Thursday, January 23, 2014

The Famous Faces Behind Baseball Cards For Sale

By Marissa Velazquez


Once the sole preserve of enthusiastic school boys, baseball cards for sale are now an investment opportunity to rival precious metals, diamonds and oil. A vintage card from the rookie days of Babe Ruth was originally packaged with four others in a pack of bubble gum. That same card recently fetched more than 80 thousand dollars at auction.

Among the great names to watch out for are Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Ty Cobb and Roger Maris. Cards were there to be traded, tossed or flipped. Flipping is a simple game consisting of "flipping" a card on the floor, seeing if it lands face up or down, and then the next player trying to match the previous player's throw.

Born George Herman "Babe" Ruth, the legendary pitcher and outfielder was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1895 and died in New York City in 1948. He batted and threw left-handed. He was named the best baseball player of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated Magazine.

Lou Gehrig was a pitch hitter and first baseman for the New York Yankees for his entire 17-year career. He was known as The Iron Horse owing to his enduring stamina. His career batting average was 340. On his 36th birthday, Gehrig was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disorder that was ultimately christened, "Lou Gehrig's Disease." Gehrig had such stature with the city, that New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia had the flags of the city flown at half staff when Gehrig died in 1941.

Known almost as well for his brief marriage to Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio (1914-1999) played center field for the New York Yankees for the duration of his 13 years in major league baseball. He held the record for a 56-game hitting streak in 1941, a record which stands to this day. He had two brothers, Vince and Dom, who both played the position of center field. DiMaggio was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.

Mickey Mantle (1931-1995) was a first baseman and centerfielder for the Yankees of New York City from 1951 to 1968, a total of 18 years. Entered into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974, Mantle featured in 12 World Series, of which his team won seven. The recipient of a liver transplant for cirrhosis, hepatitis and cancer, Mickey Mantle started a foundation to raise the public's consciousness of the issues surrounding organ transplants.

"Georgia Peach, " Tyrus Raymond (Ty) Cobb was born in a small, rural community in Georgia in 1886. For the first 22 years of his pro baseball career, Cobb played outfield for the Detroit Lions. He finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. A film of his life was made in 1994 in which Tommy Lee Jones played the leading role. Clever investments in General Motors and Coca Cola enabled Cobb to establish a college scholarship for students from Georgia.

While baseball cards for sale featuring these enduring vintage names sell for huge amounts on auction sites including eBay, there are many, manly others. While the United States has the largest number of avid collectors, Japan, Cuba and Canada also make a pretty good show. The cards are adorned with the images of the fans' idols on the front, along with names and the clubs they played for. The reverse sides bear some bio info and statistics of the player's career.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment