2012 Heritage & 1963 Topps – 1990 Reds and Big Red Machine

There was one Big Red Machine member in the players in the 1963 Topps set – Pete Rose was the first of any of the BRM players.  This wasn’t the first, though – Manager Sparky Anderson had earlier cards from when he was a player.

Because of this card, 2012 Topps Heritage is kind of unique in a way that I’m honestly wondering is an oversight – but figure it just can’t be.  How so you ask?  Well, it’s because of the 50th anniversary buy back program Topps has for all of its cards.  For the first time since 1989 Topps, a Pete Rose card was included in a baseball card product licensed by MLB.

This is unquestionably the most notable card from this set.  The buyback card above was on eBay at the time of me writing this with a BIN of $1,999.  I’m surprised I hadn’t read more about it earlier.  It’s kind of a big deal on a couple levels – including the fact that they put a stamp on a Pete Rose rookie…

There is another Big Red Machine member in the 2012 Heritage product.  That would be Joe Morgan, who has a nickel “63 Mint” card denoting his rookie year.

There is also one player from the 1990 team.  Eric Davis was in the Mint set last year, and Paul O’Neill is in this year’s set.  He got a penny card because he was born in 1963 (and because Topps paid him money for the rights to use his likeness ).

2012 Heritage & 1963 Topps parallel sets

Unlike with the 1962 set, which had a parallel Topps Venezuelan set, there was no parallel in 1963.

However, Topps did again issue a box-toppers of cards that could be considered 1963 Topps parallels into 2012 Topps Heritage.  Topps bought original 1963 cards back from the market and stamped them as “50th anniversary” buy backs.  I always found this interesting – I know 2011 is the 50th set if you’re counting 1962 as the first set.  But that doesn’t make it the 50th anniversary – this always confuses me.  Not a big deal by any means, though.  Anyways, these cards came in “penny” 1-card packs inserted in every other hobby box (with the ad panel coming as the other potential box-topper).  Here’s the one I got in my first Heritage box.

The 2012 Topps Heritage set has a whole lot more of what we’re used to as far as parallel sets go.  In addition to all the variations I posted earlier – there are quite a few of the standard parallel cards.  There are 3 sets of Chrome parallels, and 2 25-card partial parallels that you could probably consider “variations”.  But they seem more like partial parallels to me, and the variations post I did a few days ago was long enough already!  In fact, all 5 of these sets are partial parallels – either 100 cards or 25 cards.  Odds below are for hobby packs, except for the Bordered parallels, which only come from retail packs.

Chrome – 100 cards (1:11; #/1963)

Chrome Refractor – 100 cards (1:37; #/563)

The Hanley below is a refractor – the other two are regular chrome cards.  The standard chrome cards are much more

Black Border Chrome Refractor – 100 cards (1:329; #/63)

Last year, Topps also inserted 100 additional cards paralleling the Heritage set into the Topps Chrome baseball card product.  I assume they will do this again this year.

Target Red Border – 25 cards (1:8; Target retail only)

Wal-Mart Blue Border – 25 cards (1:8; Wal-Mart retail only)

It’s worth noting – the Wal-Mart Blues and Target Reds are 2 completely different groupings of 25 cards.

1963 Topps / 2012 Heritage – Ad Panels

Advertising Panels

Prior to and during the release of its 1963 flagship baseball set, Topps sent 3-card advertising panels to market the set to retailers carrying the product.  These 3-card panels had 3 different player cards on the front of the card.  Beckett lists 2 different player combinations known:

• Elston Howard, Bob Veale, Cal Koonce
• Hoyt Wilhelm, Don Lock, Bob Duliba

I believe the reverse has info on the set – I think it looks pretty similar to the 2012 Heritage card back below.  Unlike the 1962 Ad Panel, I haven’t been able to find a picture of the 1963 panel.  There is probably one specific player’s card back for each panel issued, but I don’t know who it is for 1963.  In 1962 it was Roger Maris, fresh off his 61 home run season.  I’d bet it’s Stan Musial, since he was the “spokesman” for Topps on the side of their boxes that year – but anyone who knows any more information – would be appreciated!

For the 2012 Heritage Set, Topps again directly copied this idea.  This is one of 2 options you were guaranteed to get as a  topper to a hobby box (the other being the 1963 buybacks).  Like the 1963 version, these are 3-card panels with 3 different player cards on the front.  The reverse shows Ryan Howard’s card back – I’m surprised they didn’t do Longoria who is on the front of all their packaging. The yellow background promotional language is probably designed based on the 1963 panel.  The one below I pulled from my second box of Heritage.

 

2012 Heritage & 1963 Topps – Variations

One of the big things for the Topps Heritage product is all the card variations.  It’s always done in a way also a throwback to the relevant set (in this case 1963).  I have been / will be trying to collect the JFK Special below, and some Reds variations here and there.

Error variations

A Cub without a position

In 1963, card #15 was of the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, Ken Hubbs.  And while Hubbs had the RoY trophy, he didn’t have two things on his card.  The first thing – he didn’t get put on the Topps All-Star Rookie Team and thus didn’t have that trophy there.  The second thing – he also didn’t have a position on the front of his card.

Darwin Barney got the equivalent card #15 in 2012 Topps Heritage.  His regular card has the 2B as his position on the front.  But the Super SP error variation matches Hubbs card by omitting that position.

Rookie Stars in the wrong year

There were 2 cards from the 1963 Rookie Stars subset in series 1 that had the same mistake.  The year was supposed to match the set year – “1963 Rookie Stars”.  But instead Topps accidentally put the previous year (“1962 Rookie Stars”).  This was an error that was corrected at some point in the production run.

From what I’ve seen, the corrected version had a yellow font for the year (1963).  These were cards #29 and #54 in the set.  Dave DeBusschere, a future NBA Hall of Famer, was on card #54.

Heritage had a Super SP for both of these card, though I don’t really think what they did was the right way to parallel this difference.  I’d have expected to put 2011 Rookie Stars on the Heritage set – go one year earlier.  But they took the 1962 thing too literally, and put 1962 as he SSP error variation.

That’s not me!

A couple of cards in 1963 Topps pictured the wrong player on the front of the card.  The first one was card #113 which was supposed to be Don Landrum of the Cubs.  But Topps instead had a picture of Ron Santo on the card.

Kerry Wood’s SSP variation got the error treatment here – they replaced the Cubs’ reliever with former 3rd baseman Aramis Ramirez.  This was an interesting one in particular.  They went with Ramirez as he was the previous year’s Cub 3rd baseman – just like Santo.  But the picture of Aramis shows him with his new 2012 team, the Brewers.  I think Heritage kind of missed it with the inset photo on this card.  That looks to be Landrum (and not Santo) in the circle inset photo in 1963 Topps, but the Heritage card has both photos as pictures of Aramis.

Card #231 was an error card for Eli Grba, whose card actually pictured Ryne Duren.  Now this was a more egregious error by Topps for the ’63 set.  At the start of the 1963 season, Santo was a young player, not quite the super star he would become.  And Landrum does kind of look like Santo.  But Duren was a notable name and a recognizable by this time.  He’d pitched for the Yankees for a number of years, he was a bit of a character, and he wore very distinct, thick glasses.  Grba did not wear such glasses – no one else did for that matter.  Duren, who passed away less than a year ago, was the inspiration for “Wild Thing” in the movie Major League.

For this year’s Heritage product, Topps put Mark Trumbo on the SSP variation for Dan Haren.  Like the ’63 Topps Grba card, which had Grba in the circular inset photo, they did keep the picture of the listed player in the inset photo on the SSP variation.

Earning your stripes

Card #341 in 1963 Topps featured Jack Baldschun, a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies.  The first version of the card had a white stripe in the inset photo (see left, inset photo enhanced).  Then Topps tried to correct it by basically coloring in that stripe, but they didn’t do a very good job.  Basically, you can tell that they tried to fix it – so it looks like there’s a kind of red stripe there (see to the right).

This is an “error” that has been recognized that usually doesn’t meet the criteria for getting recognized as an error.  Usually, printing errors don’t qualify as variations that get recognized.  In fact, I don’t think this one is listed in Beckett, but is in some other price guides or checklists.  Clearly, there was an effort made by Topps made to correct this, and there’s two separate versions.

For 2012 Heritage, Topps did in fact pay tribute to this.  There are two different SSP’s of Ryan Madson’s card #341 – one for the white stripe and with a Red Stripe.

It really isn’t the greatest reproduction of the error, if you ask me.  Plus, Madson isn’t even a Phillie any more (though he’s never going to pitch a game for the Reds).  Add to that the fact that this is only “arguably” a valid defect, and this is one I think they could have passed on reproducing.  I’m a fan of all the others, just not this particular one.

A Minors infraction

The next one was Ernie Banks card #380.  I actually did a comparison of these cards – the Cubs’ first baseman from last year, Carlos Pena was the card number match for Heritage.  The 1963 Topps card for Banks showed only Major League statistics, but the writing at the top said “Major and Minor League”:

It’s interesting; since Banks started in the Negro Leagues and was a good player by the time he got to the Majors, he never actually played in the Minors.  Pena certainly has played in the Minors, in fact he had an entire season 5 years after his Major League debut where he didn’t get called up to the Yankees.  But they have an SSP variation for him with this mistake.

