- Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1977 Topps #350.
- Player Name, position, team: Larry Dierker, pitcher, Houston Astros.
- Major League Debut: September 22, 1964.
- Last Line of Statistics: 1976 stats (Astros): 28 G, 188 IP, 13-14, 85 R, 77 ER, 112 SO, 72 BB, 3.69 ERA.
- Any special information about player: Signed with the Colt .45's as a Free Agent before the 1964 season. Bats: right, Throws: right.
- Any special information about this specific card: Dierker's thirteenth regular Topps card. How cool is this card? It's one of the few I have in my collection that shows the stats of a player from the Houston Colt .45's. Yes, I know they eventually became the Astros, but the stats on the back show that he played for the Colt .45's in 1964 before the team name change the following season. Picture takes up most of the design, with a simple team name in big bold letters for easy sorting (I guess). The player name is below, and a pennant with the position is added on the right. Facsimile autograph is present (which I wonder how it works when you want an already "autographed card" autographed? I don't know, never got into autograph cards. But I digress. The back of the card looks like it's on a large outdoor sign (notice the two wooden posts at the bottom, complete with grass). A green on gray card back makes for very easy reading of the stats. A cartoon on the left lets us know that the Oakland A's stole 341 bases in 1976.
- Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.30-$0.75.
- How many cards of this player do I own?: 5 cards.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
I have a soft spot for this set, as it was the first one I actively collected (at age 8!). I did get my Bobby Valentine copy autographed as well -- he signed it (in blue ink) "Bob Valentine" (abbreviating for space, I suppose) and "Pub of Life" since that was the restaurant in NJ he owned that a friend of my Dad's who got me the autograph lunched at pretty regularly. It is admittedly a bit funny to have the "fake" and "real" autographs on there, but I liked the idea. So I got a pang of nostalgia when they reappeared on 2007 and 2008.
ReplyDelete