Random Topps Card of the Day: 1994 Topps #698 Willie Wilson

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, November 7, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1994 Topps #698.
• Player Name, position, team: Willie Wilson, outfielder, Chicago Cubs.
• Major League Debut: September 4, 1976.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1993 stats (Cubs): 105 G, 221 AB, 29 R, 57 H, 11 2B, 3 3B, 1 HR, 11 RBI, 7 SB, .348 SLG, 11 BB, 40 SO, .258 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Royals #1st, June 1974. Signed with the Cubs as a Free Agent 12/18/1992. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 17. This is his seventeenth and final Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Ranks 13th on all-time M.L. SB list."
• Commentary: Make no mistake about it. Willie James Wilson will always be a Kansas City Royal. The cards that Topps has included of him since he retired in 1994 (like his 2003 ATFF and the Autograph card in 2012 Archives) picture him in his Royals uniform. But in the era of Free Agency, the chances of remaining with one team becomes less and less probable. So after 15 solid seasons with the Royals, in which he appeared in 1787 games, hit for a .289 average, 40 home runs, 509 rbi's, stole 612 bases, one Gold Glove award, two Silver Sluggers, two All-Star Game appearances, and one World Series Championship, Wilson signed as a Free Agent with the Oakland Athletics. Two years later, he signed another free agent deal, this time taking his talents to the Chicago Cubs. Now relegated as a platoon player, he did share fielding knowledge with the Cubs' young outfielders, specifically Dwight Smith and some guy named Sammy Sosa. In 1994, he was reduced to a bench role, playing behind Opening Day hero Karl Rhodes. After 17 games in which he hit for a .238 average, a .701 OPS, 4 runs scored, and 1 stolen base, Wilson was released by the Cubs, and thus ended his major league career. He has since taken to coaching, first within the Blue Jays organization, and then in the independent leagues. He was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame in 2000, and currently runs the Willie Wilson Baseball Foundation in Kansas City, MO.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.02-$0.10.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 18.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1983 Topps #706. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama