Since Topps still claimed exclusive use of current player photos sold with gum products, Fleer went with a set it called Baseball Greats from all eras of baseball. The players in the set spanned from the 1800s (Cap Anson) through the present (Ted Williams), even getting several recently retired stars like Bob Feller and Ralph Kiner. Unfortunately, the design and choice of player photos failed to impress kids when it came out.
There are 79 regular cards in the set, plus one variation. Nearly every person who appeared in the set is now in the Hall of Fame. There were players, managers, executives and two commissioners included. However, some were featured in old-timer or unfamiliar uniforms, and many were well past their major league playing days in the images.
Card fronts feature a picture. Some were in color, but most were black-and-white photos with color added by machine. A solid-colored -- blue, green, red or yellow -- octagonal shape frames the picture. The player's name appears at the bottom of the card. A few cards are horizontally arranged. The backs have a short biography and the career batting or pitching statistics for the players. At the top, a crown inside a box shows the card number, with the words "Baseball Greats" and the person's name, date of birth (and in some cases, his death) to the right.
Today, the concept of a set made up of great players from the past is fairly common, but it was a new idea in 1960. It wasn't a big hit with kids, though. They may have known about Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Lou Gehrig, but weren't overly impressed by having old men from old-timers' day or executives in suits on their cards.
Despite those negatives, 1960 Fleer offers a way for many collectors to add inexpensive cards of big-name stars to a collection without shelling out huge amounts of cash. This is especially true for players like Ruth, Gehrig and Cobb, whose contemporary cards fetch enormous prices.
Although only 79 cards are listed in the set, there are known cards of Joe Tinker, Eddie Collins and Lefty Grove with a #80 Pepper Martin back. It's likely that a Martin card was planned but scrapped because Fleer was unable to get permission from him to use his image. These variations are scarce (though Grove/Martin is more common) and are not considered a part of the complete set.
Key 1960 Fleer Baseball Cards:
 |
 1960 Fleer 70 Bobo Newsom PSA 6 (1992) $12.00 |
 1960 Fleer 67 Hughie Jennings PSA 5 (5656) $9.00 |
 1960 Fleer 17 Ernie Lombardi PSA 6 (5603) $14.00 |
 1960 Fleer 46 Eddie Plank PSA 6 (5419) $14.00 |
1960 Fleer Baseball Card Checklist
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Top 25 Singles
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