The Best Baseball Set Of All Time
"What is the Best Single Baseball Card Set of All Time?"
The answer is, of course, subjective and completely in the eye of the beholder. Some prefer the pre-war Goudey or cigarette cards. Some prefer early 1950's Bowman or Topps. Some prefer modern cards, such as the initial offering from Upper Deck in 1989 or the current hot baseball prospect de jour.
For me, the answer is the 1957 Topps Baseball Set. 407 cards of sheer bliss. Only a few missing stars (Maris, Musial, among others). The beginning of an era: Industry standard 2.5 x 3.5 inch card sizes ; Full frontal color pictures ; Career statistics on the reverse of the card. The end of an era: The last year of the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
But the thing that seals it for me is a great memory from my childhood. My father collected baseball cards as a child, but most of these were lost in a house fire long before I was born. As part of father-son time, as a young child I began to collect cards and go to baseball card shows with my pops. We got to meet and spend some time with great players and great people, among them Ernie Banks, Brooks Robinson, Ron Santo, and Bob Feller, just to name a few. Oh yeah, 1957 Topps happens to be Brooks' rookie card as well.
When I was about 8, a paralegal that worked with my father heard about my love of baseball and collecting. He had just sold a tremendous collection that he had since he was a child. Most of his collection was quite high grade (in the days long before PSA and BGS came along to quantify grades for cards), but he had quite a few beaters as well. The high end buyer did not want his cards, but 8 year-old me sure did. He was a complete gentleman and gifted me my first 1957 Mantle and 1957 Aaron. These two iconic players happened to have won their league MVP's in 1957, and both had interesting quirks to their cards. Mantle's card was famously airbrushed to remove a player in the background, and Hammerin' Hank's card was an even more famous reverse negative showing him batting left-handed.
I still have these cards. The Mantle, creased with severely rounded corners, paper loss, and torn edges. The Aaron with a big crease and a piece of gum lodged onto the front of the card. They are still securely fastened inside of inch-thick lucite screwdowns, which are really more suited to be a doorstop than a baseball card holder.
The answer is, of course, subjective and completely in the eye of the beholder. Some prefer the pre-war Goudey or cigarette cards. Some prefer early 1950's Bowman or Topps. Some prefer modern cards, such as the initial offering from Upper Deck in 1989 or the current hot baseball prospect de jour.
For me, the answer is the 1957 Topps Baseball Set. 407 cards of sheer bliss. Only a few missing stars (Maris, Musial, among others). The beginning of an era: Industry standard 2.5 x 3.5 inch card sizes ; Full frontal color pictures ; Career statistics on the reverse of the card. The end of an era: The last year of the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
But the thing that seals it for me is a great memory from my childhood. My father collected baseball cards as a child, but most of these were lost in a house fire long before I was born. As part of father-son time, as a young child I began to collect cards and go to baseball card shows with my pops. We got to meet and spend some time with great players and great people, among them Ernie Banks, Brooks Robinson, Ron Santo, and Bob Feller, just to name a few. Oh yeah, 1957 Topps happens to be Brooks' rookie card as well.
When I was about 8, a paralegal that worked with my father heard about my love of baseball and collecting. He had just sold a tremendous collection that he had since he was a child. Most of his collection was quite high grade (in the days long before PSA and BGS came along to quantify grades for cards), but he had quite a few beaters as well. The high end buyer did not want his cards, but 8 year-old me sure did. He was a complete gentleman and gifted me my first 1957 Mantle and 1957 Aaron. These two iconic players happened to have won their league MVP's in 1957, and both had interesting quirks to their cards. Mantle's card was famously airbrushed to remove a player in the background, and Hammerin' Hank's card was an even more famous reverse negative showing him batting left-handed.
I still have these cards. The Mantle, creased with severely rounded corners, paper loss, and torn edges. The Aaron with a big crease and a piece of gum lodged onto the front of the card. They are still securely fastened inside of inch-thick lucite screwdowns, which are really more suited to be a doorstop than a baseball card holder.
Comments
Post a Comment