Random Topps Card of the Day: 1978 Topps #468 Warren Cromartie

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Friday, December 21, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1978 Topps #468.
• Player Name, position, team: Warren Cromartie, outfielder, Montréal Expos.
• Major League Debut: September 6, 1974.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1977 stats (Expos): 155 G, 620 AB, 64 R, 175 H, 41 2B, 7 3B, 5 HR, 50 RBI, .282 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Expos, #1st (Special), June 1973. Bats: left. Throws: left.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 7. This is his first Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "On of the N.L. leaders in Doubles last season, Warren went 2-for-4 in his first game with the Expos in 1976. Went 24-46 for .522 Avg. in Memphis' final 10 games of 1975 season."
• Commentary: Warren Cromartie may not have known it at the time this picture was taken for his 1978 Topps card, but he would have one heck of a career in both the US and Japan. With the Expos in 1978, he hit .297 with 10 home runs, drove in 56 rbi's, and had an OPS of .755. He also stole 10 bases and had a good year defensively (.978, 8 errors in 372 chances) as the team's left fielder.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.01-$0.05. After 9 productive seasons in Canada, Cromartie, at the age of 30, signed on with the Yomiuri Giants, playing for legendary Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh. He was named the MVP of the Central League in 1989, on the strength of a .378 batting average with 15 homers and 78 rbi's. After he retired from baseball in 1991 (he returned to the US and played with the Royals in limited action), he wrote a book called Slugging It Out in Japan: An American Major-Leaguer in the Tokyo Outfield, which detailed his time in the baseball.  "Cro" has remained active in the game since his playing days ended.  In 2004, he managed the Japan Samurai Bears, a team of Japanese players playing through the independent Golden Baseball League.  He hosts a baseball radio show in Miami, which runs during the baseball season.  And going back to his roots in Montréal, he also has his own radio segment on a radio station in the "City of Saints."
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 8.

Tomorrow's card will be: 2003 Topps #620. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Flash back with the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama