2023 Stadium Club Red Sox Team Set Review

 I know, I'm a year behind everyone else but all these cards are new to me still.  I'm going to go trough the whole team set card by card.  I don't think I have ever done that for a team set before here on the blog.  

How fitting is a card of Trevor Story on a recliner.  When the Sox got him in 22 it was an odd pick up since we still had Bogaerts.  Little did Red Sox nation know the guy we thought would be a lifer would be let go and Story was going to be out future SS.  While Bogaerts time is San Diego hasn't been what everyone thought it would it hasn't been near as disappointing as Story has in Boston.  When he can play he is great but he missed half of 22 and only played 43 games in 23.  After 8 games in 24 he is out for the year.  

Another fitting card; Verdugo is pictured with his suitcase and this offseason he was traded to the yankees.  Verdugo always felt a little odd to me.  His play made him seem like a dirt dog but at the same time he had a too much "flash" to be a dirt dog.  It is kind of hard to explain.  

 "Back to Foulke. Red Sox fans have longed to hear it: The Boston Red Sox are World Champions!" - Joe Buck

I am assuming there is some kind of Red Foil parallels in Stadium Club and this is one of them.  I thought maybe is was for retired players but you will see soon that is not the case.  I am going to just pretend this is the normal version and binder it, it is close enough for me.

I don't know if I have said it on here before but I hate the city connect uniforms.  Baby blue and yellow are terrible together and makes them look like a minor league team.  Somehow I do like the socks though.  There are usually only like two guys on the team with their socks showing but the giant B on the socks I like. Chris Sale is doing Chris Sale of old things in Atlanta.  It is hard to hate on a guy that was such a big part in sinning a World Series.  

This card is the epitome of 23 Stadium Club.  It is a good picture but at the same time it is weirdly off putting.  It kind of looks like a painting but I think what it is, is a colorized version of a black and white photo.  I looked and never found the same black and white photo.  Is Topps using AI photos now?  If not, I bet we see it soon.

This is my favorite card in the set.  Not only does it have the best photo and the best layout it shows Boggs doing what he does best, getting a hit. The next card is a close second.  

I have a friend that I watch and talk a lot of Red Sox with.  We refer to Casas as the kid.  He is the current kid in a long line of kids.  Before Casas the kid was Duran, Devers, Betts, Xander, and Pedroia.  Somehow a young pitcher can't be a kid.  Casas gets the extra moniker of giant or huge, as in giant or huge kid.  Duran had the fast moniker.  In a few years this card may pass the Boggs as my favorite because it is such a good photo but for now the nostalgia of the Boggs wins out.

2024's Opening Day starter Brayan Bello.  It was today typing this post that I realized he uses such a strange spelling of Brian.  Not Bryan but Brayan. It makes me think is should be pronounced different but I know the Red Sox announcers pronounce it the same as regular old Brian.

Has there ever been a bigger smile in baseball that a happy David Ortiz?  

This is the worst of all the Stadium Club cards in the team set.  Yoshida doesn't even look like a player here; he looks like a middle aged salesman.  The way he is picted behind the fence makes him look even more like a fan than a ball player.  There is a photo variant of this card that I do not have I am tempted to chase because this one is so bad.  

I said the Yoshida was the worst card but this one may be dead even in worstness.  There are thousands and thousands of pictures of Devers and this is what they go with?   It is a photo of getting a photo taken.  I'm sure it is meant to be artsy but it isn't, its just dumb.  Topps photographers must not actually watch any baseball or they would know that if they wanted a picture of Devers that was "different" they just need to photo him between pitches.  Then they would get him making faces, talking to himself, hitting himself, popping his jaw, you just never know what he is going to do between pitches.  I don't know if it is superstitious or what but whatever he goes with he uses that an entire game and then changes it the next game.  

To me this is the worst Stadium Club release that I can remember.  It still has the crystal clear photos that we have come to expect but they are just off.  It is almost like the tone of the whole set is wrong.  Maybe I just expect more from Stadium Club and it didn't reach far enough this year or maybe it was just the Red Sox team set that fell flat.