First Finest

I picked this up at Champion Sportscards last week and am just now getting around to posting it. I went in looking for a 2009 Finest card to post and I was lucky enough to find Mac. The card was serving as the display model for the box but the owner reluctantly agreed to sell it to me. Atlanta collectors should go in and buy up the rest of his mini boxes in appreciation for swapping out McCann for Derrek Lee in the display box so I could pick this up.

I have to say that I really like the design, the curves and textures and whatnot give it a feeling of depth. My guess is that it looks great on the refractors. The texture allows it to scan a whole lot better than I thought it would as well. I like that they left that little strip of background photo on the card. It grounds the picture of McCann into reality and is much nicer than the typical high end card where the player is completely cut out of the photo and stuck out in the middle of blank space. I wouldn't have seen the Met catcher admiring Brian's hit if they had gone that route.

I have mixed feelings on the back. The stats are abysmal. on a 2009 card, I want to at least see 2008 stats. I know I can just go to Baseball-Reference.com whenever I want nowadays, but if I end up stranded on an island with just this card, I will never know how many of Mac's 70 career home runs he hit in 2008. Protip: If you are ever stuck on a deserted island, make sure you only take base brand cards and not high end stuff. The sand would probably scratch up the chrome finish anyway.

The rest of the back is decent enough. The number's a little small but readable and in the center of the top. Good bio information including his draft round is on there. There's a whole lot of wasted space but there's a logo at least. The FINESTRIVIA (anyone see an extra T lying around?) is neat. You don't really expect trivia questions on high end cards. I won't know McCann's 2007 batting average on that island, but I wil know who the last pitcher was to have a no-hitter broken up in extra innings.

Overall it's a nice looking card that fits well with the Finest designs from years past. I'm hoping this stuff sells well to people busting cases for the Letter Patch Abominations so there will be a lot of unwanted base cards dumped on the market that will be available cheap.