Fifties Friday: 1952 Bowman

I'm sure after the Bowman executives saw Topps' little cards from 1951 that they felt no pressure. Those cards didn't look like they would be any competition at all. So for Bowman in 1952 it was business as usual.

Their cards were the same size as the 1951 cards. The only design change was a facsimile autograph on the front instead of a box with the players name. The back of the card was almost identical to the previous year.

The only significant change was that Bowman cut back on the number of cards in the set, dropping from 324 to 252. The number of Cubs players was also reduced, from 19 to 16.

All of the Cubs players had new pictures, so Bowman gets some points for updating. They did, however, use pictures that showed most of the Cubs in a road uniform. None of the cards featured Wrigley Field in the background. So I'm taking away points for that!

Here are the 16 Bowman Cubs from 1952:





Don't be alarmed. The back of the card tells us, "To Cubs at press time."