it's hammer time, but just not at the right time

it took me a while to become aware of some of the insert sets and parallels from 2019 topps heritage high numbers. that's probably because i didn't pay much attention to the release of that product, ultimately hitting up sportlots for some of the dodger base cards that hadn't shown up in trade packages.

at some point, i saw some of "the hammer's greatest hits" cards, and noticed a couple that i eventually added to my collection.  this first one

features a fantastic photo of hank aaron at ebbett's field with roy campanella behind the plate. it gives a great look down the third base line all the way to the mennen ad on the left field fence. so what if the card is celebrating aaron's first big league hit that took place on 4/15/54 (jackie robinson day!) against the cardinals in milwaukee? a simlar card with del rice squatting there wouldn't be as nice, in my opinion. what a great add to my lurker collection.

the other card from that insert set that i picked up was this one

it is celebrating hank's 1000th career hit which came against the dodgers on 6/6/59. my first thought was that the image would fit in my tatooine collection, but that it also showed a bit of john roseboro there behind the plate.  it turns out, roseboro was indeed catching that day when aaron reached the 1000 hit milestone with a single off of sandy koufax, but this image does not reflect that moment. first of all, aaron is wearing the away grays, and the game in question was played in milwaukee. i did a quick getty images search and found that the photo comes from 8/24/57. that is indeed john roseboro behind the plate, but he is playing for the brooklyn dodgers in the photo. aaron is actually hitting a home run on the pitch, which is impressive.

don't get me wrong - i'm not mad that the photos don't match up with the milestone given the fact that images of those actual events may not even exist and the images topps did use work in my collection's favor.

one more card from that release that i didn't learn about until much later was russell martin's throwback photo variation

i wound up picking up a couple of the online exclusive 5x7 versions rather than the actual variation as the only one i could find was priced way beyond what i was willing to pay. the image comes from jackie robinson day pre-game festivities on 4/15/19. it's a great looking card with martin in the foreground and dave roberts, sharon robinson, and david robinson visible on the scoreboard in the background. we also get a good look at the don newcombe memorial patch on martin's left sleeve.

i have one copy of the 5x7 card in my dodger collection, and the other in my dodger stadium collection. if i ever find a regular card at a reasonable price, i'll move one of these to my "42" collection.

there were no games on 4/15/20 (although jackie robinson day was celebrated over the last weekend in august with the dodgers on the road), so there shouldn't be any dodger throwback parallels in this years high numbers. still, i will plan to take a look at the inserts to see if there are any other hidden gems out there for my collection.