The Elusive Heritage

A bunch of Topps Heritage short prints from @scottcrawford.org including a couple for the Cardinals boxes. 

 

As anyone who attempts to build Topps Heritage sets year in and year out can attest, picking up those last 100 or so cards can be quite a shore. They look and feel like the regular base cards, for the most part, but they're a bit of a tougher pull at one in every 3 packs. If you crunch the numbers, I think you'll find that Heritage short prints are not nearly as scarce as their reputation holds. I blame Beckett for, at one point, pricing even the most fringe players who appear at the short end of the checklist at a starting rate of $5 a card, causing a whole generation of collectors to hoard these cards.

In any case, there was plenty of reason to get excited about adding a few dozen more SPs to my collection from Scott of I Need New Hobbies. This was easily the biggest number of these elusive cards to arrive in the mail in a single day for several years now.

Two of these cards will end up bypassing my set builds and head straight to the fancy Cardinals boxes. (Because they are scarce, you see!) This means that I'll need to track down a second 2013 Yadi Molina card, which makes me question why I insist on collecting this way.

For my 2010 set build is this pair of pitchers. These are the only cards in the lot that are easily distinguishable from their printed-in-regular-quantities counterparts without looking at the actual card numbers. The 2010 set has the short printed cards printed on bright white stock instead of the usual cardboard stock. (This was a reversal of the 2009 set, where the regular cards were on white and the SPs used a darker cardboard.)

Here's a four-pack from the 2011 set. I like this set a lot, even though I feel that it was the beginning of the seemingly unending string of boring head shots on Heritage cards throughout the 2010s. (I suppose you can't fault Topps for trying to be true to those original sets here.)

It's a pair of Joshes from the 2012 set. How many Joshes do you know? Is Joshes the right way to pluralize the name Josh? I seem to know a lot of Joshes.

It took me awhile to appreciate the 2013 Topps Heritage set because they were printed on a light stock and felt exactly like the Allen & Ginter cards they had been printing for years at this point. I know that the original 1964 set had lightly colored card backs, but it still seems like the black sheep of the 2010s Heritage sets to me.

Thanks to Scott, I added five cards to my 2014 set build, including another Yadi. It's unfortunate that he has to share with Ryan Braun here, but I already scanned this stuff and it's too late now.

A whopping nine cards received were from the 2015 Heritage set. A couple of these guys are actually still in the game. Off the top of my head, I know that Rodon (a rookie here) is in the Yankees rotation this season and Chris Sale is trying to make another go of it with Atlanta.

Here are three more from the 2016 set, including 2019 World Series champ (ugh) Michael A. Taylor.

Just a single card from the 2018 set made an appearance (and none from 2017) as I am pretty sure Scott was starting to tire of Topps and their shenanigans by this point.

Last up is a pair of grey-bordered cards from the 2019 Heritage set. I believe Yonder Alonso does work with the MLB Network these days.

Thanks again to Scott. And don't forget -- make sure you sign up for the not-actually-gambling-because-it's-free thing soon before Thursday's games tip off.

Opening Day! Hooray!

Opening Day is finally here! This is one of those things that I wish could happen more than just once a year, but it's just not meant to be. I am doing some housekeeping and thought I'd throw a post or two up on the blog today. If I'm feeling charitable, this might not be the last you here from me today.

I sent over a sizeable chunk of Padres cards, Blazers doubles and assorted other goodies to Backstop Cards. I thought I'd show off some of what I received in return.

Whenever I hear "injured" and "indefinitely" in the same sentence, I get a little worried. And a little nauseous. And, uh, well... anyone can close, right? Hopefully Jason Motte gets better soon, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I will be holding my breath when Mitchell Boggs and whoever else is called upon at the ends of Cardinals games are on the mound. Yikes!

I'm hoping for a big year from Carlos Beltran this year. I guess that's what Opening Day is all about. Optimism! Anything can happen! The Astros are in first place. The Pirates are still in contention!

This card is a "gold" parallel. Seriously. Can't you tell?

On to the set building portion of this trade - here's a much needed 2011 Heritage short print. Only 53 left to go!

