That was a rush ... until it wasn't

 

Upon opening my first packs of 2023 Heritage on Saturday, I felt a little bad about the rant that I posted on everything that's become wrong with Heritage the last few years.

Heritage is still Heritage and it still does try to get some things right, paying accurate tribute to the set that featured the design the first time. Also, this was my first experience with opening Heritage that is showcasing the design that I knew as a kid, cards I opened with that design.

What a rush.

Now I know what all the older collectors were feeling when Heritage was trotting out designs from the '50s, '60s and early '70s. Sure, I liked some of those sets, but the first-hand knowledge wasn't there. With '74, those are cards I opened, and that's the way Heritage will be for the next 15 years or so.

I adore '74 Topps because it comes straight from my childhood and the design and colors and photographs -- the LOOK of the cards -- is etched in my brain, so my goodness, those feelings came surging right back and there was a thrill to this opening that no previous Heritage set can match. So that's why I felt bad about the earlier post.

But ... this is still a modern card set. All I needed to do was give it some time and I knew there'd be something that would spoil the experience. So here were those somethings:

1. Half a Dodger in the entire blaster. This will not be an issue though because there are a couple of people already promising me Heritage Dodgers.

2. A filthy number of Yankees. Way too many. Three of the 8 packs led off with Yankees and then there were Yankees added in between. It was bad enough I had to watch them play my Dodgers this past weekend.

3. 60-70 percent of the cards were dinged on the bottom right corner.

That last one is really annoying. This happens way too often with modern cards. This never happened when I was collecting in the '70s. Hell, I will take cards with wax stains, off-center cards before dings due to the packs being wrapped too tight or whatever. Now I've definitely got to buy more Heritage just to replace some of the dinged cards.

I didn't notice the dings until I was taking pix for this blog post last night. That and snapping pictures while trying to watch the Dodgers on ESPN led to some not great images. Sorry, it's difficult to do when you're annoyed.

 

So, this blaster is why I saved my gift card for five-plus months. Let's see the contents:

PACK 1

324 - Gerrit Cole, Yankees

219 - Ranger Suarez, Phillies

279 - Seth Brown, Athletics

27 - Rowdy Tellez, Brewers

129 - David Villar, Giants

11 - Jose Ramirez, Guardians, chrome parallel

491 - Rookie Pitchers

268 - Jakob Junis, Giants

207 - 2022 Strikeout Leaders

Right away I noticed the style of the action shots, which are perfect for the mid-1970s. In fact, these are perfect action shots period. I don't know why we got away from this, with the zoomed-in junk. That Ranger Suarez is all I need.

I really like the chrome parallels with this set, probably because I dig this original design so much. I won't collect them all but I'll probably store a few pretending that I will.

Heritage pays tribute to the original set with images that look like images that appeared in that old set. There are a few examples from this box, although you can't be too sure unless the player actually shares the card number with the original '74 card. Let's see what we have in this pack.

Gerrit Cole, 324

Steve Kline, 324

That's an intentional match with the shared card numbers. Pretty good. These are kind of awesome.

 

Seth Brown, 279

Reggie Jackson, 130

This is the sad state of the current Oakland A's. This is a definite match, even though the card numbers don't match, but Seth Brown is no Reggie Jackson. It doesn't help that the A's were at their absolute peak in 1974.

 

Rowdy Tellez, 27

George Scott, 27

Another certain match with Topps using large first basemen in each case.

Jakob Junis, 268

Elias Sosa, 54

I'm pushing it in this case, but there are some slight similarities.

Other notable card from the pack

These four-player rookie prospects cards are all stashed in the high numbers. I originally thought Tyler Cyr was a Dodger because he was acquired by the Dodgers prior to this season but he's not.

