1948 Leaf Baseball: The Final Nail in the Coffin
My colleague John Newman reported back in September on a new book by Brian Kappel and its implications for the iconic baseball card set known conventionally as 1948 Leaf. Since that time, there have been a number of follow-up articles here on this site, in the New York Times, and at SABR Baseball Cards, all examining the impact of Brian's most provocative finding: that none of the set's cards were issued until the spring of 1949.
In some instances, being off by a year in the cataloguing of a set wouldn't be too big a deal. In this case, however, there are at least two reasons why the reclassification of "1948 Leaf" to "1949 Leaf" is a really big deal.
First off, as profiled here on SI, the Leaf set is one of the five most iconic vintage baseball card sets of all-time. As such, any detail surrounding its origin, checklist, variations, etc., is newsworthy. Second, the set just happens to include real and/or supposed rookie cards for some of the greatest players of all time.
But seriously, just because an author said so in a book, are we really going to undo decades of conventional wisdom? I mean, what if Brian got it wrong? How do we really know there weren't at least a few early shipments that might have hit shelves in late 1948?
Here's how. Just last week, Chicago attorney and collector John Racanelli, whose series of articles Death and Taxes and Baseball Card Litigation won the prestigious McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award in 2023, published his independent review of the entire and original 1949 Bowman vs. Leaf case file. Echoing author Kappel's claims, this was Racanelli's conclusion.
As it pertains to the hobby, the evidence and admissions in the court documents make it clear that Leaf began distributing its All-Star Gum cards on March 14, 1949. Accordingly, this set should not be considered a “1948-1949” issue. Despite the 1948 copyright on the backs of cards, none of these cards were issued to the public in 1948.
- John Racanelli
So is it official then? Will collectors stop calling these cards 1948 Leaf? Not so fast! In truth, the Hobby has always been slow and stubborn to change, its canon built as much on lore and vested interest as on facts and evidence. Though cards today are big business, the Hobby remains an arena where someone posting on a collecting forum about his friend's grandpa vaguely remembering Leaf packs in his Christmas stocking in 1948 trumps sworn statements of company executives, evidence submitted by the parties, and the court's finding of fact. If there ever were a realm where we "print the legend" every time, it's the Hobby!
Nonetheless, for those collectors who genuinely do care what year one of the Hobby's five most iconic vintage sets came out, we have reached a point—thanks to Messrs. Kappel, Racanelli, and others—well beyond debate or opinion. The Leaf set dates to 1949 and only 1949, full stop. What collectors make of that inconvenient truth remains up to them.
Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.