whoomp heritage!

i placed a sportlots order earlier this week for a bunch of 2021 topps heritage cards. lord knows i won't find packs anywhere! the first few cards arrived yesterday and today, and one of them was this glorious piece of cardboard:

card number 1 in the set! world series champions! the first card of the like that i've seen in my lifetime, thanks to topps ignoring the 1981 and 1988 world series in their sets the following years. i just wish they had used a team photo (even though justin turner broke protocol) rahter than the bouncy mass of the first guys to make it to the mound.  i am not complaining though - i love this card!

here's the back, and i love it, too:

it's great that topps replicated the back of the 1972 team cards. here's the original:

it looks like topps didn't go earlier than 1900 when putting the 1972 back together, but in 2021 they included the full franchise history, dating back to 1890. case in point is "h. collins" aka hub, who scored 148 runs in 1890 (even though the heritage card says it happened in 1948) which is 18 more runs than b. herman ("b" for "babe" on the 2021 card and "f" for "floyd", his given name, on the 1972 card) did in 1930. herman is still the franchise leader for hits, though.

home runs gets an update thanks to shawn green's 2001 season, and mike marshall's record of 106 games pitched shows up, too. those are the only two of the listed dodger franchise marks that have been set since 1971, however. the pennants are updated, with those from 1977, 1978, 1981, 1988, 2017, 2018 and 2020 represented. left out completely between the two cards is the 1974 pennant. that's too bad.

there are a couple of curiosities about the individual world series cards, three of which feature the dodgers:

you will notice that these cards represent games 1, 5, and 6. there is no card for the other dodger victory which came in game 3. strange. the 1972 set didn't miss a game. also, topps used a different color text for the year on these cards. doubly strange, as the 1972 set didn't have this issue.  the backs, however, feature the offensive parts of the box score from each game:

which is consistent with 1972. overall i am happy to see these cards.

here's a card that i am really pleased with - mookie betts in action!

i am sure it was intentional (even though the card numbers don't match) for this card to pay tribute to maury wills' 1972 in action card

so great! it's hard to see, but topps added team text to the betts card under his name. had that been a thing in 1972, i might not have added tom haller's card to my dodger team set.

cody bellinger's in action card

has the national league batting champion list on the back:

tommy davis is still the last dodger to lead the league in batting, even though eddie murray sort of did in 1990. and speaking of league leaders, here is a great looking card:

so many home run leaders - i am very happy that topps included all of these guys, except they still don't remember how to recognize players that are tied for a position. alonso, betts, calhoun, duvall, machado, and pollock should all be listed as "3" on the card.  the back gets it right:

except that corey seager (and wil myers) should be tied for "9", not "8". keep trying topps!

and here's joe kelly's card:

that's more like typical heritage.

here's brandon lowe turning two

on a card i picked up for my double play collection.

this last one is not from sportlots, but rather ebay. steve garvey heritage real one auto!

it was a huge miss, in my opinion, for garvey to not have been included in last year's set given 1971 was his rookie card year, but he's here now! there is, of course, a red auto version that has yet to appear on the secondary market (as far as i've seen). he also has an auto-relic card numbered to 25 of which i have only seen one example so far. pricey, too! here's the back:

pretty much the same as his 1972 card, except for the number and the text at the bottom margin. very happy that these were the first 2021 heritage cards i've acquired! i'm sure i will be showing more when they arrive!