Heritage FrankenSet - Page 7

1954 design Barry Larkin with the red background is freakin' perfect. I'm also very happy that Marquis Grissom got the Center Square. The rest of the page was difficult though. The '57 page was absolutely dreadful and I'm lucky I was able to get Godzilla in the set.

Card #55 - Reggie Sanders
Reggie Sanders was a Brave for like 5 minutes and I can't for the life of me remember a damn thing he did so I'm moving on.

#56 - Hideki Matsui
Great gravy, this guy's rookie cards here hotter than Godzilla's radioactive laser breath when they came out. I think you can get 'em in dime boxes now. They're still cool though. At least as cool as this:



#57 - Brad Lidge
Ok, so Lidge gave up a few really, really high profile home runs. Ok so he flamed out like so many fireballing closers have. He'll have 2008 forever. There's a bunch of players who'd stomp on kittens while wearing cleats for a moment like that.

#58 - Conor Jackson
Another Diamondback. Somehow the FrankenSet became infested with snakes. I like snakes slightly more than Indiana Jones so this is distressing to me. I remember that Conor was a decent player but it looks like he retired after a short stint in Boston. In 2007 or 2008 I pulled a Conor Jackson relic out of Allen & Ginter. It was goofed up though, the mini card was wedged in between the bottom frame so I could actually slide the thing out if I nudged it a bit. I contemplated being evil and slipping out the relic and putting in one of my extra original A&G cards and making mad bank on eBay. My conscience got the better of me though and I didn't do it. I shall instead remain broke and keep both my integrity and a busted up relic.

#59 - Marquis Grissom
The Braves should have never traded Marquis away to the Indians. Never. Never ever. The second he left, there was a constant revolving door of malcontent outfielders wandering on and off our roster. Kenny Lofton, Reggie Sanders, BJ Surhoff, Gary Sheffield, JD Drew. Ok so some of those guys had great seasons for us, but they weren't Marquis Grissom. Yeah, fine, if we don't trade Justice and Grissom, we supposedly don't have the cash to keep Tom Glavine. We won soooo many championships with Tommy didn't we? Before he defected to the Mets that is and won all those rings in New York. Marquis caught the last out of the '96 World Series. Marquis shoulda been a Brave for life. As I'm lying on my deathbed still waiting for a second Braves championship that will never come I'll know it was The Curse of Marquis that got us all those years.

#60 - Larry Bowa
I would have remembered Larry as a scrappy infielder had he not had one really good year managing the Phillies. Now I remember him for being a flameout manager who is now a talking head. I miss the '80s.

#61 - Matt Clement
So I looked up Matt Clement on Baseball Reference to see where he was pitching now and he hasn't played an inning since 2006.

Jesus Christ how fucking old am I???

#62 - Barry Larkin
Hall of Famer in the hizzouse! Reds legend with the red background. I will always remember his 1995 MVP season where his Reds got absolutely schooled by the Braves in the playoffs on their way to a title.

#63 - Ryan Freel
Ending the page on a sad note. RIP Ryan.

I'll try to post the next page before the All-Star break but no promises

Heritage Frankenset - Page 6

Confession - You have no idea how close I came to putting ALL the Chippers in the Frankenset. The one I wanted to put in most was the '57 design, but it turns out I didn't actually have it. So the '52 had to do. The bottom row of this one filled in almost instantly, leaving me to struggle with filling out the rest of the page.

Card #46 - Joel Zumaya
I've never played Guitar Hero. Too scared. That'll mess up your arm something fierce. Oh wait, no, throwing balls-out on every single pitch ever will mess up your arm. It sure did work in 2006 though.

#47 - Adrian Beltre
This guy has been playing abso-freaking-lutely forEVER and he's still only 34. I remember seeing rookie inserts for Adrian all over the dang place in the late '90s and he's still producing. I still think of Adrian as a Dodger most of the time. He had that crazy 48-homer year for the Dodgers in 2004 but did you know he came in third to Miggy and Trout in the AL MVP voting last year? I know 34 years old now is a lot different from 34 years old a decade ago but Adrian's starting to creep into some elite territory.

