2019 Topps Big League: The Good, Great, and Ugly

When Big League was released a few months ago, I didn't buy any. I saw it around the blogs and really liked the look of it, but I never purchased any. A couple of weeks ago, I saw that Dave and Adam's had hobby boxes for $25, so I decided to pick up a couple of them. My hope was to build the set while having a fun rip. It turned out to be an interesting box break for me.

Let's start with the design. It didn't seem to get a lot of love from the bloggers who posted it. I immediately liked it, but I think I was in the minority. Seeing it in hand, well, it just doesn't look as good up close. I like the concept of the ticket stub along the bar with the name. I even like the crooked picture. But seeing all the cards, one after another, the design was less impressive. Still, I like the look; it just got a little busy all together.

Here was my biggest issue, though. The numbers on the back of the cards are not oriented the same way. What the heck, Topps? Also, these numbers are on the bottom of the card, if you're looking at the front. Meaning that the number is upside-down. It's a good thing I double-bag my pages, or this would drive me nuts forever.

As the first box break was going down, I was starting to be less than impressed with the inserts I was getting. Each pack contained a gold parallel and an insert and it felt like I was pulling A's, Tigers, and Orioles left and right. Then I came across a pack with this duo:

Boom! This is by no means a hit-driven product. My main goal was to build the base set and an insert set or two. Still, it's nice to pull cards I can keep or trade easily.  This'll work.  For a low-end insert and a per-pack parallel, I couldn't have hand-picked any more value here.

As per the stated odds, I expected six Star Caricatures, and that's what I got. Due to the size of the set, I don't expect to put this set together. I'm keeping Acuna for my ROY collection, and Kluber an Castellanos have already left my house.  The others are available for trade.

Ditto to the six Wall Climbers odds. This is only a 10-card set, so I'm going for it. It's a cool set, too, with some of my favorite types of shots in baseball.

 I won't be building the Player's Weekend set. None of these cards fit in my collection, so they're up for grabs. Note the teams: A's,  M's, O's, and Marlins. I had a hard time with pulling popular teams, as you will see later on.

Finally, the Blast Off! insert set. I might go for this one. It will depend on how much of the set I still need after two boxes. I'm not in love with the design, but it could be a fun, small set to chase.

 For the most part, the odds played out exactly as stated. I pulled the number of these inserts that I expected.  There was also one Rainbow Foil, numbered to 100, to be had per box. I got that. But I beat the odds on this box--twice.

 An auto! And not just any auto--a Black & White parallel numbered to 25! And the team is the Rays! Oh, wait. Nobody collects the Rays? Well, that fits the theme of the box. It's good pull anyway. Then I pulled reigning MVP Christian Yelich in Ballpark Oddities form. Yup, that's a case hit. It caps off a Yelich hot box, apparently, as I also got the Gold, Blast Off!, and Star Caricatures of him.

After Box 1, I had accumulated 189 of the 400 base cards for 47% of the set. That's a solid set. I was excited for Box 2. I was shooting for about 80% complete by the time I finished this break.

The golds treated me a little better this time. Good players here, and I really love the Albert Pujols highlight card, commemorating hit 3,000th hit.

Six more Caricatures, six new cards, less than ideal teams once again. All are available, minus Blackmon, who is already on his way to a new home.

I'm keeping the top row of Acuna, J-Hey, and Castellanos. There aren't any Castellanos cards with the Cubs yet, outside of Topps Now, so this will have to do for now. The bottom row is up for grabs with the star being Walker Buehler.

Welp, 6 more Blast Off! cards and 4 of them are dupes. I don't think I care enough for this set to chase it, so I'm only keeping Trout, one Judge, and one Harper. The rest are available.

I was hoping to finish off the Wall Climbers set, but all the dupes means I'm still two short of the set. I'll pick 'em up soon, though.

Once again, I got my promised Rainbow Foil box hit. Mariners. Sigh.

The most disappointing thing was how nearly identical the two boxes were. If you remember, I had 189 base cards for 47% of the set. Where did I stand after Box 2?

	BOX 1	BOX 2
CARDS	189	15
% COMPLETE	47.30%	51%

That's right, I increased a total of 15 new base cards. That means that of the 191 base cards, 176 were dupes. After two boxes and 380 base cards, I only have 51% of the set. If anybody is working on this set, get in touch with me. Maybe we can swap dupes and help each other out.

As for inserts and parallels, here is a team-by-team breakdown of my pulls.

	BOX 1	BOX 2	TOTAL
OAK	5	3	8
BOS	3	3	6
MIL	4	2	6
NYY	3	3	6
PHI	2	4	6
CHW	3	2	5
COL	3	2	5
ATL	2	2	4
DET	3	1	4
LAA	1	3	4
SD	2	2	4
SEA	2	2	4
TB	2	2	4
TEX	2	2	4
BAL	2	1	3
KC	0	3	3
LAD	1	2	3
WAS	1	2	3
CLE	2	0	2
MIA	1	1	2
MIN	1	1	2
NYM	1	1	2
PIT	2	0	2
MULTI	0	2	2
ARI	1	0	1
CHC	0	1	1
CIN	0	1	1
HOU	1	0	1
SF	1	0	1
TOR	0	1	1
STL	0	0	0
TOTAL	51	49	100

There was one final treat in Box 2. Beating the odds one more time, I pulled this

Another auto! Not bad for a product that doesn't promise any hits. And how similar were these two boxes? Besides 92% of the base cards being identical, both hits were Rays. Any Rays collectors out there? They did win Game 4 tonight, so maybe somebody will want these. Still, for the price point and the fun of chasing a set, these two boxes provided a little fun for me this past weekend.