This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/15/2020
Imaged as an 18-year old rising star, Mickey Mantle had been lauded by manager Casey Stengel as the heir apparent to Joe DiMaggio and Bowman responded by granting a horizontal format to introduce his arrival in their 1951 series. Although he didn't quite live up to the billing in his rookie season, he blossomed into a strong contact hitter. But it wasn't until his fifth full season that he started to display superior power numbers, winning the first of his four American League batting titles in 1955. One of the defining cards from the decade of the 1950s if not all of baseball card history, presented is a fine mid-grade example of Mickey Mantle's true rookie card from the 1951 Bowman issue. Much sharper around the perimeter than just about any other in its grading class, the EX/MT quality endpoints and rugged rough cut along the top horizontal edge counteract the usual centering bias toward the lower right and light stray print under Mantle's bat and the right of the bottom of his jersey number. The reverse is problem-free and presents like a NM specimen. If you can find a sharper example with better eye-appeal of this all-important card at this grade level, we'd certainly love to see it.