Boxed in

Another variation gets into the Short Print section of Heritage.  Card #454 in 1963 was of Art Fowler.  Basically, the box at the top with the card number got colored in, but was eventually fixed later in the production run.

Julio Tehran is card #454 in 2012 Heritage.  He has an SSP variation that has the colored-in box.

Wuns or Rins?

The last card was an uncorrected error Topps had on the back of Jim Owens’ card #483 in 1963.  The pitcher’s Win column was incorrectly labeled with an “R”.   Bear with me on the effects I’m using here – I’m trying out some things with this editing program I’ve got.  Kind of cool, I think.

Mike Stanton of the Marlins (now going by his real name of Giancarlo Stanton) has the 2012 Heritage card #483.  Stanton is most certainly not a pitcher – so they did the reverse here.  His “Runs” column has a “W” on the SSP card.

Swap Variations

Topps created a couple of different variations where they played with the 1963 card design.

Image Swap – 25 cards (no stated odds, appearing ~1:48 from what I’ve read)

The first swap variation were 25 image swap variations where the black and white image from the inset is swapped with the regular photo.  Here’s an example of Lincecum.

Image Swap Relic – 25 cards (no stated odds, #/63)

The Image Swap variations have a relic version of the cards, where the relic is inset into the circle in the bottom right.

Color Swap – 25 cards (no stated odds, appearing ~1:200 from what I’ve read)

There are also 25 color variations where the background color from the inset photo is swapped with the background color where the player name – obviously these are a little harder to tell by just looking at the card.

JFK Story subset – 10 cards (no stated odds, appearing ~1:200 from what I’ve read)

There is a 7-card “JFK Story” that is designed the same as the World Series subset.  Unlike the Jackie Robinson Story subset from 2011, which was numbered the same as the Babe Ruth subset, this “variation” has its own numbering – #JFK1 to #JFK7.

JFK Story Stamp Relics – 7 cards (1:2,950 – #/63, Hobby only)

There is a relic version of the JFK Story subset that has different commemorative stamps inset into the card.

JFK Story ’63 Mint – 49 cards (1:26,520 – #/1, Hobby only)

There are inserted unique JFK Story ’63 Mint cards.  Each one will have an embedded JFK Half-Dollar – one for each year these coins were issued (1964-2012).  These were inserted as redemption cards.

2012 Heritage vs. Vintage #20 – Final post

Today is my last post of this whole comparison / contest between 1963 Topps and 2012 Heritage.  Hard to believe, but it’s been a full 3 weeks of doing this!  It’s been fun, and I had about over a week of travel time during this, so it’s been a bit of work to get these up and running at the right times.  A bunch of scanning cards and loading them up to write-up the posts at a later time.  I was surprised at how well this year’s Heritage did in comparison, but I held off on posting about the cards that I picked based on them being stud 1963 players until these last few posts.  Because of that, I think 1963 will win my completely arbitrary contest, but let’s take a look!

Card #252 – Aramis Ramirez / Ron Santo

This is another one of those examples where Topps got the player onto their new team, but picked a card number based on who they played for last year.  I wish they’d do this differently.  My first choice is actually that they’d just use a picture of the player in his old uniform – so in this case, show Ramirez as a Cub.  Or, if they’re going to photo shop guys into the most recent uniform, change the card number to get the comparison right.  It’s one of the cool things they do for Heritage, so looking at this makes it kind of disappointing.

Winner

Hard to go with anyone but Santo here.  There’s the whole Brewers player with a cub here, plus, this just reminds me that the Brewers getting Aramis might help them keep the Reds out of the playoffs again.  Finally, the Santo card is just a better card.  I’m a sucker for cards with guys holding two bats!

1963 Topps leads, 40-39

For the first time I can remember, 1963 Topps gets the lead.

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Card #345 – Mark Reynolds / Brooks Robinson

I don’t know why, but I do like the Reynolds card.  I know he strikes out a lot, and I know comparing him with Brooks Robinson is basically comparing the greatest defensive 3rd baseman ever with a guy who really isn’t a good defensive 3rd baseman.  But he is the right comparison as he’s the O’s 3rd baseman.

Winner

I don’t love the Brooks card either, but I like him much better.  Brooks was one of the first players I ever got an autograph of, back when I was really young.  I have his auto on a ball with orange and black Oriole seems.  I’m pretty sure I got it in Baltimore with my grandfather, who lived there.  I’d like to have the option of a tie available going into the last card, but I’ve got to give the win to Mr. Robinson!

1963 Topps leads, 41-39

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Card #250 – Jon Jay / Stan Musial

This is the last card of this whole shindig.  I saved Musial for last for good reason.  Most importantly, this is “Stan the Man’s” last Topps card of his incredible career.  A career that included 475 home runs, 1950 RBI and the National League hit record at the time of his retirement.  He spent a year in the military, too – so if he hadn’t had to serve a year for WWII, he’d probably have over 500 homers, over 2,000 runs and RBI, and over 3,800 hits, which would have put him only behind Cobb and, eventually, Rose.

