Random Topps Card of the Day: 1951 Topps Blue Back #24 Sherman Lollar

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, October 20, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1951 Topps Blue Back #24.
• Player Name, position, team: Sherman Lollar, catcher, St. Louis Browns.
• Major League Debut: April 20, 1946.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1950 stats (Browns): N/A (no statistics found on the 1951 Topps cards).
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Browns as a Free Agent before the 1943 season. Traded by the Yankees to the Browns 12/13/1948. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 4. This is his first Topps card.
• Blurb on the front: "Batting and throwing right-handed, the 6', 180 pound St. Louis Browns' catcher had a .280 batting mark in 1950."
• Commentary: In 1951, Topps jumped into the baseball card market with two series of 52 cards that were to be used to play a simple game of baseball. Each card, along with the black-and-white headshot of a player from one of the 16 teams in the majors, was a play that would determine the outcome of an at bat (ball, strike, home run, etc). If you and a friend were to play this game, and Sherm Lollar was on the card, you would get is a strike called. While John Sherman Lollar made his MLB debut with the Indians, and spent parts of two seasons with the Yankees (winning a World Series title in 1947), it wasn't until he was traded to the St. Louis Browns that he began not only to get regular playing time, but become a star. In 1950, on the heels of batting .314 through the first half of the season, he earned his first trip to the All-Star Game. He finished the year with a .280 average, 13 home runs, and 65 rbi's for the Browns. The following season, he would appear in 98 games, but still hit .252 with 8 homers and 44 rbi's. He was traded to the White Sox at the end of the season. For 12 productive years on the southside, Lollar would go on to play 1358 games for the Pale Hose, hitting a cumulative .265, with 124 home runs, 631 driven in, percentages of .358/.402/.759, earn 6 more trips to the All-Star Game, and win three Gold Glove awards for his defense. Upon retiring, Lollar became a coach for the Orioles (1964-68) and A's (1969). In 2000, Lollar was named to the White Sox' All-Century Team. He is considered one of the best catchers in the Golden Era, and is eligible for consideration on the Hall of Fame Ballot for 2014. He was one of 32 players listed in the book The Case for Those Overlooked by the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992. Seven players mentioned in that book have since been inducted into Cooperstown. Sherm Lollar passed away on September 7, 1963 at the age of 53 years old.
• 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: 1990 Topps Traded #67T. 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