1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle - PSA 5

Presented in Excellent condition, Sotheby’s is honored to present this print of baseball’s most recognizable modern card: the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle.

Sports trading cards, specifically baseball cards, would not be what they are today without the pioneering efforts of Sy Berger. Often referred to as “the father of modern day baseball cards”, Berger is most known for his work on the 1952 Topps Baseball Card Set, which he co-designed alongside fellow Topps employee and co-creator of Bazooka Joe, Woody Gelman. 

The 1952 Topps set is widely known and recognized as one of the most popular sports trading card products ever produced. The front of each card boasts stunning full color portrait photography accompanied with team logos and facsimile signatures that lay beneath the depicted players name. Turning the card over would show, for the first time, complete player statistics and additional biographical information specific to the player. A truly historic and trend setting release at the time, its checklist ran up to 407 individual cards, which earned it the distinction of being the largest set released to date. The set boasts 27 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame including the rookie debuts of Hoyt Wilhelm (#392) and Eddie Mathews (#407). While both cards hold immense value, nothing stands close to the #311 Mickey Mantle. 

In an effort to keep interest in the set and the sport of baseball in general, Topps intended to release the set in six waves throughout the 1952 Major League Baseball season. Unfortunately, when it came time to release the high-number sixth series, public attention had shifted. Lack of interest greatly impacted the sale of the final series and ultimately resulted in entire cases of the product going unsold and being returned to Topps. The unsold cases would sit in Topps’ storage for nearly ten years when in 1960 Berger and Gelman decided that the remaining cases would be disposed of and dumped into the Atlantic Ocean. 

Dramatic as the means were with so much product leaving circulation, the result was an extreme scarcity for those high-number cards #311-#407. At the time no one would have thought, not even Berger himself, that these cards would go down as one of the most highly sought after sets in sports card collecting history. Yet today, well-preserved prints of Mickey Mantle’s 1952 Topps rookie card will always be found near or at the top of the hobby, including this Type 1 offering. This example boasts a beautifully colored front with minor surface wear. The corners show small signs of rounding although fully intact, and the back of the card presents exceptionally well without any noticeable flaws.

This card has been authenticated and deemed to be in Excellent condition, receiving a grade of 5 from Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA). 

The PSA certificate number for this card is: 90072069.

Going Deeper - Mickey Mantle

The Mick

On April 17, 1953, two years to the date after their center fielder’s Major League debut, the New York Yankees were in the nation’s capital facing off against the Washington Senators at the legendary Griffith Stadium. On this day, the phrase “tape-measure home run” was born off the bat of possibly the most singularly talented player in the history of the sport. 

Going in, Senators left handed starting pitcher Chuck Stobbs certainly knew he would be making some kind of history that day, after all it was his debut in a 9-year run with the franchise. Of course, it is pretty unlikely he expected that first act to be remembered the way it would. In the 5th inning of a close game, Yankee superstar Mickey Mantle managed to muscle a baseball completely out of the confines of the historic ballpark. In fact, the ball was launched so far it landed in the backyard of a house on Oakdale Street. At a recorded 565 feet, it would become the second farthest hit home run in MLB history behind only Yankees Hall of Famer, Babe Ruth. This singular moment is only a mere glimpse into the astonishing career of “The Mick”, a resume loaded with many historic moments.

Mantle spent a majority of his younger years in Commerce, Oklahoma, a place he was fiercely proud of as he would come to be known as “the Commerce Comet”. Before he was sending baseballs out of major league stadiums, Mantle was a true multi-sport athlete participating in baseball, football, and basketball while a student at Commerce High School. If it was not for Mickey's father Charles, who was adamant about him being a professional baseball player, and an injury the young Mickey suffered in 1946 that nearly cost him his leg and his life due to osteomyelitis, there’s a chance Mickey would have accepted the football scholarship offered to him from the University of Oklahoma. While just a 15-year-old kid in 1947, Mantle would make the drive over the border during the warm summer months to Kansas to play for the semi-professional Baxter Springs Whiz Kids. Despite his youth, Mantle looked like the man amongst boys and the next season was discovered by New York Yankees scout Tom Greenwade. After waiting until high school graduation to sign, Mickey penned his first deal with the Bombers in 1949, a minor league contract paying just $140 per month.

After being declared physically unfit for the Korean War in 1950 due to a preexisting medical condition, Mantle clobbered his way through the minor leagues and would earn a spot on the opening day roster. On April 17, 1951 the fresh-faced teenager donned the number 6 pinstripes jersey and launched the Mantle era. 

That fall, Mantle and the Yankees defeated the rival New York Giants in the World Series. Unfortunately, Mantle’s first time on the games biggest stage was cut short due to a knee injury that he sustained in the second game of the series. Mantle didn’t let this deter his spirits as he would return the following season and take home back-to-back World Series rings by topping the Brooklyn Dodgers. When it was all said and done, Mantle appeared in 12 World Series and claimed victory in seven of them. An integral part of the Yankees World Series success each year, he still holds all-time World Series records for home runs (18), runs batted in (40), extra-base hits (26), runs (42), walks (43), and total bases (123).

In 1956, Mantle earned the first of three American League MVP awards when he captured the elusive Triple Crown by leading baseball in batting average (.353), home runs (52), and runs batted in (130). Mickey is one of only four ball players to ever be named to 20 All-Star Games and he would represent the Yankees with each of his remarkable 536 career home runs. Worn down by the fatigue of near constant injuries over the course of his 18 years of MLB service, Mantle hung up his spikes for the last time in 1968. Appropriately, the plaque that immortalizes him at Yankee Stadium refers to him as “a magnificent Yankee who left a legacy of unequaled courage.”

On August 12, 1974 Mickey Mantle was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first ballot as possibly the greatest outfielder to play the game.