2005 Bowman Heritage baseball cards.

2005 Bowman Heritage was released in December of 2005 and carried a $3.00 Suggested Retail Price for each 8-card pack.

The 2005 Bowman Heritage baseball set features full color images of the star players and rookies of 2005, using a design like the 1951 Bowman Baseball set, one of the most popular baseball card sets ever. Even the box that the packs come in for 2005 Bowman Heritage is great, and makes me want to open some packs!

The 350 card set includes a great assortment of short prints and variations to make building a complete set a fun challenge. The set is made up of 225 veterans and 125 first year players.

Autographs in 2005 Heritage are in a 27 card insert set called "Signs of Greatness" which feature some of the hottest prospect in baseball during the 2005 season, such as Jon Papelbon and Ryan Zimmerman. The cards come in both blue or red ink, with the red ink autographs being the most limited of the two variations. The red ink autos were limited to only 51 of each card.

The base set has four parallel sets this year, which are:

A "Mahogany" parallel set (350 cards) that mirrors its regular set. The Mahogany cards are found on average 1 in every pack. Topps claims that each pack contains either a Mahogany card or a Relic card.

A miniature (Mini) set (350 cards) which is made to be the same size as the original 1951 Bowman baseball set.

A third parallel set features unique 1/1 "Red Rainbow" cards which have a red border, and are stamped "1/1" on the back. These cards should also have a triangular Topps sticker on the back of the card. Each of the 350 cards in the base set have a Red Rainbow 1/1 counterpart.

Again in 2005, Bowman Heritage included it's "printing plates" of each card, which are considered 1 of 1's, each being unique, but each of the 350 cards has 4 different colored printing plates, making for a total of 1400 printing plates. The printing plates are exclusively found in hobby packs.

Fifty of the cards cards in the base set are considered short prints (SP's) and cards #325-349 have "draft pick" variations found in hobby boxes. The short printed base cards are seeded 1:3 packs while the variations are featured in 5-card packs and are included as box-loaders in hobby boxes.

The Short Prints and Variations are as follows:

Short Prints

#301 Jason Bay Pittsburgh Pirates
#302 Tim Hudson Atlanta Braves
#303 Miguel Tejada Baltimore Orioles
#304 Jeremy Bonderman Tigers
#305 Alex Rodriguez Yankees
#306 Rickie Weeks Brewers
#307 Manny Ramirez Boston Red Sox
#308 Nick Johnson Washington Nationals
#309 Andruw Jones Atlanta Braves
#310 Hideki Matsui New York Yankees
#311 Jeremy Reed Seattle Mariners
#312 Dallas McPherson Angels
#313 Vladimir Guerrero Angels
#314 Eric Chavez Oakland Athletics
#315 Chris Carpenter St. Louis Cardinals
#316 Aaron Hill Toronto Blue Jays
#317 Derrek Lee Chicago Cubs
#318 Mark Loretta San Diego Padres
#319 Garrett Atkins Colorado Rockies
#320 Hank Blalock Texas Rangers
#321 Chris Young Texas Rangers
#322 Roy Oswalt Houston Astros
#323 Carlos Delgado Florida Marlins
#324 Pedro Martinez New York Mets
#325 Jeff Clement Seattle Mariners
#326 Jimmy Shull Oakland Athletics
#327 Daniel Carte Colorado Rockies
#328 Travis Buck Oakland Athletics
#329 Chris Volstad Florida Marlins
#330 Andrew McCutchen Pittsburgh Pirates
#331 Cliff Pennington Oakland Athletics
#332 John Mayberry Texas Rangers
#333 CJ Henry New York Yankees
#334 Ricky Romero Toronto Blue Jays
#335 Aaron Thompson Florida Marlins
#336 Cesar Carrillo San Diego Padres
#337 Jacoby Ellsbury Boston Red Sox
#338 Matt Garza Minnesota Twins
#339 Colby Rasmus St. Louis Cardinals
#340 Ryan Zimmerman Washinton Nationals
#341 Ryan Braun Milwaukee Brewers
#342 Brent Lillibridge Pittsburgh Pirates
#343 Jay Bruce Cincinnati Reds
#344 Matt Green Arizona Diamondbacks
#345 Brent Cox New York Yankees
#346 Jed Lowrie Boston Red Sox
#347 Beau Jones Atlanta Braves
#348 Eli Iorg Houston Astros
#349 Chaz Roe Colorado Rockies
#350 Mystery Redemption

*Cards #325-349 can also be found as variations.

To add an interesting twist the the 2005 Bowman Heritage set, Topps included another insert set in honor of it's original 1951 Topps Heritage Blue Back and Red Back set. Topps reproduced the original set very nicely with some of the biggest names in baseball for the 2005 season. The set contains 106 cards total, 52 Blue Backs, and 54 Red Backs.

A 31 card "Pieces of Greatness" relic set featuring some of 2005 baseballs top stars such as Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, along with an actual piece of Game Used Equipment on the card. The set can also be found in two different parallel variations, one called "Rainbow" and limited to 51 of each card, and a second called "Rainbow Red" which again is a 1/1 set, making each card unique.

A 31 card "Future Greatness" relic set featuring some of 2005 baseballs top prospects along with an actual piece of Player Worn Jersey on the card. The set can also be found in two different parallel variations, one called "Rainbow" and limited to 51 of each card, and a second called "Rainbow Red" which again is a 1/1 set, making each card unique.

In my limited experience, it seems the relic cards in 2005 Bowman Heritage were commonly found with less than perfect centering on the front.

2005 Bowman Heritage Pack Wrapper

(Click the image for a larger scan of the back)

2006 Bowman Heritage Jon Papelbon autograph