This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/10/2017
"There is no sound in baseball akin to the sound of (Mickey) Mantle hitting a home run, the crunchy sound of an axe biting into a tree, yet magnified a hundred times in the vast, cavernous, echo making hollows of a ball field." - Arnold Hano in Baseball Stars of 1958. He wasn't the greatest player who ever lived, not even of his time perhaps. He was a center fielder of surprising swiftness, a switch-hitter of heart-stopping power, and he was given to spectacle: huge home runs his team, the New York Yankees, invented the tape-measure home run. Yet, for one reason or another, he never became Babe Ruth or Joe DiMaggio—or, arguably, even Willie Mays, his exact contemporary. But for generations of men, he's the guy, has been the guy, will be the guy. And what does that mean exactly? A woman beseeches Mantle, who survived beyond his baseball career as a kind of corporate greeter, to make an appearance, to surprise her husband. Mantle materializes at some cocktail party, introductions are made, and the husband weeps in the presence of such fantasy made flesh. It means that, exactly. It's easy to account, at least partly, for the durability and depth of his fame: He played on baseball's most famous team during the game's final dominant era. From Mantle's rookie season in 1951—the lead miner's son signed out of Commerce, Okla., for $1,100—to his injury-racked final year in 1968, baseball was still the preeminent game in the country. This was baseball before cable, and a nation's attention was not scattered come World Series time. Year in, year out, men and boys in every corner of the country were given to understand during this autumnal rite that there really was only one baseball team and that there really was only one player: No. 7, talked with a twang, knocked the ball a country mile. But it was more than circumstance that fixed Mantle in the national psyche; he did hit 18 World Series home runs, a record, over the course of 65 of the most watched games of our lives. Just as Mantle was the shooting star and zenith of Baseball the offered card hails as without question the finest NM/MT 8 ever graded by PSA! I understand that is a strong statement, believe me this card can stand up to that grandiose assessment and then some! First inspection of this exceptional pasteboard instantly reveals that the enthusiast isn't handling just any 1951 Bowman Mantle but rather The finest 1951 Bowman Mantle he has witnessed including specimens graded at a time where a less obtrusive standard was utilized. The offered recently graded behemoth provides four pinnacle endpoints that appear as pillars of greatness, each a perfectly formed and untainted ninety degree angle void of any wear at all and each easily achieving the MINT 9 qualification. The surface of this regal card offers a kaleidoscope of color with the deep blue of the young slugger's Yankee cap meshing perfectly against the light blue and white pillow like clouds of the backdrop, as well the slate gray of the the Bronx Bombers away uniform is offset by the flesh-tones in Mick's face. All of this stunning color is captured in a perfectly applied hue and registration of image and held captive underneath a scintillating layer of gloss. The centering is astute for the opined grade and measures 60/40 from east to west. The reverse acts in concert with the obverse with a perfectly printed blue and red inked bio cast upon a subtle gray stock that is void of any disturbance. A card that in the opinion of this auctioneer is completely miscast in its opined grade and that should have been assessed at minimum a half grade or more in advance of its offered state. If you are a collector of the finest, the featured keepsake is a collectible that no excuse will ever be needed, yet a joyous and prideful ownership will be the only feelings exuded by the new steward. Offered in exceptional and unrivaled strong NM/MT 8 condition by means of a PSA assessment of which we vehemently disagree and will offer our own grade of MINT condition!