PACK 2

158 - Nick Gordon, Twins

370 - Alex Bregman, Astros

298 - Martin Perez, Rangers

73 - Ryan Helsley, Cardinals

167 - Rafael Ortega, Yankees

15 - Byron Buxton, Twins

NA-5 - Julio Rodriguez, Mariners, New Age Performers

177 - Sean Murphy, Braves

396 - Nick Solak, Reds

Alex Bregman, 370

Bob Watson, 370

This is a definite tribute as they each have the same card number.

 

Byron Buxton, 15

Joe Torre, 15

This one probably is, too, even though they don't share the same team and the photos are different. At least the color scheme is the same, I guess.

Nick Solak, #396

Pete Rose, #300

 

Weird. But I think it's a match. Solak is blatantly airbrushed into a Reds uniform, which takes away the effect.

 

PACK 3

 

 214 - MJ Melendez, Royals

50 - Adolis Garcia, Rangers

181 - Ryne Nelson, Diamondbacks

379 - Tim Anderson, White Sox

117 - J.T. Realmuto, Phillies

195 - Ramon Laureano, Athletics

276 - Ryan McMahon, Rockies

398 - Jameson Taillon, Cubs

335 - Trea Turner, Dodgers/Tim Anderson, White Sox, All-Star Shortstops

There's my half a Dodger. I got two Tim Andersons in this pack and one Dodger in the whole box, that's how this break went for me.

I love seeing red flags with the White Sox card, it makes me very happy. The Rockies take on the Angels colors with their color scheme and the Diamondbacks are using the Reds '74 colors. I love that Diamondbacks card and, again, why can't we have this regularly in flagship?

Just one match/tribute with this pack:

MJ Melendez, 214

Fran Healy, 238

At first look you don't think it's a match -- the card numbers aren't the same -- but Fran Healy is the only horizontal Royals card in the '74 set and then you notice that both cards show two catchers.

 

 

PACK 4

 

 7 - Adley Rutschman, Orioles

191 - Kyle Bradish, Orioles

269 - Hunter Renfroe, Angels

302 - Nestor Cortes, Yankees

323 - Leody Tavares, Rangers

White Sox Topps Stamps

441 - 2022 Postseason, ALDS

209 - Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks

124 - Mark Vientos, Mets

 

All right, this is the pack where the box went off the rails. THERE WERE NO ROOKIE CUPS IN 1974 TOPPS. That Rutschman  card took me right out of the happy feeling I was in. Then the dumb, dumb Angels card showed up right after that.

Also, the postseason card, which is a high number, omits Aaron Judge's name. Also, also, the bottom blurb on the '74 postseason cards listed the series score, which in this case would be "Yankees: 3 games, Guardians: 2 games." It's not that hard.

 

Kyle Bradish, 191

Tom Bradley, 455

Not the same card number, nor the same team name, but the team colors are the same and I think the similar rotation look clinches it for me.

Fred Beene, 274

Nestor Cortes, 302

Probably?

Other notable card from the pack

The stamps are numbered individually, so I assume you can peel them off, but I was too chicken to try.

PACK 5

242 - Jose Trevino, Yankees

57 - Cole Irvin, Athletics

86 - Yusei Kikuchi, Blue Jays

137 - Trent Grisham, Padres

343 - Luis Severino, Yankees

305 - Dalton Guthrie, Phillies

327 - Andrew Chafin, Tigers

346 - Ha-Seong Kim, Padres

372 - Ke'Bryan Hayes, Pirates

Ke'Bryan Hayes needs to stop doing that right now, there was none of that in '74 Topps. 

Cole Irvin, 57

Darold Knowles, 57

This is a definite match. Sadly, there's no base runner lurking behind Irvin.

Luis Severino, 343

Pat Dobson, 463

So many f'n Yankees. I think that's a match. You can't see a tobacco tin in Severino's back pocket though.

Dalton Guthrie, 305

Willie Montanez, 515

Might be a match, but I don't know who Dalton Guthrie is.

Other notable card from the pack

This seems like the first fake background from the box. I didn't notice this quite as much as in previous years, although this is a small sample size. Hopefully Heritage has it out of its system by next year's '75 tribute, but I don't have my hopes up.

PACK 6

150 - Vinnie Pasquantino, Royals

119 - George Kirby, Mariners

61 - Equy Rosario, Padres

28 - Cody Bellinger, Cubs

31 - Ezequiel Duran, Rangers

44 - Tyler O'Neill, Cardinals

454 - JT Brubaker, Pirates

235 - Lance McCullers Jr., Astros

296 - Danny Janssen, Blue Jays

Uh, oh, I think the McCullers background is fake, too.

Vinnie Pasquantino, 150

John Mayberry, 150

Intended match, although the rookie cup is killing the vibe.

Other notable card from the pack

Damn that corner ding. OK, Bellinger is definitely wearing a Dodgers uniform in this photo but has been painted into a Cubs uni. The question is, was the tribute picked out before Bellinger became a Cub? Because this card could be a tribute to:

Willie Crawford

Or ...

Billy Williams.

Crawford looks like a closer match.

PACK 7

34 - Harrison Bader, Yankees

381 - Jerar Encarnacion, Marlins

233 - Randal Grichuk, Rockies

55 - Alexis Diaz, Reds

310 - Jose Butto, Mets

400 - Carlos Santana, Pirates

NF-1 - Sears Tower, NF-1

78 - Elier Hernandez, Rangers

361 - Andres Gimenez, Guardians

I appreciate Gimenez making the effort but between that and the green screen he is standing in front of, that's not '74 Topps.

Jose Butto appeared in one whole major league game prior to this season (now he's up to 4), which makes me wonder what potential never-will-be's show up in the '75 tribute. Ugh.

Alexis Diaz, 55

Tom Hall, 248

No shared number but I see some resemblance. Once again, I really appreciate these full-body action shots, just the right distance away, just the right cropping.

Other notable card from the pack

I really like the News Flashbacks every year and now that we're getting into a time period where I was starting to be aware of what was going on around me, I was looking forward to these. Cards of buildings though are kind of boring. Let's see from the checklist if this is the most-boring one:

1 - Sears Tower

2 - World Population

3 - Daylight Savings Time

4 - Ray Kroc Buys The Padres

5 - Charles de Gaulle Airport

6- Dow Jones

7 - Richard Nixon

8 - Gerald Ford

9 - Freedom Of Information Act

10 - Nelson Rockefeller

 

OK, very newsy and not terribly exciting. I might light No. 3 on fire if I pull it.

PACK 8

43 - Michael Chavis, Pirates

303 - Zack Wheeler, Phillies

120 - Jesse Chavez, Braves

77 - Franklin German, Red Sox

360 - Bo Bichette, Blue Jays

357 - Charlie Blackmon, Rockies

230 - Nick Senzel, Reds

116 - Clay Holmes, Yankees

58 - Robbie Ray, Mariners

If you were keeping track, that was eight Yankees cards total. Just gross.

Zack Wheeler, 303

Larry Christenson, 587

The numbers don't match but that's a pretty good comparison especially with Wheeler wearing the '70s retro uniform.

Other notable card from the pack

This is phenomenal. It doesn't quite match the Tom Seaver, Jon Matlack or Milt Pappas cards from the set, and the Braves don't have any horizontal cards in '74, but everything about this catches the vibe of the best '74s and why I love some of the cards from that set so much.

That's a phenomenal back, too.

This reminds me that I haven't reviewed the back yet. I love the '74 backs and the cartoons in particular. I haven't had a chance to check out the cartoons much, but they seem in the spirit of the originals, even if ballplayers don't have second jobs anymore.

But this justification nonsense (see write-up on Cole and the stats on Brown) has got to end. Check out that unfortunate signature as well.

That was a few too many complaints with this box considering I really enjoyed myself opening it -- the most I have with any Heritage set. So I'll probably buy more than a couple more over the months to come.

I think I might keep myself to hanger boxes and racks though. I can't take anymore dings.