#48 - Zach Day
A National. Ugh, I hate Nationals. Why couldn't this card have had him as an Expo. He actually pitched decently as an Expo. I blame Bud Selig.

#49 Doug Davis
Cancer survivor who plugged away with that left arm of his for a long time. Doug pitched for AAA Omaha last year but I'm not sure if he made any clubs for 2013. I can't pick him up in my fantasy league so Doug may have retired.

#50 Juan Cruz
I attracted Juan Cruz insert cards like a magnet in the early aughts and ended up pulling three or four pretty good ones out of packs when we was a Cub. Then the Cubs traded Juan to the Braves were he had a fantastic season out of the bullpen. He then got flipped to the A's for Tim Hudson and I completely forgot about Juan Cruz. He was released by the Pirates in August last year and I can't find him on any other roster. I'll always have that handful of Cubbie Cruz inserts stashed away in a box of Braves cards though.

#51 - Chad Cordero
ARGH Nationals. At least Cordero was a legit pitcher unlike Day. Made an All-Star team and everything! I don't know where the heck Topps gets some of their photographs though. Did the photographer ask Chad to do his best Larry Sellers impersonation?

#52 - Chipper Jones
While I am very sad that Chipper is not playing third for Atlanta anymore holy fraking crap is it fun seeing him tweet a bunch of crazy crap during Braves games like the rest of us slobs.

#53 - Miguel Cabrera
All right stat geeks, I'm gonna say this once and only once and if you just don't get it then I can't help you. Mike Trout had an awesome year in 2012. An incredible year. An All-Timer year. People are going to be talking about his rookie season decades from now. Here's the thing though: Miguel Cabrera also had an incredible year in 2012. AND he did something that no other player has done in my LIFETIME and I ain't no spring chicken. Something that has been considered one of the greatest individual achievements possible in the sport for over a CENTURY. AND he's been performing at a very high level in the majors for a DECADE. MVP? Miguel Cabrera has paid his dues. He EARNED that shit. Mike Trout earned the Rookie of the Year and will very likely earn his own MVP if not multiple MVPs if he stays healthy. Cabrera over Trout will probably end up being a great topic of baseball discussion for years to come, like the Joe DiMaggio/Ted Williams MVP battles. But if certain devotees of the WAR keep acting like Miggy over Trout was a travesty worse than Terry Pendleton over Barry Bonds or Marty Marion over Stan Musial then people are going to completely tune you and your formulas out. There is more to baseball than just numbers. Just throwing that out there.

#54 - Mo Vaughn
Is is just me or has every big slugger who jumped ship and signed a big deal with another team immediately gotten zapped by the baseball gods for their disloyalty? Trades like Frank Robinson or Mark McGwire don't count. I'm sure someone out there signed a massive contract for a team other than the team they are most associated with and had success but I'm drawing a blank. And then there's poor Mo Vaughn, struck down by the lack of a guardrail in his prime. And THEN the poor guy got traded to the Mets. The baseball gods may have been a little extra cruel in this case.

I'd like to take a moment to thank all of the sensible stat geeks out there for being sensible. Thank you, sensible stat geeks. You know who you are.

Heritage FrankenSet - Page 5

This page was easy as hell to put together. Crazy Eyes Zito was a lead pipe lock as it's probably by favorite card from the '03 set. The two New York Legends were also No Brainers. Fat Panda rookie card? Yes, please. Shane Victorino looks like he just can't believe that this page was so easy. Writing this post was not so easy as evident by how long I put it off.

Card #37 - David Wright
All right, confession time: I know I'm supposed to hate the Mets and all, and Wright did steal the spotlight from Chipper a few times as the premiere 3rd baseman in the NL East, but... Ok I kinda think Wright is damn fine ballplayer. I don't even mind he's a Met lifer. They deserve one good player. Still can't stand those stupid Topps of the Class cards that were in every damn pack in 2008 though.

#38 - Mark Reynolds
Remember the Cadaco All-Star Baseball game? The one with the player discs and you use a spinner to determine if it's a hit or an out? Mark Reynolds' disc looks like Pac-Man. The mouth is a home run and everything else is a strikeout.

