When you see an older baseball card it’s natural to wonder where the photo was taken—and when. In the case of Mickey Mantle 1958 Topps All-Star card, there’s no mystery anymore. An image from the shoot has been located and is up for auction.
Our Photo of the Day from RMY Auctions is taken from the original negative produced after this shot was snapped in the spring of 1956, Mantle’s Triple Crown season.
Captured against a backdrop of trees at the team’s spring training camp in Florida, the photo shows a serious Mantle following through on swing likely taken expressly for an assembled photographer. The 8×10 black-and-white proof has a small piece of tape on the reverse, reinforcing a small crease, but is otherwise in excellent condition.
When Topps launched its ‘SPORT Magazine All Stars’ subset in 1958, they needed a fresh image of Mantle and the other players in the set and the 1956 photo is the one they chose to include.
Auction officials say it’s the only original example of the photograph they have seen offered publicly.
The current high bid is over $600.
The auction also includes more than 350 other vintage photographs from sports, history and entertainment, many pulled from the archives of major newspapers.
Bidding continues through Sunday at RMYAuctions.com.
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