There are still complete game footage of two games from the 1952 World Series. We have to remember TV was new, but it was quickly reaching most people. Many would go to a neighbor's house to watch. Radio, for the most part, was how most people consumed games.
It wasn't until 1953 that there was even a national game of the week on TV and that was banned within 50 miles of any stadium.
Prior to that, there were local broadcasts. If you lived in a city, you followed the local team as you had little choice.
The World Series was played in the daytime and there was no taping the games. People who worked, didn't just have a TV set in their office they could watch the game on, but they may have had a radio to listen to the game.
Sports Illustrated was even a couple years away.
This left, much of the game to the imagination of the consumers. That imagination was mostly fueled by what the press was writing. You had three major baseball publications- The Sporting News, Baseball Digest and Baseball Magazine.
Mantle was getting hype, but not nearly the hype as others.
Jackie Robinson was, for a while, the most popular as well as the most hated man in America during those years. Stan Musial was big as half the country would get his games on radio. Ted Williams barely played in 1952.
I imagine Mantle was someone that people would have wanted, however, people weren't collecting for value at that time. They collected because they wanted their favorite players. If you were young and impressionable, you may have seen your first World Series on TV that year. If you watched the World Series, Mantle probably was the guy you clung to. But another Yankee was also taking the game by storm that year. That was Allie Reynolds. He, however, wasn't a young player.
I imagine that Yogi was probably bigger and more popular than Mickey until the World Series. And given that was the time that Mantle cards were probably released, it was probably a hot card at the time.
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