TV and Baseball (Cards). Perfect Together?

I love backstories, whether they’re superhero original tales or something like “Revealed: The TV Manufacturer Whose Set Design Was Used on 1955 Bowman Baseball Cards” from the Sports Collectors Daily website.

Bonus points for citing one of my favorites, The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book, first published by Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris in 1973, re-released in 1991, and in desperate need of a revision.

As the authors explain

Around 1955 the creative people in the bubble gum game, starved as they were for new marketing and promotional techniques, decided that perhaps it was time to take advantage of the latest national craze – television. What was good enough for Milton Berle was good enough for Bobo Newsom. Get a load of the fine wood grain paneling on this rig, the Sylvania Golden Glow picture tube, the sharply focused outline of the image, the words ‘Color TV’ emblazoned in natural gold leaf on the luxurious control panel. This isn’t just any ordinary old T.V. set you’re fooling around with here, buster. This is the genuine article. The player in question is Wilmer Shantz, brother of Bobby Shantz, who although not as short as Bobby was not as good either. The last line on the back of the card says, ‘With Ottawa in 1953, Billy was in 105 games, batting .227’. Things like that are best left unsaid.