New Rookie Cards for Jackie Robinson?
As the man who broke Baseball's color barrier, Jackie Robinson holds a singular place in Hobby history as one of the sport's most significant players ever. Not surprisingly, he is also one of the Hobby's most collected all-time greats, both in terms of his playing era cardboard and his more modern issues.
Perhaps surprisingly then, Hobby consensus around Jackie Robinson's rookie cards has largely been ambiguous at best or incorrect at worst. For the most part, collectors with an interest in the topic have landed in one of these three camps.
- As it was Robinson's earliest "major release," his 1948 Leaf card is his true rookie card.
- Hold on a minute! If his Leaf card really came out in 1949, then wouldn't his 1949 Bowman card also be a rookie card?
- Who cares about "major release?!" Robinson's rookie card is any of his various 1947 Bond Bread issues, if not his 1946 Parade Sportive!
As reported for Collectibles on SI by my colleague John Newman, fresh research on the 1948 Leaf set drives a stake through the first of these three propositions. Brian Kappel, author of the book RE:LEAF, through his review of legal documents, has produced rock solid evidence that the Leaf set was not released until March 1949. (Specifically, the first shipment of cards left Chicago for Boston on March 14, 1949.)
As the copyright date on the Robinson card reads 1948 and the biographical details on the card clearly reference Jackie's 1948 season, one might wonder why collectors would have ever presumed the card was from anything but a 1949 issue. However, there are at least two good reasons for collectors to have been wrong for so long.
For one thing, several other cards in the set such as Joe DiMaggio's card #1 bear a 1948 copyright date. For another, many of the Hobby's most trusted authorities (PSA, SGC, and Trading Card Database, for example) have long catalogued the set as 1948 Leaf or 1948-49 Leaf, a tradition going back at least as far as Hobby godfather Jefferson Burdick and his American Card Catalog. If the experts say it's 1948, who are we to think otherwise?
Of course, tradition is one thing and reality is another. With the Leaf set now unambiguously a 1949 issue, the Jackie Robinson card is just one of several presumed rookie cards worthy of a second look. (Among the others are Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio, and Warren Spahn.) So just what does this second look reveal?
Factually, we now know that Jackie's first Leaf card and first Bowman card each came out the same year, namely 1949. If nothing else, this quashes any notion of the Leaf card reflecting Robinson's "true rookie card," a phrase you will still see in eBay listings, auction catalogs, and the PSA website. Provided all earlier releases are written off as "minor," then we have two true rookie cards for Jackie Robinson.
At the same time, the determination of rookie cards for older cardboard is still more subjective than precise. Many collectors ignore modern rookie card requirements such as "major release," in which case the reclassification of the Leaf set as a 1949 issue has no bearing at all on Jackie's rookie cards. These collectors were on Team Bond Bread (1947) or Parade Sportive (1946) all along and can happily ignore the news.
Other collectors do care about the "major release" criterion but differ on which card sets qualify for it. For example, a small number of collectors, myself included, have argued that the 1948 Swell Gum "Sport Thrills" set is major. As this set just happens to include a Jackie Robinson card, such collectors might rightly claim that the Leaf card's newfound demotion make the Swell card Jackie's one true rookie card.
Thus, depending who you ask, there are still multiple schools of thought as far as Jackie's rookie cards are concerned.
- Damn the facts! The "1948" Leaf is still Jackie Robinson's one true rookie card.
- Okay, so the Leaf is a 1949? Then I guess Leaf and Bowman are both Jackie's true rookie cards!
- See, I told you it was 1948 Sport Thrills!
- Um, you do realize Jackie had cards in 1947, right? (Not to mention 1946!)
It will almost certainly take some time for the Hobby to sort all this out. However, I do believe the 1949 Bowman and 1948 Sport Thrills cards are well on their way to earning some long overdue acclaim as Robinson rookie cards just as I believe the Leaf card must now get used to sharing the spotlight. Regardless of what happens, there is really only one certainty: ALL JACKIE CARDS ARE AWESOME!
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.