1955 Bowman Ernie Banks

With my quest for the Cubs from 1955 Bowman, I was able to get the toughest one out of the way first.

Here is my 1955 Bowman Ernie Banks card. It's a little rough around the edges, but I wasn't looking for (not could I afford) a mint condition card. I'm plenty happy with this one.

In 1955, Ernie had one full season under his belt. He played in all 154 of the Cubs games in 1954. He hit 19 homers and knocked in 79 runs. For that era, that was huge production from the shortstop position. He finished second in Rookie of the Year balloting to Wally Moon, though statistically Ernie was better. Moon had a higher average (.304 to Ernie's .275) but Banks had seven more homers and three more RBIs. The most surprising thing to me is that Moon got 17 votes while Banks only received four.

On most cards of this set, there are the usual stats and bios. But a few had something different. They had an essay written by the player. Banks wrote on the best pitcher he'd ever seen. Here's what he had to say:



I wonder how much of this was actually written by Ernie. The language doesn't sound like a 23 year old kid from Texas. But it was still an interesting idea.