2011 In The Game Heroes And Prospects Series One Autographs

There is a company that is trying to put a dent into the Topps monopoly in 2011. In The Game, which is known for its hockey releases, has come out with a nice release which reminds me a little of the last few Donruss baseball releases.

Upper Deck should take note, this is the correct way to release a card set without MLB logos. There is only a minuscule slice of a logo left on the jersey. It's something that you can't make out, unless you are definitely looking for logos.

In The Game features a clean design. The only drawback I can see is that the design itself seems to borrow heavily from old Donruss designs. It's not like they are going to use them anytime soon, so what's the harm? There's a lot going on with the layout, but nothing is overly distracting.

The White Sox have two cards in this set. Both are Chris Sale.

A-CS - Chris Sale
A-CS2 - Chris Sale

The difference between the two cards is significant. A-CS is a full body picture (which is shown at the top of the post), A-CS2 is a closeup picture. Both feature an autograph. It's hard to judge this release in the traditional sense. There technically is no base set to speak of. All aspects of the entire set are in the guise of different insert sets. Most sets feature Chris Sale as the lone White Sox representative.

In addition to the full body and closeup cards, this set is split into a silver and a gold edition. Silver cards are numbered to 390 and gold cards are numbered to 10 for the full body card. The closeup card is available in silver, numbered to 190, and gold, numbered to 10.

This is a wonderful first attempt for In The Game. I hope that somewhere down the road the company will obtain the proper licensing to show logos. I'm sure that it would elevate an already good set.