Famous Names 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.

Southpaw Babe Ruth was born George Herman Ruth in 1895 Baltimore Maryland. He served three separate baseball teams over his career as both a pitcher and an outfielder. Sports Illustrated Magazine named him the best baseball player of the entire twentieth century.

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.

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 was a first baseman and center fielder for the Yankees for 18 seasons in the middle of the 20th century. The combination of hepatitis, cirrhosis and liver cancer meant that Mantle received a life-saving liver transplant. He later founded an organization with the mission to inform the public of the issues surrounding organ donation.

Tyrus Raymond Cobb, the "Georgia Peach, " was born in a small rural farm community in December 1886. An outfielder for the Detroit Tigers for the first 22 years of his career in American Major League Baseball, Cobb retired after a stint with the Philadelphia Athletics. A film about his life was made in 1994 and starred Tommy Lee Jones.

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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