Random Topps Card of the Day: 1975 Topps #583 Andy Etchebarren

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, March 10, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1975 Topps #583.
• Player Name, position, team: Andy Etchebarren, catcher, Baltimore Orioles.
• Major League Debut: September 26, 1962.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1974 stats (Orioles): 180 AB, 40 H, 8 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 15 RBI, .222 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Orioles as a Free Agent before the 1961 season. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 13. This is his tenth Topps card.
• Blurb on the front: "Andy became O's regular catcher, '66."
• Commentary: So much has been written about the 1975 Topps set that there was even a blog dedicated to studying all 660 cards in the iconic set. The blog is presently in the Retired but Relevant section of the Sports Card Blogroll because all the cards in the set were featured and thus the blog was complete. The back of the card indicates that Andrew Auguste Etchebarren (his full name is prominent on the back of the card, something that I wish could still be done today...Donruss was really good at including full names on the back of their cards in the 80's and 90's) was the Orioles' regular catcher since 1966. That is true. In 1966 and 1967, Andy appeared in more than 100 games, and was named to the American League All-Star teams both years. This, in spite of his batting averages hovering around .250 (.249 in 1966 and .251 in 1967) by the end of the first half of the season. By the time this card came out, Andy was preparing for his twelfth season with the O's. It would, however, be his last.  By June 11, 1975, he had only appeared in eight games for the team. On June 15, the California Angels purchased Etchebarren's contract, sending the long time "O" to the big "A". In his twelve seasons with Baltimore, Etchebarren hit a low .232 with 46 home runs, 255 rbi's, an OPS of .652, stole 9 bases in 730 games, and was a part of two World Series winning teams. Finishing the year in Anaheim, Andy hit .267 with 3 home runs and 17 rbi's as an Angel. He would go on to play with the Halos for two more years before the Milwaukee Brewers bought Andy's contract after the 1977 season concluded. He appeared in four games for the Brewers in April of 1978, and wound up finishing his playing career soon afterwards. He rejoined the Orioles organization, managing teams in the minor leagues for a number of years before taking the helm of the independent York Revolution in 2007. After five years at the helm of the Revolution, which included two championships in 2010 and 2011, Etchebarren retired from managing after the 2012 campaign. On the back of Andy's card is a cartoon sketch and a trivia question: What was Chuck Hartenstein's nickname? The answer: Twiggy.
• Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 3.

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: 1992 Topps #755. 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

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1975 Topps #446 Bart Johnson

(I apologize that the Random Card of the Day segment did not appear as scheduled.  In an attempt to try and eat better...more veggies...I must have eaten something that I should not have and was sidelined with a swollen foot that kept me away from my basement computer that had my work for Sunday's post.  Here is what should have appeared at 1:00 pm CST on Sunday, January 27, 2013).

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, January 27, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1975 Topps #446.
• Player Name, position, team: Bart Johnson, pitcher, Chicago White Sox.
• Major League Debut: September 08, 1969.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1974 stats (White Sox): 18 G, 122 IP, 10-4, 76 SO, 32 BB, 2.74 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the White Sox #1st (Secondary), June 1968. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 8. This is his sixth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Bart came back from short stint at Iowa in 1974 to solidify Chisox' staff. He hurled 8 Complete Games and had fine 10-4 mark with sparkling 2.74 E.R.A."
• Commentary: The 1975 Topps set was named by Topps Magazine readers as the best set of the 1970's. Even now, 22 years later, the set still remains one of the best Topps produced. Not only because of the iconic two-color borders, but because of the numbers of players in the set that eventually became Hall of Famers. Clair Barth Johnson was an eight-year major leaguer who spent his entire MLB career with the White Sox. He was shelved during the 1975 season, thanks in part (as Johnson himself explained in a 2009 interview with White Sox Interactive), "I was pitching to Joe Morgan (in a spring training game that started after a three-hour rain delay) when my left leg slipped as I was throwing a pitch, my back jerked and I herniated a disk...By the time that happened I couldn’t get out of the plane (because the flight made three stops before making its final destination in San Francisco) my back was so bad. I was in the hospital for about ten days in traction only they found out afterwards it didn’t do me a bit of good. The hospital bed I was on was to small, I’m 6-5 and my heels were hitting the footboard contracting my spine so the traction was useless.” He still was included in the 1976 Topps set (nowadays, unless you are a major superstar, this doesn't happen). In 8 years in Chicago, he went 43-51 with a 3.94 ERA. He struck out 520 batters and finished with a 1.426 WHIP. After ending his career (at the age of 27), he became a scout with the White Sox for 17 years, and then worked with the Devil Rays for 10 years. One thing that I didn't know before thanks to the cartoon blurb on the back of Johnson's card which was in the form of a trivia question (and would think it crazy if not impossible nowadays, is that the home plate umpire formerly position himself behind the pitcher. I'm sure it could be done, but I doubt it would be possible in today's game.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 2.

