15 Most Valuable 1955 Bowman Baseball Cards
1955 Bowman Baseball Set Snapshot
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- #1
1955 Bowman #202 Mickey Mantle
PSA 5 Value $2,200Total PSA Population 5,636PSA 5 Population 641PSA 5 Grade Rate 11.4% (Set Avg: 12.5%)The 1955 World Series was effectively lost on Mickey Mantle’s day-to-day availability.
One year before, the Yankees were left out of the World Series altogether despite posting a better record than any of their championship teams since 1939 (103-51).
The ’55 Yankees couldn’t match that regular season success (96-58), but still pried their sixth pennant in seven years out of a heated pennant race with Cleveland and Chicago.
Mantle was elite on the run to October, leading all of Major League Baseball in WAR (9.5) and walks (113) while topping the American League in home runs (37), triples (11), on-base percentage (.431), and slugging percentage (.611).
He would have been MVP in a modern vote, yet finished fifth in a stacked awards field.
It should have kept going through the Series, but Mantle suffered a hamstring injury that limited him to just three games.
The 23-year-old center fielder had just two hits in ten at-bats, and New York fell in seven to rival Brooklyn.
- #2
1955 Bowman #184 Willie Mays
PSA 5 Value $725Total PSA Population 3,635PSA 5 Population 420PSA 5 Grade Rate 11.6% (Set Avg: 12.5%)In late 1954 and early 1955, the Puerto Rican League witnessed perhaps the greatest outfield duo ever.
As a favor to New York Giants coach Herman Franks, Willie Mays made the trip down South to join Franks’ Santurce Crabbers for a tour.
This put him in the same clubhouse and the same stretch of grass with a budding, 20-year-old Puerto Rican prospect named Roberto Clemente.
Clemente received a fine bit of tutelage from Mays, and the Crabbers also got a Caribbean Series title out of the reigning NL MVP to go along with a league-best .393 batting average.
Despite the rigors of a daunting schedule and a full offseason, Mays returned in fine form to New York and put together another MVP-style year.
The 24-year-old center fielder paced the Senior Circuit in home runs (51), triples (13), slugging percentage (.659), and OPS (1.059), to go along with NL-best marks in WAR (9.2) and OPS+ (174).
- #3
1955 Bowman #179 Hank Aaron
PSA 5 Value $650Total PSA Population 3,873PSA 5 Population 522PSA 5 Grade Rate 13.5% (Set Avg: 12.5%)The Milwaukee Braves knew they had something remarkable in Henry Aaron right away.
However, you wouldn’t have known it if you talked to the kid.
Aaron was always a shy, intelligent fellow who spoke softly and carried the proverbial big stick.
While that may have flown in different times, the racial tensions of the 1950s left Braves executives worried that their fan base would get the wrong impression.
Rightfully or wrongfully, a marketing manager decided it would make sense to call “Henry” Hank to make him feel more part of the community.
And from then on, the story of Hank Aaron was ready to be told.
1956 was a fantastic chapter in that book.
Rather than settling into a sophomore slump, Aaron blossomed into an All-Star, slashing .314/.366/.540 with 27 home runs, nine triples, 105 runs, 106 RBIs, and an NL-best 37 doubles in 153 games.
The 21-year-old finished ninth for MVP, his first of thirteen top-ten placements.
- #4
1955 Bowman #242 Ernie Banks
PSA 5 Value $425Total PSA Population 1,522PSA 5 Population 210PSA 5 Grade Rate 13.8% (Set Avg: 12.5%)Ernie Banks’ humility and grace are what endeared him to the Chicago Cubs fan base right away, and eventually made him the only “Mr. Cub” that could ever make sense.
It helps that Banks was one of the greatest hitters ever to play.
He was also an extremely clutch player for a snake-bitten franchise that didn’t have much else clutch about it.
In 1955, Banks, a ’54 Rookie of the Year runner-up, set a record that few know about (yet it remains extremely impressive nonetheless).
On September 19th, the first-time All-Star and third-place MVP finisher cracked a moonshot grand slam off of St. Louis Cardinals hurler Lindy McDaniel.
It was his fifth grand salami of the year, a new MLB record.
“Naturally, I knew I needed another one to break the record, but I never dreamed it would happen to me,” Banks said.
“Then the kid gave me a fastball that was a bit outside, and I knew it was gone as soon as I hit it.”
- #5
1955 Bowman #168 Yogi Berra
PSA 5 Value $200Total PSA Population 1,879PSA 5 Population 265PSA 5 Grade Rate 14.1% (Set Avg: 12.5%)The Brooklyn Dodgers finally got one over on the big-brother New York Yankees in 1955.
And of course, it came with plenty of Big Apple-sized drama and controversy.
In Game One, Dodgers wunderkind Jackie Robinson stole a crucial run away from the Yankees with a theft of home.
