Random Topps Card of the Day: 1957 Topps #219 Tom Acker

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, January 16, 2011:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1957 Topps #219.
• Player Name, position, team: Tom Acker, pitcher, Cincinnati Redlegs.
• Major League Debut: April 20, 1956.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1956 stats (Reds): 29 G, 84 IP, 4-3, .571 PCT, 54 SO, 29 BB, 2.36 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the White Sox as a Free Agent before the 1948 season. Traded by Buffalo (International League) to the Reds 10/14/1951. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 4. This is his first Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Ack' was one of the most dependable members of the Cincinnati bull pen crew last season. His debut into Major League Ball was a big success as he was called on to relieve bombarded teammates 22 times. Although he started only 7 games, one was a sparkling three hit whitewash over the Phillies late in the season."
• Commentary: The 1957 set would be the last with the old dimensions (before the 2½" by 3½" pieces of cardboard we know today, they used to be 2 5/8" x 3 3/4"). Headshots and posed shots abound in the 1957 set, the only use of design being the player's name and team name/position below it. Lots of information on the back. And that's what cards were. Before the Internet, before the baseball encyclopedia's, baseball cards were the only way for many kids (and adults) to know who the players were. Sure there was the newspaper, but there would be more information about the individual players on their own cards than there would be in the dailys. Acker went 19-13 in his four years with the Reds (or Redlegs...that thing with the USSR I guess urged them to change the team name temporarily and Red Sox was already taken). In 380 innings of work, he struck out 256 batters, and had a WHIP of 1.354 (and back then, the only whips people knew were the ones they'd see or hear about on the westerns).
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $4.00-$8.00.
• How many cards of each 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. (You have to stop by and visit them now. They just announced that they are allowing more people to enter the museum at one time.)

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 1988 Topps Traded 65T. 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