'52 Bowman Tigers Team Set, It's a Priddy Thing

I have a new collecting goal, and it's to work on Tigers team sets from my favorite vintage sets: 1950-1952 Bowman. The art card years. The best damn designed sets of the '50s in this blogger's humble opinion. You'll find a new link at the top of the page noting what I have, and if you have anything not listed there, I'm very interested in trading, and I have some nice vintage I could send back your way.

Toward this pursuit, I snagged a very nice lot off eBay a while back. This lot included Tigers cards, all from the '52 Bowman set.

Neil Berry spent his five best seasons with the Tigers, and he's a Kalamazoo native, WMU alumni, which is where I teach. On top of that, he has a classy signature. Love the way the N and B connect.

Ted Gray had an all-star season with the Tigers in 1950. In this card, we get to enjoy what looks like his all-star pit stains. Ted's a Michigan native, too. Gotta dig all the homegrown talent of this Tigers team.

Fred Hutchinson was also an all-star and played all ten seasons of his career with the Tigers. He finished with a lifetime 95-71 win record. I believe we have a bona fide semi-star here. This card is dark, full of shadows, and Fred looks grim. Only one dude in the stands to witness his stoic pose.

Dick Littlefield was born and died in Detroit. This card features Bowman's signature blue skies and fluffy clouds background.

More blue skies for Pat Mullin, who spent his whole career with the Tigers.

Jerry Priddy's signature and his card might be one of the coolest ones in the set. We get the blue skies again, and Jerry's towering over us. Love the horizontal here. Everything about this card just makes it a perfect example of why this set rocks. I think this is my favorite of the bunch. Priddy got a great card, but Bill James wrote about him having kind of a tough life, in his book What Ever Happened to the Hall of Fame? Has any one read this? It sounds good.

Pretty tough to follow up Jerry Priddy's pretty card, but here's Bob Swift emerging from stage right, creeping under the shadows of the stands. It feels right to end this post with a catcher. And a long-time catcher at that--a 14-year career catcher who never played any position but catcher. The only thing that would make this card better would be if Swift was wearing his gear.

So that wraps it up for the lot. This eBay win knocked a big chunk of '52 Bowman Tigers off my list, but I still need a few more. If you have any to trade, let me know and I'll send you some good stuff.