The first couple years of Topps cards were pretty great, but the 1954 Topps Baseball set went from good to great for several reasons. Unfortunately, it lost Mickey Mantle from the checklist because Bowman had signed the Yankees slugger to an exclusive contract for 1954 and 1955.
The best player and the most collectable player in the history of the sport, was not waving a Topps flag in 1954. Bowman and Topps were in a heated battle to sign the biggest names to exclusive contracts. Topps won most of the contract battles because they reportedly offered $125 to each player for their card rights, while Bowman offered just $100.
Even though they lost Mantle, there are some amazing rookie cards that are on the 1954 checklist, making this one of the strongest card-collecting rookie classes in sports card history! The thought is that since Topps had to battle for players, they had to go a little deeper into MLB rosters for their checklists, which brought us some great rookie cards!
This is a series we’ve created where we look at the most valuable baseball cards from different years in Topps Baseball history! Here are the years we’ve already covered:
As one fan favorite left Topps, another legend joined Topps – as they rolled out the red carpet for Teddy Ballgame! Ted Williams was in the military in 1952 and 1953, during the Korean War, even though he did play some games in both years, Topps didn’t put him on cardboard until 1954. (Williams had previously missed three full MLB seasons from 1943 to 1945 due to his service during World War II).
While Bowman was suing Topps for printing cards of players they had on contract, the senior company printed a Ted Williams card, despite a Topps-exclusive contract.
As far as the design of the cards, they have white borders on three sides of the card, but not on the top, which often makes them look off-centered from top to bottom. But they were printed so that cards with the same color background on the sheet had their tops face each other, so one was upside-down on the sheet.
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Speaking of Ted Williams, stick around to the end of this article when we share a great piece of Ted Williams trivia!
The Korean conflict had ended the previous summer, which allowed superstars like Ernie Banks, Whitey Ford, Mays, and Williams to return to the majors. Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe in January of 1954, but he was long retired from baseball by then. Mays would win the 1954 NL MVP, and his Giants beat Cleveland in the World Series. (Mays made his famous over-the-shoulder catch in this World Series!)
The St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Baltimore Orioles before 1954 (strangely, this franchise’s first MLB team was from 1901, when they were called the Milwaukee Brewers before moving to St. Louis!).
In other sports, the Cleveland Browns won the NFL Championship, the Minneapolis Lakers won the NBA title, and Rocky Marciano was still the heavyweight champ.
For our card value rankings, we’re only talking about PSA 5 slabs of these cards, and we used the values from PSA’s online price guide. The card images are provided by BuySportsCards.com. We’re not going to share weird, random cards that are expensive because of a variation.
1. Henry Aaron, Milwaukee Braves RC #128 (HOF) – $5,300
An iconic card in an iconic set, Hank Aaron’s rookie card ranks first on this beautiful set. There are FOUR players who sit atop my Topps Vintage Mount Rushmore, and the man that topped Babe Ruth’s career home run record is right there, with Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Roberto Clemente. This card is tough to find in great condition because of centering and print defects on the front and the back, according to PSA.
View 1954 Topps Hank Aaron Rookie Cards on eBay!
2. Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs RC #94 (HOF) – $2,000
Mr. Cub is waiting for a fifth face to be chiseled into that Topps Vintage Mount Rushmore! While the 1954 Topps set had several different color backgrounds, including yellow (Willie Mays), orange (Henry Aaron), green (Yogi Berra) and red (Al Kaline), Banks’ card had the white background, which really looks great with his Cubbies ballcap.
Did you know that Ernie Banks never played a single minor league game in his career? (He did play with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues before going into the Army and playing for the Cubs.) He didn’t win the NL Rookie of the Year award, but he’d go on to win back-to-back MVP awards in 1958 and 1959, and he’d finish his career with 512 home runs.
“Let’s play two!” was Banks’ famous saying, which was first printed in a story about him in the Chicago Daily News in 1969, titled, “Banks Majors’ Happiest Warrior.”
View 1954 Topps Ernie Banks Rookie Cards on eBay!
3. Willie Mays, N.Y. Giants #90 (HOF) – $1,200
Mays returned to the majors in 1954 after a full year in the Army, and 1954 would be the first time he made the National League All-Star team at just 23 years old. (He would make the NL All-Star club every year after that until his retirement in 1973, when he was 42 years old.)
View 1954 Topps Willie Mays Cards on eBay!
