I am a huge fan of sports art, if not only because it romanticizes an already romantic part of our culture. Sports and the constant dynamic performers that grace the fields of our favorite parks deserve the immortal treatment, and that is why I have always loved seeing great artists at work. I have frequently talked about the use of sports art in card production, and with 2012 Topps Museum Collection, I think we are getting a nice homage to some really awesome pieces of art.

There is a subset of cards that are seeded about 1 per box which feature original artwork. The prints used in the set are very well done, unlike some of the stuff from sets like National Chicle, which adds to the allure of the other inclusion in the product. Each of the works was also transferred into a canvas insert at 10 per card, which features a miniature painting as a recreation of the insipriation for the previously mentioned insert. I have seen a lot of people trying to build a set of the canvas cards, which I would guess should start to drive up prices as more people hop on board.

These are some of my favorites so far:

Harmon Killebrew Canvas Painted Card /10

Joe Mauer Canvas Painted Card /10

Ichiro Suzuki Canvas Painted Card /10

Mariano Rivera Canvas Painted Card /10

Ty Cobb Canvas Painted Card /10

Its too bad there are not player autographed versions of these cards, as I always thought that player/artist hard signed sports art is something that needs to be more frequently included. Masterpieces, during its run, had a few examples of hard signed art cards, but most of the time relied on subset “non-art” autographs over the signed “art” base cards. A big miss.

Ever since autograph content and product content has been consistently relying on the same types of cards, things like what we are starting to see with outside the box innovation will need to be inside the box. Who knows, with Five Star baseball coming later this year, we could see the beginnings of this in action.