In September 2024, I highlighted a handful of P.F. Canvas shoe advertisements. Well, I ran across another in a March 2000 auction catalog, and I think this one’s my favorite!
I dig the giant baseball in the background.
The piece dates back to the early 1950s when baseball was first on national TV and showcases the game’s top stars endorsing the P.F. canvas shoes (later known as P.F. Flyers). The framed ad was described as 19” x 25”.
In March 2016, Hake’s sold a copy for $707 and they said the ad was a 19.5” x 25-5/8′” stiff cardboard standee w/easel back.
And then, in September 2023, Rockhurst Auctions offered it for sale again, but it failed to meet its reserve.
I’ve shared plenty of vintage advertising signs before, but I think Stan Musial deserves more focus since he had fewer major card releases than his peers. Here’s a great Rawlings die-cut sign from the mid-1950s.
This one was offered in Ron Oser Entperises April 2001 catalog with the following description:
A circa 1955 Rawlings 17″ x 26″ cardboard sign which features a full body photo of Musial with fan-filled stands in the background, facsimile “Stan the Man” signature below. The oddly-shaped sign would fit together to form a store stand-up display. The lower right corner of the display has a few creases, otherwise, the body of the display is very clean. This Musial die-cut ad piece is incredible looking and if you have the glove or just happen to like the Cardinals or advertising pieces, this one will thrill you. Nicely framed to 21 x 28 inches. Minimum Bid $400
Heritage sold the similarly designed Musial Pro Leaguer Advertising Sign in October 2022 for $288, which they described as follows.
1950’s Rawlings Stan Musial Pro Leaguer Advertising Sign. Fine image of “Stan the Man” dominates this heavy cardboard advertising sign measuring approximately 18×16″ at its tallest and widest dimensions. Considerable water damage is apparent, and bat has been restored. We believe this is only part of the full display. Easel on back is missing.
If you feel priced out of some of the more popular post-war baseball sets, consider collecting the 1952 Wheaties Baseball Player subset. The 1952 Wheaties set has 30 athletes across many supports, but just ten from professional baseball. However, each player has two cards, a portrait, and an action drawing, meaning there are 20 baseball cards to collect.
1952 Wheaties Roy Campanella Portrait
Each panel, the back of a Wheaties box, featured a variety of cards. Individually, the cards are 2’’ x 2-3/4’’ and have blank backs. The drawings are blue on an orange background with an ivory/white border. Under the picture are the player’s name, position, and team.
1952 Wheaties Panel
Many publications say the borders are rounded, and they are if you look at the white border. However, grading companies like PSA seem to grade them inconsistently. High-grade variants exist with borders cut off in squares, with rounded borders including a blue background, and rounded borders at the white edge. Because of this, I’d recommend focusing on authenticity and eye appeal and disregarding the numerical grade.
1952 Wheaties Bob Feller Action
The key card of the set is Ted Williams, but none of the ten players are commons:
Yogi Berra
Roy Campanella
Bob Feller
George Kell
Ralph Kiner
Bob Lemon
Stan Musial
Phil Rizzuto
Preacher Roe
Ted Williams
PSA has graded over 3,300 1952 Wheaties cards across all 30 trading cards. The baseball players average well under 100 combined between both their Action and Portrait cards. Williams has the most, with 162 Action and 150 Portrait cards (in February 2025). George Kell has the fewest graded examples, with 21 Action and 40 Portrait cards.
Mid-grade examples of Ted Williams cards have shot up in recent years, but most other cards can be picked up for ~$50 on average.
1952 Wheaties Ted Williams Portrait
Wrapping up, the 1952 Wheaties baseball subset is a visually appealing 20-card series that, with some patience, remains financially accessible for collectors seeking a graded set. Featuring a distinct design unlike the major releases of its time, these cards make a fantastic addition to any collection.
Do you collect any other 1950s baseball sets? I’d love to hear about them in the comments—happy collecting!
1952 Wheaties Panels
1952 Wheaties Panels
PS: Be careful if you’re buying raw copies. The Standard Catalog mentions that the set was extensively counterfeited around 2002.
Back in the 1950s, collecting baseball cards was all the rage with kids, and companies saw this as a perfect opportunity to promote their products, including the Red Heart Dog Food Co. They released a series of 33 stunning post-war baseball cards in 1954 featuring some of the biggest names in the game, spread across three sets with blue, green, and red backgrounds. To get your hands on each group of these coveted cards, you only had to send in two Red Heart labels, 10 cents, and a coupon for each item to Red Heart Baseball Pictures in Chicago, Illinois.
1954 Red Heart Dog Food Label Featuring Baseball Player Pictures Offer
Red Heart’s baseball card offer was heavily advertised in Sunday newspaper comic sections in 1954. Some collectors even claimed to have received cards from the company as late as the early 1970s, although the coupons showed an expiration date of January 1st, 1955.
Red Heart used at least four different advertisements to promote its mail-in offer for baseball cards. We don’t have any documentation on how to label them, so I’ll refer to them as Ad Format 1, 2, 3, and 4.
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 1
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 1
All four ads had essentially the same information, just formatted into different sizes and locations on the page. This format was unique because it also shared Red Heart’s offers for baseball caps, t-shirts, autographed baseballs, pennants, identification bracelets, charm bracelets, and cards.
Huggins and Scott auctioned off a Red Heart Order Sheet, offering a head scarf and pen and pencil set as well. It sold for $190 in December 2012.
1954 Red Heart Order Sheet – Side 1
1954 Red Heart Order Sheet – Side 2
The following comic page, which features the ad, is from the Washington D.C. Evening Star, June 20th, 1954.
