Scheinblum was given a card in the 1972 set even though he was coming off a 1971 season that saw him appear in only 27 games while with the Washington Senators, and you can clearly see the “Senators” across his chest in the original before Topps cropped the image just right for the final resulting card.
The year before that, in 1970, was entirely spent in the Minors, so it’s clear that Topps thought it fitting to give him a later-series card in the 1972 set really on what was going on DURING the 1972 season.
And what was going on that year was a solid season for Scheinblum in what turned out to be his only season playing for the Kansas City Royals, also a season that saw him make the American League All-Star team, AND the only season of his eight-year MLB career that had him play full-time.
Pretty unique scenario here.
Scheinblum hit .300 on the nose that year, with career-highs across the board: 60 runs scored, 135 hits, 21 doubles, four triples, eight homers and 66 runs batted in.
He also had a very nice .383 on-base-percentage with 58 walks against only 40 strikeouts for the season over 520 plate appearances.
Yet he never got a chance to play full-time again, even though the very next year he hit a combined .307 playing for the Cincinnati Reds and California Angels over 106 games and 333 plate appearances.
You’d think some teams could have used a contact-hitting guy who already proved himself a decent hitter in the mid-70’s who just hit the age of 30.
As a matter of fact, in 1974, which turned out to be the last of his Big League career, Scheinblum ended up suiting up for three teams, the Angels, the Royals (again), and finally the St. Louis Cardinals for six games, for which I earlier created a “not so missing” 1975 card on the blog some time ago.
That was it for even his pro career, as I cannot even find any Minor League action for the guy after those Cardinal games in 1974.
All told Scheinblum finished with a career .263 batting average, with 320 hits over 1218 at-bats spread out over 462 games between 1965 and 1974.
It’s worth noting that in 1971, he tore up the Minors when he hit .388 for the Denver Bears, with 25 homers and 108 RBI’s over 106 games, with a crazy .492 on-base-percentage and .725 slugging percentage, getting him that late-season call-up with the Senators.
