Sunday Night Baseball Pirates @ Cardinals: Kolten Wong 2015 Heritage #22

Sunday Night Baseball is in St Louis to catch the Cardinals hosting the division rival Pittsburgh Pirates.

2015 Topps Heritage #22 Kolten Wong

The Cardinals have a great next man up program, It seems like every time they call up a minor leaguer they are ready and it is often somebody that I hadn't heard of. 

Kolten Wong was a bit more known than most of the Cardinals prospects, I had heard of him since at least 2013 when he appeared in the futures game at Citifield.

He may not be All-Star material yet, but Wong has been a productive player at a keystone position and at 24 has plenty of baseball in front of him. Last year He finished 3rd in the Rookie of the Year voting behind Jacob DeGrom (who he may face in the 2015 playoffs) and Speedster Billy Hamilton.

2015 Topps Heritage #22 Kolten Wong (b-side)

Nice to see Shane Victorino get repped on the b-side of Kolten Wong's card. Shane hit his 3 homers during the Phillies 2009 NL Championship campaign.

2015 Heritage
Not sure how Kolten Wong ended up on Card 22 in Heritage. The Original Slot was held down by back up outfielder Joe Nossek. The Cardinals Mid-1960s second baseman was Julian Javier - he lived at #436 in the 1966T set, a spot that Topps awarded to Justin Upton (as a Brave) in 2015.

My other thought was that Topps could have put Kolten Wong on card #195 which was occupied by the Rookie Cup second baseman in the 1966 set, Joe Morgan. Alternatively Topps could have matched that Iconic card with the Astros current stand out Jose Altuve - Of Course they did not - somehow Edinson Volquez got the nod.

Sources and Links
2015 Playoff Contenders Index
2015 Topps Heritage Index
cardboard connection
baseball-ref

At least one 2012 Topps Heritage Variation Has a Precedent

I doubt there will be any discussion, sarcasm, or vitrol regarding the 2012 Topps Heritage Variations...

But at least one of the variations does have precedent:



1963 Topps #29 1962 Rookie Stars
1963 Topps #29 1963 Rookie Stars


For more information regarding these cards click here

For more information on the 2012 Topps Heritage variations/errors/SPs check Cardboard Connection.

Old School Phillies Variations - 1963 Topps

There have been a lot of blog talk regarding the 2010 Topps variations with the Yankees Parallel versions, and the Lincoln Cards.

As you know Topps has had variations for ages, but back in the 60s these were more often honest mistakes corrected during subsequent print runs.

This all brings us to the Phungo Vintage Phillies Collection. Every once in a while happy accidents occur. I am in the process of collecting the entire Topps Run of Phillies cards through 1980. Most of my focus has been on the 1952-1974 cards so far. Until recently one of the card that I did not have was the 1963 #29 Rookie Stars card.

Then in roughly the same week, due to a bookkeeping snafu, I ended up with a duplicate of this card. One from a trade with Rhubarb_Runner and one via auction. For a second I was a little dismayed about the mix-up, but then I quickly realized that I had both ends of a variation!

1963 Topps #29 1962 Rookie Stars Ellis/Culp/Gonder/Boozer
1963 Topps #29 1963 Rookie Stars Ellis/Culp/Gonder/Boozer

Near as I can tell the cards match except for the year. The 1962 card is the "error" as the rest of the Rookie Quads in the 1963 set all specify 1963 rather than 1962.



1963 Topps #29 1962 Rookie Stars Ellis/Culp/Gonder/Boozer (b-side)
1963 Topps #29 1963 Rookie Stars Ellis/Culp/Gonder/Boozer (b-side)

The erroneous "1962" carries over to the flip-side of the card. Other than the title line the cards are identical.

I believe this is the first year that Topps featured the multi-player rookie cards. And this is the first of the card type in the set making this Topps first ever muli-player rookie card. Card #54 in the set is also a rookie card and also has the 1962/1963 variation.

For whatever reason the higher numbered multi-RCs are titled "1963 Rookie Stars" on the back rather than "1963 Rookie Parade". One of these cards is the #537 Pete Rose Rookie, which is on the heavy hitters of forged cards.