that was a good team break

here's "where it's at" with the 2024 topps series 2 team break i joined. i chose the dodgers, of course, and wound up with a couple of team sets - all 20 cards:

i'll come back to the jason heyward card in a bit.

kiké continues to get decent cards. i like that he and rojas got cards showing them as fielders. we don't need more at bats on cards

see what i mean? i feel like i am missing some candids these days.

especially with pitchers, who do nothing but pitch in today's game. 

we could also use more bat flip cards like teoscar there. 

back to heyward's card

it was obvious to me as soon as i saw the card that his number was photoshopped. it was also obvious that the background is dodger stadium. i was confused and couldn't believe that topps didn't use a photo of heyward as a dodger. it turns out that they used a photo from jackie robinson day when the dodgers were wearing a pre-1952 jersey style that didn't have the red numbers on the front. here's the original photo. i am not sure why topps felt they needed to add the red number at all, but they did. just add that to the list of headscratching decisions they make with seemingly every release.

unfortunately, the photo doesn't show the 42 on heyward's back, so even though i know it is a card from an april 15 game, it doesn't go in the 42 mini-collection. i did get the gold foil parallel

in the break, however, so that's nice.

one more note on one of the base cards (at least in this post). kyle hurt got a card! i mentioned this possibility in an earlier post about dodgers who got cards despite appearing in only one game with the team. hurt only appeared in one game for the dodgers in 2023 as the back of his card attests

so kudos to topps for using a photo from his big league debut and not photoshopping a minor league image. this season, hurt has pitched in three games for the dodgers, and was just activated from the 60-day il yesterday so will likely add to that total, leaving guys from that earlier post in the dust.

i netted two gold parallels - clayton kershaw

and dustin may

but no other parallels. i appreciate the photo topps used for may's card. it's one of the few pitcher cards that doesn't show a windup or delivery.

i did ok for inserts though, picking up both the shohei ohtani

and freddie freeman

1989 all-star inserts. freeman was the player my break landed the most as it turned out with both his covering the field

and fantasy favorites

inserts being pulled.

as for the silver packs, i got a bobby miller card

which was a bonus, really.

i did notice that the price for the dodgers in these breaks has increased with ohtani on the team, but it's still a good way to get a good number of cards to kickstart the team collection. i'll probably hold off on any more team breaks until update, however.