This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/16/2015
With 19 retired numbers, the New York Yankees are undoubtedly the most storied franchise in sports history. What's even more amazing than the sheer number of immortalized players to don the pinstripes is the seamless transition of one great icon to the next, as if the team was designed to pass the torch over the course of a century. Beginning with the acquisition of Babe Ruth in 1920 and his pairing with Lou Gehrig three years later, the Yankees embarked on an incredible run of championships that vaulted them to the status of sports royalty. By the time Ruth was finished destroying the record books and Gehrig had hung up his cleats in 1939, a new superstar named Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio had emerged to carry the Yankees into a new generation of greatness. DiMaggio led the Yankees to another decade of baseball dominance, as baseball enthusiasts anxiously waited to see who would be the next legendary pinstriper for the Bronx Bombers to showcase on their mantle. Who better than a guy whose name was actually Mantle? Considered one of the most important baseball cards ever produced and the preeminent rookie card of the post-war era, presented is a museum-quality 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle rookie card, graded PSA 8. The lead card in high-number series, Mantle's pasteboard often took the brunt of the punishment dished out by starry-eyed children who idolized their heroes but were lacking when it came to caring for the cards that portrayed them. To this day, there are a significant amount of cards in this series with a higher population at PSA 8 than that of the Mantle, though as many as three to five times more Mantle cards have been submitted to PSA. The offered card can easily stand as a centerpiece to any collection and is one of the finest examples to hold a grade of NM/MT. The centering is superb, just a slight touch toward the top horizontal edge but well within the limits of the PSA 8 classification and likely qualifying for the next highest grade. A pleasing central image of the teenage icon offers excellent registration, with well-defined flesh tones and the deep blue of the Yankees cap and partly cloudy sky contrasting with the gray pigment of his away jersey. The four corners consistently project at or even slightly above the stringent standards required for the grade. The reverse only serves to confirm PSA's conclusion, offering strong red and blue print on a spotless gray cardboard canvas. This is one of the few issues in existence that, in this grade, immediately catapults any collection to the status of "world-class."