This ball isn't that ball ... but imagine if it was.

That was my first thought when I dug out this one from my reserves for this Collecting Game-used series last night as St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas was two outs away from a career game -- a no-hitter that came up one strike short of reality -- Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

My second thought was, man, how much has the game-used world changed in just a few years with a couple new touches from MLB and MLB Authentication? The MLB Film Room didn't exist back when this baseball was used -- details below -- and the notation on the authentication is pretty basic ... real basic. That's been improved since then, too. This is a game-used ball with some nice use to it (came from a grab-bag style box) and with a couple of MLB All-Stars attached from a game a little earlier in their careers. Since there was no Film Room then I can't instantly call up a clip of the play and see it in action ... though there's a chance the game is online somewhere. I've been spoiled being able to photo-match or at least see videos for almost every ball I've had here recently ... I'll let the basics tell the story on this one this time.

Keep reading to see the details.

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Now that we know what the 2018 Topps Heritage baseball card checklist looks like, we can now ponder the possibilities for errors and variations that are an homage to the 1969 Topps set that this one is modeled after.

And it's that set from the past -- one with a number of errors made back then -- that can offer the clues when those are compared to who appears on the set slated to arrive next week.

One favorite mistake that wasn't corrected back in 1969 probably won't get an homage in this one as Heritage is merely a 500-card set. The 1969 Topps Aurelio Rodriguez -- one that famously shows batboy Leonard Garcia -- is card No. 653. (Maybe we'll get that one in Heritage High Number?)

Keep reading for a few possibilities among the first 500 cards from 1969 ...

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