Random Topps Card of the Day: 1965 Topps #170 Hank Aaron

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, August 15, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1965 Topps #170.
• Player Name, position, team: Hank Aaron, outfielder, Atlanta Braves.
• Major League Debut: April 13, 1954.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1964 stats (Braves): 145 G, 570 AB, 103 R, 187 H, 30 2B, 2 3B, 24 HR, 95 RBI, .328 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Braves as a Free Agent 07/14/1952. Bats: left, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Aaron's twelfth regular Topps card (total includes regular cards only, not including any record breakers, all-star, or other combo cards). The 1965 Topps set utilized for its design element, a pennant that features the team logo and team name on the lower left corner of a rounded-rectangular frame that housed the player's picture. So relevant was this design that once again, a rival card company used it for one of their "vintage" brands. The bright blue card backs, while susceptible to wear, made the stats and text easy to read. Hank Aaron, for many, many years, was first in many different statistical categories. He led the league in almost every single one at one point or another at season's end. No bigger statistic than career home runs. Since I was born in 1976, I have absolutely no idea, short of reading about it, about what it must have been like during Aaron's era. It almost has a romantic quality to it. We still think about the players during Aaron's day as some of the greatest all time, and the fact that he had great success against the best of the best the NL had to offer is astounding. The struggles he had to endure would have broken a weaker man. But Hank Aaron is not a weak man. What a relief he must have felt when he finally hit #715. But that's in the future. This is 1965. By the time this card came out, Hammerin' Hank was a perennial MVP candidate (ten seasons straight, winning the big one in 1957), a perennial All-Star (ten seasons straight), a three-time Gold Glove winner, and, at 366 HR's going into the 1965 season, halfway to the record. This card must have meant something special to Topps because not only did they reprint it (along with all of Hank's other cards in 2000), but for the big 2001 Topps Through the Years reprint set, the first one that got me hooked on reprints and inserts, Aaron's card represented the 1965 season. Even though he hit 24 home runs, the fact that he still maintained a .328 average, and an OPS of .907, meant that he was still a hitting machine. There wasn't a doubt that this man would become a HOF in his first year of eligibility. When it was announced that he and Frank Robinson were going into the Hall, there were 415 ballots cast. Aaron's name was on 406 of them. What nine guys thought that he wasn't worthy of HOF induction??! I know we scream about it now when bonafide Hall of Famers get in and not unanimously. But back then, there should have been an uproar. Regardless, Aaron is one of the greatest hitters in the game. And probably one of its biggest heroes.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $75.00-$150.00.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 58 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: 1985 Topps #225. 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