#39 - Mariano Rivera
Best Closer Ever. Now with the Saves record. I sure hope this doesn't give the BBWAA an excuse to ignore Trevor Hoffman when he's eligible in a few years. Oh wait, The BBWAA is going to ignore EVERYBODY from now on because they can't get their goddamn act together. In less 'grudge I harp on about every couple months' news, I had the chance to have Craig Kimbrel and Mo as my closers on my fantasy team but I blew it when I went with Jim Johnson instead. I kinda regret it a little bit, but then again the Orioles are probably going to have way more save opportunities this year.

#40 Barry Zito
As far as I'm concerned Barry Zito with the Zoolander stare is the most iconic card in the '03 Heritage set. It's the first one I think of anyway. I just won a Cy Young say whaaaaaat? And you can say whatever you want about that contract but he pitched his ass off in the playoffs last year and he's got two Rings with the Giants. Tim Hudson ain't got no rings and that rat bastard Posey was out.

#41 - Reed Johnson
Stealth Brave in the middle of the page. Thank God Ryan Dempster didn't want to come here last year. Instead we got Reed and Paul Maholm and flipped the guy we were going to send to the Cubs for J-Up. Who kinda stole Reed's left field job, but hey, right handed bat off the bench is a perfectly respectable profession.

#42 - Pablo Sandoval
I don't know who made this, but I love you.

#43 - Scott Brosius
Third baseman for the New York Yankees. Scott has three rings, A-Rod has one.

Heh.

#44 - Jimmy Haynes
That guy you picked in your fantasy draft when you realized that you had 8 outfielders all capable of hitting 25 home runs but only three pitchers and two of those were closers. Also from LaGrange Georgia! Troup County representin'! And yet another player who is the same age as me and hasn't played a major league game in almost nine years. (cries)

#45 - Shane Victorino
A gigantic friggin' pain in the ass who beat the ever living snot out of my Braves every dang chance he got and almost murdered Brian McCann once that dirty so-and-so. You have no idea how happy I am that he has been exiled to the American League so I don't have to see him all year long. Thanks, Boston!

Y'all aren't yelling at me when I slack off on posting these things so if the next page comes out in May it's all your fault.

Heritage Frankenset - Page 4

I had a big choice on this page. For the 1952 design I could either choose a very nice Javy Lopez card or Wally Joyner as a Brave. It was difficult until I realized that if I chose Javy I could get Sammy and Big Mac on the same page. Flash Gordon is pretty cool too, but the rest of the page was a nightmare.

Ok, so the scan is a little cockeyed. Of the fifty-something pages I scanned front and back for this set two came out really crooked. I rescanned them both. This page I scanned the back instead of the front the second time. The scan of the back came out better than the first time I scanned it so I used that scan for this post and decided not to press my luck with any more rescanning. just think of it as the page is a little unbalanced over on that right side because bigguns Sosa and McGwire are over there.

Card #28 - Nick Markakis
First on the page is a dang solid outfielder for the Orioles who is probably the face of the franchise right now even though Adam Jones is sneaking up on him. Nick played high school and college ball in Georgia and got an Allen & Ginter insert card because of it even though the Braves are filthy with homegrown talent. GINTER. Y U NO PICK MCCANN FOR GEORGIA FLAG CARD? It's all good though, as I am easily amused and am distracted by the odd lettering on this card that makes it look like Nick's name is Ik Akks.

#29 - Flash Gordon
Yeah I know, another Yankee. I just find it amusing that right when Stephen King wrote a book about a little girl who loved Tom Gordon that Flash immediately went and hurt his arm. Then he jumped ship and became a Yankee! If he had blown out his arm a year earlier, that little girl would have been devoured by wolves. Think about that. Of course the real reason this card is in the set is


#30 - Sammy Sosa
Fun to watch, hit a lotta home runs, was probably pharmacologically adventurous, will be shut out of the Hall by the BBWAA, will still get into the Hall eventually. Just watch.

#31 - Nook Logan
Even though Nook's career was short, if you get on a baseball card and have a great name, your immortality is assured.

#32 - Marcus Giles
Brian's little brother had a short but fruitful career with the Braves. He ain't no Mark Lemke, but he held down the title "Keeper of the Scrap" well in his day. And man oh man that 2003 season. Doubles! Doubles EVERYWHERE. Once again, 2006 Heritage brings the goofy pose on a washed out photo. Here Marcus shows us his impersonation of a frog.

Ribbit.

#33 - Chin-Hui Tsao
Why wasn't this man's nickname "General". He also didn't deserve the fate of having to pitch in Coors. His Baseball-Reference page has an interesting sponsor though, at least until April 27th.

#34 - Javy Lopez
So this is most likely Brian McCann's last season in a Braves uniform. If he can't bounce back from his injuries the Braves probably won't re-sign him. If he does, he will probably be too expensive on the free agent market for the Braves to keep. What this ultimately means is 2013 is his last chance to get a ring with the Braves. Javy has a ring. As great a player as Brian is, I think that probably pushes Javy ahead of Brian in the "All-Time Braves Greatest Catcher" race. Who knows? The Braves might win a title and Brian might stick with his hometown team. Right now though I think Javy might have the edge. He also has a very, very nice looking card on a '52 Topps design of all things.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my grandmother always pronounced Javy's name as "Harvey Lopes". Miss ya.

#35 - Woody Williams
Another instance where the card simply insisted itself into the FrankenSet. When I see this portrait, this is the scene that plays out in my mind:

(bartender hands you a roofie colada courtesy 'that guy')
(Woody winks, adjusts the lapel on his chartreuse polyester suit, saunters over to the bar)
Woody: "Hey baby, wanna wrestle?"

2013 Heritage does the super close up portraits right, 2007 Heritage not so much

#36 - Mark McGwire
See: Sammy Sosa

Expect about three of these a week tops. My writing mojo is far from back from wherever it's been hiding.

Heritage Frankenset - Page 3

I'm glad I went back and did the beginning of the set when I did because the low numbers of 2001 Heritage are kind of a pain. The only two cards available on this page were Jose Vidro and Randy Velarde. Actual Variation cards make their first appearance in the set, not counting black backs.

Card #19 - Randy Velarde
I literally remember nothing about Randy Velarde from his playing days. Nothing at all. That's probably because I'm a National League guy and career American League utility infielders usually aren't on my radar. I do like the default image that pops up when you Google Velarde, it makes him look like an old timey gangster or something. Nevermind, I read the article where the image came from and now I'm sad.  The theme for this page is now Sad.

#20 - Robinson Cano
When I first started building this set I was ornery and decided to shut out Yankees whenever I could. It worked out for a while but then no brainers like this yellow letter variation card of Cano and then the Yankee floodgates inadvertently opened and they ended up with 17 base cards in the set. And that makes me Sad.

#21 - Carlos Pena
Carlos is one of those guys who bounces all over the place and hits wherever he goes. Although lately his average has been kinda Mendozaish he can still draw walks and hit the occasional dinger. Now he's with the Astros, which shouldn't really need a DH like Pena, but now they are in the American League and that makes me Sad. Why didn't they just ship the Brewers back to the AL? Oh yea, their owner is the Commish. Sad.

#22 - Bengie Molina
I got nothing against Bengie. He's a solid catcher who had a pretty decent career in the bigs. Plus Benji was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. I liked it so much that we ended up getting a dog who looked a little like Benji. That dog was a complete asshole and I think she bit me a couple times. Now I don't really like dogs at all anymore even though they seem to like me a whole lot. Go 'way dogs! You make me Sad!

No one is more surprised than me that this card managed to make me sad without thinking of Bengie's annoying overrated douchey Cardinal brother. How'd that happen?

#23 - Derek Jeter
Did someone mention overrated? Ok, so Jeets is damn good, but he's not Babe Ruth or Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle good which seems to be the conventional wisdom on some of the more annoying sports media outlets out there. Even with my Yankee bias I had to include the blue letter variation card from 2006 Heritage. It was the first variation I pulled out of that set and it was one of the best variations you could pull! And the card looks like complete drek. It's a dumb pose and you can barely read the text. And that makes me Sad.

