Random Topps Card of the Day: 1973 Topps #78 Richie Scheinblum

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, May 19, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1973 Topps #78.
• Player Name, position, team: Richie Scheinblum, outfielder, Kansas City Royals.
• Major League Debut: September 1, 1965.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1972 stats (Royals): 450 AB, 135 H, 21 2B, 4 3B, 8 HR, 67 RBI, .300 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Indians as a Free Agent before the 1964 season. Contract purchased by the Royals 10/21/1971. Bats: both. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 8. This is his seventh Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Richie enjoyed his finest season in majors in 1972. Acquired by Royals after leading Amer. Assn. in Avg; Rbi's, Triples & Total Bases in 1971, he led AL in Batting much of the year."
• Commentary: The 1973 Topps set may have white borders on the front of the card, but its the back of the cards, thanks to its primarily black borders, that makes it one of the harder sets to find in excellent to near mint condition. And after perusing the cards in the BCCM, it looks like centering is a major league issue (see what I did there...) as the back of the sample card of Richard Alan Scheinblum (yes, they put his full name on the back, something I think should be done with today's cards) is so off-center there is no right border whatsoever. Now Schienblum wasn't a Royal heading into the 1973 season. But during his first stint with KC (he would experience the best season of his MLB career. Put it this way, if he was part of the 2002 Topps Archives set (the Best Years one), his 1972 card would appropriately be the one they'd include. On the strength of a .324 average, 7 homers and 43 rbi's, Scheinblum was named to his first (and eventually only) All-Star team. Anyway, after the 1972 season ended, the Royals traded him and pitcher Roger Nelson to the Reds for future Royals megastar Hal McRae and Wayne Simpson. However, Scheinblum's career with the Reds lasted only 29 games as he was traded off to the California Angels for players to be named later. He finished the year with a combined average of .307 with 4 homers and 29 rbi's. He was traded back to the Royals in 1974, but after 36 games and a .181 average, Scheinblum's contract was sold to the cross-state Cardinals. Although the six games he appeared for the Cards were to be his last in a major league uniform, Scheinblum continued his career in Japan, playing for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp for two seasons.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• 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: 2006 Topps #100. 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