Random Topps Card of the Day: 1976 Topps #39 Pete Broberg

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Wednesday, December 25, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1976 Topps #39.
• Player Name, position, team: Pete Broberg, pitcher, Milwaukee Brewers.
• Major League Debut: June 20, 1971.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1975 stats (Brewers): 130 G, 480 AB, 96 R, 138 H, 26 2B, 1 3B, 36 HR, 100 RBI, 7 SB, 66 BB, 80 SO, .571 SLG, .965 OPS, .320 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Senators #1st (Special), June 1971. Traded by the Rangers to the Brewers 12/05/1974. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 8. This is his fifth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: n/a.
• Commentary: I've been debating for a while now as to whether or not I should buy a set of 1975 Topps. It would be the first set I'd own that's older than me. Well, actually, that's not true. The 1976 Topps Baseball set is technically older than me too. But by the time the '76 season started, I was already born. And while I never heard of baseball until grade school, I can say that I own cards that were born before I knew what baseball was. And one of the cool things about doing these Random Cards of the Day is that when a player like Peter Sven Broberg comes along, I have to do a bit of research to know who this player was. Because up until now, I have never heard of the guy. From the back of the card, I can see that he was one of the members of the Washington Senators who made the move with the team (the second team to take the name Senators) left for the wild west of Arlington, Texas. After the 1974 season, Broberg was traded over to Brewers for Clyde Wright. In 1976, Broberg went 1-7 for the Brew Crew, had an ERA of 4.75, walked 72 batters (compared to striking out 28), and had a WHIP of 1.852. After the 1976 season, Broberg was exposed to the expansion draft to fill rosters for both the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays. Broberg was drafted by the M's, but was then traded to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Jim Todd (who if you still follow this blog, was yesterday's subject for the Random Topps Card of the Day). After one season of languishing in the Cubs bullpen (when he wasn't with the Cubs, he was biding his time in the starting rotation for AA-Wichita), Pete was traded to the Oakland A's where he returned to the starting rotation. Broberg's one-season stint in the majors would turn out to be the last action he'd see in a major league uniform. He signed with the Dodgers, but was released before the 1979 season began. Overall, Pete Broberg went a combined 41-71, saved 1 game, struck out 536 batters, and walked 438 of the 4249 batters he faced. The back of Broberg's 1976 card shows a cartoon featuring Broberg's teammate Hank Aaron. "Hank Aaron was walked intentionally 289 times during his National League career," is the caption as a catcher stretches his right hand to signal for an intentional pass. Thing is that the Brewers were part of the American League at the time. For the record, he has 4 IBB's in the American League.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.15-$0.40.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 4.

Tomorrow's card will be 1986 Topps #337. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Hope you will be too.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama