A MISSED ROOKIE CUP: 1973 TOM HUTTON

Now, while I am aware that our good friend at “Bottomms Cards” went ahead and beat me to the punch on “missing” rookie trophies on 1970’s Topps cards, I must state that I had this planned for months, and even created the first few that will be profiled, so allow me to add to the mix and post the first of quite a few, 1973 Tom Hutton:

Why Topps would miss the rookie trophy on some cards, yet go ahead and place them on others in the SAME set is beyond me. Then again, there were quite a few Topps decisions during the “wild-70’s” that left many of us scratching our heads.
Anyway, picked as the “All-Star Rookie” first baseman by Topps for 1972, Hutton should have had his card jazzed up with one of the trophies, but he wasn’t, so I made the adjustment you see above.
Seeing full-time action six years after having his first taste of the Majors in 1966, Hutton put in a nice rookie showing, batting .260 with 99 hits and 40 runs scored for the Philadelphia Phillies.
He also collected 22 extra-base-hits while driving in 38, also filling in at all three outfield positions during the season when not at first base.
He would go on and put together a 12-year Big League career before retiring as a player in 1981, finishing up with a .248 average, with 410 hits in 1655 at-bats over 952 games.
Sadly for him, the amount of playing time he saw in that rookie season of 1972 would be the most in any one year for him the rest of the way.