Topps released its 2015 Heritage High Numbers checklist today. I'm a little more interested in it this year because you're actually going to be able to buy these cards in packs from a store, instead of the online exclusive goofiness of past years.
I scanned through the checklist, and as I panned down the page, I grew more and more hopeful that there would be no Dodgers in Heritage High Numbers. I'm still trying to chase down Dodgers from the regular Heritage set.
But no luck. The Dodgers were all bunched together in the high 500s and 600s. Yasmani Grandal (#585), Alex Guerrero (#695) and Brett Anderson (#696). Jimmy Rollins (#721) is a High Numbers High Number short-print. Weee.
Oh, and I forgot another one: Trevor Cahill (#595).
This is the point when the good, faithful Dodger fans reading this raise their hands and say, "But wait, Mr. Night Owl, Trevor Cahill didn't play for the Dodgers."
Ah, faithful Dodger fans. You're so knowledgeable.
Yes, of course, Cahill didn't play for the Dodgers. Yet there he is in Heritage High Numbers, listed as a Dodger.
The Dodgers signed Cahill to a minor-league deal in early July this year. He pitched rather poorly in 34-plus innings for a 5.24 ERA for L.A.'s Triple A team in Oklahoma City. Then, in early August, he opted out of his contract with the Dodgers, never wearing blue in a big league game.
So, apparently, the time for putting together the Heritage High Numbers set is in July, and then there's no going back on the photos when August hits.
I'm not thrilled about collecting a non-Dodger Dodger when it's getting more and more difficult each year to track the actual Dodgers. But I'll do it, because something about that "Los Angeles Dodgers" on the front and the photoshopped cap makes some part of my brain believe that this is a Dodgers card.
Besides, it's not the first time -- nor will it be the last. with the way teams like the Dodgers rapid-fire sign and release players these days -- that a player appeared with a club on a baseball card but never played for them.
There are loads of examples of this, including this famous one:
And seeing Canseco as an Expo makes me want to add this card to my collection.
We team collectors are such suckers.
Comments
That said, I tend to focus on the Yankees org as a whole (sort of) and completely ignore the MLB team that's (supposedly) at the top.
http://baseballdimebox.blogspot.com/p/the-zero-year-club.html
Now I just feel sorry for Kenworthy. His lone contemporaneous baseball card (and the OPC and Venezuelan "parallels") shows him with a team for whom he never played. That's gotta hurt.