1959 Fleer Ted Williams Baseball Cards

In 1959, Fleer introduced their first full baseball card set, devoted to the great Red Sox outfielder. Fleer had been producing non-sports sets for some time (at least since Cops and Robbers in 1935); and had even created a 60-card set of athletes and other celebrities, including Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, in 1923. But this set would be the beginning of their attempts at producing real baseball cards for the modern market.

The entire set was devoted to the career and life of slugger Ted Williams. This was by no means the first or only baseball card set.

There were 80 cards in this set, each measuring the standard 2-1/2"x3-1/2".

Card fronts featured color (and colorized) photos showing important moments from Williams's life, with a wide white border surrounding the photo along the card edges. A small cartoon baseball-and-bat log with 'Ted Williams' inside was superimposed to the side, inline with the border; at bottom was the card caption.

Card backs featured a blue band across the top with the card number in the crown-shaped (now familiar) Fleer logo to the left, flanked by 'BASEBALL'S GREATEST - Ted Williams'. Below that is a white block with a cartoon silhouette of a batter to the left, and a block of text about Williams's life dominating the rest. At the bottom is a pink band with a small paragraph describing the photo from the card front. All card backs were horizontal.

Card #68 was stopped after the initial (or possibly second) printing, and is thus much more scarce than other cards in the set. Counterfeits have been known to circulate within the hobby.