Here's a "missing" card for an interesting figure in baseball history: a 1972 Topps card for former "Bonus Baby" Rick Reichardt.
Check out my card design:
For those of you who don't know, Reichardt is the reason Major
League baseball came up with the amateur draft in 1965 after a crazy
bidding war ensued the year before for Reichardt's services, leading the
Los Angeles Angels to eventually "win" out and
signing him for $200,000 then (over $1.5 million today).
Reichardt was a two-sport star in college, playing both baseball
and football for the University of Wisconsin, twice leading the Big-10
in batting and excelling as a fullback for the eventual #2 ranked
football team in 1962.
However, as we've seen so many times before and since, injuries
took their toll on his career, and although he had some decent years as a
big leaguer, he could never become the star everyone thought they'd see
when he came up.
After hitting 16 homers with a .288 average in only 89 games in
1966, he came back in 1967 with 17 homers, 69 runs batted in and a .265
average, followed by 21 homers, 73 R.B.I.'s and a .255 average in 1968.
In 1970 he was traded to the Washington Senators where he posted
similar numbers both that year and the next, but further injuries kept
him from full-time play, leading to his career coming to a close in 1974
after only one at-bat with Kansas City, where
he played most of 1973.
I don't know why Topps left him out of his card sets in 1972, 1973
and 1974 since he did play enough for card appearances, especially since
he does have a special place of sorts in baseball lore.
Perhaps (as with some other guys back then) he didn't want to be on a card or had contractual issues with Topps?
Who knows? But I will also be designing those "missing" cards as well in the near future.
