First look: 2010 Topps Heritage baseball

Ysponder

By Chris Olds  
11/20/2009 6:00:02 PM



Topps unveiled its basic product information and preview images on Friday for its 2010 Topps Heritage baseball set, the 10th consecutive release in the throwback product which this year utilizes the 1961 Topps design.

Set to arrive in the last week of February, this year’s Heritage will include a 500-card base set of veterans and rookies (75 of those short-prints; 1:3 packs) in the famed simple design.

One of the new inserts will be Chase ‘61, which will note the great home run chase by the New York Yankees’ Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle— a set that will include Relic parallels with as many as three memorabilia pieces and three cut autographs. (So, yes, that will include Babe Ruth as well…)

Every 24-pack hobby box will include one autograph or Relic card with all signatures signed on the cards.


Other inserts will include the Chrome cards everyone has come to expect with their Heritage (whether they think it’s necessary or not)as well as new additions such as Topps Stamps (207 players as well as buybacks).The Chrome cards will be numbered to 1,961 (standard), 561 (Refractor) and 61 (Black Refractor).

Also back are New Age Performers (15 cards), Then and Now (10 cards), Baseball Flashbacks (10 cards) and News Flashbacks (10 cards) as well as the same autograph and Relic lineups from 2008 (just with anew design).

The red-ink autographs will be limited to 61 copies, while the duals and flashback autographs will be limited to 25. All signed Relics are numbered to 25 except for the duals, which will be limited to 10.

Among those on the preliminary autograph checklists are Ryan Howard, Matt Kemp, Gordon Beckham, David Wright, Matt Holliday, Luis Aparcio, Bob Gibson, Stan Musial, Carl Yastrzemski, Frank Robinson, Buster Posey and Dustin Pedroia.

Among those on the preliminary cut autograph checklist —  besides the Chase for ‘61ers — is Warren Spahn. There will be 10 1961 cuts, but just Spahn and Mantle are on the checklist right now.