Random Topps Card of the Day: 1955 Topps #133 Dave Hoskins

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, June 20, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1955 Topps #133.
• Player Name, position, team: Dave Hoskins, pitcher, Cleveland Indians.
• Major League Debut: April 18, 1953.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1954 stats (Indians): 14 G, 27 IP, 0-1, .000 PCT, 29 H, 10 R, 9 ER, 9 SO, 10 BB, 3.00 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Sent to the Indians before the 1950 season. Bats: left, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Hoskins' second (and final) regular Topps card. The 1955 Topps design was the first of two consecutive years Topps primarily used the horizontal fronts for their cards. The difference between the two is this design uses a brightly colored background (compared to the drawn action shot the following year). The headshots were primarily the same as the ones used the year before (due to save money). Hoskins, although a pitcher in the majors, apparently could swing a mean bat, and play the outfield to boot. In the minors, according to the back of the card, showed that he hit as high as .393 in Grand Rapids (A-Central League) in 1948. With the Dallas Eagles of the AA-Texas League, not only did he record a 22-10 record, but in 62 games in the outfield, he batted a robust .328. The cartoon on the back of the card featured another double threat (pitching/batting) in a True or False question. Well, true or false: Babe Ruth was a pitcher before he was an outfielder. (True. He pitched for Boston AL before coming to New York.) Hoskins only pitched in the majors for two years, so his lifetime statistics on the back of the card were final.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $6.00-$12.00.
• How many cards of this 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.

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 2006 Topps Updates and Highlights #326. 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