The People Say...

that Topps should call their end-of-the-year set Topps Series 3. And while that's the majority vote, I have a problem with that...and I'll explain it after going over the poll results.

A record 152 readers decided that to participate in the latest poll (up from 128 from the last time I ran one of these things), and 56 of them (or 36% of the voters) believed that Topps should call their end-of-the-year set Topps Series 3. The rest of the results:

• 27 voters (17%) thought that the set should be called Topps Stephen Strasburg and 329 Other Guys (with Strasburg as a bonus card and also in the set, and with people planning on buying the set because of said athlete, they might as well have called it that and gotten it over with),
• 22 voters (14%) liked the new product name of Update Series,
• 19 voters (12%) wanted Topps to go back to what the product was originally called, Topps Traded,
• 12 voters (7%) couldn't care less what Topps called the product,
• 9 voters (5%) preferred that Topps just continued to call it Topps Updates & Highlights,
• 5 voters (3%) would have liked to see blasters and packs of Topps End-of-the-Year Electric Boogaloo, and
• 2 voters believes that the product should be named Topps Traded and Rookies again.

Now, while the majority would like the product be called Series 3 (as it is indeed the third series of the eponymous Topps flagship product), I have a problem with that. Because the end-of-the-year set basically features a number of players who changed teams during the course of the year...AND had cards in the base set, it's hard to call it "Series 3." The only way I'd agree to a "Series 3" name is if Topps put in all the players they MISSED in the first two series. You know, the relief pitchers (you do know that All-Stars like Evan Meek, Arthur Rhodes, Matt Thornton don't have cards right???), the unheralded utility player (like Omar Infante, another All-Star this year), the third string catchers, the 25th man on the team. Of course, mix in the superstars and rookies as well. Bring back the subsets like the All-Star cards (use the starters of the game if you must for series 3, and leave room for the rest of the All-Star rosters in the EOY set so that you can get everybody this year...including those injured & ineligible to participate, you should have 81 players on both sides). I have a hard enough time liking the idea that Topps photoshop new uniforms on players who changed teams in series 2. I'd probably scream "WHAT??!" if it continued in a product called "Series 3."

Personally, I like the term Traded, but it's almost outdated don't you think? Sure, teams still trade players all the time, but there are also players who change teams by other means (free agency being the big one), so maybe they should stop calling it Topps Traded.

And then there are the rookies, those young players who make it to the bigs and because nobody expected them to get in, or because of the new RC rules (are the five-year-old RC rules still considered "new?"), Topps would add them to their final set. But Rookies do not an end-of-the-year product make (unless the name of the product begins with the words Bowman). So Topps Traded and Rookies no longer seems relevant.

I liked the name Updates and Highlights because this product truly is an Update set, and it had highlights of major events that happened during the course of the year. But I also felt that because of the set breakdown, there just (on average, there are 180 players, about 55 rookies, 60 all-stars, 8 home run derby competitors, 10 season highlights, 5 combos, 12 postseason or other random cards) that people were still missed, and other highlights were not included. I know you can't squeeze everything into a 330 card set, but the name of the product made the most sense here.

So do we like the name Topps Update Series? Ehhh...maybe. The name really fits the purpose of the set (it updates the regular set). The numbering is going to look a lot weirder (#US1, #US2...sounds like they're trying the patriotic theme here don't you think???), but whatever sells right? They can call it whatever they want though...people will still think of it as either Topps Series 3 or Topps Traded.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama