stepping back in to heritage

i still haven't seen any cards on the big box card shelf, although i haven't been in a big box retailer for a couple of weeks. i didn't see any heritage at the card show earlier this month, either. i did, however, pick up a few more cards from sportlots.

i am really appreciating the natural evolution of the number of action photos used by topps. it matches the 1973 set in terms of non-variant action, and this andrelton simmons card

has the added bonus of a visual riddle - is he stepping on carlos santana's head?

of course, the action i am most interested is focused on second base and the double play turn. the simmons above and these next few cards - alcides escobar

thairo estrada

did gregorius

and jonathan india

all certainly fit the bill.

there is a definite changing of the guard with the dodger starting rotation, and julio urias is getting more attention from the national baseball perspective. he's a new age performer

as well as getting a "then and now" card with tom terrific

trea turner matches up with a couple of hall of famers thanks to his league leading prowess. both turner and urias also showed up on league leader cards

at least topps used actual backgrounds in most of the photos on those cards.

i've mentioned before that the "then and now" cards are my favorite heritage inserts. i am glad to see current dodgers on these cards because the early 1970's were devoid of dodger dominance in any category that would typically be included in the subset. the next dodgers we might see are davey lopes and andy messersmith in a couple of years.

there was one dodger included on a multi-player rookie card this year, and it's conner greene

greene spent two weeks with the dodgers last august, and pitched in two games. on august 23rd, he was reclaimed by the orioles. this shouldn't be a dodger card, but i am thankful for it. topps was able to put rougned odor in an orioles uniform on his heritage card, but couldn't do the same for greene who actually was an oriole at the end of last season. similarly, danny duffy's 2022 heritage card shows him as a royal even though he joined the dodger organization at the trade deadline last july!

here's dustin may's card

on which he is superimposed on to the dusky dodger spring training background.

even more egregious are chris taylor's

and justin turner's

cards. these photos were taken during promotional activities for the all-star game! notice both taylor and turner are wearing number 44 - hank aaron's number - which was a thing the day before the midsummer classic. just let them be all-stars and use the original background topps!

or just use a different photo. it can't be that difficult.

thankfully, there were no photo hijinks when topps issued this card

in 2021 heritage high numbers. time will tell what high numbers brings this year - hopefully a parking lot with cars in the background.