#24 - Marco Scutaro
Not sure what about Scutaro can make me sad. He's just one of those decent hitting shortstops that is never a star but is always there in the late rounds of your fantasy draft when you've picked up 8 outfielders because upside and you realize you have no middle infielders. Oh wait, he just won a Championship with the stinkin' Giants. Posey was out. Sad.

#25 - Carlos Lee
Exhibit A on why you don't give a big ol' mashin' slugger a gigantic pile of cash when they are in their 30s. And then the Marlins gave up prospects for this guy last year, mere moments before canning everyone and beginning the Fire Sale Part 7. Baaaaahahahahaha! LOLMARLINS. Oh wait, the Marlins still exist and they have a swirling glowing statue of Cthulhu in their brand new park financed with tax dollars and Jeffrey Loria has not been tried and executed for crimes against humanity yet. Now I am Sad.

#26 - Fausto Carmona
So, Fausto. Fausto made the bigs at a young age and got roughed up a bit his rookie season but then had a MONSTER year as a sophomore but probably pitched too many innings too early because he's been up and down ever since but that doesn't really matter because he's not actually Fausto Carmona he's Roberto Hernandez and is several years older than we thought so now he's just old and sucks and the Indians dumped him but he signed on with the Rays who already had a Roberto Hernandez so that adds more confusion to the already confusing tale of Fausto Carmona. Run on sentences make me Sad.

#27 - Brian Schneider
Ugh, Nationals. The Phillies finally dropped dead and the stinkin' Gnats pop up outta nowhere and snatch the division. I don't give a darn for the Nats at all so I was hoping to sneak in more Expos cards for the Natspos combined franchise. When all was said and done, there were seven cards each for the 'Spos and the Nats and one of the Nats cards is a combo so they have eight players in the set to the Expos' seven. Saaaaaaaaaaaad.

Oh, and Brian Schneider is a catcher, I guess.

Such a depressing post. Oh well, it's Monday. Gotta expect some suckiness on Mondays. Hopefully this sideways format is a little more readable for the card backs. Assuming the one '53 design back on its side doesn't trigger everyone's OCD. If you don't like this format, that's a problem because I've already uploaded a dozen posts this way. That would really make me... well, you know.

Heritage FrankenSet - Page 2

Aww, look at Barry's big ol' smilin' head. Wait, we're all supposed to hate Barry now. Boooooo! Why did Barry get in the set? Well, because he was one of the biggest stars of the decade for one thing. For another this was one of the first pages where the page sort of created itself without my help. Let me briefly explain my process for choosing cards to include in the set.

First I'd gather all 9 pages and sort them from lowest number of cards to most. I'd quickly scan each page for cards that just flat out had to be in the set come hell or high water. If a year only had one or two possible cards I'd pick out the one to use so that year didn't end up getting left out. After the Really Wants and Gotta Haves were taken care of I'd figure out the best of the rest to fill out the page. Very often after picking two or three cards the rest just fell into place.

B.J and Tom were automatics on this page, obviously. Ethier was was the next to be chosen and Cedeno was literally the only card from the '01 set that fit. After I picked Pedroia as the '60 design rep, there was exactly one combination of cards that ensured that every design was included. Barry was one of 'em and I ain't even mad.

Card #10 - Barry Bonds
I don't care what you do, what you take, how you train, what sacrifices you make to the Dark Lord Ba'al, you don't hit over 700 home runs without being a damn good baseball player. Great, even. That being said, Hank is the King. Ruth too.

#11 - Rob Mackowiak
Remember the middle of last decade when Rob Mackowiak, Mark Grudzielanek and Doug Mientkiewicz were all giving anyone who wrote about baseball carpal tunnel syndrome? I don't miss those days. That sunuvabitch A.J. Pierzynski is still doing it.

#12 - Armando Benitez
A good closer who gave up the stupidest home run in playoff history and managed to get caught with his pants down in several other big games after that. After I hopped back on Twitter though I will forever more only be able to associate him with this guy.

#13 - B.J. Upton
Technically, the first Brave in the set. Not gonna lie, I went overboard with the Braves. I went way overboard with the Braves. Like, went on a three hour cruise and ended up stranded on a remote Pacific Island overboard. I went full Gilligan with the Braves in this set. You're not only going to see Braves everywhere but Braves in non-Braves uniforms. Also in the past decade Tampa has somehow overtaken the White Sox as my favorite AL team so I doubly like B.J. and this card.

#14 - Gary Matthews
See? Ex-Brave card right here. Gary didn't actually play a game for the Braves, but he did get picked up by them on waivers from the Padres and washed out of spring training in 2004. He even has a Braves card in the 2004 Topps set. Matthews went on to sign with the Rangers where he had three really solid years before going to Los Angeles to steal Arte Moreno's wallet.

#15 - Dustin Pedroia
Wouldn't it be really funny and ironic if Dustin Pedroia got busted for PEDs? Get it, PEDroia? Wait, no that wouldn't be funny that would be horrible. I should shut up now.

#16 - Andre Ethier
This is another one of those iconic Heritage cards to me mainly because Andre's rookie card has him in an A's uniform. Ethier? The guy who became a star for the Dodgers? Is an A on his rookie card? Because Oakland traded him for Milton Bradley? That kills me every time. A's fans probably don't like this card as much.

#17 - Tom Glavine 
This is the first actual Braves card in the set. Tommy is an appropriate choice for that honor. This is also the last Heritage card of Tom before I started associating him with Benedict Arnold. I've got over that now though. I love this card. It reminds me of the good days.

#18 - Roger Cedeno
I associate Roger with the Mets more than any other team for some reason and would have sworn he was a Met on this card even though I looked at it 10 minutes ago. I still started to type out Mets when writing this blurb even when I looked back at the card and saw a star. One notable thing about this card is that you can see how the Heritage aging filter does some weird things when exposed to batting practice jerseys. This is also the second card in as many pages to make me feel old as dirt since I am two years older than Roger who has not played a game in the bigs since 2005.

Yeah, I forgot to rotate the image again. I got it covered for next time. Check out the black ink on the 2001 and 2008 cards. Variations, baby!

Heritage FrankenSet - Introduction and Page 1

I announced my Heritage FrankenSet yesterday but didn't really explain it. Let's begin at the beginning. What is a FrankenSet? Basically it is a collection of baseball cards organized as a numbered set but made up of cards from different sets. Think of it as a set built like Frankenstein's monster out of many different parts. It can consist of related products or completely disparate ones. The subject of a Frankenset is limited only by your imagination. All Topps Finest cards? All shortstops? All cards of players wearing glasses? That stuff you found in that shoebox in the back closet? All good material for a FrankenSet. The only real rule here is that it is in a more or less numbered sequence. For example my original Allen & Ginter mini FrankenSet is a set from 1-350 and this Heritage set is numbered 1-500. Find one card from each number and you got a FrankenSet. Take that home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato... you got a real mess there! Put the cards in pages instead and stick 'em in a binder. Voila, you have your own FrankenSet.

For this exercise I put some limitations on myself. Here are my rules for this particular set.

• Only cards from Topps Heritage years 2001-2009. 
• 500 cards in the set. 
• Each binder page will have at least one card from each Heritage set. 
• For pages above card #407 where cards no longer exist for a set, a card from any set can be used to fill the empty space.
• A player's base card can only be used once in the set. (no 2008 Jerry Owens situations).
• Players can be used more than once for All Star and special Combo cards.
• There has to be at least 10 cards representing each team (Expos/Nationals count as one team).
• Only cards from my personal Heritage collection can be used. 

Unless I goofed and put a player in twice and didn't notice it I followed these rules pretty well. There are some head scratchers in here due to the realities of finding one card per set for each page. There were also a few players I felt kinda bad for leaving off but that's how the cards fell so to speak. Team distribution is kinda skewed in certain directions (Twins fans won't like this set) but part of that is due to the team distribution in the actual Heritage sets. So many Phillies and Red Sox! If I had it to do over again, I'd probably plan it out a little better - especially with the variation cards - but overall I'm pretty happy how it came out.

