The 1997 Topps baseball card set was released at the start of the 1997 baseball season and contained images of players and teams from the 1996 MLB season. Some key notes about the 1997 Topps checklist:
The set contains 792 total cards including regular player and rookie cards as well as manager, coaches, prospect, team, and league leader cards. The design of the cards featured a blue background with team logos prominently displayed at the bottom like in previous years. Topps continued its trend of including fewer cards per pack compared to the late 1980s/early 1990s with just 5-6 cards per pack on average.
Rookie cards of future Hall of Famers Chipper Jones, Derek Jeter, Jim Thome, Jeff Bagwell, and Nomar Garciaparra were included in the set. Other top rookies featured were Todd Hollandsworth, Jason Kendall, Paul Konerko, Robb Nen, and Todd Williams. Top veteran players showcased included Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., Tony Gwynn, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and John Smoltz among many others.
The chase cards in the 1997 Topps set included #1 Ken Griffey Jr., #69 Mark McGwire (in honor of his then-record 69 home runs in 1998), #420 Daryl Strawberry, and #777 Mariano Rivera. Parallel inserts like Diamond Kings paralleled popular players by position. The Topps Finest subset featured glossy photo variations of 100 stars.
For the first time, Topps included autograph cards randomly inserted in packs. The 1997 Topps Autographs checklist featured signatures of past and present players like Nolan Ryan, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Pete Rose, Barry Larkin, and Dennis Eckersley among others. Major League Materials autograph cards contained swatches of game-used fabric also.
Topps Traded was released mid-season as always and showcased updated rookie cards, stars from playoff teams, and traded players in new uniforms. The Traded set was much smaller than the base issue at just 132 cards but provided late-season additions. Select parallels like Goldparallels and Sepia parallels numbered to 50 or less featured some of the stars in the Traded subset.
In 1997 Upper Deck featured rookie cards of Andruw Jones, Todd Helton, and Jason Varitek among others but began to lose popularity to more inserts and parallels offered by Topps and Leaf who continued trying new insert ideas. Score also released a smaller 490 card base set but focused more on promotions instead of chasing Topps.
The 1997 season saw the Cleveland Indians defeat the Florida Marlins in the World Series 4-3, led by Series MVP José Mesa. Other top performers featured included Roger Clemens’ AL-best 21 wins, Larry Walker’s NL-best .366 average, and Ken Griffey Jr.’s 56 home runs. The Baltimore Orioles drafted high school shortstop Derek Jeter who would go on to cement his status as a baseball icon.
While smaller in size than 1980s issues and less flashy than modern ultra-chrome parallels, the 1997 Topps baseball card set remains a solid reflection of the players and teams from that season. Rookies of future Hall of Famers and chase hits like autographed cards added excitement for collectors at the time and many of the cards remain affordable for collectors today seeking to build sets from the 1990s era.
