Influence--influences of many sorts (literary, popular culture, art, sports, science, etc.)--can be found in unexpected places.
Below is an image from the book The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book, by Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris. The book was published in hardcover by Little, Brown in 1973. A paperback edition was released by Ticknor & Fields in 1991.
There are many images of baseball cards in the book, including one from 1955, for the player Wilmer "Billy" Shantz. In 1954, he was a catcher with the Athletics, during their final season in Philadelphia; he stayed with the team in 1955, for its first season in Kansas City.
His baseball career began in 1948. In addition to his time with the Athletics, he played for various Minor League teams; a good deal of his career was spent with Triple A teams. In 1959 and 1960 he played for the New York Yankees' Triple A club in Richmond, and in 1960 was brought back to the Majors and played in one Yankees game. It was his last Major League appearance.
He returned to the Richmond team for two seasons. He then stayed in the Yankees' Minor League system for the remainder of his career--which ended in 1969--as a player/coach, and as a manager.His brother was pitcher Bobby Shantz, who had a lengthy Major League career, and was the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1952.
The card below, from the Bowman company, is made to look like a television set; the picture of Mr. Shantz serves, ostensibly, as the television image. (The bottom of the card, at its center, says, for emphasis, "Color TV")
The authors wrote: "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."