4. Al Kaline, Detroit Tigers RC #201 (HOF) – $1,100
Along with Aaron and Banks, Kaline would go on to play in three different decades, rewarding his card collectors with many, many base cards to collect. None, however, would be as beautiful as his rookie card, with the perfect red background for his 18-year-old face.
Mr. Tiger joined Detroit fresh out of high school, and he would go on to a 22-year career! He’d finish as a member of the 3,000-Hit Club, but just one home run shy of the 400-HR Club!
View 1954 Topps Al Kaline Cards on eBay!
5. Jackie Robinson, Brooklyn Dodgers #10 (HOF) – $1,050
Robinson was involved in many injustices during his career in the majors, after being the first player to break the color barrier in 1947. But decades later, his card collectors continue to be angry that we only got five years of Topps base cards, as he ended up retiring after the 1956 season.
View 1954 Topps Jackie Robinson Cards on eBay!
6. Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox #1 (HOF) – $750
This was the first Topps card for Williams, which makes it an even bigger deal than some of the other great rookie cards.
It’s such a shame that Ted Williams had Topps cards as a player in just five years (1954 through 1958) due to contractual obligations with other companies, and the fact Topps didn’t come around until 13 years into his career in the majors. Still, he had cards as a player with Topps, compared to rival Joe DiMaggio, who retired in 1951, literally the year before Topps baseball card sets began.
View 1954 Topps Ted Williams Cards on eBay!
7. Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox (yellow) #250 (HOF) – $650
Topps chose to print TWO Ted Williams cards, which is confusing to many. Card No. 1 to start the set was Ted Williams – and Card No. 250 to end the set was Williams again. As we’ve mentioned before, the first and last cards in a set often had condition issues because kids would often put their cards in order, then wrap rubber bands around them.
Which card do you like better, the orange background or the yellow background?
View 1954 Topps Ted Williams Cards on eBay!
8. Yogi Berra, N.Y. Yankees #50 (HOF) – $225
There’s a nice sized dropoff here, from the top-seven cards down to the rest of the set. Of course, it’s the underappreciated catcher who starts off the list of less-expensive stars.
At 29 years old in 1954, Berra was in the middle of his Hall-of-Fame career, and he won his second (of three) MVP awards this season. Actually, he was either the MVP or MVP runner-up in five of six seasons from 1951 to 1956 seasons.
View 1954 Topps Yogi Berra Cards on eBay!
9. Tommy Lasorda, Brooklyn Dodgers RC (HOF) #132 – $225
The face of the Dodgers organization in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Lasorda pitched just three years in the majors, including his first two years with Brooklyn. While he never won a ballgame in 26 major league appearances (six starts), he would go on to win 1,599 games as a Hall-of-Fame manager. He won two World Series and two Manager of the Year Awards between 1976 and 1996.
Little known fact: Lasorda was drafted by the Phillies, joined the majors with the Dodgers before being sold to the Kansas City Athletics. But in 1956, the Athletics traded Lasorda to the New York Yankees, where he pitched in the minors!
Lasorda was a YANKEES PLAYER!?!?!?!!?! 🤯
View 1954 Topps Tommy Lasorda Cards on eBay!
10. Eddie Mathews, Milwaukee Braves #30 (HOF) – $145
While Mathews was a great player, he became the second-best player on his own team in the coming years, with Hammerin’ Hank now swinging a stick in Milwaukee. This is Mathews’ third-year card, and it has gone up in price in recent years.
View 1954 Topps Eddie Mathews Cards on eBay!
Other Great Cards From 1954 Topps Baseball to Consider:
Many people know that The Splendid Splinter, Ted Williams, won six batting titles in his career (outdone by only six other players), he actually barely missed winning TWO more titles!
In 1949, Williams finished the season batting .3427, with George Kell hitting .3429. If Teddy got ONE more hit that season, he would have won the AL batting title again!
Then, in 1954, he hit .345, which was the highest in the AL, but he had just 386 at-bats – 14 short of the league minimum at the time. Williams’ league-high 136 walks worked against him, as far as batting average goes. In 1957, MLB would change the “minimum” to plate appearances, instead of at-bats, to determine batting title winners… Sooo, can’t we just go back and retroactively fix who won the batting title!?!
This is a series we’ve created where we look at the most valuable baseball cards from different years in Topps Baseball history! Here are the years we’ve already covered:
Have you picked up any of the best baseball cards from this famous 1954 Topps Baseball, or are you still hoping to pick some up, like me?
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