Stadium Club David Ortiz Tribute

A few summers ago (boy does time fly!), I picked up a small set of David Ortiz cards offered online by Topps via their "Throwback Thursday" promotion.  I stayed away from these for the most part, but in this case I broke from that and actually purchased an entire 6-card set for $19.99...

What sold me was that the set was a tribute to David Ortiz, done in the style of 1997 Stadium Club.  Ortiz will go down in history as one of the best, and certainly most clutch, hitters in the history of my all-time favorite franchise.  The allure of a small tribute set to David done in the design of one of the nicer Stadium Club releases of the '90s was too great, and I caved.

The first card in the set is the only one from David's time in Minnesota.

The backs, unfortunately, are all identical and do not in any way resemble 1997 Stadium Club.  Oh well, the design on the front and great photo selection were enough to sway me regardless.

The other five cards all depict Ortiz from his time with the Red Sox.  I like the barely-visible bunting and the large crowd in the background on this one.  The low angle of the shot makes David seem like a majestic figure, easily 8' tall!

I like that Topps wasn't above using a quirky photo in this set.  After all, I've got hundreds of cards featuring David Ortiz taking a swing at the plate, so a shot of him showing off his World Series rings in front of a championship banner on the Green Monster is a nice change of pace.  Actually, this might be my favorite card in the set.

Love that Topps used a shot from David's actual 500th home run for this card, which he hit at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg against the Rays (it was also his second home run of the game).

I like the ballpark backdrop from Houston on this card.  I don't recall seeing too many cards where you get a good look at Minute Maid Park (what's with all the fruit-juice-based ballpark names?) with the roof open like that.  Based on the large sign that's cut off along the left border there I can tell this is from the 2004 All-Star game.  A significant year for Ortiz, and for Boston fans!

The final card in the set features, fittingly, a shot from Ortiz's final regular season game.

Though I stay away from these online exclusive release cards these days, I certainly have no buyer's remorse over this purchase.  These are really quite beautiful in hand, and with only 374 sets printed they make for some relatively rare additions to my ever-growing collection of Big Papi...