Random Topps Card of the Day: 1953 Topps #239 Jim Delsing

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer (actually, I threw an audible today, will explain below), introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, March 24, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1953 Topps #239.
• Player Name, position, team: Jim Delsing, outfielder, Detroit Tigers.
• Major League Debut: September 30, 1960.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1952 stats (Browns & Tigers): 126 Games, 411 At Bat, 48 Runs, 107 Hits, 15 Doubles, 7 Triples, 4 Homers, 49 R. B. I., .260 Bat. Avg. 273 Putouts, 5 Assists, 6 Errors, .979 Field Avg.
• Any special information about player: Obtained from Milwaukee (American Association) by the White sox as part of a minor league working agreement. Traded by the Browns to the Tigers 08/14/1952. Bats: left. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 6. This is his second Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Jim came to the Tigers from the Browns in August of '52. He head previously played for the White Sox and Yankees in the A.L. Jim's career started with Green Bay in '42. After hitting .316 and .333 for Hollywood of the Pacific Coast League in '47 and '48, he received a trial with the White Sox. He hit .317 for Kansas City in '50 before coming up to the Yankees. In June of '50, Jim was traded from the Yanks to the Browns."
• Commentary: Funny story. The card that the Topps Card Randomizer actually picked for today's segment was 1953 Topps #271. One problem though: card #271 does not exist in the '53 set. So by chance, I went to the big Beckett book, and for some reason I thought I was looking at the checklist for 1953 Topps, but I "saw" that there was a card #271, and it was for Jim Delsing. It took me a minute to realize (after re-checking the heading on the list) that Delsing was card #271 for the 1952 Topps set. So I decided (over-riding the decision of the Randomizer) to use Delsing's 1953 card as the subject for today. So while the Randomizer had a hand in picking today's card, I threw in an audible because it would make no sense to say, "Hey, today's card does not exist. Have a good week!" Up until his time in Detroit, James Henry Delsing was the answer to this trivia question: "Who pinch ran for Eddie Gaedel when he drew a four-pitch walk in his only plate appearance?" But regardless of the notoriety, Delsing was a pretty good ballplayer for the Browns in 1951, hitting a good .249 with 8 home runs and 45 rbi's for St. Louis' AL franchise. He was traded to the Tigers in the middle of August, appearing in 33 games. In his first full season in Detroit, Delsing hit for a good .288 average with 11 home runs and 62 rbi's. He would play for the Tigers for two more seasons playing primarily in left field. But in 1956, Delsing struggled at the plate. After ten games, Delsing was traded off to the White Sox. But the team already had three regular outfielders (Larry Doby, Minnie Minoso, and Jim Rivera), so Delsing was relegated to pinch hitting/defensive replacement duty. After the end of the season, Delsing's contract was sold to the Indianapolis of the American Association. For three years, Delsing toiled in the minors, not knowing if he would ever play in the majors again. In 1960, he would get his final chance. The Kansas City Athletics purchased Jim's contract from Dallas-Fort Worth (Triple A, American Association) and called him up to cover as an injury replacement. In the 16 games he appeared for the Athletics, he ht .250 with five runs batted in. They would be the last games he would play as a professional ball player. Upon retiring from the game, Jim Delsing worked as an advertising salesperson for the St. Louis Review for 30 years. Jim Delsing passed away on May 4, 2006. He was 80 years old. The SABR BioProject has an article about Delsing that you can go to here. A Dugout Quiz box was inserted into the backs of the cards. For Delsing, the question was: What NL pitcher threw the most Home Run balls in '52? The answer: Murry Dickson, Pirates - with 26.
• Beckett value: $50.00-$100.00.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 0.

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: 1988 Topps #247. 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