According to Yankees catcher Yogi Berra, the tag was well in time, and Robinson was gunned.
The home-plate umpire disagreed, and Berra blew up with a show of screams, jumps, and points.
He even continued to sign photos of the play years later with the simple statement, “He was out.” Brooklyn won that game, 6-5, and took the Series in seven with a 2-0 Game 7 triumph.
Berra had a chance to reverse the decision in the sixth inning of the decisive game, but was robbed with a breathtaking catch by Dodgers left fielder Sandy Amoros.
It was an uncharacteristically bitter ending to a great season for Berra, one that came complete with a third career AL MVP award.
- #6
1955 Bowman #23 Al Kaline
PSA 5 Value $130Total PSA Population 2,498PSA 5 Population 395PSA 5 Grade Rate 15.8% (Set Avg: 12.5%)The number “200” had magic powers for Al Kaline in 1955.
This was the year that the Detroit Tigers’ right fielder really made his mark.
After finishing third for AL Rookie-of-the-Year in his age-19 campaign, Kaline skipped several career steps to become the Junior Circuit’s most feared hitter.
It started with a blazing April during which Kaline hit .453 and posted a 14-game hitting streak.
This momentum carried through his first All-Star Game and to the end of July.
At that time, Kaline topped the American League in multiple offensive categories, including batting average, hits, homers, runs, and RBIs.
A tough slump followed, but Kaline stayed vigilant.
He kept his eyes on the #200 for 200 hits, a mark that no Tigers hitter had reached in over a decade.
With a round number in his crosshairs, Kaline busted the funk and won his first batting title with a .340 average and 200 hits exactly.
In doing so, he became the youngest batting champion in history, one day younger than Ty Cobb in 1907.
- #7
1955 Bowman #134 Bob Feller
PSA 5 Value $100Total PSA Population 1,164PSA 5 Population 185PSA 5 Grade Rate 15.9% (Set Avg: 12.5%)Come 1955, Bob Feller wasn’t the Bob Feller that Cooperstown would eventually celebrate.
Arm issues, age, and simple overuse had taken their toll.
The workhorse who led the league in innings five times and posted six top-eight MVP finishes was now relegated to long relief and spot starts in his age-36 season.
Now, Feller wasn’t bad in that reduced role.
The 36-year-old Cleveland Indians righty made 25 appearances (11 starts), pitching to a strong 3.47 ERA in 83 innings pitched.
Feller’s strikeout pitch was compromised by wear (25 Ks), but he had enough junk and expertise to contain hitters in short bursts.
It’s wild to think that, nine years before this, Feller led the Majors with 371.1 innings pitched.
However, it makes sense considering that Feller’s arm strength looked all but zapped in his age-36 campaign.
One year later, his arm tank would completely empty, and Feller would retire as one of the most dominant and durable starting pitchers of all time, late-career swoon notwithstanding.
- #8
1955 Bowman #103 Eddie Mathews
PSA 5 Value $90Total PSA Population 1,376PSA 5 Population 232PSA 5 Grade Rate 16.9% (Set Avg: 12.5%)The Milwaukee Braves didn’t win the pennant in 1955, but you could forgive the fan base for feeling pretty good about things.
The young duo of Eddie Matthews and Henry “Hank” Aaron took a full star turn in ’55, posting concurrent top-ten NL finishes in home runs, slugging, runs scored, total bases, and more.
They weren’t quite ready to lift the Braves past the Dodgers for NL supremacy, but you could tell a guard change wasn’t too far off.
Both Mathews and Aaron picked up All-Star appearances and MVP votes, and Mathews even hit the 40-homer mark (41) for the third consecutive year.
The 23-year-old third baseman was far from an all-or-nothing slugger, either, leading all of the National League with 109 walks.
Milwaukee finished 85-69 on the year, in second place but 13 games behind Brooklyn.
It would take two more years, but the Braves would finally make the leap in 1957, capturing the franchise’s first World Series championship in 43 years.
- #9
1955 Bowman #68 Elston Howard Rookie Card
Rookie CardPSA 5 Value $90Total PSA Population 776PSA 5 Population 119PSA 5 Grade Rate 15.3% (Set Avg: 12.5%) - #10
1955 Bowman #315 Cal Hubbard
PSA 5 Value $85Total PSA Population 393PSA 5 Population 57PSA 5 Grade Rate 14.5% (Set Avg: 12.5%)There is one man who can claim a spot in the Pro Football and National Baseball Hall of Fames.
His name is Cal Hubbard.
From 1927 to 1936, Hubbard terrorized NFL offenses as one of the most accomplished defensive tackles/ends of the pre-Super Bowl era.
In fact, his active play at all levels has led many to credit him as the first true professional linebacker.
Directly after he retired from football, Hubbard signed on with Major League Baseball as an American League umpire.
