New Topps baseball card set celebrates Negro Leagues & icons

A new set of Topps baseball cards is highlighting some of the biggest names in Negro Leagues history as part of a push to bring baseball back to Nashville.

Music City Baseball, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Adidas and The Fluent Group all helped bring to life the 2021 Topps x Nashville Stars set, which is live today via Topps.com. It's a 17-card set available in eight-card packs that will only be available via Topps for the next 36 days. They will be printed to order -- the number made is the number ordered -- after that window expires.

According to Topps, the "release of these baseball cards is one of Music City Baseball’s many contributions to the Negro Leagues Museum, including revenue sharing on all promotional items sold on their website." If an MLB team is award to Nashville, it would be known as the Stars, a nod to a past Negro League team in the city.

“The launch of these cards celebrates the players and the impact they made on the world of professional baseball,” said Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in a prepared release. “It’s an exciting opportunity for us to share the history while expanding the museum’s support base.”

According to Topps, three MCB music industry advisors appear in Stars jerseys on their cards and also can be found on autographed cards in the release -- musicians Kane Brown, Luke Combs and Willie Jones. They helped choose the subjects in the set along with Kendrick. Combs opted for 18th & Vine, a prime spot in Nashville.

“The great Buck O’Neil once said ‘At 18th & Vine, you couldn’t toss a baseball without hitting a musician, and you couldn’t whistle a tune without having a ballplayer join in,'” Combs said. “I chose this story for my card because it still rings true today. Man, I love my job but it sure would be cool to trade places with a professional baseball player for a day.”

Meanwhile, Brown picked Willie Mays and Jones picked Satchel Paige. 

“The legend of Satchel is more than being one of the greatest pitchers of all time -- he knew how to bring another level of energy to the game,” Jones said. "Fans exited the stadium knowing he left everything on the field and entertained the heck out of them from start to finish. That’s what I aspire to do.”

The Fluent Group teamed with illustrator Daniel Sulzberg to bring the visuals to life. You can see a sampling of the creations as well as the full checklist below. There will be two types of parallels in the mix this time -- Rainbow foil parallels (/101) for the 101st anniversary of the league this year and then a set of /35 parallels for the 35 Negro League players in the Hall of Fame. Other notable players in the set are Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson, Josh Gibson, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and Larry Doby.

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