1966 Topps #522 Phil Linz TOUGH SEMI-HI# (Phillies)

1952 is often thought of as Topps 1st baseball card set, but it was not.
Topps issued several smaller baseball card sets prior to their huge 1952 set.
The buzz word at Topps back then was "BIGGER is BETTER" for their 1952 Topps set which Topps described as: "GIANT IN BOTH SIZE and NUMBER of CARDS" (407).

Key card in the 1952 Topps set is #311 MICKEY MANTLE. Often called Mickey Mantle's Rookie card - BUT IT IS NOT. That honor goes to his 1951 Bowman.
1952 Topps "High Numbers" (#311-#407), are very, very scarce with an interesting story:
This HUGE set was released in series, released weeks apart. By the last series, baseball was over and football starting.
??? Perhaps the set was too huge ???
Shops had cards left from earlier in the year so many orders were cancelled, thus the scarcity.

Adding interest is how Topps got rid of the now useless cards, including THOUSANDS of MICKEY MANTLE's. They dumped them into the Ocean !!!

The (2) top rookie cards that year were of players who never made the Hall-of-Fame but they sure had impact. Both played in the 'Big Apple'. Darryl Strawberry with the Mets and Don Mattingly across town with the Yankees.

Mattingly was the top firstbaseman nearly every year he played but his career was cut short by injury.
Strawberry's played 17 years in which many he was a top star. It's likely that other factors kept him out of the Hall.