The official Mickey Mantle Pickup Thread. All Mick, all the time!

[brian1961]

To confirm and identify the other tantalizing cards The Mint Man chose to photo, I believe that Howard has indeed nailed the 1969 Topps Super Baseball Mantle. The others are an O-Pee-Chee "Baseball Stars" Set A 1937 Joe DiMaggio, 1941 Play Ball DiMag, and a 1960 Home Run Derby Mickey Mantle. The year I've given for the latter is not a misprint on my part; rather, the conclusion of my research into this amazing black 'n white set. I devoted chapter 8 to the Derby set, and this happens to be the other set that Rich Mueller ran on Sports Collectors Daily. I'm rather certain those adroit among us can Google it, and find the saved article/chapter. Rich was rather taken with my findings, and he and I were hoping to drum up a little business. Didn't work, but he gave it the old college try, for which I am grateful to him.

By the way, there was one major card the Mint Man chose not to include in the photos, the Piece de Resistance of Barbara's collection. When Alan Rosen had the celebratory photo snapped of buying Barbara Grossman's massive Yankee collection, a smiling Barbara was holding thick wads of hundred-dollar bills, while Mr. Rosen had one arm at his chest holding three of the cards, and, with his other arm around Barbara, he held up one card, the crown jewel---the subject of chapter 13 of my book, a Mickey Mantle card so beautiful, so fascinating, and so profoundly rare in high grade, I gave it the deserving name, THE MALTESE FALCON OF BASEBALL CARDS. If you're fortunate to own a copy of Mr. Rosen's second and last book, TRUE MINT, you will find this celebratory photo on page 63. Not to be flagrantly coy, but if someone wishes to load up a scan of the photo, I'd be grateful. My tech expert is away, and I figured Mr. Rosen won't mind anymore, and there might be a few curious Mantle connoisseurs out there who might enjoy this photo from the fall of 1987...... ---Brian Powell