Random Topps Card of the Day: 1958 Topps #396 Dutch Dotterer

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, December 22, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1958 Topps #396.
• Player Name, position, team: Dutch Dotterer, catcher, Cincinnati Redlegs.
• Major League Debut: September 25, 1957.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1957 stats (Nashville, AA-Southern Association): 129 Games, 455 At Bat, 82 Runs, 138 Hits, 29 2B, 4 3B, 9 HR, 79 RBI, .303 B.Avg; 673 PO, 57 A, 11 E, .985 F.Avg.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Reds as a Free Agent before the 1950 season. 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 back: "Dutch reminds a lot of people of the great Moe Berg because he also speaks several foreign languages. He batted .272 in his first pro season with Lockport in the Pony League."
• Commentary: First of all, "Pony League" should have been written as PONY League for it stands for "Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York," (Lockport, NY). Remember the fuss that was made when Gary Pettis' brother wound up on his 1985 Topps card? Well, for Henry John Dotterer's 1961 card (which would also be his final Topps card), it wasn't "Dutch" depicted on the card, but his brother Tommy Dotterer, who was in the Reds' minor league system at the time the card was produced. After three years in the Reds/Redlegs' minor league system, Dutch joined the US Navy and served during the Korean War. Upon his return, he returned to the Reds' organization, and finally made it to the big club in 1957. Although Dotterer made it onto the Reds' roster in 1958, Dutch spent most of the season with the Reds' AAA team in Seattle, returning in September. He appeared in 11 games that year, hit for a .250 average with 1 home run and two rbi's to his credit. He would remain the Reds' backup catcher until the end of the 1960 season. He was traded to the Kansas City Athletics in October that year, and then was left exposed for the 1961 expansion draft. He was selected 12th player selected (24th overall) by the Washington Senators. After appearing in seven games for the Senators, he would play for the Syracuse Chiefs, the minor league team in his hometown before calling it quits for good in1963. Dotterer made the most of his after-playing career. He became a bilingual education teacher at a high school in Santa Ana, California (hey, if you can speak "several foreign languages," why not teach?), then opened a bookstore in Syracuse when he "retired" from teaching. He was an incredible speaker, who could go on and on about topics ranging from his travels through baseball, and his time in the Navy (where he became friends with a young slugger from the Army named Willie Mays). Henry John Dotterer passed away on October 9, 1999, at the age of 67 due to complications from diabetes.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $4.00-$8.00.
• 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: 2005 Topps #597. 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