You didn't think that would be the final Heritage post did you?

 

I'm pretty certain that I will be declaring this year's Heritage set the set of the year.

Not that I think that it is perfectly executed or anything -- we still don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of stuff -- but I know I've become a little obsessed. I was in Walmart at 10:30 last night for the first time since -- *checks calendar* -- February 2020 and grabbed one of three blasters of Heritage remaining, fully realizing I said in the last Heritage post I wouldn't get any more blasters for fear of dinged corners.

 

I'm having too much fun. Just look at the card at the top of the post. I love that card. It's as '74 as it could possibly be with a player wearing a softball jersey.

 

I dug up a few more individual player card tributes. I'm sticking to just players who share card numbers, I don't want anyone getting bent out of shape 😒.

 

Adam Wainwright and Reggie Cleveland both land on card No. 175. A lot more fans in the stands in Wainwright's picture.

This was pointed out in the comments in the last post. This is as on target as anything I've seen. Both cards are No. 215.

I compared Tom Hall with a different Reds pitcher in the previous Heritage post but that was before I pulled Nick Lodolo. They're both card 248.

 

 

 Bonus, for later readers!! (I forgot to scan this earlier). These two cards actually don't share the same card number (348, 494) but it's an obvious tribute. I enjoy the orangey glow of the Goodson, so '70s! But it does put me in mind of our current air conditions on the east coast.

Ron Cey's 1974 card is epic, one of the greatest solo card debuts ever. Heritage gave Mookie Betts Cey's No. 315 but it's just not the same.

One other comparison I want to make is with the color combinations. The color combos are a major part of the 1974 set, where specific combinations were used with specific teams, much like 1972. (It was done in many other previous Topps sets, obviously, but in a more subdued way).

Heritage has kept the teams with the color combos that were used in 1974 but what about the teams that didn't exist in 1974?

For the Blue Jays, Heritage synced those cards up with the Expos as well as the Rangers. The border on the Bichette looks pink in this image but it's actually red.

The blue-and-pink combo is used for the Marlins. In '74, it was used for the Dodgers cards.

The Mariners are often tied to the Brewers for obvious association reasons and that's the case in the Heritage combinations. The Mariners share the color combos used in '74 with the Brewers as well as the Royals.

The Nationals use the colors that were used in 1974 with the Tigers and the Braves. The colors are more vibrant with the Nationals, which may be due to the '74 card being almost 50 years old.

 

 

The Rockies receive the color combination used for the Angels in '74. I've always liked the 1974 Angels combo (although the sheer number of airbrushed Angels in the '74 set kind of kills the appeal) but it doesn't quite work with the Rockies.

The two expansion teams that debuted in 1998 are interesting cases. For the Diamondbacks color combos, Heritage uses a combination of teams.

I thought the Diamondbacks used just the Reds colors from '74 but that's only the case with the pennant flags, which include black lettering. But the Diamondbacks border is yellow, not orange. That particular color combo -- red flags (but with white letters) and yellow borders -- is connected to the '74 Phillies as well as the '74 White Sox.

And what about this thing? There were no yellow flags for any team in 1974 Topps! It's jarring.

That is until you review the whole '74 set, which I conveniently have complete and stored in a binder. There is a match for those Rays in the 1974 set!

The Rays will be in the AL playoffs at the end of this year anyway. It's a match!

 

One other quick comparison before I get out of here.

Heritage kicks off with a multi-card celebration of Aaron Judge's AL home run record from last year, in the style of the Hank Aaron tribute that started off the 1974 Topps set.

 

The Judge subset is just four cards while the Aaron one was six cards, obviously Judge is still not even midway through his career while Aaron was near the end of his -- we're comparing a single-season record with a career record here.

The Judge cards are two past Topps sets to a card rather than the Aaron four. And it sure is weird seeing the 2020 design within a 1974 design.

So that's all the contrasting I have right now. Will there be a third Heritage post? Probably. It helps break up the "look what I got" posts.

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There's a new 1993 Upper Deck blog post up!