Winner

Not a comparison here.  Maybe when Pujols was with the Cardinals.  He could have been a potential comparison there.  But the Man’s last card, which is a perfectly done card for the last of his career, is pretty much unbeatable. It’s also a great way to end these comparison posts of mine!

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I hope you’ve enjoyed it – this has certainly given me some appreciation for 1963 Topps, a set I knew very little about.  It’s also given me a lot of appreciation for this year’s Heritage set.  Topps did a really good job overall with the set!

Once again, after comparing approximately 170 different cards, 1963 Topps beat out Heritage by a score of 42-39.  As Marty Brennaman says, “This one belongs to 1963 Topps!”

2012 Heritage vs. Vintage #19 – More Great Players from “Then”

Starting off with my second to last post of these comparisons, let’s go with two Tigers.

Card #25 – Delmon Young / Al Kaline

Here’s one comparison that, after looking at the two cards side by side, it’s clearly going to go the way I would expect considering the fact that I picked this round of cards based on the 1963 Topps player.

Winner

I’ve got nothing against Delmon Young, or this card for that matter.  The coolest thing about his card is that he reminds me that he’s Dmitri’s younger brother – the resemblance is apparent.

But I’m going with Kaline.  He’s got 3,007 hits, 399 home runs, and this is a nice card.

2012 Heritage leads, 39-36

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Card #300 – Delmon Young / Willie Mays

After Kaline won an easy one above, this one is a walk-away winner as well.

Winner

Again, it’s nothing against the Heritage card.  Well, at least not too much.  I kind of like the picture of Beltran – it’s a close up of him running in from the outfield after the third out.  But, it’s also a Cardinals card compared with a Giants card – which made me think “huh – Beltran is with the Cardinals, now – I get that – but why compare him to Giants”?

Then I remembered, oh yeah!  He was traded briefly to the Giants for their playoff run that didn’t run to the playoffs.  So they end up with a Cardinals card on a Giants card number – that’s another knock against Heritage.

Regardless, it would be hard to beat this Mays card.  I’m a fan of Mr. Mays, and I particularly like this card.  It’s just a photo that stands out in a way, and it’s Willie freaking Mays!  I’d love to pull the certified autograph card of him!

2012 Heritage leads, 39-37

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Card #115 – Jacoby Ellsbury / Carl Yastrzemski

Starting the last post off, I’ll go with a couple of Red Sox stars.  This is a good comparison.  In 1963, Yaz was a young budding star, only a few years removed from his first season.  As is Ellsbury.

At first glance, I don’t love either of these cards.  There’s nothing special with either photo.  I particularly don’t like the chain link fence in the background for some of the Red Sox Heritage cards.

Winner

On second glance, I do appreciate the Yaz card a bit more.  It’s a young photo of the guy I think of as having the Yaz from the 1982 or 1983 Topps cards.  And there’s some Boston players (or coaches?) in the background, so it’s fun to wonder what they’ve got going on.  Giving the win to Yaz and ’63 Topps here.

2012 Heritage leads, 39-38

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Card #360 – Chad Billingsley / Don Drysdale

I’m not going to beat around the bush here.  The Dodgers have one great pitcher, and Chad Billingsley used to be a pretty good pitcher for them, but it’s been about 3 years since he was much better than an average 3rd starter.

Winner

Back at the time of 1963 Topps, the Dodgers had two great pitchers.  Don Drysdale was coming off a Cy Young award.  Because of this, I wish they’d matched Kershaw up with Drysdale instead of Koufax.  Either way, though, Drysdale is a better pitcher with a better card here.

Tied, 39-39

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This ties it up for 1963 Topps, and that set seems to have all the momentum – a clean 4-0 sweep for today’s posts.

2012 Heritage vs. Vintage #18 – Great Players from “Then”

I did the “Now” players yesterday, so I’m down to my last couple posts.  I’ve got 10 cards of notable players from 1963 Topps.  I’ll do 3 of them today, 4 of them tomorrow and finish up with 3 the last day.  I’m going to do Stan Musial as the last card for reasons I’ll explain then.  Right now, 2012 has a 3 point lead, but considering these are cards based on how good the 1963 player was, making up that gap is very possible!

Card #320 – Zack Greinke / Warren Spahn

My first comparison today is two pretty good pitchers.  Greinke is a former Cy Young winner, while Spahn won 1 award himself.  Spahn would have had a bunch more, though – the award wasn’t around for his entire career, and it was only awarded to 1 pitcher in all of baseball, so he’d have won quite a few more.

