I loved the 1975 MVP subset when I was a kid, and spent a lot of time poring over the images of vintage Topps cards. I’ve decided if getting all of the featured cards isn’t a realistic goal for me, that doesn’t mean I can’t get *some* of the cards.
Today I’m going to look at Jackie Jensen, the 1958 American League MVP.
Here’s my card from the 1975 subset, one that I’ve had for over 45 years…
Here’s the off-center card I recently acquired…
So why was Jackie Jensen the 1958 AL MVP?
In 1958 the Red Sox finished in 3rd place with a 79-75-1 record, 13 games behind the pennant-winning Yankees.
Jensen played in all 154 games, started in the All-Star game for the first time, hit a career-high 35 home runs, was second in the league with 99 walks and lead the league with 122 RBI. He batted .286 and scored 83 runs and his .396 on-base percentage was 5th-best in the American League.
Jensen received 9 first place MVP votes and beat out the Yankees’ Bob Turley (7 first place votes), Cleveland’s Rocky Colavito (4) and the Athletics’ Bob Cerv (3).
The Shlabotnik Report 
-Too bad Jensen retired early because of his fear of flying…wouldve been HoFer with his stats and some pretty average BoSox teams….
Sad to hear about the fear of flying. It would have been cool if Jensen and the Red Sox could have come to an agreement where he played the home games and maybe Yankees games.