As part of 2011 baseball, Topps issued the “Lost Cards” set, which includes some of the cards that Topps didn’t produce, for one reason or another, during the years 1953-1957. The list of ten only includes six names: Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Duke Snider, Bob Feller and Roy Campanella. All but two of the omissions resulted from the contract wars between Topps and Bowman up through their 1955 sets. The other two cards resulted from Stan Musial’s non-appearance in the ’56 and ’57 sets. In fact, four of the cards in the set are Musial cards. Here are the cards in Topps Lost Cards Set:

1-53 Musial # 275          2-53 Snider # 253

3-54 Mantle # 250         4-54 Campy # 252

5-55 Musial # 175          6-55 Ford # 186

7-55 Feller # 203            8-55 Mantle # 211

9-56 Musial #341           10-57 Musial # 408

Topps 1953 Missing Cards

In 1953 Stan Musial was at the peak of his career. He won his 6^thbatting title

with a .336 average. Musial had an exclusive contract with Bowman, so Topps was unable to produce a card for him and several other stars.

In 1953, Duke Snider, nicknamed “The Silver Fox”, was just

becoming a superstar. He hit 42 home runs, but because of litigation between Topps and Bowman Snider wasn’t included in the Topps ’53 set. There were six cards, #’s 253, 261, 267, 268, 271 and 275 that were not in the set. No one knows for sure, but one of those might have been for Duke.

Topps 1954 Missing Cards

The 1954 Topps set excluded many of the top players including Stan Musial (would not sign with Topps until 1959), Mickey Mantle and Roy Campanella. The ’54 Mantle and Campanella cards are part of the Topps Lost Cards set.

Mickey Mantle appeared in the 1952 and 1953 Topps sets, but not in ’54 and

’55. Apparently, it had to do with litigation with the Bowman Company that prevented his inclusion.

By 1954 Roy Campanella was one of the premier players in

baseball. He had already won two MVP awards. Like Mantle, Campanella was on the Topps ’52 and ’53 sets, but left off the ’54 and ’55 sets, presumably due to a rights dispute.

Topps 1955 Missing Cards

In 1955, Stan Musial hit .300 for the 13^thconsecutive season. However, he was not included in the 1955 Topps set. There were four cards #175,

#186, #203 and #209, but there is no official record of which players would have appeared, it is a safe bet that Musial would have been one of them.

By 1955 Bob Feller was past his prime, but he had established himself as one of the greatest pitchers of all time. He had been included in both the first Topps

set in ’52 and again in ’53. For whatever reason he wasn’t in the ’54 and ’55 sets, but made his final appearance in 1956 with card number 200.

In 1955 Whitey Ford was another victim of the litigation between Topps and Bowman. His card was not part of the ’55 set. It was the only set between 1953 and 1967 that he wasn’t included.

Topps 1956 Missing Card

Musial did not appear in the 1956 Topps set, even

though the company had bought the picture rights from competitor Bowman in January of that year. This meant that star players would no longer be excluded from the set due to litigation.

Topps 1957 Missing Card

In 1957, Musial hit .351 to win his 7^thbatting title, but he did not appear on a baseball card.

Even though Topps owned the picture rights to every player by this time, Musial declined to accept the standard fee and as a result still had never been included in a Topps set. He made his debut the next year as a SPORT magazine All-Star Selection, card #476.