My recent COMC delivery included a certain "keystone" card in that the card was the final card to place on a binder page, allowing me to declare a collecting project "complete," in a sense.
It was not the card above, which I was fortunate to pull from a pack back in the tumultuous year of 2020, when collectors in my hometown eventually had to show up on Tuesdays at 2:30 pm to line up for a chance to purchase newly arriving sports cards, limit 2 packages per customer. I will never forget that surreal experience any more than I will ever forget this very well done, excellent homage to 1971 Topps and the immortal Thurman Munson card.
Once I had the Sanchez card, I began looking forward to collecting all the new wonderful 2020 Heritage cards that were sure to show off live Baseball Action on the classic 1971 Topps design. Just as perhaps collectors were in 1971 when they first started seeing live Baseball on their cards.
Further such enjoyment didn't take long:
The Yankees horizontal action continued in the set:
...however unbeknownst to me this marks a point where things began to diverge from history, although I wonder if 1971 Topps might have also deployed the innovation of a Night Card; I suspect not.
I figured all along that 2020 Heritage would supply some wonderful cards to my wonderful new all-Horizontal binder. What I did not know is that it would supply only one such page. I would occcasionally purchase a hanger pack of the cards somewhere, and occasionally poke around the COMC listings and add a horizontal card for that anticipated beautiful page of Baseball, In Action.
What I did not know is that there could be only one such page. Which is because that is all that can be assembled from the original 1971 Topps, also. Every time I acquired a new horizontal 2020 Heritage card I would try to kick myself in to remembering to get another one to just finish what should be a simple task of assembling 9 Baseball Cards. Finally one night a few months ago I scrolled through all of the 1971 set and all of the 2020 set and got all learnt up on the concepts here.
The Result
This is quite pleasing.
In the end I did have to compromise by using a 3 way Rookie Card, though at least the 3 players did manage to appear on Major League diamonds for over 1000 At Bats and over 100 Innings Pitched, unlike seemingly so many such efforts in Heritage any more.
One reason for needing the Mariners 2020 Rookie Stars card there is that after Topps authentically issued 2 live action horizontal cards for the Mets and the Angels, and a horizontal World Series Celebration! card all just as in the 1971 set, they only produced those 3 Yankees cards rather than the 4 produced in history. Maybe they thought 4 such cards would be given a little side-eye by fans of the other 29 teams, particularly after placing Aaron Judge on one of them.
However that may have been decided, the Baseball Card history is quite intact and I will enjoy this page of Baseball Cards for many years to come.
But what about the rest of the 2020 Heritage set, you ask? I was also quite looking forward to perhaps making a go of that one, after the wonderfulness of the 65 set was followed by so many years of plain, plain. In the end I did not pull that trigger, for many reasons. I did think things improved a fair amount in set composition overall; there are several more nods to authenticity in the product than only the dramatic horizontal re-creations. However the repetition was still a bit too high for my tastes in terms of eventually flipping through page after page of the cards in a binder. Additionally reinforcing that as always with the concept of a Heritage complete set is the high bar of co$t and time to track down all the Short Prints, a significant decision point when there are always cheaper cards to collect far more easily.
But since I like 1971 Topps so much at a root level I did want to see it in my regular vertical binder of Topps cards from throughout all eras of Baseball Cards. Here's what makes the permanent starting line-up:
Not my usual go-to for collectible facial expressions but it is good to sometimes recall that professional sports are a very serious business for the participants. I liked a bunch of things on this card, starting with the perfect bright Spring sunshine, a particular, hmm, look, I guess, to sunlight that time of year and one I am very familiar with from usually working outdoors every day. Other great elements are the classic Oriole batting helmet decal, the black & white Catcher gear perfectly just exactly complementing the white & black graphic frame on the card, and of course I always love a good blurred out Empty Seats card.
Meanwhile I just realized I didn't have to scan this card tonight as I have posted it once before, as it was a runner-up to the Happiest Baseball Card of 2020, an award Dominic nailed down two years in a row here at Base Set. That's worthy of a permanent membership in my Baseball Card Hall of Fame, fer sure.
This is pretty much exactly what you want to see, looking at a Starting Pitcher, as this card seems to be saying "I got this." Quite calming, this one.
I also particularly liked another example of 2020 Heritage nailing down the little things in the service of authenticity - Sevy's sig is carefully shifted off to the right just perfectly to not disappear in the interlocking NY logo. Someone, cared, creating this Baseball Card.
1971 Heritage doesn't include only the high drama of the horizontal action cards; live game imagery was delivered on plenty of vertical cards too. Perfect composition on this one.
This is Tanaka's last Heritage card as he completed his contract with the Yankees at the end of the 2020 season, though he does have a bit of a sunset card in 2021 Topps Baseball. That card is only an American sunset card, as I read recently that Tanaka returned to Japan and kept right on pitching, which will continue into 2025.
I just never know what card will be the favorite in a set until I rip some packs of it. After all my anticipation over receiving some brand new black bordered Baseball Cards with the promise of a great mix of imagery, I would have never expected to pick out a nearly "floating heads" style dual Rookie Card as possibly my top pick.
But that's what happened. I don't know how Topps did this, but somehow they finally seem to have just nailed the look of 20th century warm analog color photography here. Although these wonderful portraits were probably created in mid-February in Arizona, they somehow look like they are from mid-summer in Chicago. And, again, somehow flat (in a good way) basic warmth shines (also in a good, non-glossy way) right off the card. Maybe printing these on the good old fashioned cardboard "vintage" stock helps achieve this, something just not seen enough in the digital Century we live in now.
It also doesn't hurt that both of these players have become fixtures on the Cubs roster for a good run of years now, which is something almost becoming unexpected on the blizzard of Rookie Card cards continually blowing out of our packs of new Baseball Cards.
More In Action goodness. For us looking at Baseball Cards lo these many decades later, this is about as routine of an action photo as can be chosen. But for me, seeing 1971 Topps action will always make me wonder how much this was noticed, back in actual 1971. I suspect it made opening a new pack of cards a fair bit more exciting than it had been the year before.
I think I brought this card along to The Show because of a small conceit in the promo material for 2020 Heritage, which shows Max Scherzer calmly flipping a Baseball in the air above his palm. That simple image from Baseball Card history does not then appear on Scherzer's card in the set; instead it is used for an insert. And you guessed it, I never could pull that one.
So I then gravitated to this alternate old-timey Baseball Card trope I think. With Bonus Points again for a facsimile signature carefully shifted to the side to avoid it disappearing too much on Beede's black sleeve. Well, done.
Probably the stylistic "signature" pulled me in here I guess. 2020 Heritage will be occasionally represented on some other binder pages in my collection, including an eventual page or two celebrating the most dramatic "facsimiles." Otherwise, there are far too many Twins Heritage cards that look just like this one. Saved by the Sharpie.
Another happy Baseball Card, and another carefully placed signature, even if it seems to be saying something about the month of July that I just can't quite follow.
I am sure there are more than 9 more cards in 2020 Heritage worthy of my attention, including more live game action and more serendipitous Spring Training Photo Day cards where everything clicks to overcome my bitchiness about too much repetition.
So I could see myself digitally shopping through the set once again some day, perhaps. I noticed recently that the "Actions" still exist in 2020 Heritage; those are just what are called Photo Variations in every other set, and that they aren't crazy expensive in this one, either. For now though, 2020/1971 Heritage will be just a delightful pair of pages in two different binders, one I will likely stop and gaze upon for a bit longer than pages of cards from some other sets.
The Result
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