the whole thing. Either way, I will say that I don't think I will be picking up any more of these so if anyone wants to trade for these, hit me up.

Here is what I pulled. 36 Cards/Pack



Jose Molina, Arthur Rhodes, Juan Pierre, Nate Schierholtz, Micah Owings, Brad Thompson, Matt Diaz, Kurt Suzuki, Carlos Silva



CC Sabathia, Adam Lind, Shane Victorino, Edward Mujica, Daniel Bard, Rich Hill, Chris Lannetta, Jake Fox, Noah Lowry



Bobby Jenks, Matt Tolbert, Takashi Saito, Adam Dunn, Brandon Wood, Kosuke Fukudome, Brad Kilby (R), Pedro Strop (R), Jody Gerut - 2009 Season Biography



I put all the landscape photos together just for continuity. It looks like there is a subset featuring Ballparks from around the league. The Wrigley Field one is cool, plus its free advertising for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois (I wonder if Upper Deck got the license for that?). There is also 1 team checklist...the Braves. My two guaranteed inserts are here, as well.

Braves Team Checklist (Chipper Jones & Kenshin Kawakami), Eddie Guardado, Angel Stadium, Miguel Montero - Tape Measure Shots, Ryan Braun, Wrigley Field, Brandon Inge - Tape Measure Shot, Matt Capps, Heath Bell