This seems to be the M.O. lately, pick up a card for more than a quarter, it gets its own post. Jerry Rice was yesterday, today this post is about Richie Ashburn, card #300 from the '59 Topps set.
I picked this up for $7 on eBay this past week and it arrived yesterday. I didn't know much at all about Richie and kind of wondered why his cards were in the 7-15 dollar range on the site. So I turned over the card and looked at the back...
That man, right there, is a hitter. Love the cartoon up top saluting his 4 four hit games in '58. Seeing this card back made me go to the baseball reference website to get a look at his career numbers.
Right off the bat, Hall of Fame. Didn't know that.
5 times he had 90 or more walks, led the NL 4 times. Impressive
Twice led the NL in triples, 3 times in double digits in that stat. Speed to burn, which makes sense since he played centerfield for his entire career.
His biggest home run output? 7, in his final season that he played with the NY Mets in 1962. Short fences?
Only struck out 50 times in a season once. That's it. He walked a little over 2 times for every strikeout during his entire career. You will not see that from today's players.
I love learning about players like this, great bat, not much power, get on base a lot (.396 career OBP).
Just 62 cards to go to finish the set. I'm going to be optimistic and say I'll have this one done sometime in 2022.
Enjoy the hobby!
Robert
Weirdly, I also just got Richie for my set. My goal for '59 is to get to 200 cards at the end of the year. Hope we both reach our goals.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get there! Finding commons is relatively easy (read cheap) if you look hard enough.
DeleteAn all time great Phillies player. Here is an interesting story of some foul balls he hit in the same game. https://commonplacefacts.wordpress.com/2020/08/30/the-foul-story-of-baseballs-unluckiest-fan/
ReplyDeleteI've known about Ashburn since I was little, and that should've cost you more than the '86 Rice. This hobby is weird.
ReplyDeleteRichie was a stud, that's for sure!
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