I finished my 2023 Topps Heritage High Numbers Dodgers team set when the last three cards arrived Thursday and Friday.
They're all horizontals, in keeping with the 1974 Topps theme, although I think '23 Heritage went a little bit overboard with them.
Just one of the players is currently with the Dodgers now as Busch was traded to Tampa Bay and Hernandez is supposed to be joining another team soon. (Update: He's apparently coming back to the Dodgers).
The Hernandez card is a short-print but it didn't cost me much, barely over a buck.
It's also a card that "rights a wrong" if you're into the editorial sanctity of photos (which Topps definitely is not -- lots of evidence over the decades on that).
The Hernandez card probably looks familiar to some collectors, most probably Red Sox collectors, who first came across the image in the 2021 Topps flagship set. It's another great photo on a Kiké Hernandez card.
This was one of the better cards in the 2021 set. In fact, Diamond Jesters named it his greatest Red Sox card of 2021. But Hernandez isn't really wearing Red Sox gear in this photo (the light blue glove is the tip-off if you know the story ahead of time).
The image is from the following Getty photo:
It was taken during Game 6 of the NLCS against the Braves in 2020, which took place in Arlington, Texas.
So I guess it's a good thing that Hernandez returned to the Dodgers so Topps could get that picture on record as actually happening during a Dodgers game.
It probably would be a little annoying if it only showed up as a Red Sox card and I'd have to stare at it saying, "hey, he was a Dodger when he did that."
So, uh, thanks Topps. I guess. There's the matter of using a photo that's more than three years old though.
(Why'd Topps photoshop the shoe color on the Red Sox card?)
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