Random Topps Card of the Day: 1961 Topps #458 Willie Tasby

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, October 24, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1961 Topps #458.
• Player Name, position, team: Willy Tasby, outfielder, Washington Senators.
• Major League Debut: September 9, 1958.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1960 stats (Orioles-Red Sox): 144 G, 470 AB, 77 R, 126 H, 19 2B, 2 3B, 7 HR, 40 RBI, .263 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Browns as a Free Agent before the 1950 season. Selected by the Senators in the Expansion Draft #37th, 10/14/1960. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Tasby's third regular Topps card (total includes regular cards only). After a colorful start to the 1960's, Topps returned (thankfully) to a vertically oriented design for the 1961 campaign. It may have been a bit bland compared to what was named the "Set of the Decade" by Topps Magazine readers in 1991, but what was found in packs of 1961 Topps were cards filled with large pictures, headshots and poses alike, dominating the 2½ x 3½ piece of cardboard, with the only design element the rectangles that held the name, position, and team name of the player above. Willie Tasby made it to the big leagues when rosters expanded in September, 1958. He did well enough to impress the coaching staff that he won the centerfield position for the 1959 Orioles. He even was named to the first ever Topps All-Star Rookie team. Traded to Boston in June, 1960 (the bio on the back goes into full detail about the transaction that sent him to the Red Sox in exchange for Gene Stephens) he hit for a .281 average (108 hits), 7 hrs, 37 rbi. Tasby was exposed by the Red Sox in the AL expansion draft in December. The expansion teams, the Los Angeles Angels, and the Washington Senators (the original Senators moved to Minneapolis), were set to choose players from the eight existing American League teams only. And Tasby was selected as the 19th player for the new Senators. And it was with the Senators that he achieved career highs in home runs and rbi's (17 and 63 respectively). Below his statistics are cartoons depicting Tasby's minor league career (leading the Piedmont League with 27 home runs in 1954; hitting for a .322 average with AAA-Louisville in 1958), and his interests off the field ("Willie enjoys listening to modern jazz recordings. Solid.")
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $3.00-$8.00.
• 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. (You have to stop by and visit them now. They just announced that they are allowing more people to enter the museum at one time.)

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 1983 Topps #299. 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