Book Description

Baseball & Bubble Gum: The 1952 Topps Collection details the most iconic postwar baseball set in hobby history. With the end of World War II, the advent of television, and an explosion of love for our National Pastime, the players making up this historic collection became bigger than life. Mantle, Berra, Robinson, and Spahn are just a few of the stars who helped Americans forget the ravages of war and who opened the door to Major League Baseball's desegregation that was closed for so many years.Each player narrative in this book gives you a glimpse of what life was like for these athletes during and after World War II. Many of these men fought overseas, and some of them were even Purple Heart recipients. Organized in chapters by the Hall of Famers, the Commons, and the Uncommons, it's interesting to see that the love of baseball was the common thread between players like Hall of Famer Duke Snider; an uncommon player like Bobby Shantz, who, although is not in Cooperstown, had a wonderful career; and a typical common player like Jim Busby, who played day in and day out without any fanfare.The last chapter of the book discusses the great appeal of the 1952 Topps set; how the collection was developed; the nuances of particular cards, along with the scarcity, popularity, and in some cases, the card value. This set became the template for card collecting, and it is still going strong after 68 years. Kids and adults have been trading and collecting their favorite players for years.Today, collecting has become a big business, but when all is said and done, we are all still kids who love those little cardboard pieces of art. This book is a fun read for baseball lovers, card collectors, and baseball historians. Grab yourself some bubble gum, sit back, and enjoy the journey into the decade of "The Whiz Kids," "Dem Bums," and "The Bronx Bombers."