I'm not a fan of these sketch cards, as I've mentioned plenty of times before in this space and others. This is Ozzie Smith we're talking about here, though, so I had to post it.

I'm watching the Angels/Reds broadcast as I post this (ew, interleague!) and just can't believe how awful Thom Brennaman and Jeff Brantley are to listen to. They seem to really hate baseball and their viewers.

Still Working on All of the Heritage

Discouraged a little bit, sure, but I'm pressing on in my attempt to collect all of the Heritage sets. I've read some things that have been written by some people that have soured me a bit on the idea, but I am resigned to the fact that the Great Baseball Card Chase doesn't really have an end. Trying to assemble something resembling a "master set" barely has an endpoint. Trying to do it 12 times (or 13?) is beyond ridiculous. I've drawn some lines I'm not willing to cross (Chrome parallels?) and may draw more in the future, but for now I am just going to keep going with the flow.

I'm reminded of the great chase because I got another stack of Heritage that I finally got around to posting about, courtesy of The Topps Baseball Fanatic. All of the cards were from 2011, which is another reminder that another old set's days have passed me by and I still need a ton of pieces of it.

In addition to a few inserts and base cards, there were a healthy amount of the black retail parallels that came in the blister 3-packs. Oh, hello, "Mike".

These are my favorite parallels because I like the way the wood grain design is still somewhat integrated. It doesn't work (or it's just not used) on the cards that aren't regular single player cards, but it looks good here. Otherwise, you just have a plain black bordered card which isn't nearly as exciting.

What a goofball. Do Cubs fans miss Carlos and his antics? Does anyone?

Pictures of Men (That I Need)

I need men, apparently. If you've ever tried to do a Google search for Pictures of Men, the Blue Jays-centric blog with the hilarious name, you've no doubt encountered an array of photos of well-groomed men. And I don't know what my point is, really, except that I find it amusing. In any case, I got my very own stack of manpics from up north (and back east) and I thought I'd share a few with you.

Dennis hit up a few of my Topps Heritage needs. 2011's Then and Now look might be favorite version of this annual insert set.

This Eric Hurley short print from the 2008 High Numbers set is reminding me how long ago it was when I started collecting this set. The 1959 is probably my favorite design, but it's amazing that I am still so far away from completing this set. I am still missing plain old base cards from this set, people!

My blog has its own Google search ambiguity issues, but it is a place where Cardinals are celebrated and Dennis provided some more great Cardinal stuff. This Stan the Man is a mini version of an already short printed card.

Mike Tyson is going to make an appearance on the next new episode Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which has outraged advocates for victims everywhere. (Seeing as how the show is ostensibly about a sex crimes police unit and Tyson has quite a sordid past that delves into that area, well....) Oh, wait, wrong Mike Tyson!

Finally, here's a couple of goldies, which I always enjoy. Jake Westbrook had a fantastic 2012 season, but many remain skeptical that he'll be able to repeat his success in 2013. There are plenty of talented young arms that seem to be ready for big time duty, but I think St. Louis will still need some steady veteran innings with Kyle Lohse gone and other members of the rotation dealing with various ailments.

Finally, it's our old bald friend, Matt Holliday. I'm not sure if he'd make the cut in a photo array, but he's a hell of a baseball player.

Late Night Nachos

The always excellent Nachos Grande has a regular feature called the Trade Stack, where single unwanted cards accumulate in a (virtual?) stack until someone claims them and trades for them. This stack didn't get very high, as I jumped all over a Lou Brock National Chicle variation that I needed for my Cardinals collection. I'm not a huge fan of the art on this card, but any artwork is better than my nonexistent artwork, so I shouldn't be one to complain.

I couldn't resist the urge to turn this into a larger trade as I knew I had a few cards squirreled away that I figured could be sent to this Reds fan. In exchange for my undesirables, I received a nice bunch of 2012 Ginter and 2011 Heritage cards for my set needs. I am pretty tired of the most recent A&G set right now, so I just scanned the most annoying card I could find - a guy with a number in his "name". Stuff like this just makes me think of the Zero Cool character in the (apparently not) forgettable mid-90s movie Hackers.

