Sunday, January 8, 2012

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1960 Topps #354 Bob Lillis

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, January 8 2012:


  • Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1960 Topps #354.
  • Player Name, position, team: Bob Lillis, shortstop, Los Angles Dodgers.
  • Major League Debut: August 17, 1958.
  • Last Line of Statistics: 1959 stats (Dodgers): 30 G, 48 AB, 7 Runs,11 Hits, 2 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 2 RBI, .229 AVG.
  • Any special information about player: Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as a Free Agent 06/18/1951. Bats: right. Throws: right.
  • Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 11 (six as a player, one as a coach, four as a manager). This is his second card.
  • Blurb on the back: "Bob lived up to his reputation when he joined the Dodgers in 1958. After a whirlwind career at U.S.C. he went to Pueblo in '51, advanced to Newport News and moved on to St. Paul in '56 for three years. At L.A. late in '58 he played in 20 games, hitting safely in 16 of the last 17 games of the season. H He finished with a .391 mark"
  • Commentary: The 1960 set was the last set Topps designed as a primarily horizontal-oriented set (the others being from 1955 and 1956). The cards utilized what would be a reverse in standards today: a large headshot or posed shot with a smaller (and black & white) action picture next to it. The 1960 set was named by Topps Magazine readers in 1991 as the "set of the decade." The blurb on the back summarizes Lillis' travel as a veteran minor leaguer, with stops in Pueblo, Newport News, and St. Paul during a six year run. After serving time as a utility infielder in his four years with LA, he was traded to St. Louis, where he spent half a season with the Cardinals at either short or second. He was selected fifth in the 1962 Expansion Draft by the Houston Colt .45's, where he was the team's primary shortstop. He finished his playing career with the renamed Astros in 1967, and resurfaced with the team as its Manager in 1982 (and on Topps cards in 1983).
  • Lo-Hi Beckett value: $1.50-$4.00.
  • How many cards of this player do I own?: 4 cards (as manager).
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: 1987 Topps #184. 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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