2011 MLB.com Fantasy Preview...Sponsored by 1983 Topps Baseball...Sort of...

Last year, Philip Melita sent me an e-mail telling me that MLB.com's fantasy preview website is using the 1987 Topps Baseball design to feature all the players. And on my post last year at this time on this subject, we reviewed the website's past fantasy previews (from as far back as 2005 anyway as that was the furthest that was available in their archives). To review, check out these scans (this is if you didn't click on the link to last year's article):


This is from 2010. MLB.com used the 1987 design for the fantasy preview.


The great 1984 Topps design was used in 2009.


The 2008 preview featured the 1980 Topps design.


And so did the preview from 2007. But notice how the cards are "aged?" The bent corners and the weather worn borders?


For 2006, it's the 1985 design. When I was digging around for the site last year, it showed the design, but no picture (guess you should use your imagination). Upon hitting the link this year, it hasn't changed.


And here is the preview snapshot for 2005. They brought us all the way back to 1976 with this one. What's cool is that when you click on the position, the drawing of the player on the bottom left of the card appears above the position list.

So for the seventh year of MLB.com's fantasy preview, once again, the picture profile for each player utilizes a Topps card design. Sort of...

Here is a snapshot of what you will see when you click on this year's analysis:


At first glance, the baseball card design being used is Topps' 1983 effort. But something just doesn't look right. And I don't mean the lack of a Topps logo on the card.


That's what's amiss. The Topps design used a circle frame for the small picture. What's being used on the preview? That's right...a square.

What??!

You'd like to think that if Topps is the exclusive MLB card that there would be no problem with MLB using their designs. But if that isn't the case, you sure could have fooled us.

I have said recently that baseball cards were the fantasy preview magazines BEFORE there were such things. The cards had stats, a brief bio, a clear picture of the player (in many cases anyway), and it was all contained in a portable 2½" x 3½" piece of cardboard. Of course, thanks to magazines and the Internet, the cards are no longer used as a primary resource. But they're still around, and thanks to MLB.com, baseball cards still serve a purpose.

Play ball.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama