Sports Cards Ate My Brain

 We move on to my Bowman collection, with the exception of two Tiger cards it is all Braves. I've seleted one card from each of the years I have one from and then will narrow it down to my favorite. This is here by default as my only 1949 Bowman.  I just picked this card up recently. 1950 gives us Buddy Kerr.  I chose this because the other 1950's I have are all boring portrait shots. I have to go with Del Crandall for 1951.  I have a nice collection of the Braves All-Star catcher and this is an error card also, though the name was never corrected. This 1952 Bob Chipman is a little rough but I like the stadium background. I got this lovely Johnny Pesky earlier this year along with another 1953 Bowman Color Tiger card. My only 1954 so it is here by default but I still do like this card even if it does look like someone hand cut the signature and glued it on the card. I do not have a 1955 because I hate the fake TV design.  I'm sure I will eventually pick up somet...

Like the T206 set any true baseball card collector should have a 1952 Topps card in their collection. I bought one at a card show a few years ago that covered this base and also gave me a Braves card I needed for my PC. The dealer I bought this from had boxes full of baseball and non-sports cards for $3 each.  I also bought some Beatles cards from him. 1952 Topps is far from my favorite design and I like the 1952 Bowman cards better but, as I stated, I have to have one in my collection. This is not my first Torgeson card as I also have the 1951 Bowman. I would choose the Bowman card any day.

I got my first vintage Bowman card a few years ago and have picked up several Braves cards at shows over the past 3 or 4 years.  I don't admit to liking all of the sets but I really like a few of them. The 1950 set is comes as smaller cards than standard.  I like the clean design.  This is outfielder Willard Marshall on card 73.  Here is Willard again from the 1951 set.  I like this better than the 1952 set.  The only real difference is that the 1951 set has the name on the front and the 1952 has a facsimile signature.  As you can see, these cards a little taller than the 1950 cards.  This is card 98.   I bypass the, very plain, 1953 Bowman set and pick up on 1954.  This card is only slightly smaller than the Topps cards of this era.  I have a nice Del Crandall collection.  This is card 32. The 1955 set is ugly to me.  It's the wood grain TV set.  I have one card of Bill Bruton. In my current, c...

I'm not a big fan of the larger cards that Topps produced from 1952 to 1956 so I haven't started actively pursuing Braves cards from those years.  I will eventually get around to it if I can find some good deals.  I don't have a Braves card from 1952 Topps.  1951 Topps Blue Back - Topps first baseball issue was two series of game cards.  One with red backs and one with blue backs.  They are smaller than the picture below. 12 Sam Jethroe - Sam was the Braves first African-American player and won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 1950 after leading the league in stolen bases at age 33. The back is blue.  Go figure. 1953 - I like the artwork of these cards but I think the black bar should have extended across the entire card. 197 Del Crandall - The artist gives Del a light unibrow.  Del has no stats for 1952 as he was in the military. The signature over the biographical info makes it hard to read and was is "Strike Outs" in quot...

For those of you that don't know, the Braves started in Boston in 1870 as part of the start of the National League.   They moved to Milwaukee in 1953 and Atlanta in 1966. These images are pretty much the exact size of the cards. 20 Del Crandell - Del was in the military in 1951 and 1952 before returning to the club in Milwaukee. 66 Bob Elliott - Had three 100 RBI seasons in five seasons with the Braves before being traded to the Giants. The backs feature easy to read blue text with biographical information and statistical highlights. 98 Willard Marshall -  Willard had the worst season of his career in 1950 but was in the top 10 in triples in 1951. 99 Earl Torgeson - Bowman used the same art from 1950 for this card. 135 Walker Cooper - 1951 was the second consecutive season with a .313 for the Braves main backstop. 207 Billy Southworth - Billy led the Braves to the pennant in 1948 but did not last through the 1951 season. ...