2009 Upper Deck Icons

This is a tough set to review. I actually bought two packs of Icons before I found a checklist. To me, that tells me that Upper Deck thought that this set was complete garbage. They may be right.

There are some redeeming values in the base set though. The design is somewhat pleasing to the eye, but it ultimately fails to be a feast for the eyes. For one thing, beige should never be the overwhelming color in the middle of any card. It puts the card owner to sleep. I could collect the set and laminate it to the wall, next to my bed, and I would never experience insomnia again.

The set also suffers from 1994 Donruss disease. Every player is in the middle of some type of ACTION! It gets old after awhile. Everybody is swinging or running or following through on a pitch. While I love the idea of action shots, there needs to be something to break up the monotony. Would Thome look better with his hands at his hips, looking to the sky, in a Superman pose? I'm just saying.

Out of ten cards spread out over two random packs, I pulled four Yankee base cards and one Red Sox base card. One parallel card of Johan Santana followed. A Brave and a Padre followed suit along with an Oriole and a Dodger. Is this set underwhelming? Yes.

Still, there are two White Sox base cards to collect.

16 - Carlos Quentin
53 - Jim Thome

There are also game used cards of Jim Thome and Paul Konerko, inserts of Jermaine Dye, Thome and Konerko, plus silver parallels of Quentin and Thome.

This should be a fairly easy set to complete for the White Sox. It's a set dominated by Yankees and Red Sox cards, from the small sample that I saw. While this isn't a horrible set, it isn't going to win any major awards for it's brilliance.

This set is one of the reasons why Upper Deck was not renewed by MLB. Let's hope Upper Deck takes this time to focus on their product and not the number of sets it can produce.