Winner

I actually really like both of these cards.  The Spahn picture is a pretty good shot of him getting a ball ready.  But Greinke’s stare down is actually pretty intense for a guy who I’d never have given credit for seeming too intense.  Plus, I give Heritage credit for putting a Brewer with a Brave here for the Milwaukee connection.  So I’m going with a tie here.

2012 Heritage leads, 37.5-34.5

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Card #380 – Carlos Pena / Ernie Banks

Carlos Pena has had a weird kind of career.  I didn’t know until I saw Moneyball that he was on the A’s team in question.  I don’t remember him being in the book, but that’s probably because I read the book a long time ago.  He’s got a lifetime batting average of .239, which is not good, but a lifetime OBP of .352, which is very good.  That’s a huge differential between those two statistics.

His baseball-reference page is interesting.  He came up with the Rangers and played briefly for them in 2001, then was with the “Moneyball” A’s before being traded to the Tigers as depicted in the movies.  After 3 full seasons with the Tigers, he signed with the Yankees in 2006 but played in the minors until August.  That’s funny to me, because most of that time he was playing in Columbus (where I lived at the time) and I didn’t even realize it.  He got released and picked up by Boston at the end of 2006, and did play in 18 games for the Sox that year.  Then he signed with the Devil Rays, where he was one of the best players in baseball in 2007.  Then Tampa Bay changed its name to the Rays, so on BBR, his team goes from “TBD” to “TBR”.  He was still really good in 2008, then hit for a lot of power in 2009 and 2010, but his average dropped to a crazy bad level – .227 and .196.  He signed with the Cubs for one year last year, but then went back to the Rays.

But Topps still has him with the Cubs, which I’m actually OK with.  He’s a good matchup with Banks, who was listed as a first baseman on his 1963 Topps card.  I checked this on BBR as well – and 1962 was the season he switched over to first.  This was done apparently to move a guy named Andre Rodgers to short (and probably to keep Banks in the lineup).

Winner

Topps has a Banks pose in the inset photo that sure looks like he’s playing shortstop, which isn’t good since he’s listed at first.  I do like the batting pose Mr. Cub is in for this card, however, I really like the Pena card.  It’s a good photo – it gets both logos from his uniform on there and I like the eye black.  Also, I’ve dinged Heritage previously for photo-shopping to the player’s new uniform, but keeping the card match-up with the old team.  So, here I’ve got to give credit for keeping the old team and having the match-up make sense.  Plus, This whole thing made me look up a lot of stuff about Carlos Pena, so I’m giving Heritage the upset win here.

2012 Heritage leads, 38.5-34.5

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Card #390 – Jason Heyward / Hank Aaron

Here’s another card where I expected an easy winner but am having difficulty just outright saying the Aaron card is better.  Hank Aaron has a bunch of money cards – but this is not one of them. It’s just a weird-looking picture, and the inset photo is looks strange as well.  The Heyward shot isn’t anything to write home about either, but I do like the inset picture better than Aaron’s.

Winner

If it wasn’t Hank Aaron, I’d give the winner as to having the better card to Heyward.  Plus, I think Heyward or Ryan Braun would be the right comparison card for Topps here, so I give Heritage some credit for that as well.  Since it is Hank Aaron, and since I’m not really convinced Heyward is going to ever be the superstar some folks predicted, I’m going with a tie here.

2012 Heritage leads, 39-35

This gives Heritage an actual increase in the lead going into tomorrow, which is a bit surprising given the selection for these cards.

2012 Heritage vs. Vintage #17 – Great Players from “Now”

This will be my second to last post on the Heritage comparison – for this post, I picked any really good current players that caught my eye whom I hadn’t featured yet.  Tomorrow I’ll do the opposite – players from 1963.  Going into this “round”, Heritage was leading by a slim 32.5-31.5 margin.

Card #491 – Ichiro / Harry Craft

Last year, Ichiro had his first season with less than 200 hits last year.   Ten years to start his career – he always had 200 hits.  His 187 last year was still a pretty good total, and it will be interesting to see how he bounces back.  He’ll likely have 40 or so fewer at bats this year as he’s been moved to the 3-hole, so we’ll see if he can get back to that plateau.

Over the next 3-4 years, assuming he plays that long and stays fairly healthy, Ichiro will cross some interesting barriers.  He also has just over 3,700 hits when you combine his Japanese totals with his US totals – 2,400+ here and just under 1,300 in Japan.  So he’s only about 500 hits from having more hits than Pete Rose when you combine his Japanese and US totals.  And he’s less than 600 hits from passing 3,000 in MLB.  This would be an incredible feat considering the fact that he started playing in MLB at the age of 27.

Ichiro is card #491, which Topps matched him up with the Houston Colt 45′s manager, Harry Kraft, from the 1963 set.  This is kind of a weird comparison, though since the Mariners weren’t around in 1963, they don’t really have any neat options.

