Does Heritage Stay True? (1959 vs. 2008 edition) Chapter 6

I'm almost at 100 trades on the database, and I'm heading to Chantilly this weekend (Friday if my back will stand the concrete floor), so I'll have more to show and cross off my lists. 

Meanwhile, back to the comparison of '59 and '08 Heritage...

We start at #304, which is another team card match, the Chicago Cubs.

Gave this one the "mini-check", because whoever laid out some of these in 2008, has a lousy sense of balancing the space.  I get it, the team photo is 30% longer than the old one, but why do the fonts have to be so miniscule?  Try this:

The '59 card is almost too crammed together, and the '08 one is sparse.  Here's a decent place in between.

Next up, Dice-K - coming off a phenomenal rookie season.  You match him with a Yankee?  What kind of blasphemy is that?  

Jerry was an up and coming rookie hurler for Boston too. 

At #310, a couple of White Sox.  But sorry Jerry, you're just not quite the guy for the job right here.

Slugging Sox Shortstop?  That's better.

A couple well known National league pitchers at #312?  Yep.  Cool black color scheme?  Yep.  Approved.

Are they just matching color at this point?  Jacque did OK, but...

...This guy was the star 1st Baseman for the Braves.  He should have been #315.

Down at #327, Big Papi and Gary are.....yellow.

Vic is described as a power hitter, so he'll do since Ted Williams isn't in this set.

Now we get on a bit of a good run two cards later.  Tigers match up well.  Still a bit of space below the wall there, but I'll let it slide.

Reds star pivot men in the black scheme at #335.  Cool....

Tigers household names at #338.  'Nuff said...

Right after them, a steady pair of Pirate pitchers coming off good years.  Sure...

Three in a row!  #340 pairs decent hitters for the team that became the other team.  I like when they match up Senators and Rangers or Twins, Pilots and Brewers, etc.

At #346 - See?  THAT's how you compose the picture and use the right size lettering.  Good job!

And at #350, a couple more star National League shortstops.  Don't know if Rollins will ever make the Hall of Fame, but he had a heck of a year in 2007, so this is a pretty proper pairing.

Next time, the thrill isn't gone, but it's about 100 cards off!

Does Heritage Stay True? (1959 vs. 2008 edition) Chapter 5 - Finally!

Back in June of 2020, I started a series comparing the 1959 set with it's "tribute" - 2008 Heritage.  It was originally inspired by Bo and his Cardboard Cousins posts. 

I got as far as card #268, and then just kinda stopped.  Not sure why, except my own distraction to other topics at the time.  Before we rejoin the journey, let me recap a few things from my first post.

Since I have both sets complete, I chose the 1959/2008 set comparison.  Having the cards hasn't really been that helpful though, I largely relied on the database listings and a spreadsheet where I laid out both sets side by side.

As I went through the lists, I noted the matching pairs, and also the significant stars or cards that were paired in mediocre combinations, or worse - not at all.  The criteria for a good match is simple - players share some characteristic: slugger, ace pitcher, or at least the same position, and for the same team.  There's a chance there may be something different, like a common nickname or something, but it doesn't happen often.

Alright, let's get back into it.

At #270, some good star power, but I wouldn't say they're a match.  Fielder seems more of a big fun guy, while Hodges is probably a bit more serious.  

Let's try the Dodgers' first basemen together...

...and put two guys playing for Milwaukee with some great memorable cards together.

That's just a great hobby pairing right there.

On to #283, you've got the immortal Russ Heman with another guy named Cabrera...?  Just kidding.  Miggy is probably a future HOF'er, right?  Let's see what else we can do.

Virgil is a vast improvement.  Tigers third baseman, the first Dominican to play in the majors (OK, Miggy is Venezuelan, but still...), and well, ....he didn't actually show up on the League Leaders.  Still better than a random Cleveland pitcher!

Wasn't thinking when I was going through the spreadsheet and marked these two.  Tony Gwynn the elder had been retired for 7 years already.  This is his son.  But either way, the only similarity is the color scheme.  

Checked the '59 Milwaukee roster (again) and found that - according to Baseball Reference, Gwynn Jr. and Brother Frank here had rather similar numbers.  Junior was more of a runner since he only placed as a leader in fielding range.  But their hitting numbers are in the ballpark.

Right next to them at #287, we have a couple of Dodgers.  But the positions don't jive that much.  They are both notable players, but not superstars, but I'll swap this pair for another.

That's just a little bit better.  I'm not really sure why...

OK!  They finally got one right.  Though the modern font thing is still jacked up.  And Ramos and Pascual are more memorable to me than the Nats guys.  Mostly from seeing them on more cards.

