it's high time

i've mentioned many times that i am a big fan of the replacements - the band, not the movie - as well as lead sinder paul westerberg's solo stuff (plus bassist tommy stinson's non-gnr material). one of westerberg's solo songs is called "high time" in which he sings that "it's high time that i let you slide". i can't really say that it's time for me to let topps slide with more shenanigans, but perhaps it's time for me to just accept the fact that they aren't going to put a lot of effort in to their products.

we've waited all year to get clayton kershaw's 2022 topps heritage card, and now we have it courtesy of the high numbers set

it's a short print, of course, and features the green screened background to boot. now that we are in the era of action shots on cards, i am disappointed to not see a photo of that ilk on kershaw's card. however, to be fair, topps didn't use an in game action shot for a dodger pitcher on a base card until 1974 when they gave claude osteen the treatment. before that, only osteen's 1972 "in action" subset card showed a dodger pitcher actually pitching on cardboard.

anyway, i picked up the dodgers' team set, which does feature a couple of pitchers on the actual bump

i will need to find dupes of the justin bruihl and hanser alberto cards for the dodger stadium mini-collection. any card that shows the unocal logo gets automatic entry! all of these cards work in terms of 1973 topps, with the tony gonsolin portrait and the action on the bruihl, alberto, trea turner and craig kimbrel cards. kershaw's spring training pose - one fit for a panini card - is not one that was featured in the 1973 set, but i guess i need to let that slide.

it strikes me as odd that we had to wait for both kershaw and trea turner heritage cards, although turner did get a parallel in the initial heritage release, with a different image used. another oddity is seen when you compare kershaw's base card to the oversized boxtopper

topps left the all-star game patch on the photo for the boxtopper, but scrubbed it from the base card. having the patch helps bring some color to the card, and there was no reason to remove the patch from a 2022 card. i didn't even get it back in 2020 when the game was cancelled. even then, it was reality. the players wore an all-star game patch during spring training. i don't know why it needed to be removed then and certainly not now.

one more bit of strangeness is that topps used max muncy as the subject for another boxtopper

i find this strange because muncy was in the initial heritage release, and surely there were other players that could have been used that better tie the card to the high numbers issue. i doubt any muncy super collectors were snapping up boxes trying to find this card.  i get why topps didn't include freddie freeman in high numbers - he was already featured in the initial release, and high numbers is not an update set in that regard - but they still could have used him as a boxtopper. i will admit i was sort of hoping for a freddie freeman card in the style of steve garvey's 1973 topps card with muncy greeting him at home plate a la wes parker.

my team set came with a kershaw clubhouse collection relic

which at least features a different image from his base card and the initial heritage clubhouse collection card of his. the green screen background is the same, however.

with the high numbers set in hand, i should have the initial heritage team set taken care of as well, but i don't. i did grab the cody bellinger short print

along with the joe kelly

but i still haven't received the matt beaty card. that's ok - it's on its way and it features a lackluster pose similar to kelly's with the same background as kelly's card.

seriously, would it have been too difficult for the photographer to ask the dodger pitchers to pose in their follow through which was the custom back in the early 1970's? even don sutton gave up his traditional "suttoning" pose to match the position logo

and don't get me started on what a 50th anniversary means, because that buyback ain't it.

with all that said, i really hope to see some better dodger cards in 2023 heritage. at least give me a horizontal card that's not a variation. bonus points if the spectators in the stands are blurry.