T1955 Bowman Baseball Cards

Bowman's 1955 baseball card set turned out to be its last - at least, until another company produced cards under the Bowman name many years later.

The cards from this set are easily distinguishable from other Bowman sets or, indeed, any other card maker or year, due to the unusual design of the card fronts to look like television sets.

Each card in the 1955 Bowman baseball set resembled a contemporary television front, complete with screen surrounded by woodgrain, and even a small area at the bottom with two knobs and a plaque that says, 'Color TV.' Presumably this was Bowman's attempt to capitalize on the popularity of televised baseball games.

Within the TV-screen area was a color photo of the player, with his last name in a small white block superimposed (sometimes inexpertly) over the photo. Each card front was horizontal.

Card backs did away with the more segmented design of the previous year. At the upper left was black block of text that held a small cartoon of a baseball glove containing the card number in pink, as well as the player's name (in cursive), position, and team. A paragraph of biographical text took up most of the left side of the card, with basic player information in a small section to the upper right, and a tilted pink box containing basic player statistics below that.

The 1955 Bowman baseball card set contained 320 cards, each measuring 2-1/2"x3-3/4".

This set included 31 umpire cards.

Some high-number cards are short-printed and thus more scarce.

Prominent players in this set include Phil Rizzuto, Al Kaline, Pee Wee Reese, Bob Feller, Yogi Berra, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Ernie Banks.