Willie Mays's 1954 had everything in it: a batting title at .345, 41 home runs, the Most Valuable Player award, and in the first game of the World Series, with the score tied in the eighth inning, the catch of Vic Wertz's long drive to center field at the Polo Grounds. The Giants swept Cleveland.
Topps turned its cards on their side for 1955. It was the company's first horizontal design, 3 3/4 by 2 5/8 inches, with a large portrait and a smaller action figure, both in color now, a team logo in a top corner, a facsimile signature, and a colored bar along the bottom with the name, position and team. The set was planned at 210 cards; four numbers were never issued, which left 206, the shortest Topps set of its era.
Mays is number 194, on a bright blue ground. The smiling portrait at the right is the same head shot Topps used in 1954; at the left, under the script Giants logo, a small figure in a Giants uniform finishes a swing. His signature runs across the middle, and the yellow bar at the bottom reads WILLIE MAYS, outfield, NEW YORK GIANTS.
The portrait is the 1954 head shot, used again. The season in between was the reason to look twice.
Number 194 is in the second series, numbers 161 through 210, which was printed in smaller quantities; by one account it shipped in the fall, when retailers were turning to football cards and ordering less. One historian of the set thinks the distinction is overstated. Either way, the Mays is among the harder star cards in the set, with Berra and Snider.
The season the card lived through was nearly as good as the one before. In 1955 Mays hit 51 home runs, the most in the National League, batted .319, drove in 127 runs and led the league in slugging.
Centering is the usual problem in the 1955 set, and a horizontal card makes it easy to see. Cards kept at the bottom of a stack picked up rubber-band wear.
