Personally, I would go with the Indianapolis Clowns postcard as a true rookie and with the inclusion of negro league stats into the records it only cements that more.
I have also heard strong arguments that Johnston’s predates the 1954 Topps but falls into the usual regional bias. You can also add the spic & span into the argument as well.
IMHO, the 1954 Topps is the furthest down the list of all four to me as a rookie with the Clowns postcard winning easily. However, the 1952 Topps Mantle is a rookie because of Topps bias to 90% of mainstream collectors, so what do I know. 
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- Justin D.
Player collecting - Lance Parrish, Jim Davenport, John Norlander.
Successful B/S/T with - Highstep74, Northviewcats, pencil1974, T2069bk, tjenkins, wilkiebaby11, baez578, Bocabirdman, maddux31, Leon, Just-Collect, bigfish, quinnsryche...and a whole bunch more, I stopped keeping track, lol.
Last edited by JustinD; 09-22-2024 at 09:18 AM.
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