He spent sixteen years building seniority before transitioning into an umpire supervisor role in 1951.
Three years later, the man known as the “Big Umpire” became a top supervisor — a job he’d hold for another fifteen years.
Over his 42 years in the NFL (9) and Major League Baseball (33), Hubbard was a visionary.
In 1955, baseball continued to implement its recent changes to the umpiring tree, clearly defining each umpire’s role while maintaining an extra umpire on each traveling staff.
- #11
1955 Bowman #37 Pee Wee Reese
PSA 5 Value $85Total PSA Population 1,461PSA 5 Population 227PSA 5 Grade Rate 15.5% (Set Avg: 12.5%)After five consecutive World Series losses to the New York Yankees to start his career, Pee Wee Reese finally got his championship moment on try #6.
The 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers bounced back from a pennant miss the year before to bring home the franchise’s third NL flag in four years.
Reese remained one of the most integral players in the game at 36 years old, posting his seventh career top-ten MVP placement.
Reese’s glove work at shortstop and know-how as the quarterback of the infield were irreplaceable.
His bat wasn’t half bad either.
The soon-to-be Hall-of-Fame slashed .282/.371/.403 with ten homers, 29 doubles, 78 walks, 99 runs, and 61 RBIs in 145 games.
In the Series, Reese hit .296 to buoy the offense in a gut-twisting seven-game showdown.
Things eventually ended in the most poetic way possible: a Reese shovel and swing over to Gil Hodges to gun Elston Howard and finally free the Yankees monkey off the Dodgers’ collective backs.
- #12
1955 Bowman #22 Roy Campanella
PSA 5 Value $80Total PSA Population 2,174PSA 5 Population 339PSA 5 Grade Rate 15.6% (Set Avg: 12.5%) - #13
1955 Bowman #283 Nestor Chylak
PSA 5 Value $80Total PSA Population 356PSA 5 Population 49PSA 5 Grade Rate 13.8% (Set Avg: 12.5%)If there were even an episode of Baseball Rulebook Jeopardy, the ghost of Nestor Chylak would clean up.
Before umpires had tablets, computers, and phones to study the game and hammer down the rules, umps were forced to either read for lesser-known disputes or make judgment calls based on what they remembered.
Of course, that led to a ton of disputes and bad calls that were upheld without recourse.
Yet, you didn’t have to worry too much about that with Chylak.
In fact, the longtime senior umpire had nearly every baseball rule and regulation memorized down to the final pieces of punctuation.
And if managers and players still weren’t happy, Chylak’s affable demeanor and singular wit often defused any real confrontations.
“Few have ever been more respected in his field,” MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn said after Chylak’s passing in 1982.
“Everyone looked up to him.”
- #14
1955 Bowman #59 Whitey Ford
PSA 5 Value $70Total PSA Population 1,761PSA 5 Population 280PSA 5 Grade Rate 15.9% (Set Avg: 12.5%)The New York Yankees dynasties of the 1950s and 1960s were headlined by the Mickey Mantles and Yogi Berras of the world.
But, it was their pitching that often proved most vital in keeping the rest of the Majors at arm’s length.
At the top of that exceptional staff was Whitey Ford, one of the most crafty and dominant lefties of any era.
In 1955, Ford’s fourth year in the Bronx, the 26-year-old lefty began to stretch out his generational talents.
That included back-to-back one-hitters in September, only the fifth time in MLB history a pitcher had made that happen.
It was the cap of a sensational year during which Ford papered over shortcomings elsewhere with clutch start after clutch start.
Overall, Ford finished with a league-high 18 wins against 7 losses, pitching to a 2.63 ERA in 253.2 innings.
The 26-year-old completed an AL-leading 18 of his 33 starts, five of which were shutouts.
The now two-time All-Star even notched two saves.
- #15
1955 Bowman #10 Phil Rizzuto
PSA 5 Value $70Total PSA Population 1,437PSA 5 Population 248PSA 5 Grade Rate 17.3% (Set Avg: 12.5%)Phil Rizzuto wasn’t the power hitter or the staff ace.
What he did for the New York Yankees was even more important.
The man known as “Scooter” was the connective tissue for nine pennant winners and seven World Series champions.
Rizzuto never hit more than seven home runs in a year and didn’t touch 70 RBIs.
What he did was all the little things.
He was a top-shelf bunter, an elite base thief, a reliable contact hitter, a brave clutch hitter, and one of the most slick-fielding shortstops the game has seen.
The little guy in front of me made my job easy,” former teammate and star center fielder Joe DiMaggio said.
“I didn’t have to pick up so many ground balls.” By 1955, Rizzuto’s body was giving out.
The 37-year-old played just 81 regular-season games, a new career low by far.
However, he did manage to play all seven in the World Series, hitting .267 with five walks in the seven-game loss to Brooklyn.