Here's basically how I built the set: I pulled all the pages out of all of my binders, organized them by page numbers (1-9, 10-18, etc.) then started on the last page (496-500) and worked my way backwards. The reasoning behind this is that high numbers are usually short prints in Heritage and cards on those pages were in short supply. I didn't want to use up a player in the 100's and then find out that he was the only card on a short printed page for a set. I worked my way backwards until I got through the short printed mid series for 2006 Heritage and then flipped the stack and started with page 1-9 and worked my way forward through the rest of the set until I finally finished up in the middle. There was a reason behind this too - I didn't want to get all the way through this project going back to front only to find that the only cards left for the front page were a bunch of scrubeenis. I figure if you get invested enough in this series, you won't mind the leftovers that pop up in the early '200s when I started running out of players to use. I suppose I could have put all my cards into a spreadsheet and scientifically determined the best possible player for each and every page slot, but if I did that this set never would have been made. Sorry, I just like doing things by the seat of my pants better! You may make your own perfect Heritage FrankenSet if you wish, just kindly show it off when you're done.

Ok, it's time to show off my first page.

Card #1 - Ichiro
Ichiro's first Heritage card and as far as I'm concerned the most iconic card in the Heritage brand. I knew even before I conceived of this project that Ichiro would be the #1 card of my all-time Heritage set.

#2 - Roger Clemens
No, I'm not excluding players from this set because they're cheaters or juicers or douches or all three at once. Roger Clemens belongs in the Hall of Fame and he belongs in this set. I have absolutely no qualms about choosing cards for a player specifically because it has a very unflattering photo however. And boy does Roger look like a bloated frog staring down oncoming headlights on this card!

#3 Alfonso Soriano
Right now everyone thinks of Alfonso as a vastly overpaid Cub, but in the mid '00s he was a vastly underpaid Yankee, Ranger and National. Dude was freaking amazing for a couple years back then. Ok, so his skills declined in his mid 30s. That's how it's supposed to work. Otherwise you end up with card #2.

#4 Edinson Volquez
Edinson had one fantastic year for the Reds and has been trying to get back to that level ever since. This card shows off that '08 season where he had 17 wins and an ERA in the low 3s. I'm not sure what Reds fans remember more though, his rookie season or the guy the Reds traded to get Volquez.

#5 Trevor Hoffman
I really Really hope Trevor doesn't become the new Lee Smith. Yes, yes, yes. Mariano Rivera is the best reliever in the history of ever and when he retires it's very likely that Rivera will announce that he's actually been the second coming of Jesus the whole time. Well, Jesus Saves and so did Hoffman and it was hard as heck to get Padres in this set so I'm happy to have Trevor in the center square of my first page.

#6 Paul O'Neill
The gritty '52 set design needed a gritty guy like Paul representing on the front page. It's hard to hit home runs.

#7 Joey Gathright
The heck is Gathright doing here? Here is the reality of a FrankenSet such as this: When you are really happy with 7 or 8 cards on a page, very likely that 9th card is going to be a guy like Gathright. Every card can't be a star. To be fair, Joey was a pretty decent prospect in the early aughts and might have panned out had he not gotten stuck in the black hole of Kansas City.

#8 Dmitri Young
Da Meat Hook! Everyone loves fellow card collector Dmitri. One thing I didn't realize until just now though... I am a year older than Young and he played his last major league game in 2008. Ulp.

#9 Sean Casey
It's a bit of a travesty to feature The Mayor in this set as a Pirate and not a Red. However, this card was the only one on the 2006 Heritage page that didn't look gloomy as hell. That's right, Sean Casey is so awesome that he even makes the 1957 Topps design look good.

Here's the back of the page for your enjoyment. Upon upload I realize that maybe I should rotate these things counter clockwise to the text is more easily readable on future posts. Unless someone says different that's what I'm gonna do. The plan is to show off about 4-5 pages a week until the end. Don't worry, I'll throw in some other posts too, don't want to make you all get sick of Heritage. Or if you are already sick of Heritage I don't want to get you too nostalgic for it and go out and buy back all the sets you just dumped on eBay.