Random Topps Team Set of the Week: 2012 Topps Oakland Athletics

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

• Team: 2012 Oakland Athletics
• Record: 94-68, first place, AL West Division.
• Manager: Bob Melvin
• Card on the Top: Jemile Weeks

The checklist consists of the following players:

• OAK1 Jemile Weeks
• OAK2 Cliff Pennington
• OAK3 Coco Crisp
• OAK4 Dallas Braden
• OAK5 Kurt Suzuki
• OAK6 Seth Smith
• OAK7 Scott Sizemore
• OAK8 Brandon Allen
• OAK9 Tom Milone
• OAK10 Brandon McCarthy
• OAK11 Michael Taylor
• OAK12 Brett Anderson
• OAK13 Collin Cowgill
• OAK14 Josh Reddick
• OAK15 Brad Peacock
• OAK16 Rich Harden
• OAK17 Oakland Alameda County Colliseum

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:

• Rich Harden does not appear in either 2012 Topps or 2012 Topps Update Series.  This is the only product you will find a card of him using the 2012 Topps design.

• Slide, Jemile Weeks, Slide!!!:
  
  

• It's Cliff Pennington in an Athletics Jersey...from 1986??? (Looking at 2011 A's promos, there was an 80's weekend...):
  
  

• Here is Coco Crisp, sliding into whatever base this is on his base card:
  
  

• You get to see more of the same picture on Dallas Braden's base card:
  
  

• Seth Smith was with the Rockies the year before, and Topps photoshopped the A's jersey onto the picture. Next to his base card is the card found in Update Series:
  
  

• Same deal with Tom Milone (or Tommy Milone) because the year before, he pitched for the Nationals:
  
  

• Josh Reddick was celebrating with the Red Sox in his base card and he was named to the 2011 All-Star Rookie Team. While his Red Sox card does not have the cup, the short-printed card found in Series 2 (with the same number) does:
  
  

• In the same deal that sent Milone to the Athletics, here is Brad Peacock in his National duds in his Series 1 card, and in his Athletics jersey in Update Series:
  
  

So of the 16 players included in this set, eight feature pictures of players that you will only find in the retail set.  The Reddick card threw me for a loop, but then I remembered that it was an SP.  Nice to see that the retail set used the same picture, but without the Rookie Cup (the same situation here with Blue Jays catcher J. P. Arencibia).  The 2012 retail sets contained a lot of variations between the eponymous base and traded sets and the retail ones, which is great if you're a fan of team sets and want a bit more variation to your regular cards.  Speaking of 2012...

Next week's featured set will be the 2012 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Hope you'll be here when we compare the cards from the retail set to their counterparts found in Topps and Topps Update Series.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama