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Friday, February 27, 2009

First pack of 2009 Topps Heritage

Ok, I made you guys wait long enough. Frost/Nixon kicked all kinds of ass though. I'm not saying you need to drop ten bucks on a ticket like I just did, but definitely NetFlix it or catch it at a dollar theater. ALL RIGHTY THEN! FIRST HERITAGE CARD OF 2009!!!

29 Rickie Weeks

I haven't actually written it up like Russ, but the Brewers are on my 'teams I like' list. This set is also on the like love lust list. Topps nailed the design. Brightly colored backgrounds, the lettering is exactly right, they nailed the team logo with the thick black line around them and best of all there is no weird computer 'fuzzing' of any of the portraits that I've seen, instead the gave it an aged look by slightly washing out the colors like in the 1957 style cards for the 2006 Heritage set.

98 Shaun Marcum

I actually don't know who this guy is at all. Thanks to Google I know know that his stats look promising, but the elbow has become acquainted with a Mr. Tommy John.

138 Andrew Carpenter

The guy has pitched exactly one game in the majors. One inning pitched, one hit, one strikeout, one walk. Now he has one Heritage baseball card. Topps stuck the Rookie Card logo on top of the ribbon. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Here's the back of the rookie cards. Note no season highlights line about the text. I'm pretty sure Topps uses the same cartoons from the original set, I'm going to have to take some time to look through my original '60s and check now.

TN10 Whitey Ford & CC Sabathia Then & Now

This is an excellent pairing, though I'm not sure if I like the design yet. It has a cool retro feel to it, but I think there could be less color and more picture to be honest. This will be a tough call for Thorzul, because it has an Indians logo on the front...

And Milwaukee Brewers on the back. The throwback uni further complicates matters. Maybe Topps was trying to make Yankee, Indian and Brewer fans all fight over this card.

405 Robinson Cano

I don't care if Robinson does need a nap, even Yankee haters have to admit the red black and yellow makes an awesome looking card.

32 Reliable Rookies

Pretty nice combo here, the original card #32 in the set was "Sophmore Stalwarts" Jim O'Toole and Vada Pinson.

Backs have the same cartoon down to the batter getting robbed by that second baseman.

335 Kelly Johnson

Got a Brave! Weirdly, Kelly has been the first Brave pulled out of all three '09 sets I've opened this year. The Upper Deck pack I posted with the double Chippers was actually the second pack I opened and the first had KJ. Recognize the black and white pose?

Here's the normal back. Looks like Cartoon Kelly is fending off an epic hailstorm.

309 Ryan Sweeney

Ryan went from the White Sox to the A's last year in the Swisher trade and had a decent first full year in the bigs. We'll see if he can take it up a notch this year.

Good first pack. Although I wish I could have found a box, it's good to get this in my hands finally. One more note - The gum is once again chewable. It looks like they went back to the gum from China according to the back of the wrapper. I chewed a couple of pieces and while it's still a little fruitier than the traditional Bazooka gum, the flavor lasts a little longer than the Heritage High Series Gum and does not have that strange bitter/sour aftertaste. Another good move by Topps here. I'll post the other four packs this weekend when I have time.

10 comments:

deal said...

The Cartoon on the Carpenter card is retro too. It goes back to a time when be actually gave a damn about the Indy 500.

BASEBALL DAD said...

Those are really cool! I bought packs of 1960 Topps when I was 9 years old.That brings back a lot of memories.I'm not a set builder but I may have to think about that one. Unfortunately I don't have any of my originals left.

night owl said...

Looks good!

Yay, old gum! (Well, not old, ancient gum, the older gum -- you know what I mean).

madding said...

OH MY GOD I NEED SOME OF THOSE.

Okay, sorry, calm now.

I secretly dropped off about 50 pieces of gum from random packs in my break room at work and they were gone in less than 2 days. It was an interesting social experiment. If only I could have been around to judge the reactions of people who got 2008 Heritage High Series gum and the people who got something from 2006 (I'm not cruel enough to put anything out that's older than that.)

MMayes said...

I used to watch Mr. Shaun Marcum play college ball. He was a pretty good shortstop that hit about .390 (it seemed). Of course the ball comes off the bat with a Ping!

Then, late in the game, the pitching coach would come to the mound and Mr. Shaun Marcum would hurriedly be playing catch with the first baseman before being brought in as the closer. Kind of odd now that he's a starter in the big leagues. Hope he comes back from TJ in good shape.

MarieBay said...

Any chance of a trade for that Cano card? E-mail me if you want to trade it.

cardbandits AT gmail DOT com

dayf said...

All Heritage cards once scanned, uploaded and documented are going into the proper pocket of an ultra pro page in my '09 Heritage binder. Odds are I'll have a double by the end of March though.

Jeffrey Wolfe said...

I like how Topps washed out the color on the photos. They really do look authentically retro.

Anonymous said...

That Sabathia card is not one that I will be going after. Without a Brewers logo or uniform, this card gets rejected. The name on the back is not enough to qualify. To put this in perspective, all of the CC Yankees cards that have complete stats will also have the word Brewers on the back, but I will not be collecting those either.

Mad Guru said...

You must not be reading my blog as I named the Shawn Marcum the fifth best starting pitcher to have received a college education in Missouri.

http://rainoferror.blogspot.com/2009/01/missouri-baseball.html

Well, it was in January and it wasn't a very good post so there's that, too.