Do you ever feel like you’re just going through the motions? I’m just not that interested in most of the baseball cards that have come out this year.

Upper Deck’s base set had a bunch of players, so that was nice. But I finished finding those weeks ago, except for some inserts that I don’t really care about very much.

Topps put together their best design in years, but I finished the regular Series I set in February and I’m currently stuck on the Target variations. I need two more to finish my Mets team set, but I refuse to spend the money to buy bulk lots on eBay and the local supply has been sold out for over a month now.

Topps Heritage is gorgeous, and thankfully I wasn’t cursed by any variation shenanigans this year. But I finished with them awhile ago, too.

I tried to get interested in Topps Attax, but I don’t think that was meant to be. And Upper Deck’s recent releases — Spectrum, SPx, A Piece of History and First Edition — just don’t interest me at all.

That doesn’t mean I haven’t bought them. I was able to acquire about half of the Mets in this year’s A Piece of History set at this month’s card show. The design isn’t awful — if it were tweaked to reduce the size of the borders and enlarge the size of the photos, it would probably be quite nice.

But then there’s the theme of the set. In a small set called “A Piece of History,” I’d expect the cards to highlight actual historic accomplishments. Here’s what we get on the card backs:

• “One of the elite picthers  in the Majors, [Johan] Santana is a two-time Cy Young Award winner who set career bests in ERA and innings pitched in 2008. He earned the victory (seven IP, eight Ks) in a 7-2 win at Florida in his Mets debut on Opening Day.”
• “A three-time Cy Young Award winner, [Pedro] Martinez had the highest winning percentage among all 200-game winners at the time of his 200th victory in April 2006. He has struck out 15 or more batters in a game 10 times in his career.”
• “Ohio’s first-ever back-to-back state high school player of the year, [Jonathon] Niese was drafted out of Defiance High by the Mets in the seventh roung (209th overall) in 2005 and made his Major League debut on 9/2/08.”
• “A proven five-tool infielder, [David] Wright has a pair of Gold Glove Awards and two Silver Slugger Awards to his credit. A class act on and off the field, he started the David Wright Foundation, which raises awareness for multiple sclerosis.”

The cards in this small sample don’t seem to be tied to specific historic events, but at least three of the four players will probably be among those remembered from the era. One is probably on his way to the Hall of Fame, and the other two certainly could join him if their careers continue on their current tracks. Jonathon Niese is a bit of a head-scratcher, but I applaud the copy writer at Upper Deck who came up with the high school achievement — it’s better than nothing.

So these cards really aren’t that bad… yet I’m completely apathetic. How many 2009 Johan Santana and David Wright cards do I really need?

I just wrote out my pre-order for the 2009 minor league team sets for the Mets’ affiliates, and I’m wondering why nobody has really tried that model for major league teams. I’d like one complete set that had a card for everybody that was in spring training, plus the manager, coaches and mascot. You could sell it at the stadium, online and to any retailers that wanted to carry it.

Sure, it would be something I’d buy once and be done with — but I think I’d be a little less concerned that I might miss something in all those other products if I knew I’d get a card for (nearly) everybody in one set. The Topps gift sets from the past two years came close to what I’m looking for, but this year they’re not planning to produce one for the Mets. Ah well, it’s just a thought.

Maybe Topps Series II will rekindle some excitement next month. Who knows? In the meantime, if you have any of the 2009 cards I’m still looking for, please drop me a line.