Top 10 Cards From 2018 Topps Stadium Club

Okay, I'll admit it. After purchasing 2 packs of Stadium Club last weekend, I eventually went to my local Target and picked up a blaster box of the set even though I had previously stated that the 4th of July holiday purchases were to be the last until I attend the National later this year. Obviously, that didn't last too long.

However, I truly do intend this blaster to be the last baseball card purchase ' until Cleveland, and I definitely feel like I can make this can happen. Topps Chrome is being released while I'm at the National while Allen & Ginter comes out just over a week before then. Despite there being a slight possible urge to go for some A&G beforehand, waiting until the beginning of August shouldn't be too hard.

Instead of doing the typical pack by pack recap, I've decided to make it a bit more interesting by making a list of my top 10 favorite cards from 2018 Topps Stadium Club just as I did for 2017 Topps Stadium Club a couple months ago. After this, I really do need to stop buying cards in an effort to save money though I do have 1 card coming in the mail that I ordered before I set this goal for myself. 

After a pretty nice blaster box, here are my top 10 cards from 2018 Topps Stadium Club, and there were certainly a lot of cards to choose from.

#10 Frank Thomas

Frank Thomas sure does look intimidating in this card as he's shown either warming up or getting ready in the on-deck circle. I'm not sure if this is during a real game or if it's just a warmup before game time, but I certainly wouldn't want to face someone so talented yet so focused at the same time, especially if I was the other team.

#9 Dallas Keuchel

The unique angles that the Stadium Club shots are taken from help make this set a collectors-favorite year after year. A simple Topps card would have the go-to and repetitive shot and not do much with it, but Stadium Club is able to use a different angle along with the superior camera quality to make even somewhat ordinary cards pretty remarkable.

#8 Anthony Rendon

I applaud Topps for every single card that they attempt this entire ballpark shot for in order to show the incredible depth of the stadium. For Anthony Rendon's card, I'm truly in awe as to how perfect this photo is. In any other set, this card would be top 3, but it is Stadium Club we're talking about.

#7 Sandy Koufax

Topps decides on a few black and white shots for the Stadium Club set every single year. Sandy Koufax and Ted Williams are typically the recipients of the black and white cards, though I have certainly seen other players such as Orlando Cepeda and Roberto Clemente.

#6 Rickey Henderson

The Athletics would obviously be my go-to team if I had a choice for this Rickey Henderson card. However, I don't think that any uniform other than Yankee pinstripes would be able to pull off this card, especially with the cool blue and green background. Even though I don't desire any additional Yankees cards in my collection, it was the right choice by Topps.

#5 Bob Gibson

I'm not sure if this image is from the Cardinals vs Tigers 1968 World Series matchup or not, but I do think it's very impressive that Topps is able to enhance these older images and make them practically perfect for a modern baseball card set. You can tell how focused Gibson is in this exact moment. The level of focus makes me believe that the image is, in fact, from the '68 Fall Classic.

#4 Tim Raines

In my opinion, you can never have too many Montreal Expos cards, and it's truly great that Topps has continued to show Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, and Tim Raines the respect they deserve by frequently including them in sets like Stadium Club and Archives, on the Montreal Expos no less. I don't think I've seen many cards of Raines in the red jersey before though, and the bats he's holding makes it even better.

#3 Jon Lester

I immediately took a liking to the card of Jon Lester batting as soon as I pulled it from the pack and none of my feelings have changed whatsoever. It's been a good while since, to my knowledge, a card of a pitcher batting made its way into a card set. There are only a handful of players who I have cards similar to this of. Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux are a couple of them.

#2 Barry Larkin

I'm sure Chris of Nachos Grande will go crazy for this awesome Barry Larkin card as soon as he adds it to his massive Larkin player collection. While my Barry Larkin PC sure doesn't compare to his, it's still quite a big deal to say that this card is one of the best cards in the entire player collection, if not the greatest. The card is captured so perfectly that it's such a shame that there was 1 card that barely beat the Larkin card out for 1st place.

For the 2nd year of Topps Stadium Club in a row, Ted Williams reigns supreme atop the entire Stadium Club set. Last years' card featured a black and white image just as the 2018 card does. Combine that with the perfectly-timed swing of the bat and the incredibly well-enhanced image of the greatest hitter in baseball history and you have the recipe for the #1 card of the 2018 Topps Stadium Club set.