2015 Heritage First Look - I am obsessed with PATCHES

Successfully avoided Target for a week after Heritage's release this year, but finally gave in earlier this week. Overall I was happy with look and feel of the cards. Here are the highlights from 3 purchases - 1 Blaster, 1 Rack, 1 Loose Pack.

please excuse the meh photo quality, these are Quick and Dirty shots under low light, Hopefully will revisit Heritage a little more in the upcoming weeks.

First Pack

2015 Heritage Glen Perkins

2015H First card is a nice one of Twins Pitcher Glen Perkins. I like the ASG patch on his cap. Late we will see this repeated on the card of Perkins Teammate Kyle Gibson/

Alicides Escobar
Brian McCann
Curtis Granderson (b-side)
Kelvin Herrera

Pack 1 was a Royals hot pack. Have been a fan of Herrera since seeing him pitch at Wilmington DE a few years back.

Kendrys Morales
Derek Holland
Mark Buehrle
Rookie Stars (John Holdkon RJ Alvarez)

There are far too many of the rookie stars representing two ball clubs. I appreciate Topps trying to carry the banner motif to both sides of the card, but it looks lame. On the other hand, I do like the Mark Buehrle card. Good shot of a deserving veteran.

Highlights from other packs
No Phils or hits in the first pack, but did find a few in the remaining pickups.

First Phillies card

Ryne Sandberg

It's a Phil, but not a player - although he was a Hall of Fame player prior to being a manager. As the Phillies Rooom pointed out, it is a little sad that Topps neglected matching the capitalization on the original 1966T cards.

Flair

Freddie Freeman
Steve Pearce
Nick Castellanos
Kyle Gibson

I really like all the special patches that are on MLB unis these days. Here we have Freddie Freeman with Hank Aaron 715 HR anniversary swag. Steve Pearce has a patch honoring the memory of Orioles minority owner and author Tom Clancy. Kyle Gibson has the ASG patch mentioned at the top of this post.

No patch for Nick Casteallanos but I wanted to post a Rookie Cup card, which reminds me - Are there any RC logos in 2015 Heritage. I didn't recall seeing any in the lot I picked up. 

SPs and New Age

Jacob DeGrom
Alex Gordon
#NAP 15 - Javier Baez
Chris Carter

Three Hi numbers and an NAP. There are 75 Hi SPs in Heritage, kind of curious if there is a disproportionate number of stars in the range. Future post possibility.

Flashbacks

#NF-5 Jimi Hendrix
#BF-6 Al Kaline

The top card notes the date the Experience was formed by Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding, and Mitch Mitchell , October 12 1966.

The Al Kaline card refers to a game a few weeks earlier on September 28th. Kaline hit a pair of Homers including a 10th inning shot which was the difference. The card does not mention that Kaline also had a stolen base and outfield assist in the game. 

Then and Now

#TN-9 Sandy Koufax and David Price

Not a fan of this card, also saving that up for a future post.

Target Only

2015 Topps Heritage #NR-4 Nolan Ryan A Legend Begins

This card is dedicated to Ryan's second no-hitter, July 15 1973. There are 15 cards in the Target Only set, this is the first where Ryan reps the Angels. 

MMMM Serial

2015 Topps Heritage Chrome #THC-441 Dee Gordon (#d 383/999)


I think the Topps Heritage Chrome inserts come 1 in 23 packs.

Relic

2015 Heritage Clubhouse Collection #CCR-MS Max Scherzer

So yeah the hit of the box and the Chrome card are both cards of players that have changed teams. bleck.

By the Numbers
1 Blaster (71 Cards)
1 rack pack (20 Cards)
1 standard pack (9 cards)

forgive me but I forgot to track pricing but my guess is $29 for the bounty ($20-Blaster,  $6-Rack, $3-single)

100 cards
2 Duplicates

3 Phillies
3 Hi Numbers
5 Inserts
1 Chrome
1 Relic

25 Teams represented (Snubs for Brewers, Rockies, Rays, White Sox, and Mariners) 

Phungo Verdict
As I mentioned above, I am happy with this years set. This may be due to low expectations. 1966 is one of the blander Topps releases. But I think Topps has done a good job of mixing in some semi-action shots and featuring more than the standard headshots of the original sets. Solid photography has caught some players in interesting moments and as I have noted, I like seeing several cards with interesting patches and uniform flair.

