clubhouse presence

the theme of many of my posts over the last few months has been "focus". there are certain sets or inserts that i am paying closer attention to, given the fact that there are too many to acquire and a scattershot approach doesn't really resonate with me at the moment.

one of the inserts that i have chosen to focus on more is the "clubhouse collection" relics found in topps heritage releases. in recent years, steve garvey has been on the checklist, which got me thinking about other dodgers throughout the years. i already had some of these cards in my collection, but have spent some time over the last year or so to purposefully add a few more.

this is (obviously) an auto/relic clubhouse collection card featuring garvey

that comes from 2025 topps heritage high number. it is hand numbered (as clubhouse collection cards are) on the back

that is 1/25, as topps puts a line through the 7. i don't know anyone who writes the number 1 that way, but whatever. also, note the cartoon on the back:

looks like an early version of tcdb at work there.

2001 was the first year of heritage, and there were only a few relic cards included. the dodgers were represented, with shawn green being the subject

here's the back:

nice to see wes parker's name there! topps abandoned the writeups sometime in the 2010's as we will see in a bit. they also went away from the hologram stickers pretty quickly.

jumping to 2004, here's another shawn green relic

with the back:

with another cartoon related to baseball card collecting

the relics were pretty small in 2007, and while the green above was identified as "uniform", this duke snider

is more specifically "pants". here's the back

with a generic cartoon.

from that same year, we were treated to a rafael furcal bat card

that has the same generic cartoon on the back

he had a really good year for the dodgers in 2006, setting or matching career highs in several categories, but i guess topps felt that his previous history was more important.

here's a card from 2012 heritage - it's should-have-been 2011 mvp matt kemp

at this point, things are just referred to as "memorabilia". here's the back:

he really did have a monster year in 2011. i don't quite get the cartoon. 

i picked up another kemp card, this one from 2015.

and now we see the backs

having a very minimalist approach.

fast forward to 2023 topps heritage high numbers for this miguel vargas card

i do like that topps used the 1974 traded design for those cards. of all the ones in this post, this is the first one that i could easily identify the year that it belongs to.

same goes for this 2024 topps heritage high number dual relic of garvey and freddie freeman

it's numbered to 75 on the back

and, applying what we've learned, it's number 14/75. i don't know what the book of "relics" is that the cartoon is showing. is that someone's card binder that contains only relics? does anyone store their collection that way? i suppose there are some that do - my relics are contained within my year-by-year team collection or various player or mini-collections.

here's another dual relic card of the dodger first basemen of then and now.

it's from 2025 topps heritage high number and is numbered there on the front. the back is pretty generic

with no cartoon whatsoever!

this year, i've managed to pick up will smith's clubhouse collection card

with an even more boring back

while i could see the 1976 design elements on the 2025 heritage cards, these don't say 1977 to me other than the full white borders. the text is giving 1960's or early 70's vibes.

garvey has another dual relic in this release, and this time he shares space with smith and not freeman. here's the one i've been able to secure

now numbered to 77 to match the year. the back is as you would expect

i probably should have scanned or reposted other examples i have from other years of heritage, but i think this is enough. i'll continue to focus on these cards (i'd love to pick up one of the triple relic dodger cards out there) and am really looking forward to next year. i hope the design of the clubhouse collection cards then is more obviously showcasing the 1978 set design. stay tuned!

say hey

for some reason, a couple of months ago, i suddenly decided to pick up another certified willie mays autograph. i have one in my hall of famer collection, but wound up adding this one

that's a 2001 topps team topps legends autograph card that uses his classic 1952 topps card to great effect. here's the back:

fast forward a couple of days ago when i read the announcement that mays would not travel to his home state of alabama for the game at rickwood field, home of the birmingham black barons that he once took the field for. i figured things must be serious for mays if he was missing that trip. the next day, we learned that he had passed away.

is he the greatest all-around ballplayer of all-time? he just may be.

over the last year, i added a couple of his cards to my name/number on the back collection, including this 1993 upper deck baseball heroes insert

and this 2004 topps heritage flashback insert

i will always associate mays with my dad, who is, almost to the day, five years younger than the say hey kid. he was and is a dodger fan, and would talk about seeing koufax and drysdale at dodger stadium in the early to mid-1960's, but he also told us that he would often make sure the dodgers were playing the giants when he headed to chavez ravine so that he could see willie mays. and, he would, on occasion, drive north to candlestick to see mays play there, too. 