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: 2011 Topps #174. 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

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1975 Topps #273 Steve Braun

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, January 30, 2011:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1975 Topps #273.
• Player Name, position, team: Steve Braun, outfielder, Minnesota Twins.
• Major League Debut: April 6, 1971.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1974 stats (Twins): 453 AB, 127 H, 12 2B, 1 3B, 8 HR, 40 RBI, .280 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Twins, 10th, June 1966. Bats: left. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 14. This is his fourth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Always high on the On Base Average" statistics, Steve is a key weapon in the Twins' offensive attack. He enjoyed first two-homer day of his career, 05/30/1973, with two Wallops against Orioles which sparked a 10-3 Minnesota triumph. Comic: When was Steve Braun married? Answer: October 6, 1973.
• Commentary: The 1975 set was voted by Topps collectors as the #1 set of the 70's (Topps Magazine #7, 1991 Summer). With it's multi colored borders, and the rash of HOF's that would eventually be on it, it is no wonder why this set has been mimicked by that other card company when they did their "Tribute to the 1970's" (or whatever they called it) set. Steve Braun's card above tells us two things: One, that Topps really gets into the personal lives of the players they sign (how many kids would have known the answer to the cartoon question above?), and that that even then, On Base Percentage (On Base Average from the blurb) was starting to become a very important statistic. I don't know when the sabermetrics started, but apparently it was important and showed baseball fans what the Twins already knew...that Braun was a very important player on their team. One error of note. That two-homer game against the Orioles did not happen on 05/30/1973 as the blurb on the back indicates. It happened two days earlier on May 28.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• How many cards of each player do I own?: 10 cards.

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. (You have to stop by and visit them now. They just announced that they are allowing more people to enter the museum at one time.)

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 2000 Topps #134. 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

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1975 Topps #627 Tom Walker

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, July 18, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1975 Topps #627.
• Player Name, position, team: Tom Walker, pitcher, Montréal Expos.
• Major League Debut: April 23, 1972.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1974 stats (Memphis-AAA): 5 G, 40 IP, 5-0, 37 SO, 7 BB, 1.35 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Orioles #1st, June 1968. Drafted by the Expos via the Rule 5 Draft, 11/29/1971. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Walker's third regular Topps card. The reason why Walker's minor league stats are used for the "Last Line of Statistics," it's because Topps put his minor league numbers on last, and his MLB numbers above it. In 1974 with les Expos, Walker's numbers were: 33 G, 92 IP, 4-5, 70 SO, 28, BB, and a 3.02 ERA. The back of his card mentions that Tom "has distinction of never having a season where he lost more games than won." Well, if they were counting only MLB, then this isn't true (he did go 4-5 with les Expos), but combined, he would be 9-5. In a bit of updating, it does say at the end of the sentence that he was traded to the Tigers on 12/04/1974. If there was a Topps Traded set to go with this one, then he'd definitely be part of that set.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 2 cards.

