Random Topps Card of the Day: 1963 Topps #181 Sammy Esposito

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, January 9, 2011:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1963 Topps #181.
• Player Name, position, team: Sammy Esposito, infielder, Chicago White Sox.
• Major League Debut: September 28, 1952.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1962 stats (White Sox): 75 G, 81 AB, 14 R, 19 H, 1 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 4 RBI, .235 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the White Sox as a Free Agent before the 1952 season. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 7. This is his seventh and final card.
• Blurb on the back: "A great defensive infielder, Sammy is an important member of the White Sox's bench." Comic shows that Sammy plays a lot of handball in the winter.
• Commentary: Ahh the 1963 Topps design. With it's easy to chip, bold colored bottom borders, it is no wonder that you will be hard pressed to find any in good condition. I always wondered how these were printed? I mean, were some cards upside down on the full sheet? Was Topps careful and actually placed the cards gently on the cutter to ensure that no color appears on the top of the cards? Then I learned, yes, that there would be rows of cards that would appear upside down on the printer sheet. Makes you wonder how they got that final Whitey Ford card printed (last card in the set sequentially with the green border). I boldly predict that the 2023 set will have a similar design (big picture with a little picture by the player's name somewhere). Why? Because we've seen it with the 1983 set, and the 2003 set design as well (also in 1984, but we won't count that here). Esposito was a bench player at best for the team that made it to the World Series in 1959. Never appeared in more than 98 games a season (high water mark was in 1958). Listed on here as an infielder because he had no set position. Sammy played third base most of the time, but was inserted in second and short from time to time. But he was a whiz defensively. In ten seasons, had a fielding percentage of .959, and committed only 42 errors.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $1.50-$4.00.
• How many cards of each 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: 1976 Topps #319. 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