1952 Topps #103 Cliff Mapes PSA NM 7

1952 Topps #103 Cliff Mapes PSA 7 - From the Bronx to St. Louis

By the time the 1952 Topps #103 Cliff Mapes appeared, Mapes had already experienced baseball from inside the game’s most dominant clubhouse. The powerful outfielder spent his first several seasons with the New York Yankees, contributing to championship clubs before moving on to the St. Louis Browns and Detroit Tigers.

Presented here in an impressive PSA NM 7, Mapes’ card carries an interesting piece of Yankees history beyond the statistics on its reverse. During his time in New York, he wore both No. 3 and No. 7—numbers that would later become permanently associated with Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. Mapes was actually the last Yankee to wear No. 3 before the club retired it for Ruth in 1948.

Mapes played five Major League seasons and was a member of the Yankees’ 1949 and 1950 World Series championship teams, hitting a career-high 12 home runs in 1950. His time in the majors was relatively brief, but his place alongside a budding Yankees dynasty gives his story a memorable wrinkle. At PSA 7, this is a particularly strong example of a player connected to two of the most famous uniform numbers in baseball history.