What set sealed Bowman's fate?

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

I too think Bowman ended up just fine on the deal. And as for '54, I think the Topps design is a winner, but have always thought the kids that year could have considered the set a real dog. There were 3 managers and 23 coaches in a 250 card set!!!! A better than 1 out of 10 chance you'd get some old coot in your pack. And sure, now we know Kaline, Banks and Aaron, but at the time these guys were mere prospects that Topps was just lucky to have signed. I wonder how many of the kids saw these guys as phenoms at the time.

That's an interesting question, Todd. Back then, people didn't have the internet, or cable TV. Baseball fans then didn't have the exposure to up-and-coming prospects the way we do now. They didn't have access to scouting reports, nor did they know what the hell a 20 to 80 scale was. Ted Williams surely wasn't on the "radar" two years before he stepped onto the field at Fenway for the first time. Kids around America weren't watching him as a San Diego Padre, and they sure weren't watching him blast 500 foot home runs on Youtube.

I returned to the hobby two years ago. Since pretty much day one, I've known about Bryce Harper, and Mike Trout. Their baseball acumen, and raw physical tools, has been written about, and analyzed ad nauseam in Baseball America, Sports Illustrated, etc. I've been watching video of these guys doing their workouts, and taking batting practice, since they were 16 or 17 years old. So before they won the Rookie of the Year Award, I pretty much expected that they'd do it. Their performances at 19 (Harper) and Trout (20) didn't come as a surprise. If I open up a pack of cards now, I not only know who the prospects are, I know where they went to college (or what high school they went to). I know what position they play, I know their floor and ceiling, their relative risk, their injury history, etc. So, I know who the phenoms are going to be a lot of the time. Back then, the only people who really saw greatness early on were the scouts.