Yesterday I did a post about Heritage High Number cards from the past 2 years and I wondered who would actually go and buy this stuff in retail or hobby boxes?
Well, apparently I do because I went out there and bought some of it today. I went to the Target a bit further away from where I live, because I know it has a better collection. I picked out a blaster as well as 2 hanger boxes.
I guess Topps thought it would be "clever" to do Now and Then because of the fact that they do Then and Now in regular Heritage. This insert set celebrates impressive feats that players (in this case it's Manny Margot and Dansby Swanson) reached, and they compare these accomplishments to those of past stars.
Rookie Performers is basically New Age Performers for rookies only. This insert set also takes the approach of comparing these players to past players, however, Topps doesn't choose super well-known players and I admire that. Zimmer is compared to Dusty Baker on the back of the card while Gurriel is compared to Astros first basemen from the 70's Bob Watson.
Another insert is the Award Winners which is basically the Award Winners insert from 2017 Topps Series 1, but a much better take on it. I also like how they didn't just choose the awards from Series 1 like MVP and ROY, but they also chose to include the All-Star Game MVP from 2016 Eric Hosmer. The design in the middle of the cards is pretty nice, and I like how it's more than one color too. But I think they could think of something a bit more exciting than white borders because the cards need a bit more excitement.
But now onto why I really went after this set, the rookies.
Ian Happ was very highly thought of when he was called up earlier this year. He's done well in terms of home runs but has come up short in batting average. Regardless the card itself looks blue like almost every card in the set, but it works better for Happ since he is a Cub.
The blue also goes well with this card.
My very first Cody Bellinger card. This was the first card of the first pack of the blaster and didn't disappoint at all. Bellinger seems to have way more consistency then Judge and more power than Benintendi which is why he's had the best season out of those 3 rookies. This card also doesn't have too much blue and instead has a faint sunset with trees which is something I'm grateful to Topps for doing. Anyway, it's definitely a great card, and I feel very proud that I now own a card of Bellinger.
Heritage also means Heritage Chrome and I was able to add one of those to my collection. This standard Chrome card of Drew Smyly is numbered 702/999 and isn't a bad player to get. Considering most of the set is unknown backup players and rookies that have yet to play well it's quite great to get a card like this of a player you recognize even if he isn't doing that well.
The final insert set is the 1968 Topps Game Rookies which Topps already did as a Wal-Mart exclusive in Topps Heritage earlier this year, so I don't know why they'd do it again. They returned as a 15 card insert set exclusive to Target. I got 2 of these like I got 2 of every other insert. The first is Jacoby Jones a player I recognize.
The second is Christian Arroyo a player I had never heard of until today.
But I was about to find out.
A redemption! And it's not expired like the first redemption I ever got.
Let me just start by saying that 1. Pulling autographs in Heritage is very difficult. 2. Getting an autograph in anything retail is also very difficult. 3. Pulling a retail Heritage autograph is nearly impossible which is why I don't even care that it's a player I've never heard of.
I did some research and found out that he was hitting .192 with 3 homers and 14 RBI'S before he broke his hand last month and was declared out for the year. He's a third baseman for the Giants and we all know what happened to a specific third baseman for the Giants (cough cough Sandoval cough cough) so I'm hoping he won't go down that path. He's only 22 so there's still some hope that he could turn out a sucess.
Here's the thing about Heritage High Number, most of the players are players you may not have heard of. But if you can get past that and appreciate the inserts and all the other stuff then maybe this set is meant for you. If not there's always regular Heritage.
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