Today
we go and give the man man responsible for Major League baseball
creating the amateur draft, bonus baby Rick Reichardt, who had
substantial playing time in 1972 yet was not a part of Topps’ 1973 set:
Reichardt played in 101 games during the 1972 season, batting .251 with
73 hits over 291 at-bats with eight home runs and 43 runs batted in during
his second season with the Chicago White Sox.
That is serious playing time to be omitted from the Topps set, so I’m
wondering if he just didn’t want to be on a card ala Mike Marshall or
Tony Horton around the same time.
Of course, Reichardt is well remembered as a spectacular two-sport
superstar at the University of Wisconsin, so much so that a bidding war
began by Major League clubs for his services, eventually having him sign
a then unheard of $200,000 signing bonus with the (then) Los Angeles
Angels of the American League.
This necessitated the development of the Amateur Draft, which began the
very next year in hopes of curtailing such a wild scenario as the
Reichardt affair.
Sadly for Reichardt, a serious kidney ailment cut short an excellent
1966 season which saw him have a kidney removed, and though he put up
some decent numbers from time to time through the rest of his career, he
was never the same again, eventually retiring after a single at-bat
with the Kansas City Royals in 1974.
His last Topps card was in the 1971 set, which is odd since he really should have had a card from 1972 to 1974.
I actually already created a 1972 “missing” card for him a while back,
and once I can find a decent shot of him with the Royals, I plan on
doing the same for both 1974 and 1975.
Anyone have good images of him with KC?