Category: 1951 Bowman Baseball

1951 saw Bowman increase the size of their set again, this time bumping the total number of cards to 324. This increase resulted in the most important set that Bowman created. Included in this year were rookies of 2 of baseball’s greatest of all time: Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. Also included is the rookie card of Whitey Ford, who was Mantle’s teammate and a Hall of Fame pitcher for the Yankees. Bowman slightly increased the size of the card for the 1951 set, but kept the familiar color art reproduction of actual color photographs. The fronts finally included the player’s name on them. Backs look similar to previous Bowman sets, with he player’s name, team, and biography. Cards in the series were both vertical and horizontal. Besides the super stars previously mentioned, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, and Duke Snider were also included. The “high number” series (#253-324) are scarer and more valuable than the other series.