1955 Topps - Al Kaline

Al Kaline's career could be described as the ideal career. Baseball had a renaissance in the '50s. It took a while after the war to get ramped up again, but with integration and television, the booming economy, and the arrival of some of baseball's biggest stars, the sport careened into the modern age. These days, teams scout out young players and are eager to sign them - even pay them big bonuses - and get them into their pipelines. Scouting and farm teams were part of the game before the '50s, but the money driver and competition for talent at the amateur level just wasn't there. As the money came rolling int the sport, so came the race for talent. So Al Kaline's career began as one of these first big signings. As a high school senior, teams approached him with competitive offers. He signed with the Tigers the day of his graduation. And he was on an major league field as an 18-year-old by the end of that season.

Al continued his ideal career by being a consistent all-around star of the game. He played for the same team for the entirety of his 22-year career, was known as "Mr. Tiger," and was elected to the Hall of Fame his first year on the ballot. He then moved into an equally long and celebrated career as his team's TV announcer (alongside George Kell). Not many players get an opportunity to do even some of the things that fit the ideal career script. Al Kaline did them all.

It was his TV work that I knew. As I mentioned in the earlier George Kell post, they were a great team. They had an easy professionalism informed by years of first-hand experience. And they seemed to enjoy each other, and their jobs, even when the teams were bad.

The card is a '55 Topps, Al's 2nd card. Topps put a lot into the '55 and '56 cards - two picture, a portrait and an action, the signature, and the team logo. The back feature two colors, aand was packed with information (including defensive stats). At this time, Topps was still messing around with the size of the cards. Like the Bowman TVs of the same year, these were slightly bigger than the dimensions Topps eventually settled on. The '56s were nearly the same except, instead of the gradient background, the background was the scenery of the action shot (much better). You can see that the condition of mine is not great. But I wouldn't afford/pay for one of better quality. Even so, the condition turned out better than what I thought it would be based on what I paid for it.