The Burdick Award: My Favorite Cards
Before I get into my favorite baseball card, I want to thank everyone who sent a congratulatory email or commented on my being named the 2026 recipient of SABR’s Jefferson Burdick Award. None of this would have been possible without your support of my work over the years. It is your messages and comments that keep me going. It’s one thing to create something for my own pleasure, but it is something entirely different when that same thing is appreciated by others. I love that there are many people out there who enjoy the same oddball characters and forgotten stories I do, and it means the world to me that you let me share them with you.
Thank you. I really mean that.
Tops on my list of favorite cards is this 1935 Diamond Stars Joe Medwick.
Let’s start with the overall look of this thing. The soft, muted colors are just outstanding in my opinion. The bold blocks of yellow, red, and blue combine to make an all-star color scheme and just oozes that Art Deco appeal. Then you have the awesome batting pose, the bite ‘em in the ass look on Joe Medwick’s face, and that iconic Cardinals jersey. I also think the 1930s Cardinals ballcap, with the red brim, white crown, and red seam stripes, is just about the most perfect cap ever worn in the majors. Of course, with its lack of branding, it would NEVER fly today, but man, it’s just so elegant in its simplicity. But for me, the thing that puts this beaut on top of them all is the little vignette in the background, with a couple of players and an ump milling around the backstop. I always say that one day I will save up enough to buy a nice example of this card, and maybe someday I will. But whether I do or not, it’s still my all-time favorite.
Now, this 1953 Bowman card of Pee Wee Reese is just beautiful.
The composition is perfect, the dark vignetting around the edges, and the brilliant technicolor (including the completely wrong red undershirt!) all work together to make this thing pop. It’s like a ballet in cleats, and I think it’s safe to say there is no other card like it in baseball card history. I always wondered who the other player in the photo was, and after looking it up, I found Alex Newton’s great piece on this card on the SABR Baseball Card Committee blog. Newton discovered that the photo is from 1946, and the other player is Frenchy Bordagaray. Chalk one up for the Baseball Card Committee on this solved mystery!
I think the design of the 1965 Topps is pretty sweet – the little pennant with the team’s name done up in contrasting colors to the frame is very pleasing to this old designer’s eye.
It’s a bold design, but not so overpowering that it takes away from the primary object of a card: to depict the ballplayer. And that brings me to the classic batting pose of a young Pete Rose. The iconic Cincy Reds vest jersey never looked cooler than it does here. As a Mets fan who practically grew up in Shea Stadium, I like that you can see the old scoreboard in the background, along with the red Rheingold Beer sign. If I had to pick one card to illustrate the definition of a baseball card, I would go with this one.
Whoever the artist was for this 1952 Bowman Stan Musial card knocked it out of the park!
However, to be fair, you’d have to go out of your way to make the late-40s-early 50s Cardinals uniform look bad. You can’t beat the wide red stripes down the shoulders and sleeves, and the navy blue/bright red caps. Throw in Stan the Man’s classic batting pose, the green stadium in the background, a tasteful Musial signature, and you have yourself a world champion of cards.
The T3 Turkey Red cards are all masterpieces, and it’s hard to pick just one.
I’ll go with this Bugs Raymond card. The way the artist made the white uniform and cap stand out from the brown and green turf really makes this an eye-catcher. The quiet stadium in the far background, the factory building beyond that belching smoke, and the threatening sky take this thing from a mere baseball card to a real work of art. Man, you can almost smell the cigar smoke and hear a train whistle in the distance. I just hope the game ends before it starts to rain…
I’ve always loved how sometimes a complete screw-up can somehow turn into something unexpectedly exceptional.
That can be said for almost any of the cards from the 1949 Leaf set you see out there. Whoever the heck was their quality control guy must have been out having one of those 5-martini lunches, because no one was at the printing plant watching as the registration, colors, ink distribution, and many other things went wrong when the pressman ran this job. Many collectors seek out the more severe of the Leaf print errors, but this one has just got to take the prize. But to me, there’s something dynamic about it. The quality control guy’s boss would have called it a complete disaster, but I think TV painter Bob Ross would have called it “a happy little accident.”
I was never a fan of the 1958 Topps design. I think it’s very boring – which you might find odd coming from the guy who has just said many times how I think simple is better. But man, those 58’s are pretty brutal – all EXCEPT this one.
Warren Spahn has some uber-attractive cards in his catalog, but for me, this one just takes the prize. The unexpected green of the background makes the red, white, and navy Braves uniform jump off the card. The simple typography, boring and lifeless looking on most of the other cards in the set, just works perfectly here. I think what makes it stand out from the pack is that it looks like a magazine cover, doesn’t it? But, whatever the reason, this card is one I’d love to have in my collection one day.
I remember seeing this 1956 Jackie Robinson at the first card show I went to.
I remember asking the dealer how much it was, and even though I can’t recall the price, I knew it was a lot more than I was making selling newspapers at the time. I just fell in love with this card – the positive expression on his face draws you in, while in the background, you could not have chosen a better action shot to symbolize the excitement and energy Jackie Robinson brought to the game than his slide into home plate. And bonus points for there being a Polish guy in the frame: number 45, Johnny Podres!
Now this one wins the dynamic composition award in my book!
Besides having the greatest name in baseball history, Van Lingle Mungo also left us with what must be one of the most visually striking cards ever produced. The 1937 Wheaties set (you cut them off the back of the cereal box) has some outstanding Art Deco designs, with pulsating color and super-cool player poses. I don’t know what the heck those two color orbs are supposed to be or why they are there, but I’m not going to question it; the whole composition just works on all eight cylinders. What else can I say about it except that I really want one!
This next one is a strange choice for me.
Until recently, I did not like the design of the 1954 Topps. The giant headshots, paired with the randomly placed smaller action figures, looked odd and unbalanced to me. Kind of reminded me of the little good and bad angels on your shoulders or The Great Gazoo from the Flintstones. But over the decades, something has completely shifted my thinking. For some reason, I now very much appreciate that unexpected scale between the two images. Even though the precarious tilt of Whitey Ford’s mini-me makes him look like he just got back from a drinking bout at Toots Shor’s with Mickey and Billy, it all really works well. A few cards even have a part of the action figure breaking out of the frame and into the white border, such as Snider’s foot and Lasorda’s glove. That little touch makes a big difference, and I wish all the cards in the set did something similar. And the bold use of color works very well on many of the cards in the set. I think Duke Snider is the best of the bunch, but I have a soft spot for the Tommy Lasorda card – he might not have had a long playing career in the majors, but he sure left behind a great-looking card. And isn’t that what we all wish we could say?
This one is kind of obvious – it often tops the list of best-looking cards.
Even if the subject wasn’t Hall of Fame legend Christy Mathewson, this card would still be among the best-looking ones out there. The sunset sky in the background makes the soft white of the uniform pop, and the green landscape evokes the cornfields in Field of Dreams. If I had to be “That Guy,” I’d say that I wished the text broke with the vertical orientation of the rest of the set and was moved to the bottom instead of the right side – but hey, I’m not “That Guy.”
Alright, brace yourself – this last one is more divisive than contemporary geopolitics. I am a big fan of the 1973 Topps set.
Yeah, I said it. The 73’s get a ton of hate for the over-the-top action photos on many of the cards, but for me, that’s what makes it stand out. Sure, most kids (and adults) want a stylish, clean portrait of their cardboard hero, but there are a million other sets that offer that. Now hear me out: I think the beauty of these cards IS the lack of posed portraits. In fact, what these cards represent to me is the feeling of watching the Game of the Week on TV as a kid. It’s as if someone freeze-framed the broadcast at some random moment. For example, look at the Steve Garvey card – heck, most of him, including his face, is hidden by Wes Parker’s back! And if B-E-N-C-H was spelled out across his back, one would have no idea that it was Johnny Bench about to reel in a pop foul. Dig the passive relief pitchers hanging out in the Giants’ bullpen in the background. The Vida Blue card makes you feel like you’re on the receiving end of one of his 98mph fastballs. Look at the way he leers over his shoulder at the batter – you can’t get that from a mere portrait.
And then there’s the Dave Rader card. The photographer captured that wonderfully quiet moment right after the slap of the ball in the catcher’s glove. The Reds batter rocks back on the balls of his feet, hoping the pitch really wasn’t a strike, while Rader prepares to fire the ball back to the mound, already sure that the last one just caught the corner of the plate. There’s a whole story playing out right there on that card, something a traditional portrait can’t begin to elicit.
And then we have these examples.
The Luis Alvarado card is one that gets ripped on more than most, but I really like it. I’m not sure where it was taken, but I appreciate the simple gesture of the shortstop turning a play as easily as two boys playing catch in the yard. Maybe it’s the cars and the chain link fence in the background that bring that scenario to my mind, but I don’t want to overthink it; it’s just baseball, and these seemingly random frozen moments capture the game I grew up loving.
For what it’s worth, my wife is a fan of these 73’s. Besides the action shots, she particularly likes the player silhouette in the circle indicating the guy’s position, and the clean sans-serif typeface. I completely agree – the simple design balances the chaotic action unfolding in the photos.
So those are some of my favorites. The third and last installment of my Burdick Award Series will be about the cards that inspired my own work.
In the meantime, you can read the official 2026 Burdick Award story HERE.
And you can view and read all of my other work HERE.