Looking ahead to Topps Heritage ...

So earlier this week I took a look over at Topps' 2011 base product, today, I will offer my thoughts on the 2011 Heritage offering.

The design, a classic, but design-wise, it probably came too late. The wood grain look would have been better served in 1958 –1960 (if not earlier) with the baseball moving to the left coast. In any case, it is a look that Topps repeated in 1987 with success.

Undoubtedly, this years version is sure to surpass last years '61 offering. I never minded the simplicity of the '61, but it's well known the look is not a favorite of many card bloggers.  I too like the nostalgia of the 1962, and will certainly try to pick up a couple of blasters and packs,  but not sure I will collect this years set.  While I like the '62, my favorite designs of the 1960's Topps were 1960, 1965, and 1967.  I just simply cannot collect everything and would rather put that money towards my 1972 and 1975 sets or this years 2011 Topps set (if it looks as great as we have seen in previews).

But, maybe my mind will change when I see the cards in person.  Looking at the original 1962 checklist and comparing to this years, there are a number of similarities in the checklist make up. For example, the Red Sox team cards both fall at #334, the ten Babe Ruth cards fall at 135–144, and the Rookie Parade cards have multiple players on them.  I looked a little deeper and noticed that the combo cards were slated for the same number slots in each set. Here is a look at the original versus the Heritage version:

Original 1962 ...
18 Manager's Dream (Mantle, Mays)
37 Tribe Hill Trio (Latman, Perry, Stigman)
72 Bob's Pupils (Boros, Scheffing, Wood)
127 Pride of the A's (Bauer, Lumpe, Siebern)
163 Hot Corner Guardians (Boyer, Gardner)
211 Midway Masters (Bolling, McMillan )
263 The Right Pitch (Jay, Purkey, Turner)
306 Redbird Rippers (Jackson, McDaniel)
351 Braves' Backstops (Crandall, Torre)
401 AL & NL Homer Kings (Maris, Cepeda)
423 Rival League Relief Aces (Face, Wilhelm)

and now my take on what the Heritage might offer...

18 Manager's Dream (Mantle, Mays)
37 Tribe Hill  (No offense to the Chief Wahoo fans out there, if there are any left, but Carmona, Masterson, Westbrook ...yikes!)
72 Bob's Pupils  (original had pitching coach, but no "Bob" with current Tigers staff, so ... Leyland or PC Rick Knapp ... Verlander and Max Scherzer)
127 Pride of the A's (Suzuki, Matsui, DeJesus?? Not gonna lie, but oooooffffffffff!)
163 Hot Corner Guardians (Arod/Wright ... Original had two Yankees)
211 Midway Masters (original was Milwaukee Braves ... Alex Gonzalez and Uggla? ... maybe Brewers to tie into Milwaukee theme but then Betancourt and Weeks)
263 The Right Pitch (Dusty Baker or PC Bryan Price with Arroyo and Cuetto ... Travis Wood?)
306 Redbird Rippers (Wainright and Carpenter or Pujols and Holiday? Both good options but think Topps will stay true and do the two pitchers)
351 Braves' Backstops (McCann and David Ross)
401 TBD Combo  (if Al/NL Homer Kings, Jose Bautista and Pujols)
423 Rival League Relief Aces  (how about Mariano and Brian Wilson ... Soriano led the AL last year, but right now he is a set up guy for the Yanks. Other thought was Wilson and Neftali Feliz)

As a whole, the set make up looks like this:

• 500 Total Cards
  425 Regular Player Cards
  6 World Series Highlights
  11 Combo Cards
  4 League Leaders
  24 Sporting News All-Stars
  18 Team Cards
  8 Rookie Parade
  9 In Action Cards
  Babe Ruth
• 75 Short Printed High Number Cards

So there you have my take on this years Heritage. Topps never seems to fail on this product line, and don't think they will start this year.  Right now, release date is tentatively March 17, 2011.