Baseball & Bubblegum
The 1952 Topps Collection
by Tom Zappala and Ellen Zappala
with John Molori
Foreward and Contributions by Joe Orlando
Baseball Fanatics, History Buffs, and Collectors Will Love This Book
Baseball & Bubble Gum: The 1952 Topps Collection details the most iconic postwar baseball set in hobby history. With the end of World War II, the advent of television, and an explosion of love for our National Pastime, the players making up this historic collection became bigger than life. Mantle, Berra, Robinson, and Spahn are just a few of the stars who helped Americans forget the ravages of war and who opened the door to Major League Baseball’s desegregation that was closed for so many years.
Ben Franklin Award Winner, Silver Medal, 2021
Baseball Fanatics, History Buffs, and Collectors Will Love This Book
Baseball & Bubble Gum: The 1952 Topps Collection details the most iconic postwar baseball set in hobby history. With the end of World War II, the advent of television, and an explosion of love for our National Pastime, the players making up this historic collection became bigger than life. Mantle, Berra, Robinson, and Spahn are just a few of the stars who helped Americans forget the ravages of war and who opened the door to Major League Baseball’s desegregation that was closed for so many years.
Ben Franklin Award Winner, Silver Medal, 2021
A Peek Inside The Book
The player narratives in this book give you a glimpse of what life was like for these athletes during and after World War II. Many of these men fought overseas, and some of them were even Purple Heart recipients. All of the 407 cards in the set are presented in full color along with a narrative about the player and their stats. Organized in chapters by the Hall of Famers, the Commons, and the Uncommons, it’s interesting to see that the love of baseball was the common thread between players like Hall of Famer Duke Snider; an uncommon player like Bobby Shantz, who, although not in Cooperstown, had a wonderful career; and a typical common player like Jim Busby, who played day in and day out without any fanfare.
The last chapter of the book discusses the great appeal of the 1952 Topps set; how the collection was developed; the nuances of particular cards, along with their scarcity, popularity, and in some cases, the card value. This set became the template for card collecting, and it is still going strong after 68 years. Kids and adults have been trading and collecting their favorite players for years. Today, collecting has become a big business, but when all is said and done, we are all still kids who love those little cardboard pieces of art. This book is a fun read for baseball lovers, card collectors, and baseball historians. Grab yourself some bubble gum, sit back, and enjoy the journey into the decade of “The Whiz Kids,” “Dem Bums,” and “The Bronx Bombers.”
A Peek Inside The Book
The player narratives in this book give you a glimpse of what life was like for these athletes during and after World War II. Many of these men fought overseas, and some of them were even Purple Heart recipients. All of the 407 cards in the set are presented in full color along with a narrative about the player and their stats. Organized in chapters by the Hall of Famers, the Commons, and the Uncommons, it’s interesting to see that the love of baseball was the common thread between players like Hall of Famer Duke Snider; an uncommon player like Bobby Shantz, who, although not in Cooperstown, had a wonderful career; and a typical common player like Jim Busby, who played day in and day out without any fanfare.
The last chapter of the book discusses the great appeal of the 1952 Topps set; how the collection was developed; the nuances of particular cards, along with their scarcity, popularity, and in some cases, the card value. This set became the template for card collecting, and it is still going strong after 68 years. Kids and adults have been trading and collecting their favorite players for years. Today, collecting has become a big business, but when all is said and done, we are all still kids who love those little cardboard pieces of art. This book is a fun read for baseball lovers, card collectors, and baseball historians. Grab yourself some bubble gum, sit back, and enjoy the journey into the decade of “The Whiz Kids,” “Dem Bums,” and “The Bronx Bombers.”
Baseball & Bubblegum
‘Baseball & Bubblegum’— A Fun, Informative Look at Iconic 1952 Topps Set, July 2020
“Thanks to the husband and wife team of Tom and Ellen Zappala, you can own a high-grade, 1952 Topps baseball card set for $35.
Well, sort of.
The Zappalas have put the iconic baseball card set into book form in a colorful, coffee table-sized format that includes photographs of all 407 cards and interesting sidebars. That includes the first Topps card of Mickey Mantle, one of the most coveted cards of the post-World War II era.
There have been books that have shown individual photographs of the entire 1952 Topps set — Frank Slocum’s 1994 effort, Baseball Cards of the Fifties, comes to mind (I guess that means I have two pristine 1952 Topps sets now, in addition to the ragged condition, uncompleted real-life set I own) — but Baseball & Bubble Gum offers more. Call it a more sentimental look, almost as if it were seen through the eyes of a 1950s kid collecting cards.”
‘Baseball & Bubblegum’— Midwest Book Review, August 2020
“A beautifully reproduced coffee-table style volume compiled by the team of Tom and Ellen Zappala, and with the assistance of John Molori, and an ideal gift for any and all dedicated baseball fans, “Baseball & Bubble Gum: The 1952 Topps Collection” is unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and academic library 20th Century American Popular Culture collections in general, American Baseball History collections in particular.”
‘Baseball & Bubblegum’— SMR Magazine Review, August 2020
Buy the Book
Baseball & Bubble Gum:
The 1952 Topps Collection
First Edition, 2020
ORIGINAL PRICE $35.00
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