Time to finally create a "missing"
1974 card for uber-Bonus-Baby Rick Reichardt, who was coming to the end
of an unfulfilled Major League career after only a decade or so:
Reichardt
appeared in 87 games over the 1973 season, split between the Chicago
White Sox and Kansas City Royals, hitting .250 with six homers and 33
runs batted in.
He'd appear in one
single game in 1974 before finally retiring, ending what was once a very
promising career that was derailed by kidney problems.
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.
His last Topps card was in the 1971 set, which is odd since he really should have had a card from 1972 to 1974.
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.
His last Topps card was in the 1971 set, which is odd since he really should have had a card from 1972 to 1974.