Sources & Links
1966 Topps/2015 Heritage Index
the Phillies Room
Cardboard Connection
baseball-ref

Phungo 5 with Night Owl Cards

The Phillies are out on the West Coast which means today we are very fortunate to have Night Owl Cards in the house to discuss the LA Dodgers.  Despite a tough weekend the Dodgers are surprisingly in the playoff mix as we begin the second half of 2012. 

1) Who or What has been the Dodgers Biggest surprise this season? 

Wow. There are so many. Elian Herrerra actually producing for the Dodgers after 9 years in the minors. Chris Capuano being the starting staff's most consistent pitcher. The Dodgers getting rid of Frank McCourt so efficiently (it only took 2 billion!) But I think the biggest surprise is the most obvious one -- that the Dodgers still lead the NL West in mid-July despite anyone who is any good being on the DL.

2) How would you rank the Designs of the last 5 Topps Sets (2008 - 2012)

1. 2009. One of the best ever.

2. 2011. I think I'll like it even more years from now.

3. 2010. I know a lot of people hate it. But I like colorful sets, and that one had color everywhere.

4. 2012. I still don't understand the design. It will always be The Tumor Set to me.

5. 2008. One of the worst ever. The photos were almost an after-thought.

 

3) Will the DH be used throughout MLB baseball in 2013?

(*Gasp*) what have you heard? I hope not. How are we going to collect cards of pitcher's batting if they never get to bat? The wonderful moment of surprise seeing a pitcher hit a home run or a double will be gone forever. I think pitchers batting can be fun.

  

4) Mattlingly or Torre?

They're both ex-Yankees, but for some reason I associate Torre more with the Yankees than Mattingly. I got the impression that Torre was with the Dodgers because it was as far away from the Yankees as he could get. Mattingly just seems like he wants a job and he wants to be good at it. So, I'll say Mattingly.

2012 06 05 Don Mattingly, Dee Gordon, Clayton Kershaw during BP

5) In which journey have you learned more baseball - 1971 or 1975 Topps.

I'd say 1975, only because I'm only 70 cards into the 1971 blog. But it'll probably end up being '71 because there are so many players in that set that I never knew. It was five years before I started following baseball.

 Score Card 

Good work by NOC as always - Glad to see someone else out there that doesn't hate 2010 Topps.   Looking forward to seeing more on the 1971 topps blog.  

Replay - 2012 Phungo 5 Postings
 

Philadelphia Phillies - The Phillies Room. 

Atlanta Braves - Cardboard Junkie 

Miami Marlins - 30-Year Old Cardboard

New York Mets - Paul's Random Baseball Stuff

Chicago Cubs - Wrigley Wax

Pittsburgh Pirates - Pirates Treasure Room

San Diego Padres - Padrographs

Kansas City Roayls - Autograph Cards

Oakland A's - The Fuji Chronicles

Seattle Mariners - Emeral City Diamond Gems 

Texas Rangers - Play at the Plate

Snapshots 2012 06 06 - Dodgers @ Phillies

The Phillies inept offense once again spoiled a brilliant performance by Cliff Lee resulting in a 2-1 loss.  Lee threw 7.2 great innings last night before hanging a curve which Elian Herrera nailed for a 2 run double.  Despite the Phils lack-of-O the game was entertaining and fairly briskly played.  I came away with the old bummer the Phils lost, but still had a great night at the ballpark. 

Snapshots 

Cliff Lee

Lee threw 92 pitches for strikes last night - tough to do in a loss.

Carlos Ruiz 

.358 BA, 8 HR, 32 RBIs and this guy is in 4th place among catchers in the All-Star Voting.  Sounds like The Phils mediocre record is defintely leading to some fan apathy.

Chad Billingsley

Gotta give some credit here.  Billingsley got off to a rocky start but settled down nicely scattering a smattering of hits through the next 6 innings without yielding a run.

Don Mattingly, Dee Gordon, Clayton Kershaw

Everybody's smiling - you would be too if you were part of the team with the best record in baseball.