at some point in my early fandom, i became enamored of "the catch" and to this day i will add any card showing that play to my collection. i once compared a catch i made at little league practice to mays' catch, and me and my friends all messed around with his basket catch, too. i am thankful, by the way, for derrel thomas, who helped bring it to our attention in the early 1980's.

i never saw mays play in person, and if i had i wouldn't remember it anyway - i was only two when he played in his final game. however, i have read enough and seen enough during my lifetime to know that he was a blessing to the sport. 

hey.

where it is with heritage

i have had this 2003 topps heritage kazuhisa ishii short print black background variation card

in a draft post for over a year. i picked it up in early 2022 and figured i would share it at some point. with 2023 heritage out on the streets, now seems to be a good time. in fact, i've decided to take a deep dive in to the status of my topps heritage collection at the same time. here we go!

i often wonder if whomever decided to kick off the heritage brand regrets not starting with 1951 topps back in 2001. there would have been actually symmetry to the 50th anniversary buybacks had that been the case. at any rate, 2001 used 1952 topps and away we went. i've had the dodger team set completed for over 20 years, but just recently decided to add this kevin brown card

it's one of the pre-production sample cards

complete with missing stats. there were three of these cards, with the other players featured being andres galarraga and roger clemens. 2001 was a long time ago.

i recently completed my 2001 heritage non-high number short print set. some of the last cards i picked up inlcuded a barry bonds low numbered short print

and the last card i needed to complete the set from 1-310 was eddie perez' card

also a low number short print. these two cards weren't actually short printed, but the print run was split between red and black backs so they get treated as such by most sellers.

one of the final cards i picked up threw me for a loop - this brad fulmer card

clearly doesn't belong given it is a game action shot, but it's in the set anyway. this was before topps introduced the action image variation gimmickry.

i do have some of the high number cards, including this cal ripken jr

that slots in at number 316. i found it in a bargain box at a card show last year, thankfully. i will keep an eye out for more high numbers, but they aren't the sort of thing that show up too often at shows or in shops these days.

2002 moved on to the 1953 design, and this alex cora short print

was the final card i needed to complete my team set. two years in, and the dodgers only had one true short print card!

in 2003 with the 1954 design, topps upped the ante for dodger collectors and included three short prints plus the ishii variation up top. to date, i have two of the three short prints in my collection. those would be shawn green

whose card back mentions his four homer game in milwaukee that i attended

and brian jordan

i am missing the adrian beltre card and hope to pick it up someday soon.

2004 went horizontal with the 1955 design, and topps went further with the short prints. there are five dodger short prints in all, and they aren't all at the high number end of the set. shawn green's card

is a short print at number 210 in the set. the other dodger short prints are ishii (not pictured), brian jordan,

adrian beltre,

and edwin jackson

because you gotta short print those rookies.

like many collectors, i was really looking forward to 2005 and the 1956 design, and, like many collectors, i was underwhelmed. it was about this time that i recognized that heritage was never going to live up to the hype or the original cards, but i still collected. with five short prints again, i am still shy of completing my dodger team set. i have the hee seop choi

jose valentin

and hideo nomo

short prints, but not the ishii or cesar izturis ones.

in 2006, topps really stumbled in my opinion with the 1957 design. i remember buying a couple of packs and being so turned off by the washed out coloring. it took me a long time to get back to the dodger cards from this set, but i do now have the full team, including short prints of yhency brazoban

eric gagne

and brad penny

topps had still not initiated the action image variation, so the yhency and gagne cards are just regular ol' short prints.

the 1958 design wouldn't accommodate action images, but some of those sorts of shenanigans began in 2007 when topps pulled some things like a text color variation on this rafael furcal short print.

furcal's regular card, with "los angeles dodgers" in white text is a short print as well.  so is eric stults' card

and brad penny's all-star card

derek lowe has a short print, too, which i have had for a while now. with the addition of the furcal variation, my team set was completed last summer.

my 2008 dodger team set is complete as well (including the inaugural high numbers release), with the team card short print

being the last card i needed. the only other short print cards wer another brad penny all-star card and mark loretta's high numbers card, both of which i may well have pulled from packs back in 2008 as i've had them for a long time.