Okay, this is more like it. One all-time great baseball player to calm my blood from boiling, and then a... well, I'm not sure what Josh Hamilton is. I guess the Angels are about to find out. I think the Mariners and others dodged a bullet here, as I wouldn't necessarily count on a guy like Hamilton to live up to his lofty contract, being that he has an extensive injury history and is on the wrong side of 30. (I'm also on the wrong side of 30, but I don't play sports professionally!)

On the other hand, it would have been nice for Seattle (if you're into that sort of thing) to land a big name player just to increase the chances of Felix Hernandez sticking around. Since I'm stuck with the Mariners in my local TV market, I do get tired of them being lousy. A good Seattle team means people actually talk about baseball once in awhile, which is pretty alright with me.

This Way to the Want Lists

Things are happening! I'm still (mostly) managing to put together trades and reduce my outrageous want lists. This may still be a bit like throwing pebbles into the ocean, but I am ridding myself of things I don't care about and taking in things I care slightly more about, so that has to be good. Right?

This latest "achievement" comes courtesy of Mark Kaz of This Way to the Clubhouse. He was all over the 2012 Heritage trading thing before the 2012 Heritage trading thing was cool, and I thank him for that. And also for the cards.

Speaking of trades, it hit me with a bit of a shock that Tommy Hanson is no longer a prospect darling and more like a hopefully salvageable piece of a trade for a young reliever. Didn't see that coming. I guess it goes to show how little I pay attention to teams outside of the NL Central since it seems like with the unbalanced schedule at least 100 of the Cardinals games are played inside their own division.

Jordan Walden was the other side of the Tommy Hanson trade. Walden was a (replacement) All-Star closer in 2011 who found himself booted out of the role before the end of the first month of play this past season. Booted, I tell ya!

One down, twelve more to go! And uh, a bunch of short prints, inserts and variations. But we won't talk about those. Especially not the stupid variations.

Birds of a Feather

After going through all of the 30 Teams posts and having a chance to reflect, I would have to say that were I of a different mindset, I don't think I could go wrong rooting for all bird teams. I've always had a soft spot for the Blue Jays, and Baltimore is a team on the rise and is right now in the thick of the wild card race. They also are sitting just 5 games behind the division leading Yankees. Speaking of which, big time Orioles fan Jason of Hobbs' Knights sent over some set filling needs as well as some fun Cardinals cards in exchange for some bird cards that he prefers.

It seems like Gypsy Queen has been everyone this summer. I managed to completely miss this set last time around, so it's tough to say whether this year has been an improvement or not.

I do like this. Flashy framed cards like this remind me of the lost, lamented Upper Deck Masterpieces set.

Mitchell Boggs has been the club's second most dependable reliever (next to Jason Motte.) It's been a rough year beyond those two.

As I mentioned, there were some set needs in the package, and that included a couple of Heritage short prints. Maggs is looking like he'd already retired by this point.

I guess it's better to be pictured in a slightly fuzzy photo on a newspaper than to be seen on the side of a milk carton... I think.

Trading with Reader Jeff

Reader Jeff from Iowa completed a Heritage-for-Heritage (and Cubs) swap with me recently. Included in the trade was this Anibal Sanchez New Age Performers card from the 2007 Topps Heritage set. Sanchez was one of a number of notable players dealt today with the trade deadline approaching. Sanchez came tantalizingly close a couple of times last year to throwing his second career no-hitter, but he hasn't always been the most consistent pitcher in the league.

Hooray! Floating rookie heads from 2011! This one is a short print. In this year's Heritage set, the floating heads don't mean a thing as far as rarity goes.

These guys look ghostly for some reason.

Ah, Ichiro. My guess is that he's with the Yankees now because the Mariners learned that there was no chance of Ichiro signing a new contract with him. Otherwise, I don't think they would have let their biggest ballpark (and tourist) attraction get away even with his rapidly declining skills.

Here's one for the Cardinals binders.

Like Ichiro, Randy Johnson and Richie Sexson (to name a few), Olerud was another former Mariner that made a late career stop in the Bronx.

Finally, here's Roy Oswalt from that 2008 Topps rookie cup anniversary insert set. I like these, but it feels like I still need so many of them.