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 1 On Comic Page
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 2
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 2
Ad format two is cool because it lists all the players from each series. Maybe this is why the red-backed cards are a little scarcer today. You can see that the same information is organized differently in the space. I’ve found a pair of these formats that probably had different colorings based on the newspaper printer.
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 2
This full comic page featuring the ad is from the Washington D.C. Evening Star from April 18th, 1954, the earliest ad I found for the set.
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 2 On Comic Page
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 3
Ad format three also organized the same information a little differently. However, the images on the cards are a little more cartoony compared to format 2. Also, you’ve got to give Red Heart credit for securing rights to Stan Musial; Topps and Bowman couldn’t. The color ad is from a May 1954 San Francisco Chronicle.
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 3
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 4
Kudos to the collector who made a fantastic display with this ad and a quartet of cards.
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 4
The two full-page comic ads are also from the Washington Evening Star; both were published in May.
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 4 On Comic Page
1954 Red Heart Baseball Card Advertisement Format 4 On Comic Page
Another item Red Heart used to drum up sales of its Dog Food via the Baseball Player Pictures was an advertising poster. This one features Stan Musial, Al Rosen, Hank Sauer, and Mickey Mantle and includes an original order blank taped to the front. Leland’s sold it for $477 in December 2013.
1954 Red Heart Dog Food Baseball Card Advertising Poster
To sum up, the ads that Red Heart used to promote their 1954 baseball cards (and dog food) were eye-catching and likely successful, as evidenced by the almost 12000 PSA-graded cards that exist today. The company’s marketing team showed creativity and innovation by using different ad formats in Sunday newspaper comics. If you happen to have a 1954 Red Heart Baseball set, adding a newspaper ad to your collection would be a great way to complete it! And it’s worth noting that Red Heart Dog Food Co. still exists today under Smithfield Foods, Inc.
I always found it interesting that Stan Musial wasn’t signed with Topps or Bowman from 1954 through 1957. James N. Giglio wrote that Musial refused to sign due to “insufficient compensation.” I later learned that Musial had some other business partnerships (for example, with Rawlings) and was showcasing a bit of business acumen, but I didn’t research this any further. So when I stumbled upon a Kit Young catalog featuring an advertisement for the Stan-The-Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack, I couldn’t resist learning more about Musial’s company and the product.
Kit Young – 1997 Early Spring Catalog
The first ad I came across was from Kit Young’s 1997 Early Spring Catalog, featuring an autographed Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack for $69.95 plus $5.95 p/h. It included a signed letter of authenticity.
The ad referenced that they offered the display piece in an earlier catalog and had immediately sold out. I tracked that one down from their 1996 holiday sale, and they offered that rack for $39.95 plus $5.95 p/h.
Kit Young – 1996 Holiday Sale
As a collector, I was intrigued by both options and wondered about the history of the bat rack.
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack
My research led me to discover that the Stan-The-Man Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack was official merchandise sold by Stan Musial’s company, Stan the Man Inc. The company sold a variety of Musial memorabilia, including “Stan the Man Inc.” branded baseball bats, gloves, and signed Musial memorabilia. The company was operated by Dick Zitzmann, vice president of Stan the Man Inc. The company closed its doors in 2015. Here are a couple of photos of an entire case of Rack-Um-Up Bat Racks.
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Case – Image 1
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Case – Image 2
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Case – Image 3
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Case – Image 4
The Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack was a wooden rack-equipment holder designed to hold up to six baseball bats. It was released around 1964 and is approximately 4″ x 6″ x 19″.
I found this description from KeyMan Collectibles: “As Advertised; Stan Musial’s Rack-Um-Up is the big league way to keep your bats, balls, and glove ready for play. Rack-Um-Up holds three bats, two balls, and has pegs for your cap and favorite glove, and the back panel features Stan’s picture and autograph….plus a list of his outstanding baseball records. The instructions and hardware for assembly are included and visible in a small plastic bag inside the larger bag on back of rack.”
As I delved deeper into the history of the Stan-The-Man Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack, I came across photographs of the bat rack, some of which Musial signed and looked like they may have come from Kit Young’s advertisement.
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Signed
I also found examples of letters of authenticity that matched the ad.
Stan The Man Inc. Certificate of Authenticity
You can pick up a still-sealed rack for around $100 (with some patience).
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Sealed – Front
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack Sealed – Reverse
I’ve also seen signed ones with JSA certs listed for between $150 and $200, like the following example.
Stan The Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack – Signed
Stumbling upon the Kit Young catalog advertisement for the Stan-The-Man Official Rack-Um-Up Bat Rack led me to uncover an exciting aspect of Stan Musial’s business ventures. Although his absence from Topps and Bowman cards may have seemed odd initially, it appears to have been the start of a calculated move that showcased Musial’s savvy business acumen.
Here’s an awesome advertisement, scanned from a June 2005 auction catalog for B.F. Goodrich P-F Canvas Shoes featuing a slew of MLB legends.
A few years later, in 2013, Lelands sold a framed copy of the awesome stadium-designed cardboard ad, mentioning that it measures 19” x 25”. They also highlighted the inclusion of Sam Jethroe as an early African American promotion—that copy sold for $640.
If you look around, you’ll find several variations dating later into the ’50s that include legends like Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays. However, if you want them in your collections, they’ll cost you many thousands of dollars. Luckily, they all feature floating heads!
Here’s another classic cardboard advertising sign of Stan Musial pitching for Wonder Bread; it’s what “Good Ball Players Need” to “Build Strong Bodies 8 Ways.”
Sotheby’s offered this example in its April 1994 catalog of Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia. It is described as a late 1940s/early 1950s 30 by 40-inch piece in excellent overall condition.
This isn’t the first Stan Musial Wonder Bread ad that I’ve shared; there’s the more “common” one that he shares with Mickey Mantle and another cardboard example with seven of the era’s biggest stars.
