2001 Bowman Heritage
2001 Bowman Heritage was a baseball card set released by Topps. It was the first of the Bowman Heritage sets, the set would become part of Topps' annual product line until 2007.
Distribution
The cards were distributed at Hobby shops in ten card packs, 24 packs per box, and 24 boxes per case. The cards were also availble in ten card retail packs in a variety of Blister and Wax Box types.
Base Set
The base set of 2001 Bowman Heritage consists of 330 cards of 330 individual players. There are no special subsets or card variations in the base set. The card design is based on the 1948 Bowman set. A black and white photograph is surrounded by a white border is displayed on the front of the card with no other information, not even the player’s name. The back of the card features player biographical information but little to no statistics. The main change from the original 1948 Bowman design was a resizing from the original card dimensions (2-1/16” x 2-1/2”) to the standard card dimensions (2-1/2” x 3-1/2”) as well increasing the number of cards in the set from 48 to 440. Additionally the Bowman Heritage logo printed on the card front and a slightly modified Bowman Heritage logo was printed on the card front for rookie cards. A full master set of 2001 Bowman includes base cards and short prints, a grand total of 440 cards.
Short Prints
Cards numbered 331-440 were short printed as homage to the original 1948 Bowman set. Both the Albert Pujols and Ichiro Suzuki rookie cards are included in the short prints.
Key Cards
The following players all have rookie cards in 2001 Bowman Heritage: Albert Pujols, Ichiro, Chase Utley, Travis Hafner, Jake Peavy, and Justin Morneau.
The autographed inserts of the contemporary stars are also in demand.
Errors
Chrome Parallels
A Chrome partial parallel set of the first 110 cards in the set was also inserted into packs at a rate of 1 per 12 packs.
Insert Sets
1948 Reprints
13 cards from the original 1948 set were reprinted in their original size (2-1/16” x 2-1/2”) and inserted at a rate of 1 per 2 packs; effectively 1 reprint or short print card per pack. The cards selected were the rookie cards from the 1948 set.
1948 Reprint Autographs
Warren Spahn and Bob Feller autographed a number of their reprint cards for inclusion in the product. Spahn’s card was inserted 1:3,018 and Feller’s 1:3,074.
1948 Reprint Relics
11 of the 13 players featured in the reprint set also were depicted on cards with game used relics. Yogi Berra had two different relic cards. 10 of the 12 cards were game used seat relics, one of the Berra cards featured a swatch of jersey and the Red Schoendienst card featured a bat piece. The seat cards were inserted at an overall rate of 1 per 53 packs while the bat and jersey card were inserted at 1:2,113 and 1:2,905 respectively.
Autographs
Three contemporary players were also included at autographed cards. Alex Rodriguez (1:775), Barry Bonds (1:1,328) and Roger Clemens (1:1,328) cards were inserted at different rates. Overall, the cards were inserted at about 1 per case. The autographed cards also feature different photographs than the base set counterparts.
Team Topps Legends Autographs
As with most other Topps releases in 2001, The Team Topps Legends Autographs were also randomly inserted into packs.
Other Information
A promotional set was released to the public prior to the distribution of the set.