Best Baseball Card by Position – Center Field

Wow, is this position loaded with Hall of Famers or what?  Ty Cobb, Willie Mays, Tris Speaker, Mickey Mantle, Joe D., Duke Snider, Billy Hamilton, and Kirby Puckett are several of the names enshrined in Cooperstown. 

You look at those names, and if you were picking the best center fielder of all-time, you could easily select someone like Ty Cobb or Willie Mays.  But we’re selecting the best center fielder baseball card of all-time.  And this is an easy one.

Arguably the most iconic baseball card of all-time is Mickey Mantle’s 1952 Topps rookie card (some say that the Bowman card was his rookie card, but whatever, this was Mantle’s first Topps card.)  So many Yankee fans, and baseball fans in general, look at this baseball card with remembrances of their own younger days and associate it with following their baseball idol on t.v., the radio or in old Yankee Stadium. 

A whole generation of baseball fans grew up following, and wanting to play like, this boy from Oklahoma.  And could that boy ever play.  Although injuries hampered his career, dramatically some would say, he still managed to hit 536 career homers, some of which are recorded as the longest ever in old Yankee Stadium.  

 So it’s no wonder that when baseball cards began to boom, along with everything else after WWII, kids looked at this 1952 Topps baseball card as the brass ring of all baseball cards.   

Most kids mother’s threw away their baseball cards from the 1950s after they moved out of their parents’ house.  For those that didn’t, and those that have this card, they are holding a collectible treasure.  If the card is in any kind of decent condition, it can sell on the open market for thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars today.