Winner

I found it particularly interesting that Topps didn’t put the logo in the bottom right corner for Kraft’s card – that’s what they did for other managers.  I’d never known about this weird happenstance.  I wish Topps had matched that up correctly – putting Houston’s current manager – or maybe Jim Tracy to satisfy Hiflew’s urge for a Colorado manager!  They could have made this as one of the SP variations, or just made the card in the same design.

Still, I think cardboard tends to go well with Ichiro – and I’m taking his card here over the Kraft card.

2012 Heritage leads, 33.5-31.5

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Card #489 – Jose Bautista / Paul Toth

The Blue Jays are another team that wasn’t around in 1963, so there isn’t really a great match-up for them.  They could have put Bautista with Harmon Killebrew – they both led the league in home runs.  That would have been better than Michael Cuddyer in a Rockies uniform compared to Killebrew!

I have no idea who Paul Toth was.  This is his rookie card according to the internet.  He pitched in less than 50 career games, going 9-12.

Winner

I’m not going to ding Heritage here for not doing a better comparison.  There’s something I really like about the Bautista card.  It’s a cool pose, and I like the coloring – it seems more retro than something that’s a brighter blue.  And, while I’m sure Mr. Toth is a nice person, Bautista is a more intriguing player.

2012 Heritage leads, 34.5-31.5

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Card #347 – Chipper Jones / Joe Torre

Now this is a good comparison!  Plus, it looks cool to have them batting from opposite sides here.  It almost seems like Torre and Chipper could be showing off their on the same field.

Winner

Man, Chipper does really look like fat Chipper here.  I don’t dislike the photo, but I like the Torre photo much better.  I’m a sucker for the old Milwaukee hats and uniforms.  The Torre inset photo is awesome, too – I’m also a sucker for the old school catcher’s mitt.  And, finally, I tend to ding 2012 Heritage when the comparison doesn’t make sense.  Chipper should be with Eddie Mathews and Torre should be with Brian McCann.  Duh.

2012 Heritage leads, 34.5-32.5

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Card #161 – Ryan Howard / Frank Torre

I admit that calling Ryan Howard a star right now is starting to become a bit of a question mark.  He’s still got a powerful bat, but that power has dipped the past two years and he’s still striking out at a very high rate.  Plus the injury he had at the end of the Phillies’ playoff loss last year only adds to my thought that he’s already on a downturn in his career.  I hope he bounces back – I’ve got nothing against the guy – but it just seems like things don’t look good.

That said, he’s still been a good player the past two years, just not as good as he was in the 4 seasons from 2006 to 2009 when he won an MVP, finished 2nd, 3rd and 5th in the other years, and smashed 198 homers and led the majors in RBI 3 times.  Because of that stretch alone, he’s an all-time Phillie already!

I promise – I didn’t realize until I pulled up who Howard’s 1963 counterpart was that it was Frank Torre.  So it is completely inadvertent, but kind of cool that I did the two Torre brothers in back to back posts!  Frank was definitely the lesser ballplayer of the two, and he was near the end of his career by this point.

Winner

The cool coincidence aside, Howard is the far better ballplayer historically, and I like the photo he’s got here.  The background looks like the sun is rising, so maybe Ryan is getting to work early to rehab that achilles!  Point goes to Heritage here.

2012 Heritage leads, 35.5-32.5

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Card #296 – Jim Thome / Walt Alston

Jim Thomes is who the Phillies signed to help bridge that gap for Howard being out.  Which is interesting, because Thome getting hurt in 2005 was what gave Howard the chance to play every day and made Thome expendable during his first stint in Philly.

Topps matched Thome up with an Indian – a young catching prospect named Doc Edwards who never really panned out.

Winner

Now this is a photoshop job, which rarely bugs me, but the line on the right of Thome’s batting helmet does bug me.  It looks like they just didn’t get all of the Twins or Indians coloring out.  Maybe it’s just a shadow and completely reasonable, but that’s a knock against Heritage.  Also, a negative for Heritage is what they’ve done for almost all of these guys who changed teams – matching them up with the team they played on last year as opposed to the team depicted on their card.  I’d rather show Thome as an Indian if that was the case.

Positives for Thome, though, outweigh the two negatives above.  I like the photo because it gives a good shot of him waiting on a pitch – Thome has a very recognizable pre-pitch routine.  And I really like the inset photo.  Plus, Jim Thome has out-homered Doc Edwards by exactly 589 (and counting).  I’ve got to go with him here.

I can’t pick on this one, so I won’t make myself.  Mattingly is cool, but so is the old school Los Angeles uniform Alston has.  Going with a push on this one.

