Best and Worst of 2009: Allen and Ginter

Allen and Ginter came along in July and was an immediate sensation with the blogosphere. I definitely needed to get a hold of a couple boxes of these. I later determined that there was no stopping me from gathering the entire set. Below are a few of my favorites of the set.
/a> Jorge Posada - Yep, another Yankee makes the cut. This is a nice rendition of the most hated catcher in baseball (okay I made that part up).

Prince Fielder - America's favorite vegan pops with the red background and dark batting jersey.

Raul Ibanez - Had an amazing season, and has a deservingly smug look on his face. I love the shading in this card as well as the green background.

Pat Neshek - For personal reasons, my favorite card of the set!

Again, I really enjoyed the landscape shots and here are a couple of my favorites. I think the coloring and the closeup of Matt Holliday makes for a classic card, and the creative angle on Clayton (Matt Damon) Kershaw takes advantage of the layout nicely.

Of course it would not be Ginter without a few oddball cards. how could you NOT like electron? Also, Michael Phelps on any card is going to be an instant classic.

Now for some of the lemons of the set...

Ervin Santana - Flexing his guns with a ridiculous pose.

Jonathan Papelbon - The whole world knows of the Papelbon staredown, but some cards just choose to beat it to death.

Chris Davis - Look into the ghostly whites of his eyes

Gil Meche - Nothing against Gil, but this particular card has a pretty creepy vibe to it.

Manny Ramirez - While some of Manny's cards look fantastic, the dreads just were not up for photo day in this set.

Donkey Kong Dude - Alright, so you get your own card and are the Donkey Kong Master...but sitting down? Come on Dude, thats just lazy.