Sunday, July 3, 2011

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1971 Topps #433 Skip Lockwood

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, July 3, 2011:


  • Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1971 Topps #433.
  • Player Name, position, team: Skip Lockwood, pitcher, Milwaukee Brewers.
  • Major League Debut: April 23, 1965.
  • Last Line of Statistics: 1970 stats (Brewers): 27 G, 174 IP, 5-12, .294 PCT, 173 H, 91 R, 83 ER, 93 SO, 79 BB, 4.29 ERA.
  • Any special information about player: Signed with the Athletics as a Free Agent 06/10/196. Drafted by the Pilots from the Athletics 10/15/1968. Bats: right. Throws: right.
  • Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 13. This is his third Topps card.
  • Blurb on the back: "A veteran of American Legion ball, Sip was selected to play on the U.S. All-Star team in the Hearst Sandlot Classic Game a Yankee Stadium, 1963. Hurled well for Brewers, 1970, after recall from Portland."
  • Commentary: The 1971 was innovative for its time because it was the first set that included picture of the player on the BACK of the card.  Albeit a large black and white headshot.  But a picture none the less.  The obvious drawback, however, is that with such a large picture, you didn't get a full set of career stats.  For a young player like Lockwood, that may not have necessarily been a bad thing.  When looking up his cards on the Beckett website, his listing included the name Claude Lockwood.  Didn't occur to me that Claude was his real first name and that "Skip" was just a nickname.  That was until you notice that facsimile autograph on the card above has his full name (thanks to Topps' use of his contract signature) "Claude E. Lockwood, Jr."  He is one of the few to claim that he played for the Seattle Pilots (drafted in the fourth round during the expansion draft).  Believe it or not, Lockwood's debut was not as a pitcher (his pitching debut was on 08/27/1969), but as a pinch hitter (drew a walk in his only plate appearance).  Realistically, he was a third baseman with the Athletics before finding more success on the mound than at the hot corner.  
  • Lo-Hi Beckett value: $1.00-$2.50.
  • How many cards of each player do I own?: 6 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.
Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 2009 Topps Updates and Highlights #25. 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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