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Posted By: warshawlaw

The history of certain periods of the game has more or less turned me off of collecting cards from certain eras. I realize that there are a lot of "base ball" buffs here, but I am not enamored of the really old time game. I have a smattering of old-time cards but I generally prefer post-1903 baseball and baseball cards. My favorite era of the game from an historical standpoint is probably the twenty or so years after integration because the opening of the sport to minorities and foreign players greatly boosted the overall quality of play. You could field a heck of a team of black and hispanic players who debuted in that period and would not have been allowed to play before 1947: Mays, Clemente, Aaron, Robinson, McCovey, Banks, Gibson, etc. The earlier eras of segregated baseball had to have suffered qualitatively. Plus, I think the early Topps and Bowman cards are among the nicest ever made. From a sheer aesthetic standpoint, I'll take the 1953 Bowman, 1954 Topps and 1956 Topps sets over most any others.