Sunday, January 23, 2011

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1972 Topps #151 Jim Brewer

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, January 23, 2011:


  • Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1972 Topps #151.
  • Player Name, position, team: Jim Brewer, pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers.
  • Major League Debut: July 17, 1960.
  • Last Line of Statistics: 1971 stats (Dodgers): 55 G, 81 IP, 6-5, .545 PCT, 66 SO, 24 BB, 1.88 ERA.
  • Any special information about player: Signed with the Cubs as a Free Agent 06/06/1956. Traded by the Cubs to the Dodgers 12/13/1963. Bats: left. Throws: left.
  • Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 16. This is his twelfth Topps card.
  • Blurb on the back: Comic: Who threw the 'Folly Floater'? Answer: Steve Hamilton of the Yankees.
  • Commentary: The 1972 set must have surprised many who bought the set by its psychedelic design (compared to the all black design the year before). With the company leaning towards more action photos (the In Action subset featured many of baseball's stars of the day) than the traditional head shots and posed action shots. The bold colors and the font of the team names made this a favorite of the 70's. Sign of the times, I guess. Jim Brewer was the Dodgers' closer in the mid 70's. Coming over from the Cubs, Jim was in the middle of a six year string of double digit saves. He even was named to the All-Star team in 1973. What the card doesn't say is that Jim finished 41 of the 55 games he appeared in, earning 22 saves. He had incredible control during his prime, and in 1971, achieved an astonishingly low .971 WHIP (his career low came the following year at .843). Appeared in three World Series, winning the World Series against the Twins in 1965. During the 1975 season, he was traded across the city to the Angels, where he finished his career the following year.
  • Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.40-$1.00.
  • How many cards of each player do I own?: 2 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: 1980 Topps #686. 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

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