Card Gallery: 2014 Topps Heritage High Number
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor
It’s 1965 one last time this Wednesday.
That’s when 2014 Topps Heritage High Number arrives in hobby shops with a season-capping edition of rookies and traded players who did not make it into the hobby staple earlier this season.
The 100-card set includes more than 60 Rookie Cards with both Rookie of the Year winners, Jose Abreu and Jacob deGrom among the players on the basic set as well as the 34-card autographed checklist. (There will be one autograph per factory set.) Interestingly, Abreu actually has two different autographed cards in this release.
Also among the signers are Oscar Taveras, Yordano Ventura, Taijuan Walker, Nick Castellanos, Joe Panik, George Springer and Billy Hamilton.
On the standard checklist of note are Masahiro Tanaka, Jonathan Schoop, Taveras, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hamilton, Panik, collector Pat Neshek, Nelson Cruz, deGrom, Xander Bogaerts, Springer, Dellin Betances, Jeff Samardzija and Dylan Bundy,
Click here to view the checklist as released by Topps on Monday.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazines. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
Why no love for Kevin Kiermaier? With the Update series and this he’s finally starting to get more cards, but still doesn’t get an auto for this set. Will he even still be eligible for rookie cards next year? For me, I’ve had the most anticipation for him in terms of collecting and he gets hardly any love on cardboard… It is becoming increasingly frustrating, so much so that I haven’t at all been interested in any baseball product.
It’s interesting to see Topps releasing a few first RCs so late in the year when there won’t be many more opportunities to use them as Rookies. Eric Campbell is probably safe to burn off now, but Ken Giles should rate more than a last-minute appearance (not that I’m advocating for more Phillies cards or anything).
And is Daisuke Matsuzaka really all that notable anymore? It seems odd that Topps included backups like Matsuzaka and Eric Young Jr. when the Mets’ first baseman, who hit 30 home runs this year, and their center fielder, widely considered to be one of the best defensive outfielders in all of baseball, were left out of Heritage this year. Lucas Duda finally delivered this year and Topps has almost completely ignored him, much like how they’ve been treating Juan Lagares over the last two years. 600 cards and they miss two of the team’s best players, but they have room for relief pitchers and fifth outfielders…
At least we’ll get Jacob deGrom’s first on-card autographs, which will be a nice score for anyone lucky enough to pull one.
I initially thought that the blue ink on Jason deGrom’s card came from Chris Olds dropping his pen momentarily and it hitting the cardboard. Perhaps that actually is an autograph since the scribble has been certified as one.
A few modern players have very interesting signatures. Why bother to pay a premium for ink that is nothing more than a loop by a player that does not care enough about their own name to present it as one – just because he touched the card?
If you prefer to collect very nice autographs of pitchers, research Dennis Eckersley, Tom Seaver and Sandy Koufax (even Cy Young if you can find one) among HOFers. Pitchers like Dennis Martinez and Trevor Hoffman are great too.