NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1975 JIM ESSIAN

A familiar face of late-70s/early-80s baseball gets a “not so missing” 1975 card, former catcher Jim Essian a couple of years before his actual Topps rookie card of 1977:

Essian originally came up to the Big Leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1973, appearing in two games before coming back in 1974 with 17 games.
Over those 17 games he went 2-for-20 at the plate, with a run scored and two base on balls before coming back in 1975 for yet another brief appearance in the Majors, this time two games where he went 1-for-2 at the plate with an RBI.
1976 would be his break, as he was now a member of the Chicago White Sox, playing in 78 games and hitting .246 with 49 hits over 199 at-bats, thus his true rookie card in the 1977 set.
He would go on to play 12 seasons in the Majors, finishing up in 1984 with 63 games as an Oakland A’s catcher, putting in a career .244 average with 453 hits in 1855 at-bats, with 33 homers and 207 runs batted in.
He’d go into coaching post playing career, even getting some managerial experience in 1991 as the third manager of the season for the Chicago Cubs, going 59-63 for a fourth place finish.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1974 JIM ESSIAN

On the blog today we have a 1974 “not so missing” card for former catcher Jim Essian, who began his MLB career in 1973 with two games as a September call-up:

Essian went 0-3 at the plate in his first taste of the Big Leagues, but would go on to play Major League ball over the next 12 seasons, playing for five teams, some of them for more than one tenure.
His best year would be 1977 when he was a member of that hard-hitting Chicago White Sox team when he hit .273 while seeing the most action in any of his MLB seasons, hitting 10 homers while driving in 44, all three figures career-highs.
He’d go on to generally play as a back-up catcher until his final season of 1984, when he suited up for his fifth different team in five years, this time a return to the Oakland A’s for whom he played from 1978 through 1980.
His final numbers as a Big Leaguer: a .244 average with 453 hits in 1855 at-bats, hitting 33 homers and driving in 207 runs over 710 games.