Fifties Friday: 1951 Bowman

Topps was just entering the baseball card market in 1951 while Bowman had several year's worth of experience under their belt. Bowman had been adding cards to their sets and it grew again in 1951, up to 324 cards. They also stretched the cards' vertical height, from 2 1/2" to 3 1/8". The cards again featured color pictures painted from photographs. A black box with the player's name was added to the front of the cards, which I like.

There were 19 Cubs in the set. Bowman gets a big thumbs down for reusing six of the Cubs pictures from the 1950 set in the 1951 set.

Here are the six reruns next to the cards from 1950. This will also give you an idea of how much taller the 1951's were.







This is actually the third time the Lade picture was used; it first showed up on this 1949 card.



.....back to the reruns.....






The rest of the cards feature original pictures. Bowman continued to feature a majority of the Cubs in their home uniform.



The card says "Forrest" by most knew him as "Smoky."







Looks like this one was taken during spring training.



Another spring training shot?