2012 Heritage leads, 36.5-32.5

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Card #285 – Adrian Gonzalez / Dick Stuart

Topps got it right matching Stuart up with Adrian Gonzalez.  Stuart was a big cog on the Pirates 1960 championship team, and he had his best season for them (35 HR, 117 RBI) in 1961.  But then he had an abysmal 1962 season and was traded to Boston.  Like Gonzalez, he had a great season in his first year at Fenway.  In fact, for Stuart, it was the best season of his career – he hit 42 dingers and led the junior circuit with 118 RBI and 319 total bases!

Winner

The one thing going against Stuart in this comparison is that he’s clearly in his Bucs uniform, not his Red Sox gear.  Other than that, it’s a better picture – he’s sporting a bit of an Elvis look while Gonzo just looks like he’s confused about the chain link fence behind him.  I’m giving 1963 a point here.

2012 Heritage leads, 36.5-33.5

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Card #348 – Miguel Cabrera / Vic Wertz

Topps kind of got this one wrong – Cabrera should really be matched up with Norm Cash, who was the 1962 starting first baseman for the Tigers.  Wertz was at the end of his career here.  Cash was card #445, and they matched Gabby Sanchez up with him.  You’ve got to put the Marlins with someone – but switching the two would make more sense in my humble opinion.

I don’t know a lot about Vic Wertz.  The main thing I know (and I bet there are many folks like this) is that he hit a deep drive in Polo Grounds during the 1954 World Series.  After that smash,  Willie Mays made what’s probably the most famous catch in the history of baseball.  I looked up his stats, and Wertz started in Detroit in 1947 and then came back to end his career around this time.

Winner

I like Cabrera.  I know he’s got an alcohol problem that has probably frustrated Tiger fans, but the dude is a legit triple crown threat.  I also like the Wertz card, though – and it’s cool that this made me look up his stats.  I’m giving a tie on this one.

2012 Heritage leads, 37-34

2012 Heritage vs. Vintage #16 – the biggest Yankee stars

Earlier I did a few Yankees Heritage cards – but I saved the biggest Yankee stars (love ‘em or hate ‘em) for one of my last posts for these comparisons.  It’s currently 31-28 in favor of Heritage – which has kind of surprised me.

Card #264 – Robinson Cano / Phil Linz

Let’s start with the guy who is really the best player of the Yankees today.  Sorry to Tex, Grandy Man, and Jeter – but Cano looks like a bona fide super star and potential future Hall of Famer.

So who would they have put Cano next to?  Cano is a) the current Yankee second baseman, and the reigning Home Run Derby champion.  Well, of course – you’d want to put him on the card number with the Yankee second baseman from that time frame, right?  The 1960 World Series MVP (only guy to win it for a losing team)?  The 1962 MVP runner-up?  Well, you’d think they’d go with Bobby Richardson…

You’d be wrong.  Instead they went with the number from a guy who was a rookie utility infielder in 1962.

Winner

I’m going to hold off on this determination until the next card.

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Card #420 – Eduardo Nunez / Bobby Richardson

OK.  Utility infielder, rookie in the year before the set.  Hmmm – Eduardo Nunez fits that bill.  So, you’d think he would go well with the card of Phil Linz, right?

Well you’d again be wrong.  So there’s where Mr. Richardson went to!

Winner

I’m going with Mr. Richardson as the winner here – it’s the one card where I really like the photo on the card.  And he easily beats out Mr. Nunez or Mr. Cano.  I’m not sure why I’m referring to them as “Mister”.  The new guys are actually younger than me – and I was told around the age of 17 to stop calling people “Mister so and so” anyways.

I’ll put the others as a wash, Cano would obviously be way ahead of Linz as a player, but I don’t particularly like his photo and I also don’t like the fact that Topps didn’t match the card #’s up in a way that makes more sense here.  So the total for the last two cards gives 1963 Topps 1.5 points and Heritage just a half-point.  This closes the gap a bit.

2012 Heritage leads, 31.5-29.5

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Card #446 – CC Sabathia / Whitey Ford

CC looks down right creepy in this picture.

Ford looks much more friendly here.

Winner

Yankee Stadium in the background certainly excites me, and I like the inset photo for the “Chairman of the Board” better.

2012 Heritage leads, 31.5-30.5

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Card #200 – Curtis Granderson / Mickey Mantle

This is a big one – it’s a “hundred” numbered card.  Last year Topps put Jeter on there, and I think that made sense, too.  But this year they matched up by position.  Given the monster year Granderson had last year, it’s a good pick to put him and Mantle there.  Grandy Man was an MVP candidate, and Mantle won the ’62 AL MVP award.

Winner

Granderson didn’t stand much of a chance here.  It’s two pictures of Mickey Mantle with Yankee Stadium prominently shown in the background!

