Random Topps Card of the Day: 1975 Topps #446 Bart Johnson

(I apologize that the Random Card of the Day segment did not appear as scheduled.  In an attempt to try and eat better...more veggies...I must have eaten something that I should not have and was sidelined with a swollen foot that kept me away from my basement computer that had my work for Sunday's post.  Here is what should have appeared at 1:00 pm CST on Sunday, January 27, 2013).

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, January 27, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1975 Topps #446.
• Player Name, position, team: Bart Johnson, pitcher, Chicago White Sox.
• Major League Debut: September 08, 1969.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1974 stats (White Sox): 18 G, 122 IP, 10-4, 76 SO, 32 BB, 2.74 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the White Sox #1st (Secondary), June 1968. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 8. This is his sixth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Bart came back from short stint at Iowa in 1974 to solidify Chisox' staff. He hurled 8 Complete Games and had fine 10-4 mark with sparkling 2.74 E.R.A."
• Commentary: The 1975 Topps set was named by Topps Magazine readers as the best set of the 1970's. Even now, 22 years later, the set still remains one of the best Topps produced. Not only because of the iconic two-color borders, but because of the numbers of players in the set that eventually became Hall of Famers. Clair Barth Johnson was an eight-year major leaguer who spent his entire MLB career with the White Sox. He was shelved during the 1975 season, thanks in part (as Johnson himself explained in a 2009 interview with White Sox Interactive), "I was pitching to Joe Morgan (in a spring training game that started after a three-hour rain delay) when my left leg slipped as I was throwing a pitch, my back jerked and I herniated a disk...By the time that happened I couldn’t get out of the plane (because the flight made three stops before making its final destination in San Francisco) my back was so bad. I was in the hospital for about ten days in traction only they found out afterwards it didn’t do me a bit of good. The hospital bed I was on was to small, I’m 6-5 and my heels were hitting the footboard contracting my spine so the traction was useless.” He still was included in the 1976 Topps set (nowadays, unless you are a major superstar, this doesn't happen). In 8 years in Chicago, he went 43-51 with a 3.94 ERA. He struck out 520 batters and finished with a 1.426 WHIP. After ending his career (at the age of 27), he became a scout with the White Sox for 17 years, and then worked with the Devil Rays for 10 years. One thing that I didn't know before thanks to the cartoon blurb on the back of Johnson's card which was in the form of a trivia question (and would think it crazy if not impossible nowadays, is that the home plate umpire formerly position himself behind the pitcher. I'm sure it could be done, but I doubt it would be possible in today's game.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 2.

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: 2011 Topps #174. 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