Again, colors good, players not even close.  This one is an easy fix.

I mean, come on.  Both guys end up running the Bronx Bombers.  It's a no-brainer.

At the 300 mark.  This is a good one.  

And a good place to end the first batch in three years.  Now I'll have to make up more of the graphics.  These are all I still had left except for the Gwynn Jr./Stone duo which I just made.  They're easy to do as long as the database site is up, which it wasn't when I began tonight.  (Anyone else getting 502 Bad Gateway or Certificate errors on there?)

The earlier articles had about twice the comparisons.  Is this a good length or should I go longer?  Let me know in the comments.

Does Heritage Stay True? (1959 vs. 2008 edition) Chapter 4

Stopped last time at the twin Preston W's at #176.  In the next section, the trend of matching subtle pairs while largely ignoring the big stars continues.  And a lot of them could have been fixed.

Leading off, we have one of the prettiest cards in the '59 set, Yogi Berra.  He's paired at #180 with his Yankee counterpart who also dons the Tools Of Ignorance.  So we're starting off on the right foot at least.

Not sure if Matt Cain was a star yet, but Milt Graff was definitely not, bless his heart.  At #182, the only match here is the color scheme.

Having Stu Miller - the NL ERA leader for '58 - one card away at #183 just makes it a miss.

The next cards match up perfectly.  Reds star pitchers in the great black with yellow text scheme.  Back on track at 184.  Though Haddix only hurled for Cincy the one year, it's a nice coincidence that he matched up well here.

We've reached the #200 plateau.  And again, since they don't include executives any more, the matchup is ignored here. 

There was a new AL President in '59, so there isn't a corresponding card of him (Tom Yawkey for a year and then Joe Cronin), so that's the end of the executives. 

Gallardo was known for being the 26th pitcher in MLB history to win a game 1-0 by pitching the shutout and hitting the home run himself.  This doesn't quite make him executive material though.

Two more steps down the line and it's another disjointed union.  #203 has Roger Maris (on the A's) and Nick Swisher with the ChiSox BEFORE he actually had his most productive years in New York pinstripes.  Topps isn't psychic, so this one's a miss too.

#205 fares no better.  Don Larsen and Milton Bradley?

While later on, Roy Halladay has no '59 partner either.  He and Larsen both had similar wins and strikeout numbers in proportion to their seasons.  Larsen came before the Cy Young award really got going.

Furillo at #206 isn't quite a superstar, but he's very easy to match to a modern counterpart, since there are three outfield positions to choose from.

 

Either of these guys would have worked...

Especially since Jones comes soon after at #212.  Finally, a cardboard tribute to the "Jones brothers".  Wonder if they considered matching the poses on the original cards?  Doesn't seem like that got communicated to the photographers.

Another marginal matchup at #217.  Pink pitchers.  Maybe Erskine and Weaver are somehow alike...?

But with all these quality Dodger pitchers, couldn't it be one of them?

My PC guy Osteen at #224 matched with David Wright?  No offense David, but ~ meh.  The fence lines matching up with his uniform piping looks like he's got one of those braces on that they use for spinal injuries.

Not sure who you'd match with Wright, since there were no Mets yet, but this guy was up and coming from the Reds...

It's not gettin' any better at #225 either.  Another Mets star mismatch. 

And this guy was just brought in in 2008 to play short with the Braves.  More on Pedro in a second.

At least the combo cards are keeping some semblance of relevance in this part of the sets.  They've even brought the fonts closer to what they should be.  Again, the star power in the modern version of #237 far outweighs the old one, at least from the perspective of 2020.  Maybe those guys were revered as much back then as Jeets is now...?

Here's Halladay down at #246.  Paired with a versatile yet irrelevant catcher from Washington. 

So let me backtrack for a second.  Back at #163, we had Koufax and Ausmus.  If we switch out Halladay to Larsen, that opens up Ausmus to pair with Porter as versatile infielders that can catch.  This also frees up Koufax to take his three Cy Youngs along to compare notes with Pedro, who has done it three times as well.

Early Wynn and Carlos Zambrano are good Chicago pitchers at 260, but it's blasphemy to match up North and South side rivals, isn't it?

Put this guy there instead.  He put up several years of double digit wins like Wynn.

Ugh, even though they're both Dodger trios, the font thing has once again regressed into that smooshed look.  And the names are twice as far from the title as in the previous combo.  Fire the typesetter!

Two respected fan fave hitters at #268, but I'd have done it differently on both sides.

Tigers slugger outfielders...

...and White Sox sluggers and (at least part time in Thome's case) first basemen.

Much better!