A Hair Off Square   custom cards

A preview of what John Lamb's 2011 Topps card might look like.

Here we go, spring training is upon us and baseball fans are overflowing with excitement. The Royals (and every other team) have reported to camp. This is especially exciting to me because it means pictures for custom cards. The Royals had a lot of turnover on the roster this year plus many of the most notable players haven’t even wore a big league uniform much yet. But now spring training has started and I now have access to pictures of young stars like Mike Montgomery, John Lamb, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar and so on.

Also, did anyone notice 2011 Topps came out? Not a bad design either. The typical classy white border with a lot of picture, just the way I like it. It has a nice curved bar across the bottom for the name and the team logo in a circle on the right with a baseball behind it. It has a minimal amount of silver foil as is consistent with recent years of Topps. The foil makes the cards look nice but on a personal note makes it very hard to replicate for a jpg on screen for a custom card.

Two problems with the 2011 Topps; 1. The circle has “Kansas City Royals” written on top and bottom, this strikes me as overkill and a bad idea just to fill space; 2. The position is written in foil back just by the picture making it hard to read. The second problem is much more cumbersome to me than the first but I digress.

I have combined the two new exciting events and made a 2011 card with a spring training

photo. I chose John Lamb. Why? Lamb is good for one, but for the most part it was random. I made my landscape card design first, so I needed a landscape picture. I’m planning on making the team set before the rest of it comes out. Series 2 and update should be incredibly exciting for Royals fans this year. We could have our first official Topps cards of all the young rookies we have heard so much about.

Lets quickly go over what Royals are already done. The series 1 Royals set contains 9 cards just like last year. 9 isn’t too bad right? WRONG. Of the 9 players featured, 4 of them will not wear a Royals uniform in 2011. That is nearly half of the Series 1 set. The players featured that are now gone are: Greinkie(Brewers) Betancourt(Brewers) Dejesus(Athletics) and Meche(Retired.) There are 5 current Royals featured as well, they are: Lucas May(Rookie Card), Gregor Blanco, Mike Aviles, Kyle Davies and Alex Gordon.

Minor complaint: Gordon is listed as Outfield as he should be but the picture is clearly of him making a throw from third base. This is almost as bad as when they kept using pictures of him wearing number 7 after he had switched to number 4, but I once again digress.

A note on the Lamb card; The picture doesn’t fit. The ball he is throwing is obscured by the Royals logo, not horrible but it bothers me. I may change his card later. Technically, I believe Topps can’t even make this card yet, he has to appear in a Major League game first. Consider this a preview.

Also a quick thanks to Around The Horn KC blog for the photo, I hope they don’t mind me using it. They are a great blog and every Royals fan should definitely check it out.