(i am going to gloss over a few heritage sets that i haven't had to pick up any cards from here, so no images to share).

i took a shot at completing the full 2009 heritage set back when it came out, and so my dodger team set (with one short print in the initial set and one more in high numbers) was complete early on. i abandoned that full set quest but still hold the 2009 issue as one of my favorites.

2010 heritage arrived with only one dodger short print - a matt kemp dice game back - that i don't really consider to be part of the team set. i still need that card, however.

2011 heritage really chapped my hide. there are three dodger short prints in the traditional sense (high numbers) including a kenley jansen rookie parade card, and i have all of those. however, i only have two of the ten "jackie robinson story" short print "b" card variations. the original 1962 set did not include a jackie robinson story subset so i don't know why topps did this. i really don't seek out the other eight cards i need but maybe someday i'll add a saved search for them.

2012 heritage was one that i was looking forward to, as the 1963 design is a semi-favorite of mine. this set brought three dodger short prints (dee gordon, jerry hairston, and aaron miles) that were relatively easy to track down, plus two tim federowicz rookie cards for some reason. there were also big gimmicks like this matt kemp image swap variaiton

which i picked up a few months ago. this team set is complete, short prints and this variation - not the target border parallels though (still need a clayton kershaw target parallel). i also am missing all of the heritage high number dodgers as topps brought the set back as an online only release. i don't plan to ever track those cards down.

i was pleasantly surprised with how much i enjoyed the 2013 heritage set. 1964 topps was never a favorite of mine, but i liked the heritage version it turned out. four of the dodgers were short printed, and this hanley ramirez card

was the last of those short prints i needed to complete the "non-variation" team set. i am missing the clayton kershaw and matt kemp color swap variations, as well as the matt kemp action image variation.

prior to the release of 2014 topps heritage, i was certain i was going to attempt to complete the set. shortly after it was released, however, i decided against it. still, i sought out the dodgers and nearly completed the team set. unfortunately, i am missing the hanley ramirez short print, along with the yasiel puig short print. i did track down adrian gonzalez' short print

last fall. i also added the matt kemp action image variation

to go along with that of hyun-jin ryu, although i am missing the same variations of clayton kershaw, ramirez, and puig. puig also has some sort of logo variation that i am missing. and, just like 2012, i have no plans to track down the high numbers online only set which included four dodgers.

there were no dodger variations in 2015 heritage, but there were a few short prints. the last two i needed to complete my team set were zack greinke's

and adrian gonzalez'. 

shown next to the gonzalez is yasiel puig's action item variation from 2016 heritage. that team set is complete as well (including a traditionally released high numbers set), with the only variation missing is clayton kershaw's color swap nonsense.

from 2017 through 2022 my team sets are complete with base, high numbers, and short prints. i only have a few variations from these years, but that's ok. i still consider the team sets complete. oddly enough, i was missing a 2019 topps heritage high number drew jackson card

until i entered my collection in tcdb last year and discovered the oversight. it was quickly corrected.

now 2023 heritage is out and i joined a group break for the dodgers so i expect to eventually have a complete set. i did pick up some cards at target last weekend and found a few dodgers, including julio urias

who is given the same dumb fake background we have seen for the last few years. it's really frustrating and diminishes the fun of seeing these designs that i knew from trading with kids in my neighborhood back in the late 1970's.

i was happy to see the all-star cards, and even happier to find clayton kershaw's

among the packs i opened. the back tells the story of the 2022 all-star game at dodger stadium

which is not unique to this card. i think all of the all-star cards have this back. the 1974 set had puzzle backs of the game's mvp bobby bonds except for the catcher all-star card which featured the game summary. no giancarlo stanton puzzle this year!

there are some other 2023 heritage cards (and thoughts) that i have, but i'll save those for another post. to summarize this one, i still have a couple of pesky short prints from the last 23 years to track down, but i'm close to having my dodger team sets completed!

bonus stuff - i have mentioned previously that my favorite thing about heritage has been the "then & now" insert sets. i've made it a point to collect all of the dodger appearances in these sets, and am looking forward (hopefully) to seeing guys like andy messersmith and davey lopes show up on these cards in coming years. anyway, i was missing a couple from 2002 that i tracked down last year. these feature carl furillo

and duke snider

who led the national league in batting average and runs scored, respectively. this is the good that heritage does - connect the present with the past, and not just with card design.