Tied, 31.5-31.5

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Card #361 – Alex Rodriguez / Clete Boyer

The Yankee 3rd Baseman.  Topps went straight position with this one as well.  A-Rod currently sits 1 homer behind Ken Griffey Jr. on the all-time list.

Another great photo with a cool background.

Winner

I’m going no blood on this one.  I really like both of these photos.  I know a lot of people hate A-Rod, but I’m not one of them.  I think both of these cards are great.

Tied, 32-32

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Card #20 – Derek Jeter /

Another big one – the Yankee captain!  I actually got this card in my first retail fix of Heritage – it kept me Heritage-ated while I waited on the hobby boxes – right next to Robinson Cano.  He’s matched up with the Yankee short stop from the early 60′s:

Winner

This isn’t Jeter’s best card, and I do like Kubek’s inset photo in the circle.  But Jeter’s the hobby icon of our generation, and it would take someone like Mantle to beat him out.

2012 Heritage leads, 32.5-31.5

2012 Heritage vs. Vintage #15 – Award Winners

In the last post, 1963 Topps tied things up, coming from 4 points down.  Right now, things are tied, 27.5 to 27.5.  This post, I’ll do the 2012 Award Winners (excluding Rookies of the Year, who I did during the All-Star Rookie post).

Card #210 – Clayton Kershaw / Sandy Koufax

Two Cy Young winners from the Dodgers – though Don Drysdale actually was the reigning Cy Young winner when Topps printed 1963.  Still, Topps got it right here – putting one of today’s best pitchers with the best pitcher of the early 60′s.  I’d have put Kershaw with Drysdale, but either Drysdale or Kershaw would have been appropriate.

Winner

I like the Koufax pose better than the Kershaw, but I like the Kershaw inset picture better.  I also like the background for the Kershaw card a lot – it’s very colorful and makes for a nice looking card.  And I give Topps the credit for getting this comparison correct.  I’m going to go with a tie – these are two nice cards!

Tied, 28-28

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Card #44 – Justin Verlander / Terry Fox

Here is the other Cy Young winner last year, who also happens to be the AL MVP winner – Justin Verlander.   Some people think pitchers shouldn’t win the MVP, but I disagree.  Last year was the perfect scenario where I think it’s acceptable – a dominant season by a pitcher and no truly exceptional season by a position player.  The 1962 MVP was Mickey Mantle – and Topps correctly matches him up with a Yankee (see a later post for that one).

Topps put Verlander on card #44, which is Terry Fox in the base set.  Fox was the team’s “closer” in 1962, notching 16 saves – which was a decent amount at that time.

Winner

There were plenty of starters that would have been better choices than Fox (Jim Bunning, Don Mossi, Hank Aguire).  But I’m not going against Verlander.  I really like this card, and I like the palm trees in the background.  I’ve read some folks don’t like that – but to me, it’s kind of different, and in a good way.

2012 Heritage leads, 29-28

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Card #276 – Ryan Braun / Barry Shetrone

Here is the lying, cheating, fraud MVP winner from the National League.

The 1963 Topps card was Barry Shetrone – of the Washington Senators (who would eventually go on to become the Texas Rangers).  I’m not really going to ding Heritage too much for this – the Brewers weren’t around in 1963, and they didn’t even have a predecessor franchise yet.  I think they could have put Braun with Hank Aaron for the Milwaukee connection, but they went with a Braves outfielder with Aaron.

One interesting thing about this card -  I noticed it’s not the same picture as the Braun card they created on the sell sheet to promote Heritage before it had been released.  The inset photo is actually the same picture that sell sheet “card” had for the large picture.

Winner

I really hate giving Braun a win, but I have no idea who Barry Shetrone is and that’s an awful card.  They went with the hatless photo because he had just been sent across town from Baltimore to Washington.

2012 Heritage leads, 30-28

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Card #177 – Evan Longoria / Bubba Phillips

I threw Evan Longoria in here, not because he’s an award winner from 2011, but because he’s the guy featured as the spokesman for Topps for this product.  He’s on the side of the box, quoted as saying “2012 Heritage is the finest series ever” – just like Stan Musial was for the 1963 set.

Unfortunately, Topps didn’t put Longoria on the equivalent of Musial.  They picked Bubba Phillips, who was a decent third baseman at the end of his career in 1963.

Winner

I don’t love either of these photos, though the Phillips card does kind of have the “so bad it’s good” possibilities here.  He’s squinting in a really weird way.  And Longoria looks like a Hobbit on his card.  I like the Longoria inset photo a little bit better.  I really wish they had gone with Musial as the comparison for Longoria – that’s some out of the box thinking I could have appreciated.  But Longoria is the better player, for sure, and the Rays run to the playoffs was pretty interesting last year.  I’m going to go with Longoria.

2012 Heritage leads, 31-28