Thursday, October 8, 2009

Jim Hicks (#532)

Jim Hicks - In 1964, 1965, and 1966 he had zero, 19, and 26 at-bats respectively. He's a candidate for my "Why does he have a card?" series, but something else trumps that.

Here we see his 1967 card, where he's taking some healthy swings for the camera (a few inches from Johnny Romano's head).



This is a "high-number" card, so the back includes an update that he was sent down on April 4th. In fact, Hicks spent the entire 1967 season at triple-A Indianapolis. Based on his sparse pre-1967 career, maybe Topps should have replaced his high-number card with another player who had more significant playing time in early 1967 (like Lenny Green or Tony Horton).


Two years later, he appears on a Cardinals Rookies card. Apparently, Topps forgot that Hicks was already shown on a full card!



(apologies to Packaddict for stepping into his 1969 turf)

2 comments:

Matt Runyon said...

Mike had been in pro ball since 1959. That's a long minor league career to be getting a rookie stars card. wow

Dean said...

Jim Hicks is one of the guys that hit the cover off of the ball in the minors, but never produced in the majors. Hicks never really was given a chance, which is a bit surprising considering that he hit something like .366 in the minors in 1968. It seems with 4 expansion teams - some one could have found a spot for him and gave him a few at-bats. Hicks must not have been much of a fielder.