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: 1996 Topps #70. 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

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1975 Topps #360 George Scott

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, June 27, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1975 Topps #360.
• Player Name, position, team: George Scott, first baseman, Milwaukee Brewers.
• Major League Debut: April 12, 1966.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1974 stats (Brewers): 604 AB, 170 H, 38 2B, 2 3B, 17 HR, 82 RBI, .281 AVG* (see note below).
• Any special information about player: Signed by the Red Sox as a Free Agent 05/28/1962. Traded by the Red Sox to the Brewers 10/10/1971. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Scott's tenth regular Topps card. The 1975 Topps set was voted by readers of Topps Magazine as the number 1 set of the 1970's (Topps Magazine, Summer, 1991, #7). And why not? Those two color borders were so iconic that even that other card company tried to use it on numerous occasions as a design for their sets. That, plus the fact that a number of HOF's are in this set. If I were to buy it (or at least make an attempt to start a set for my collection), it would be the first one that I'd own that was made before I was born. But I digress. George Scott's best years in the majors happened after he and five other players were involved in a ten-player deal with the Red Sox. In his five year stint as the Brewers 1st baseman, he was named to the All-Star Team (in 1976), an annual MVP candidate, and won the Gold Glove all five seasons. The 1975 season would see Scott leading the AL in both home runs and rbi's (with 36 and 109 respectively). There are not too many statistics listed on the back of the cards, probably due to the fact that Topps had not yet found the right text size to fit more columns on a vertically-oriented reverse. The blurb on the back does read that George was "the Brewers' leading slugger the past 4 seasons." There is a cartoon trivia question above the statistics, asking, "Where was Bert Blyleven born?" The answer (upside down) shows that Bert was born in Zeist, Holland.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.40-$1.00.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 8 cards.

*Please take a look at the batting average from 1974. Is it just me, or does it appear that George had a batting average of .781 in 1974? Take a look at the picture above. Uncorrected and unnoticed, this is an ERROR CARD!!!:

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: 1983 Topps #40. 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

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1975 Topps #619 1975 Rookie Outfielders Ayala, Nyman, Smith, Turner

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, April 25, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1975 Topps #619.
• Player Name, position, team: 1975 Rookie Outfielders: Benny Ayala, New York Mets; Nyls Nyman, Chicago White Sox; Tommy Smith, Cleveland Indians; Jerry Turner, San Diego Padres.
• Major League Debut: August 27, 1974 (Ayala); September 6, 1974 (Nyman); September 6, 1973 (Smith); September 2, 1974 (Turner).
• Any special information about player: Ayala: Bats: right, Throws: right; Nyman: Bats: left, Throws: left; Smith: Bats: left, Throws: right; Turner: Bats: left, Throws: left.
• Any special information about this specific card: The first card for Ayala, Nyman, and Turner. The second card for Smith (appeared in another four-player Rookie outfielder card in the 1974 Topps set). The first multi-player card the randomizer has picked this year. The 1975 Topps set is one of the most iconic sets of all-time. With its two color borders and number of Hall of Famers in the set, even Topps Magazine awarded this set as the best of the 1970's. Ayala played for ten seasons for the Mets, Cardinals, Orioles, and Indians more as a bat off the bench/defensive replacement. He did win a World Series with the Orioles in 1983. Nyman played in four seasons for the White Sox, including 106 games in 1975, playing all three outfield positions. Smth spent five years in the bigs between Cleveland and Seattle, but played in no more than 55 games in a season. Turner, of the four players on this card, had the best career, playing regularly with the Padres in the late 70's. As a Padre, he recorded a .259 batting average, along with 37 home runs and 209 rbi's.
  
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.40-$1.00.
  
• How many cards of each player do I own?: Ayala: 7 cards; Nyman: 1 card; Smith: 1 card; Turner: 9 cards.

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: 2000 Topps #425. 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

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1975 Topps #463 1974 World Series Game #3

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, February 14, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1974 Topps #463.
• Player Name, position, team: Rollie Fingers, pitcher, Oakland A's.
• Special: World Series Game 3, Oakland 3, Los Angeles 2.
• Any special information about this specific card: Simply put, this is the card that highlights Game 3 of the 1974 World Series between the defending champion Oakland A's against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Just three days after earning the win in Game 1, Rollie Fingers takes over for Catfish Hunter in the seventh inning of the pivotal third game. Fingers works the final 2.2 innings that night, allowing only one run, but preserved the win to give the A's a 2-1 lead in the series. The A's went on to win the last two games, both played in Oakland, winning their third straight World Series. The back of this card features the both the box score and line score of the game.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.75-$2.00.

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. (You have to stop by and visit them now. They just announced that they are allowing more people to enter the museum at one time.)

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 2007 Topps #249. 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