- Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1975 Topps #360.
- Player Name, position, team: George Scott, first baseman, Milwaukee Brewers.
- Major League Debut: April 12, 1966.
- Last Line of Statistics: 1974 stats (Brewers): 604 AB, 170 H, 38 2B, 2 3B, 17 HR, 82 RBI, .281 AVG* (see note below).
- Any special information about player: Signed by the Red Sox as a Free Agent 05/28/1962. Traded by the Red Sox to the Brewers 10/10/1971. Bats: right, Throws: right.
- Any special information about this specific card: Scott's tenth regular Topps card. The 1975 Topps set was voted by readers of Topps Magazine as the number 1 set of the 1970's (Topps Magazine, Summer, 1991, #7). And why not? Those two color borders were so iconic that even that other card company tried to use it on numerous occasions as a design for their sets. That, plus the fact that a number of HOF's are in this set. If I were to buy it (or at least make an attempt to start a set for my collection), it would be the first one that I'd own that was made before I was born. But I digress. George Scott's best years in the majors happened after he and five other players were involved in a ten-player deal with the Red Sox. In his five year stint as the Brewers 1st baseman, he was named to the All-Star Team (in 1976), an annual MVP candidate, and won the Gold Glove all five seasons. The 1975 season would see Scott leading the AL in both home runs and rbi's (with 36 and 109 respectively). There are not too many statistics listed on the back of the cards, probably due to the fact that Topps had not yet found the right text size to fit more columns on a vertically-oriented reverse. The blurb on the back does read that George was "the Brewers' leading slugger the past 4 seasons." There is a cartoon trivia question above the statistics, asking, "Where was Bert Blyleven born?" The answer (upside down) shows that Bert was born in Zeist, Holland.
- Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.40-$1.00.
- How many cards of this player do I own?: 8 cards.
*Please take a look at the batting average from 1974. Is it just me, or does it appear that George had a batting average of .781 in 1974? Take a look at the picture above. Uncorrected and unnoticed, this is an ERROR CARD!!!:
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: 1983 Topps #40. 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
3 comments:
I think that's a ".281" batting average -- maybe a bit of missing print on that particular scan, but probably no more than that. This is the year before I started collecting, so I think I'll classify it as "made before I was born" too, if you don't mind. ;-)
There's another reason why this card is timelessly awesome, that necklace. From Hardball Times:
"But I’ll most remember Scott for this habit: He wore a distinctive necklace that appeared to be made of stones or ivory. When a reporter asked Scott to identify the material used to make the necklace he wore on the playing field, the first baseman responded dryly: “Second basemen’s teeth.”
Actually, the necklace was made up of shells, wooded beads and possibly ivory tusks of some sort, but the reality never came close to matching the color of Scott’s sinister humor.
Scott also had an interesting way of inventing nicknames and catch phrases. He called his first baseman’s mitt, which was extremely dark in color, “Black Beauty.” He liked to call home runs “taters,” coining a phrase that Reggie Jackson and others would use in later years."
Baseball really needs this kind of glib and engaging personality again. I'm tired of hearing the same cliches and soundbites to meaningless interviews (giving some value greater than 100% percent, getting a chance to win, blah, blah...).
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