Oh yes I did.

I'm not an artist.  I've never claimed to be an artist.  I've never tried to sell a piece of my own art.  I can barely color inside the lines.  I respect and encourage others to follow their art dreams.  My own son loves to draw and I always give him positive feedback on his art.

Having said all that, I have to bring out the nasty critic for this card.

How on earth am I supposed to look at this card and try to pretend that's Cal Ripken Jr.?  That wouldn't even pass as a  poor rendition of Cal Ripken Sr.  I pulled this out of one of those Value Rack packs I mentioned in this morning's post.  I stopped cold in my tracks when I saw it.  I looked around for a camera crew thinking I was being Punk'd.

I'm guessing the artwork for this card was delivered late on a Friday and some Topps intern called the editor at home and told him he needed to come in and sign off on the Ripken art.  The editor, 4 deep into his first six pack of the night, told the intern it was fine, just set it up to print.

I'd love to meet Cal in person and ask him to sign this card.  I wonder what his reaction would be to this "art".  Before all you custom card/sketch people jump on me for criticizing, let me say I know all of you could have done a better job than this.  I think it would even look better if he had a pony head.  I'll bet you know who could fix that right now and Topps could get the "corrected" card in boxes and blasters.