isn't it iconic?

it's been a while since 2025 topps heritage was released and i mentioned that i was working on a post related to the player icons that make the 1976 set so memorable. today, i finally publish that post, and it starts with a red parallel of darren baker's rookie card

it's not his flagship golden mirror variation, but i do like this card. aside from the color match, it features the familiar second base icon with sweet double play action. i've added baker and a host of other cards to my double play collection since that initial post. here's a colt keith chrome parallel

and a bunch of base keystone players

i also picked up a marcus semien variation

for the double play collection. semien's regular card has the all-star star instead of the player icon. of course topps calls these "cartoon variations". more on those later.

there is also an insert set devoted to the player icons, and i added both jose altuve

and semien to my dp collection

as the second basemen represented in the set.

this insert set has both a cardboard and a foil version - here's elly de la cruz to demonstrate

and here's first baseman freddie freeman

to represent the dodger collection. these cards use the 1976 icons and topps calls these inserts "1976 player icons" and not cartoons so i don't understand how the variations are cartoon variations.

anyway, here's a reminder of what all of the 1976 player icons looked like:

i had to use carl yastrzemski's first baseman icon since there were no dodgers given that one back in 1976. steve garvey had the all-star star and when he plays every day there really isn't anyone else to show at that position (as a primary).

now, here are the variatons in 2025:

one of the first things i noticed is more detail or shading of the figures, and also that the position text is mostly left justified. 

you can probably tell that the right handed pitcher icon comes from shohei ohtani's variation

that i was fortunate to pick up in a lot of heritage cards i purchased a while back. the lefthanded pitcher icon comes from tarik skubal's card

which i used to own. i tried to convince myself that the icon is based on clayton kershaw 

but i don't think it is. that silver pack card from 2025 topps series 2 is sort of close, but not really. maybe it's justin verlander based. any ideas?

another item of note is that, while the dh was in effect in 1976, there weren't any players given that positional designation. in 2025, there are a few that have it. here's what the player icon looks like for those players:

the lefty is from joc pederson's card and the righty is from marcell ozuna's. here's the variation:

it comes from kyle schwarber's variant card. schwarber hits lefthanded and his base card features the same icon as on joc's card. his chrome parallel, however, features the righty dh. go figure.

here's a blue parallel of joc's card that i found in a pack

along with ozuna's that was also pack pulled by me

now, i noted that there weren't any dh's in 1976, but topps did use that icon on the batting related league leader cards. here's the american league home run leaders to represent leftys

along with the a.l. batting leaders for the rightys

i would need to be convinced by a preponderance of evidence that the icon used on those cards is not based on carl yastrzemski. his 2012 topps archives deckle edge insert

is pretty demonstrative of my thinking.

topps used the same icons for the league leaders in 2025

including the shortstop icon for the stolen base leaders (minus the baseball)

and the pitcher icons on the pitching league leader cards

topps was pretty true to the original with this leading firemen card, as it is the only leader card that covers both leagues. they are still short on data - the back (as it was in 1976) shows only previous winners and their teams

with no mention of "points" or how the points are calculated. today, i can google this and find out that relievers get 3 points for a save, 2 for a win, and are deducted 2 for a loss. us kids in the 70's just shrugged our shoulders and figured that topps and rolaids knew what they were doing.

it's worth noting that topps took another run at player icons as part of their "1976 redefined" insert set. here's corey seager's card

as an example. the icons are all different from the variations of the base set, and this one in particular screams chipper jones. the jump/throw image is similar to chipper's 1993 upper deck card but matches his 2023 topps stadium club card spot on.