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Shop by tag To enable this, create a smart collection named All Products and set the condition to 'Product price is greater than 0'. You can create a collection through the 'Collections' menu in Shopify admin. Please feel free to contact Kevin Glew at if you have any additional information or comments. Thank you to Greg Rice and Robert Edward Auctions for providing cards for this article. Please note that the Population Report figures quoted and Set Registry rankings reported are those as of April 2019. The fact that the original Home Run Derby episodes were replayed on ESPN in 1988 and 1989 and again in primetime on ESPN Classic in 2009 has also inspired more interest in these singles.
"When I got home, I started counting them and there were 20 different cards - 19 different players and the host. And there were 20 complete sets." Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (February 5, 1934-January 22, 2021) established himself early in his career as one of the greatest power hitters in baseball. Aaron had humble beginnings near Mobile, Alabama, but found that sport offered a way out of the cotton fields – which, by the way, helped to build up the strength in his hands for his powerful and effortless swing. Henry’s focus as a teenager seemed to lean more towards sport that his studies and his skill on the baseball diamond allowed him to abandon school for greener pastures like the Negro Leagues. His performance as a member of the semi-pro Mobile Black Bears earned him a spot on the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. It has been estimated that Aaron hit .366 with five home runs and 33 RBI in 26 Negro League games before catching the eye of two Major League franchises, the New York Giants and the Boston Braves.
Atlanta Braves Legend #3
Each show would end with the host presenting each player with their prize checks , and would award separate checks for consecutive home run bonuses. These were actual bank checks, not the jumbo "display" checks typically used today. For example, if the winner hit three homers in a row, they would receive one check for $2,000 and another for $500 instead of one check for $2,500. As an incentive for throwing good home-run-hitting balls, the pitcher who threw the most pitches for home runs also received a bonus, according to the host. Home Run Derby is a 1960 television show that was held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles pitting the top sluggers of Major League Baseball against each other in nine-inning home run contests. The show was produced and hosted by actor/broadcaster Mark Scott and distributed by Ziv Television Programs.
The highest grades currently listed are PSA 8 (NM-MT), with only eight of those reported. Mantle, the set’s key player, appears the most in the Pop Report , and even mid-grade slabbed versions can bring $15,000 to $20,000. Hodges and Dodgers teammate Duke Snider experienced limited success on the TV show, but they did contribute to a World Series title over the Chicago White Sox in 1959.
Collecting 1959 Home Run Derby Cards
When you are not batting, talk baseball with the host while the other takes his licks. If you are looking for the glitz and glamor of Today's HOME RUN hitting contests, then you better look elsewhere. This charming little series is nothing more than two guys hitting baseballs on a summer day, trying to best the other guy. Although the competition is serious, and for serious (well, serious for the day!) cash, no one seems to take it too seriously.
Each of the show’s episodes matched two of the era’s top sluggers who alternately hit for “nine innings” to see how many dingers they could blast. “Outs” consisted of any pitch not hit for a homer or any called strike — three “outs” to an inning. For more information on the 1959 Home Run Derby Baseball card set, please visit PSA CardFacts.
Graded
That’s the only thing that kept Willie Mays and me from being teammates – fifty dollars.” The Boston Braves signed Aaron as a free agent in 1952, and he was shipped to the Eau Claire Bears of the Northern League. Mantle was unfortunately struck down my infection during the race for Ruth's record and finished the season with 54 dingers while Roger Maris topped The Babe on the final day of the season in Boston. But, during the chase, just as Mantle had experienced in New York after replacing the beloved Yankee Clipper, Maris struggled with the press and was portrayed as surly and "not a true Yankee" as many believed Mantle should have been the one to top Ruth's record. However, Mantle stood by Maris and helped him through all of the unwarranted criticism. Mickey played 18 years with the New York Yankees and lived a hard life of partying and carousing, not wanting to miss out on anything as he assumed he would suffer an early demise just as his father had and his grandfather before him.
Episode winners took home $2,000, with bonuses for three or more straight homers in an inning. Hank Aaron won six of seven contests and the most money, $13,500 (or around $132,000 in 2022). The Los Angeles Dodgers will host the MLB All-Star game on July 19 and many batters will look to launch a home run or two at Dodger Stadium in hopes of helping their team win the Mid-Summer Classic. "At the end of the day, I think they attracted stronger interest than we anticipated, but we definitely expected the set to bring a big number in total."
Red Sox Retired Number 4 – Hall of Fame player and Manager Joe Cronin
Yet, all that info aside, after so many decades it likely will continue to be known as a 1959 offering. Several all-star batters will take similar swings on Monday during the fan-favorite Home Run Derby, an All-Star Game staple since 1985.
Normally listed as a 1959 set, it really should be labeled a 1960 collection. The copyright year on the episodes reads 1960, and the cards debuted during that season. The American Motors Corporation sponsored the show and distributed a 20-card Home Run Derby trading card set featuring all of the program’s hitters. The issue presumably found its way to collectors through prospective vehicle buyers (and their families, with kids likely along for the “car-buying ride”) at AMC dealerships. The inaugural MLB Home Run Derby was held in 1959 in a minor league ballpark in Los Angeles.
Upon retirement, he joined the Braves head office and since 1980 has served as the senior vice president and assistant to the Braves president. Henry Louis Aaron was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. In 1999, the Hank Aaron Award was created to honor each league’s most effective hitter. That same year, The Sporting News placed him fifth on their “100 Greatest Baseball Players” list. In 2002, President George W. Bush presented Hank with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1953, Henry was promoted to the Jacksonville Braves of the South Atlantic League and he once again proceeded to tear up pitching as he led the league in batting average (.362), runs , hits , doubles , RBI and total Bases .
Nineteen players, including nine future members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, participated in the series — "almost all the power hitters of the era." Other than the regular cards and reprints, however, there is not a lot memorabilia that exists revolving around the program. Perhaps the most common item of the era to supplement one’s “Derby Display” shows up in the April 9, 1960 issue of TV Guide — a program ad picturing Mantle and Mays.
