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1954 Bowman Baseball
Cards
At
only 224 cards, 1954 Bowman is a unique set. Due to Bowman’s fierce
competition with Topps, Bowman established exclusive contracts with Hall of
Famers Mickey Mantle, Roy Campanella, Robin Roberts, and Pee Wee Reese.
Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Whitey Ford, and Bob Feller are also found in
the set, as well as the rookie card of Yankee favorite, Don Larsen.
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However, the one that got away was Ted Williams. After returning from the
Korean War, Williams signed an exclusive contract with Topps. As a result of
this contract, Bowman was forced to pull card #66 of Williams from its set and
replace it with a card of Jimmy Piersall (who was also featured on card #210).
This short-printing of the Ted Williams card created one of the most
sought-after cards of the hobby's modern era. |
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As with the 1953
set, 1954 Bowman cards measured 2-1/2 by 3-3/4 inches.
The card fronts feature a
color photo as in the 1953 sets, but they were accompanied by a small color box
at the bottom corner which housed a facsimile autograph of the player. The only
other element featured on the front of the card was a white border.
On the back,
Bowman added a trivia question across the bottom of each card, as had been done
with the 1953 Topps set. The answer to the question ran just below the player’s
statistics. |
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Interestingly,
Bowman numbered all its 1954 cards based on the player’s team. A rotation
was used where every sixteenth card in the set featured a player from the
same team. For instance, the Yankees had card 1, 17, 33, 49, etc; the Red
Sox were on cards 2, 18, 34, 50, etc. Each team set has fourteen cards.
Due to
competition with Topps, the 1954 Bowman set was printed so fast that almost
20% of the cards issued had statistical errors. Bowman later corrected these
errors. Thus, there are a large number of variations in the set. In
addition to the Ted Williams card, there are several other variations worth
noting as well:
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Purchase 1954 Bowman Cards Here!
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