Random Topps Card of the Day: 1954 Topps #129 Forrest Jacobs

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, May 9, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1954 Topps #129.
• Player Name, position, team: Forrest Jacobs, second baseman, Philadelphia Athletics.
• Major League Debut: April 13, 1954.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1953 stats (Fort Worth Cats-AA Texas): 154 G, 645 AB, 102 R, 182 H, 23 2B, 5 3B, 0 HR, 40 RBI, .282 AVG, 421 Putouts, 421 Assists, 20 Errors, .977 Fielding Average.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Athletics from Brooklyn Dodgers in Rule 5 draft, 11/30/1953. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Jacob's first regular Topps card (his rookie card). The 1954 Topps set is famous for having the first and last cards in the 250-card set with Ted Williams. But I digress. The set was unique in that it featured it was the first design that utilized three borders (the top of all the cards had the predominant colored field "break through the box"). The pictures of the player consisted of a really large headshot and a black & white colored "action shot", the player's name above (along with team affiliation and position) and a rather large team logo (even then, they knew...), and the facsimile autograph makes a return appearance in this set. Jacobs, nicknamed "Spook," was an extremely fast runner, leading three minor leagues in stolen bases (33 in 1947, 47 in 1948, and 22 in 1950). The back of the card features a three cartoon paneled story about how Spook is "one of the smallest players in the Majors" who "hasn't missed a week of baseball in five years," and "spent the off-season playing in the Latin American Leagues."
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $7.50-$15.00.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 0 cards.

In case you're actually wondering, I don't own this card. And although the Baseball Card Cyber Museum has the reprint card from the 1954 Topps Archives set, I wanted to use a picture of the original card. However, thanks to Topps' Million Card Giveaway, and after figuring out how to find a card by it's numeric ID, I was able to snag the image you see above. For the record, the card in Topps' baseball card library is #1012.

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 2005 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH75. 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