Posted By:
Ted ZanidakisDD......"We have vehement disagreement."......mellow out, guy.
I saw all three play during the '50s an throughout the '60s. And, although I've always been a
Yankee fan, I enjoyed watching all of them play. I had no favorites, in their individualistic ways
they had different styles of play. That added to the enjoyment of the game in enormous ways.
Same goes for Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. When Ted would hit HR's into the RF upper deck
of Yankee Stadium, I was a happy kid. Hey....his name was TED, so I cheered for him. As, I al-
ways knew the Yankees would win at the end of the season, anyhow.
Now, why is the 52T Mantle card so popular. It goes back to the late 1970's when the hobby
was just starting to get popular. There was a monthly BB card price guide called Card Prices
Update (CPU). It only covered post-war cards with special emphasis on the Topps cards. The
1951 Bowman Mantle wasn't even recognized as his real 1st card. Topps Mantle and Rose cards
were being hyped and this CPU guide was fostering the hype. Meanwhile, the 51B Mantle was
valued at only $100.
About the same time (1980) an auction in Philadelphia sold three 52T Mantles for an unprece-
dented amount of $10,000. This was publicized on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
From then on, the rest is history in this hobby regarding the "mystique" of this Mantle card.
TED Z