Heritage 2019: Blasting Into the Past

Finally, the baseball card gods graced at least one of my local Targets with some Heritage. I told myself I wasn't going to go crazy so I grabbed a blaster and a few loose packs. Also, I didn't want to go crazy because I wasn't sure if I would like the cards as 1970, while not a bad design, isn't exactly an awesome design either. Anyway, I was excited to open this so let's see what the highlights are.

On to the cards ...

As per tradition here, the first card from the first pack, and it's ex-Red Mike Leake. He performed amicably last season, his first full campaign with Seattle going an even 10-10 over 31 starts with a 4.36 ERA in just over 185 innings. He'll be joined in Seattle this year with some other ex-Reds in Jay Bruce and Edwin Encarnacion.

Some more base cards. Not only is the photography good on these but each of these also has a uniform patch of some sort. In regards to the cards themselves, I think Topps did a good job on them. I wasn't expecting much but to say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. The fronts are nice, the backs (which you'll see shortly) are well done, and the photography, while mostly posed shots, is very clear.

Not all the cards are posed shots. At first, I thought these may have been "action variations" but they weren't. Just in-game photos of these guys in their new(er) threads.

Nice to see the return of the All-Star set actually being called the "Sporting News" all-stars. 

Obligatory Reds cards. Jose Peraza will be the starting second baseman for the next 2-3 months as Scooter Gennett recovers from a groin injury. Tyler Mahle made the team as the fifth starter while Alex Wood works out his back issues. 

These are not just any base cards ... they're the dreaded short prints. Matt Kemp is now a Red (side note: can't wait to get my first Reds cards of the offseason acquisitions). Dee Gordon is not only a short print but a variation.

Here's the back of the card. Notice anything? That's right! It's a French variation. I haven't seen too many of these shared on the blogs so these might be tough to pull. Regardless, I think it's pretty neat and a nice tribute to O-Pee-Chee cards.

Here's something I didn't expect, a Chrome parallel. They're very shiny and the stock feels a touch thicker. On this one, I like how it looks like J.D. Martinez kind of pops out of the background. These are also numbered to /999.

Moving on to inserts, I like the groovy 70s feel of these. 

These too. Not sure why Thurman Munson is called the "un-rookie". 

Sure, "Then and Now", "Flashbacks", and "New Age Performers" are standard when it comes to Heritage, but there were also some unique inserts that came as well. First, there this 1970 candy lid style card of Mike Trout. I'm not sure how to store this, especially with the tab on the bottom. Penny sleeve maybe for now? These are found only at Target.

My favorite insert of the bunch, this Clayton Kershaw Scratch-Off. Inside is a scratch off board where you could play a game of "scratch off baseball" against another person and on the back you keep score. I bet it'd be pretty fun actually.

As for the rest, the packs and blaster netted me a nice fat stack of cards that will be filed away shortly.  I'll be getting more of these, maybe some loose packs at Target or dime singles from the upcoming card show.

Variations on a Theme (aka Five Packs of 2018 Donruss)

Despite the fact that Panini doesn't have an MLB license, Donruss is one of my favorite releases of the year, mainly because every time you open a pack, there's usually something neat included (parallels, numbered cards, etc.). I had to stop by the card shop for a friend to see if they had any more bowling coupons as she was taking her son and a bunch of his friends bowling for his birthday. The coupons were all gone but I just had to make a purchase. There were two different pack prices on the box, $3.49 and $3.99. I asked the shopkeeper about it and he said "well, I'll just let you have as many as you want at $3.49". Fine by me. I grabbed five packs plus two Pokemon packs for my son to put in his Easter basket and headed home.

The first card of the first pack and it's Nolan Ryan. Pretty cool! Two other things that make this a really neat card, at least to me. First, it's a throwback 1984 design and the other is it's Nolan Ryan pitching as a Met against the Reds at Riverfront Stadium. How can I tell it's Riverfront Stadium? Check out the color of the seats in the background. Riverfront was the only stadium I knew that had blue outfield seats above the right field wall. I managed more of these 84-style cards but thought this was the best one by far.

A handful of base cards. Donruss is finally getting to the point where I can actually differentiate the respective sets. The first few issues looked pretty much identical but last year with the 1990-ish design, Panini finally got out of the basic designs and put a little more effort into it. This year, it's a completely crazy and wild design. I dig all of these cards, especially the Cozart card and it lists him with his new team and the old school uniform on Odubel Herrera.

The lone Reds card, if you could call it that, from the packs. With the background and no official logos, it looks more like Tony Perez and Davey Concepcion at an old-timers softball game.

Can't say I'm a big fan of the Diamond Kings design this year. I much preferred the old school style of Diamond Kings in previous releases.

The thing with Donruss is the variations and the parallels and, oh boy, do we have those this year. First there's the "nickname" variations. The only one of these I've ever heard of is "Iron Man" on the Cal Ripken card. I honestly think the other two are made up.

Here we have a parallel of the same and a parallel of the Kirby Puckett variation as well. We now have parallels of the variations, are you keeping track yet?

This Bryce Harper is numbered 01/25 ... you'll just have to believe me as I tried to take a picture of the serial number as proof but it was pretty much impossible. This must be one of the Mother's Day Ribbon cards.

I though this Jose Abreu was weird because it's in black and white, it turns out it's just a variation of the base card. My head is now officially spinning because of all these.

So, thoughts on this year's Donruss ... it's, well, different. I don't mind the base cards and the 1984 style cards but the crazy parallels, variations, and parallels of variations I could do without. Normally, Donruss is one of my favorite issues of the year (I really enjoyed last year's cards) but I think I might have to stray away from most of these this year, unless we're talking the 1984 style cards.