The Famous Faces Behind Baseball Cards For Sale

By Marissa Velazquez


The printing of baseball cards for sale goes back to the middle of the 19th century. Packaged with products as diverse as cigarettes and bubble gum, the modest little collector's items were swapped by school boys. Today, they offer a lucrative investment opportunity. A card depicting the legendary Babe Ruth sold not long ago for tens of thousands of dollars.

The items were traded, flipped, tossed and even attached to bicycle spokes using clothes pins. Just imagine fixing hundreds of hundred dollar bills on the wheels of a bike just to hear the cool sound they make. Among the famed idols whose faces graced what eventually became a license to print money were Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Babe Ruth.

Born George Herman Ruth (11895-1948), renowned outfielder and pitcher "Babe" Ruth was a south paw at both throwing and batting. Sports Illustrated Magazine named "The Bambino" the best baseball player of the twentieth century. He played for a total of 22 seasons on three separate teams.

First baseman and pitch hitter Lou Gehrig (1903-1941) played for the New York Yankees for 17 seasons (1923-1939). Nicknamed "The Iron Horse" because of his amazing stamina, Gehrig had a batting average of . 340. Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS aka Lou Gehrig's disease) on his 36th birthday, New York Mayor La Guardia ordered the flags of the city to be flown at half mast when he died on June 2, 1941.

Joe DiMaggio was almost as famous for being married to Marilyn Monroe as he was for his 13-year career with the New York Yankees at the position of center field. His 56-game hitting streak in 1941 has never been matched. He had two brothers named Vince and Dom, both of whom played professional baseball in center field.

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.

Baseball cards for sale may be found on a variety of auction sites. Countries where they are most popular are Canada, Cuba, Japan and the United States. The face of the cards would bear the image of the player, along with his name and club affiliation. The back sides would contain extra biographical information along with the players' statistics to date. Common sponsors of the cards included bubble gum manufacturers and tobacco companies.




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