Random Topps Card of the Day: 1975 Topps #273 Steve Braun

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, January 30, 2011:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1975 Topps #273.
• Player Name, position, team: Steve Braun, outfielder, Minnesota Twins.
• Major League Debut: April 6, 1971.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1974 stats (Twins): 453 AB, 127 H, 12 2B, 1 3B, 8 HR, 40 RBI, .280 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Twins, 10th, June 1966. Bats: left. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 14. This is his fourth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Always high on the On Base Average" statistics, Steve is a key weapon in the Twins' offensive attack. He enjoyed first two-homer day of his career, 05/30/1973, with two Wallops against Orioles which sparked a 10-3 Minnesota triumph. Comic: When was Steve Braun married? Answer: October 6, 1973.
• Commentary: The 1975 set was voted by Topps collectors as the #1 set of the 70's (Topps Magazine #7, 1991 Summer). With it's multi colored borders, and the rash of HOF's that would eventually be on it, it is no wonder why this set has been mimicked by that other card company when they did their "Tribute to the 1970's" (or whatever they called it) set. Steve Braun's card above tells us two things: One, that Topps really gets into the personal lives of the players they sign (how many kids would have known the answer to the cartoon question above?), and that that even then, On Base Percentage (On Base Average from the blurb) was starting to become a very important statistic. I don't know when the sabermetrics started, but apparently it was important and showed baseball fans what the Twins already knew...that Braun was a very important player on their team. One error of note. That two-homer game against the Orioles did not happen on 05/30/1973 as the blurb on the back indicates. It happened two days earlier on May 28.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• How many cards of each player do I own?: 10 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: 2000 Topps #134. 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