Heritage eve

I could not be more excited for tomorrow's anticipated arrival of 2009 Topps Heritage. But I'm also aware that once you've entered the blogger world, you find out that there is always someone out there who is more fired up about something than you are.

I had planned to provide a bit of a retrospective on the 1960 Topps set, which is the "inspiration" for 2009 Heritage. But, as usual, someone beat me to it. I don't have half the knowledge about old cards -- or even half the old cards -- as dayf does, so it's best that someone else handle that.

So, what I'm going to do is focus on the few 1960 Dodgers cards that I have and relay what I like and dislike about the set. Because chances are that is going to be what I like and dislike about 2009 Heritage (with an extra dollop of irritation aimed at the short-printing).

Oh, and this doubles as a "Define the Design" post as well. No prize with this one, as it's too easy. The 1960 Topps set will be known as "the horizontal set," because I believe it's the only major set, of the traditional 2 1/2-by-3 1/2 variety, that featured almost all of its cards in a horizontal format. I'm secretly hoping that someone will try to do this again someday.

I don't have a lot of the Dodgers from the '60 set, but I have several more than '59, so I have hopes of completing the team set one day. That Koufax card will fall right into my lap any day now.

Oddly enough, I remember where I found each of these cards. This card of Roger Craig I bought during a trip to Cooperstown. One thing I noticed on my later trips to Cooperstown, when compared to the trips I took there as a kid, was how many more memorabilia shops had sprouted up over the years. The number of cards in that town is amazing.

The thing I've always wondered with this card is what the heck was so horrifying to the right of Craig that they had to crop it out of the photo. You can see there is miles of dead space on the right side of the card.

I am not crazy about the backs of the 1960 set, which means I probably won't like the Heritage backs. For me, the 1950s were a great time for card backs, peaking with the 1956 set. They were fun, informative and they looked great. The early '60s was a dark time for card backs. They'd use lousy colors like this (kind of matches that gold bar Upper Deck is using this year), and the whole thing is drab.

To me, 1961 was one of the dullest card issues in Topps history, both front and back. That doesn't bode well for 2010 Heritage.

I bought this card of "The Reading Rifle," along with three others shown here at a card show in town, back when they had card shows in my town. I bought them all very cheaply, too. I couldn't believe how little the guy wanted.

Furrillo only played in 50 games in 1959 and just 8 in 1960 to end his career. I believe this is his last card.

I just bought this card of Jim Gilliam at a card show last year. You'll notice that all of the Dodgers cards I'm featuring show a yellow background for the name. But Topps mixed it up among the players. For John Roseboro, the background is green, for Duke Snider and Danny McDeVitt, it is orange, and for Larry Sherry, it's the ever popular pink.

The colors behind the black-and-white photo vary, too. For the Dodgers there is blue, pink, yellow, green and orange. The color combinations really make the set for me. I love all the different colors used, which will be a high point for me with the Heritage set.

Norm Larker replaced Gil Hodges at first base, and at the time that this card was made, he was on the verge of his best season. He hit .323 in 1960 to finish second in the National League and was an all-star. But by 1961, Hodges was back to being the starter, then Ron Fairly arrived and Larker became a member of the expansion Houston Colt .45s.

I used to have doubles of this card, but I sold one in a garage sale, back when I did foolish things like that.

Take a wild guess at how old Johnny Podres was when this card came out. Did you guess 27? You're lying. Male pattern baldness does wonders for a guy, doesn't it?

Podres played for the Dodgers until 1966 and was in the majors in 1969. Everyone is surprised by that, since all they heard of was his performance in the 1955 World Series. But Podres was just a kid that year.

This is an awesome card. This is why I love postseason cards and why I'm still annoyed that Topps didn't have any postseason cards in 1982, the year after the Dodgers won the Series.

I'm not 100 percent sure, but I'm pretty certain that this is Charlie Dressen getting doused. Dressen was the manager for the Boys of Summer Brooklyn team in 1952, but he had a falling out with the Dodgers and moved on to other teams. Then he reconciled with the organization and the Dodgers brought him back as a coach for the 1958 and 1959 seasons.

Dressen went on to manage the Milwaukee Braves in 1960. I know there is a manager card for Dressen in the 1960 set. So that means there are two cards of Dressen in this set, if that indeed is Dressen. That's kind of a rarity for a non-player.

I'll be heading out to my favorite hobby shop tomorrow to see if they have any Heritage, and I'll also check Target/Wal-Mart in case they decide to sneak some stealth packs on the shelves. But I'm almost 100 percent resigned to the fact that I won't see any of this set in person until at least a week from now.

I guess that's what the interwebs are for, to watch the lucky ones. I'll live vicariously and try not to be jealous. It is going to be a fun set to collect. But as someone who is still trying to finish the 2008 Heritage set, I'm not certain whether I'll truly go all out this year.