Random Topps Card of the Day: 1974 Topps #657 Jim Shellenback

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, April 18, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1960 Topps #310.
• Player Name, position, team: Jim Shellenback, pitcher, Texas Rangers.
• Major League Debut: September 15, 1966.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1973 stats (Rangers): 2 G, 2 IP, 0-0, 3 SO, 0 BB, 0.00 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Signed by Yankees as a Free Agent before the 1962 season. Traded by the Pirates to the Senators 05/17/1969. Bats: left, Throws: left.
• Any special information about this specific card: Shellenback's fifth and final regular Topps card. The 1974 Topps design was relatively simple, with the use of colored banners and with the team's name on them above and below a curved rectangular picture. In fact, if you separated the colored banners above and below the picture, and switched the places of the name and position of the player, you'd kinda have the 1980 Topps design. If collectors at the time only knew what Topps would unleash to the masses the following year. 1974 was the first year that the entire 660 card set was sold in one series. It was also the first year that Topps factory sets were sold exclusively at your JC Penneys and Sears stores. It's too bad they don't make those catalogs anymore. That's the price we pay for living in an internet world I guess (along with being more ecologically sound...how many trees died to make one of those 1000 plus page catalogs anyway???) Shellenback was just your average pitcher, sometimes a starter, often a reliever. But he filled a role and managed to do so in a 10-season career. Out for most of the 1973 season, he only appeared in two late-September games. The back of his card, using green boxes above the gray card stock, featured a brief bio, and a cartoon. The cartoon mentions that Jim throws a "palm" ball (the cartoon shows a pitcher throwing a palm tree on the mound). The blurbs on the bac mention that Jim "tied for Western Carolinas League lead wit 17 wins & 4 shutouts at Gastonia" in 1963; as well as hurling "sparkling complete game wins vs. Brewers and Angels" in 1970.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 0 cards.

In case you're actually wondering, I don't own this card, but was able to get a crystal clean copy of the image from the from the Baseball Card Cyber Museum. So thank you Joe McAnally and the folks at the BCCM.

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 1985 Topps #194. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Come on back then to see what the Topps Card Randomizer gets us to look at then.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama