Random Topps Team Set of the Week: 2012 St. Louis Cardinals

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Team Set of the Week:

• Team: 2012 St. Louis Cardinals
• Record: 88-74, second place, NL Central Division.
• Manager: Mike Matheny
• Card on the Top: David Freese

The checklist consists of the following players:

• STL1 David Freese
• STL2 Jon Jay
• STL3 Matt Holliday
• STL4 Carlos Beltran
• STL5 Yadier Molina
• STL6 Chris Carpenter
• STL7 Allen Craig
• STL8 Skip Schumaker
• STL9 Rafael Furcal
• STL10 Adam Wainwright
• STL11 Kyle Lohse
• STL12 Lance Berkman
• STL13 Daniel Descalso
• STL14 Jaime Garcia
• STL15 Jason Motte
• STL16 Fredbird (officially listed on the front of the card as St. Louis Cardinals)
• STL17 Busch Stadium

The cards in order from the set (the checklist at the end was cut from the back of the package. What, you don't do that?):

Key differences between the team set and 2012 Topps eponymous set:

• David Freese, the World Series hero in 2011, leads off the variations by flashing the leather in his base card:
  
  

• While both his regular and team set cards share the same picture, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Schumaker has a variation card...somewhat:
  
  

• Lance Berkman is also flashing the leather in his base card:
  
  

So of the 15 players included in this set, only two had obvious picture variances.  I really love that every team set this year included a card of the teams' home stadium.  While it was nice that Topps included the team mascot on a card (I'm guessing so that kids have a fun card to include in their collection), I'm sure that if a certain superstar player who bolted for Hollywood would have taken the space here had he not left.

Next week's featured set will be the 2010 Minnesota Twins. Hope you'll be here when we compare the cards from the retail set to their counterparts found in Topps and Topps Updates and Highlights.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama