1954 Red Heart Baseball Cards
Baseball cards have been issued with a wide assortment of products over the years, but 1954 Red Heart Baseball is one of the few issued in conjunction with a brand of dog food. It was available beginning in 1954 as a mail-in offer for labels of the different flavors of Red Heart, and was apparently still available through the company as late as the early 1970s. While the fact that they were still available so many years after they were issued, there was a lessened demand for the cards in the hobby for a while, but that has eased considerably. The set is now considered to be one of the classic sets of the decade.
1954 Red Heart Baseball has just 33 cards. They were issued in three separate series of 11 unnumbered cards. Each series was given a distinctive solid background color behind the player's picture: blue, green, or red. Red background cards are the toughest.
A diamond-shaped box appears below the player with the player's name, and his team name is listed at the bottom. Backs feature the player's full name, position and team name, as well as his biographical info. Statistics for 1953 and career are shown, as is a Red Heart advertisement.
Considering the small size of the set, most cards feature stars of the era. The two biggest are Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial. Neither are in 1954 Topps Baseball. Musial wasn't in 1954 Bowman either, which makes this card especially prized. The fact that Musial is one of the red background cards makes it even more special.
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1954 Red Heart Baseball Gallery
Interested in a specific card? Click on the link or card image to shop for singles on eBay.
Ferris Fain, Chicago White Sox
Ted Kluszewski, Cincinnati Redlegs
Sherman Lollar, Chicago White Sox
Billy Martin, New York Yankees
Roy McMillan, Cincinnati Redlegs
Stan Musial, St. Louis Cardinals
Red Schoendienst, St. Louis Cardinals
Gus Zernial, Philadelphia Athletics
1954 Red Heart Baseball Checklist
Frankie Baumholtz
Gus Bell
Billy Cox
Alvin Dark
Carl Erskine
Ferris Fain
Dee Fondy
Nelson Fox
Jim Gilliam
Jim Hegan
George Kell
Ted Kluszewski
Ralph Kiner
Harvey Kuenn
Bob Lemon
Sherman Lollar
Billy Martin
Gil McDougald
Roy McMillan
Minnie Minoso
Stan Musial
Billy Pierce
Al Rosen
Hank Sauer
Red Schoendienst
Enos Slaughter
Duke Snider
Warren Spahn
Sammy White
Eddie Yost
Gus Zernial
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