I'll admit it - I'm already suckered into collecting bits of used player uniform stuck into insert cards. They got me. Assuming that it's all
real, it's the most tangible connection any of us are going to have to the professional ballfield aside from our yearly visits to our respective FanFests. "Game-used" - and hopefully "post-game washed"?
When I bought my 2017 and 2020 Topps Heritage hobby boxes - the latter just a few weeks ago now - I was anticipating the moment in which I'd tear open a pack and find a Trout or a Betts or even an Otani game-worn uniform insert. Perhaps it would be autographed. Maybe I'd be sunning myself in Bora Bora right about now with that autographed Trout uni.
Hell, I'd even take a
Dodger - Bellinger, Kershaw, whomever. Yet with all due respect to these guys, my two respective uniform inserts were probably the two lamest in the entire collection.
Victor Martinez? Rhys Hoskins? Hoskins hit .226 last year. Martinez is now retired, but was total dogmeat in 2017 & 2018 before he bowed out. Hoskins may end up being a superstar - they say the kid's got talent - but man, I'll admit I was hoping to do a little better than this.
That said, having some lower-tier stars in these series is good for me overall. It's how I've accumulated a few Pablo Sandoval uniform pieces, even one during his infamous Red Sox days (not that there were very many of those). Pablo's my hero, and you'll be hearing a bunch more about him in posts to come. If Martinez or Hoskins is
your hero, get in touch and we'll work something out.
