Random Topps Team Set of the Week: 2012 Topps Boston Red Sox

As the Random Card of the Day segments are making their return, it's time for another weekly feature to make its return. Now appearing every Saturday at 3:00 pm CST, thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Team Set of the Week:

• Team: 2012 Boston Red Sox
• Record: 69-93, fifth place, AL East Division.
• Manager: Bobby Valentine
• Card on the Top: Jacoby Ellsbury

The checklist consists of the following players:

• BOS1 Jacoby Ellsbury
• BOS2 Josh Beckett
• BOS3 Carl Crawford
• BOS4 Kevin Youkilis
• BOS5 Adrian Gonzalez
• BOS6 Daniel Bard
• BOS7 Jon Lester
• BOS8 Dustin Pedroia
• BOS9 David Ortiz
• BOS10 Andrew Bailey
• BOS11 Clay Buchholz
• BOS12 Mike Aviles
• BOS13 Jarrod Saltalamacchia
• BOS14 Mark Melancon
• BOS15 Fenway Park 1912
• BOS16 Fenway Park 1967
• BOS17 Fenway Park Modern Day

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:

• Jacoby Ellsbury's regular Topps card features a magnificent action shot at the plate:
  
  

• While it does appear that the picture used on both Andrew Bailey's regular and retail cards are the same, you can actually see the ball in the regular card:
  
  

• It's the same shot of Mike Aviles, just a little bit more cropped to the right on his base card:
  
  

• Mark Melancon pitched for the Astros in 2011, so his base 2012 features him with Houston. You'd like to think that because he played for the BoSox in 2012 that he'd at least show up in the Update Series in a Boston uniform. Alas, he's a middle relief pitcher. Guess what treatment he got? No 2012 Update Series Red Sox card. So if you want a 2012 Topps card of the future leader of the Pirates Shark Tank, it's only in the retail set. For kicks, here is his 2012 base card:
  
  

At 14 players, this is the least amount of player cards in a retail team set since 2008. It's a shame too. Yes the team went on to fifth place, and yes, both key guys from their Free Agent spending in 2011 (and the SSP cards they were subjects of) were shipped off to LA before the season ended (thus giving them more SSP cards in 2012 Topps Update). I know that it's the 100 year anniversary of Fenway, thus Topps giving the perfect tribute. But did Topps really need to include THREE CARDS OF FENWAY PARK??! If you're going to talk about the Fenway Park in 1967 (The 37-foot wall in left that had been covered in tin and concrete in '34 was painted 13 years later (1947) to match the rest of the ball park painted the tin wall green that year), Topps should have at least made an effort to show what the WALL LOOKED LIKE after the paint job. Or could have talked about the park...IN 1967!!!

So of the 14 players included in this set, only two use different pictures that can be found exclusively within the retail set, and two others use the same picture, just cropped differently. At that point, it would have been better if Topps just used the same picture from the base set as they had with the other ten players.

Next week's featured set will be the 2007 Washington Nationals. 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 sets.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama