Mike Trout is ‘the face of Series 2’ Topps baseball cards

2020 Topps Series 2 baseball cards are here, which means more opportunities to collect Mike Trout cards.

The Angels superstar outfielder was already featured in Series 1, but that didn’t stop Topps from also including him in Series 2 with a special 25-card insert celebrating Trout as the player of the decade in baseball.

“There’s no better person to be our Topps player of the decade, because he really is a living legend,” said Emily Kless, communications manager for Topps. “We have great inserts dedicated to Trout, our player of the decade, and he dons the front of the packs and box packaging. He really is the face of Series 2.”

In addition to the standard player of the decade cards, there are rarer autographed versions of those cards available in limited supply as well. Here’s an example of one of those cards, which highlight Trout being the youngest member of the 200-homer, 200-steal club:

Photo: Topps

Trout in Series 1 was voted by fans to be the No. 1 card in the set, an honor reserved for the very best players in the game. This is the third time Trout was the No. 1 overall card for Topps (2014, 2016), and he’s the only athlete to be voted No. 1 twice since fans began voting for the honor in 2016.

“That significance dates back 60-70 years ago. Card No. 1 has always been important. It would be the first card you see in your rubberbanded stack of cards, and eventually as you put them in your album it would be the first card on the first page,” Kless said. “What Topps has been able to do is make some of the biggest stars in the game as card No. 1, to really carry on that significance.”

Other Angels in this Series 2 set include Albert Pujols, Justin Upton, and Andrelton Simmons. Shohei Ohtani, who like Trout was featured in Series 1, has a few autographs and relic insert cards in this set.

“He’s such a baseball anomaly. People have compared him to Babe Ruth, and that’s well deserved,” Kless said “Because Shohei Ohtani is still new to MLB, it’s really exciting to have his cards now.”

Also in this set, not Angels related but interesting nonetheless, is card number 467, Phillies outfielder Andrew McCutchen, who called this is “All Time Favorite card”:

The base set of Topps Series 2 has 350 cards (same number as Series 1), including nine Angels cards.

Topps Series 2 checklist

• 360 — Luis Rengifo
• 391 — Justin Upton
• 423 — Andrelton Simmons
• 428 — Jaime Barria
• 447 — Griffin Canning
• 484 — Brian Goodwin
• 497 — Albert Pujols
• 503 — Dylan Bundy
• 678 — Jose Rodriguez