1970 Topps, Bobby Wine

#332 Bobby Wine

Here is a card I unlocked in the Topps Diamond Giveaway that I had a little trouble getting signed through the mail. I originally sent this card to Bobby last November and about ten days later it came back returned to sender. I don't remember the wording on the RTS stamp, but it might have been undeliverable as addressed. My SCN membership had expired by the time I sent the card out and I didn't feel like paying for a new one then The best I could figure out was that he lives on an Avenue and I put something besides that (Road, or Circle, or something).

Since I was too cheap to re-up my membership for one address, I kept checking SCN this past spring in the free latest successes section. Eventually, someone had success with Mr. Wine and it was at the address that I had on file for him. So, I sent this card back out to him at the end of April and I was fortunate enough to get it back four and a half months later. It was one of my longer waits over the past year and I had pretty much forgot about it by the time it had come home. It's always nice to get a little surprise like that.

Bobby played in the Majors for twelve seasons with the Phillies and Expos. He was a light-hitting shortstop that hit .215 for his career while notching 30 home runs. He won a Gold Glove for the Phils in 1963.

It seems to me that the type of player Bobby was does not even exist in today's game. On Baseball Reference, it lists the ten players that were the most similar to Bobby and the two most recent ones last played in the '80s. I guess that goes to show how much offense is valued in today's game.