leaders old and new

i was pretty pleased to see that topps included the all-time leaders subset in 2022 heritage even though they weren't able to produce the manager and coaches cards which were the other subset i was hoping against hope for.  i think they did a great job matching the 1973 original all-time leaders subset even as they had to pivot in a couple of spots. i shared my complete 1973 subset in this post (i decided to put it together even though i had all of the cards in my 1973 complete set already). for 2022 heritage, i only completed the subset, and i won't even complain that they are high numbers given that they match the numbering of these cards in the 1973 set.

let's take a look:

as a reminder, here's what the cards looked like in 1973:

they look great! there are a few differences to note, however.

in 1973, card number 471 featured ty cobb and his 4,191 hits as the all-time hit leader. in 2022, cobb is again at number 471, but it's his batting leader card (which was 475 in 1973) instead of hit leader. of course, with pete rose being the all-time hit leader, there was no way we were going to see the hit leader card in this set. it would be cool to see panini do it, though.

as for the batting leader card, here's the 1973 back

and here's the 2022 back:

gone are the at bats and hits, but you will notice on both the front and the back that cobb's average dipped a bit in the last 49 years. that's because someone figured out sometime after 1985 that he only had 4,189 hits. other statistical changes affected rogers hornsby, willie keeler, and tris speaker. in addition to keeler, dave orr and dan brouthers dropped off this list. added to the list are a number of negro league stars, which is cool. the other things i found interesting is that topps added (in small print) a team affiliation on the back and they got around the joe jackson issue by just calling him "j. jackson". 

despite what you see in the image above (i messed up the order) the next card is the wins (or victory) card. here's the 1973 back:

and here's the 2022 back:

topps chose to affiliate young with the red sox which is fine even though he spent just one year (1908) with the franchise when they were known as such. his victory total didn't change, but walter johnson, jim (now pud) galvin, and kid (still kid) nichols gained, while tim keefe lost. grover cleveland alexander now goes by pete, and john clarkson and ed plank got bumped by greg maddux and tim keefe. 

next up is the strikeout leader card. here's the 1973 back:

and here is the 2022 back:

there was a lot of movement on the strikeouts leader board after 1973. even walter johnson added a k to his career total, and everyone other than the big train who was on the 1973 card got bumped. i think it's cool that topps used a photo of ryan from his angels days rather than another ranger photo of him. cool to see don sutton namechecked on a card like this.

the next card is a new one - the all-time saves leader. here's the back:

obviously these are all more recent pitchers. i really wish this had been a card in 1973 because hoyt wilhelm was the leader back then and who knows - he might have been shown as a dodger on such a card. this card replaces the all-time rbi leader card (which would have hank aaron on it now instead of babe ruth) and evens out the cards at four for pitchers and four for batters.

hank aaron is back in 2022 as the all-time total base(s) leader. here's the 1973 back:

and here is the 2022 back:

cool to see the higher stats for both aaron and willlie mays who were active in 1973. cobb lost 9 bases, so in addition to losing 2 hits, he must have had some other hits downgraded. topps identified pete rose as "p. rose" but gave barry bonds the full name treatment. i suppose that is because he isn't on the permanently ineligible list, but i wasn't sure they had license to use his name.

next up is another new one for 2022 - the all-times doubles leader which happens to (still) be tris speaker. here's the back:

this card exists because pete rose is the all-time hits leader, and we can't have a pete rose card, although he is second all-time in doubles. that makes a big difference however, and he again gets the "p. rose" treatment on the back. weird that topps affiliated speaker with the cardinals. i say weird because he never played for that franchise.

walter johnson remains the all-time shutout (which didn't get pluralized like some other categories did in this new iteration) leader, even though he lost three in his total since 1973. here's the 1973 back:

and here's the 2022 back:

christy mathewson and cy young also lost shutouts, but ed (now eddie) plank gained one. i assume ed walsh also has at least one fewer shutout to his name, otherwise i would have expected a tie to be mentioned rather than seeing don sutton's name on the back.

last but not least, the all-time grand slams leader is still a yankee, but not the same yankee as it was in 1973. here's the 1973 back:

and here's the 2022 back:

alex rodriguez passed lou gehrig on the list and four others passed jimmy (now the more universally accepted jimmie) foxx on the leaderboard as well. aaron hit a couple more grand slams in 1974 to keep his name on the back of the card - tied with dave kingman and babe ruth!

note that i didn't include the 2022 heritage card number 1 in this subset even though i did for my 1973 subset collection - that's because it's not an all-time leaders card (despite what it says on the back).

i think topps did well with this subset, and it gives me hope for some version of mvp cards in 2024 heritage and all-time all-stars in 2025. time will tell!