You'd think a guy who posted 474 plate appearances over 125 games
the previous season, and was STILL an active professional player when
the 1973 season broke, would warrant a card in the 1973 Topps set!
But apparently Topps knew something and never ended up creating a card for second baseman Ron Theobald.
So I did all these years later.
Check it out:
Theobald only had one baseball card for his short two year career, and that was in the 1972 set.
But he was a full-time player in those two years, posting 779 at-bats and 926 plate appearances over 251 games.
Seems wrong to only have ONE card.
His rookie year of 1971 was a pretty decent one.
In 126 games for the Brewers, almost all as a second baseman, he
collected 107 hits in 388 at-bats, good for a .276 average, along with
12 doubles, two triples and a home run.
Not a bad batting average for a middle infielder in those days!
The following year in '72 he pretty much saw the same amount of action,
one less game but 22 more plate appearances, but he saw his batting
average dip 56-points to .220.
So when the 1973 season opened, Theobald found himself in the
Minors, playing for Hawaii in the Pacific Coast League for the San Diego
Padres organization.
(By the way, I cannot find any transaction information for Theobald
after his Milwaukee days. Anyone know how he was picked up by the
Padres?)
Nevertheless, all he could muster with them was a .221 average over 43 games while committing eleven errors in the field.
That ended up being the last Theobald had in pro baseball as far as I can find.
But I still think he should have had a card in the 1973 set with all that playing time the previous year.
Luckily this blog allows me to "fix" these missing cards. ;)
