Bob Cerv was a Major League Baseball player who had a 12-year career as an outfielder and first baseman from 1955 to 1966. While he was never a true superstar, Cerv had a long, productive career and made appearances in the World Series with both the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins. As a result of his MLB tenure, Cerv has been featured on a variety of baseball cards over the years.
One of the earliest Bob Cerv baseball cards comes from his rookie season of 1955 with Topps. That year, Topps produced their standard size baseball cards in sets of 106 cards each. Cerv’s rookie card is numbered 91 in the 1955 Topps set. The design of the 1955 Topps cards featured a color photo of the player on the front with their team name and position below the image. On the back was stats from the previous season as well as a short career summary. Cerv’s rookie card captured him in a Yankees uniform in his first MLB season where he hit .257 with 3 home runs in 66 games.
In 1956, Cerv switched teams and was featured on his 1956 Topps card now with the Kansas City Athletics. The 1956 Topps design stayed very similar to the previous year with a color front image and stats on the back. That season, Cerv hit .257 with 4 home runs for the Athletics in what was his first full season playing in over 100 games. He continued to be included in the Topps sets through the 1960s as he played for the Yankees again from 1957-1959 and the Twins from 1960-1966. Each year, Topps captured Cerv in the uniform of his current team.
Along with his standard rookie and annual Topps cards, Cerv has appeared on several notable insert and parallel cards over the years. In 1992, Topps Finest included a Bob Cerv card numbered 376 in their set highlighting players from the 1950s and 1960s. The Finest set featured high quality reproductions of older player photos on metallic foil cards. In 2001, Cerv received an Ultimate Collection card in the Ultimate Yankees subset which was inserted 1 per pack and captured a key moment from his Yankees career.
Upper Deck also paid tribute to Cerv with inserts in some of their vintage sets. In 1998, they included him in the All-Time Fan Favorites insert set which was a retro design highlighting fan favorite players. Cerv’s card in that set featured his photo in a Yankees uniform. Upper Deck’s 2003 Legends card numbered L-CC featured Cerv in a Minnesota Twins uniform and included career stats and accomplishments on the back. More recently, Topps Heritage included a Bob Cerv card in their 2013 and 2015 sets continuing to honor players from the 1950s/1960s era.
While he never achieved the superstar status of some of his contemporaries, Bob Cerv had a long MLB career playing for notable franchises like the Yankees and Twins. As a result, he has been featured on many standard and insert baseball cards since the 1950s capturing him in the uniforms of the different teams he played for. Even decades after his retirement, card companies continue to pay homage to Cerv and his contributions through inclusions in their vintage and legends sets. For fans and collectors interested in players from Cerv’s era, finding some of his classic rookie cards or special insert cards can be a fun challenge to add to any baseball card collection. Though not one of the game’s biggest names, Cerv left an mark through over a decade in the majors worthy of remembrance on the cardboard.
