So 2022 Topps Heritage came out and in that set Luis Torrens has a baseball card.
I had that same stubborn mindset going into Heritage after I saw that Torrens had a card but then I was caught off guard by one thing. Heritage has no 1/1's. There's only the base card and two parallels. One of the parallels black border (seen above) which is said to have a print run of 50 copies.
The other is this "flip stock" that supposedly only has five copies. Or at least I think this is the flip stock, the only difference is that the surface of the back is different. Which is nice and I guess this back is indeed different, but... why? At least put a serial number somewhere to show that this is different rather than just printing some code on the back written in the tiniest font possible and hidden among the legal copyright mumbo jumbo nobody ever reads.
Anyway I am essentially only the base card and inevitable 1/1 Blank Back that gets directly put on the Topps eBay account away from the complete master rainbow. But still I am surprised, a modern set with these few parallels? A modern popular set at that? Isn't this supposed to have weird gum stain variations or Venezuela backs? I've been living in the Bowman-riddled portion of the hobby for so long that I thought it was a given that every set had a trillion parallels.
But then I actually took some time to look at past checklists and noticed that Heritage isn't as bloated with parallels as I had thought. Looking at the Chrome portion of the Heritage checklist and the parallels those had were more in line with what I had been expecting. But for the standard paper stock version of Heritage, its gimmicks appear to be short prints and image variations and font color mishmashes but those are for the select few in the checklist and not exactly given to everyone who gets a card in the set. Which suits me just fine.
In a sense I shouldn't be too surprised as I did have a little taste of Heritage back when Torrens was in 2020 Heritage High Number. But HHN is an internet exclusive cash grab set whereas regular Heritage is a normal cash grab set supposedly available on retail shelves, so I didn't think much of the limited number of parallels that one had. Still missing the flip stock from that one to this day btw, also I'm not sure the eBay Blank Backs were ever sold (if they were even made at all).
I don't really have a ton to say about the card itself. It's Torrens on the 1973 Topps design but without the quirky or fun kind of action shot that set is known for. Instead we get a portrait shot taken in Spring Training that's photoshopped (that jersey is obviously a San Diego Padres jersey lol). Exactly the type of boring photograph choice that made me indifferent to Heritage years ago. Although Torrens still has the beard so my previous write-up about how we saw him go from a clean-shaven MiLB prospect in Bowman Chrome to a bearded MLB veteran in Heritage still rings true.
The back correctly states how awesome he was and how he was right up there with the best of the best in 2021 offensively. That is accurate. He is the GOAT. The famous Topps back cartoon is nice and cute, though I wish they put the fun in fun-fact a little more. Mention how his Players Weekend nickname was Churro or how his pet dog has an Instagram account or something. Then again Topps is correctly expecting that nobody ever reads those things anyway.
Anyway as of this post I don't have the base card for this Heritage card. I'm not going to rush for one either, maybe I might get it along with the 2021 Topps Update base when the time comes (ie when I feel like it) to take advantage of combined shipping.
Still, Torrens in Topps Heritage. A sure sign that he's still around the MLB ranks and at least worthy of getting cards in more mainstream sets. As a fan/collector that's all I could want. Let's hope he can stick around until 2028 so I can finally obtain Torrens on my all-time favorite Topps design, 1979.
Since I'm talking about Heritage sets and 1/1's, here's another card I picked up recently. A yellow printing plate of Anthony Seigler from 2019 Bowman Heritage. Because of course Bowman's version of Heritage has parallels and printing plates and whatnot.
Okay that's it. Bye.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care.