Jim Eppard Professional Baseball Career and Baseball Card History
Jim Eppard had a decade long professional baseball career playing in Major League Baseball from 1960 to 1970. While he didn’t achieve superstar status, Eppard was a serviceable utility player and pinch hitter who appeared in over 400 major league games. Eppard’s career spanned an important time in the early 1960s when the popularity of baseball cards was exploding. As a result, Eppard has been featured on several classic vintage baseball cards that collectors still seek out today.
Eppard was born in 1937 in St. Louis, Missouri and broke into pro ball as an amateur free agent signing with the Detroit Tigers organization in 1956. He spent his first few professional seasons in the minor leagues, slowly working his way up the ladder. Eppard made his MLB debut with Detroit on September 7, 1960 at the age of 23. In 18 games that season, he hit .208 in limited playing time. Eppard appeared on his first baseball card in 1961 as part of Topps’ flagship set that year. The photo shows a clean-shaven Eppard in a batting stance wearing a Detroit uniform.
While Eppard never fully established himself as an everyday player in Detroit, he remained in the Tigers system through the 1964 season. He bounced between Detroit, their Triple-A affiliate in Denver, and even spent time in the minors with the Cleveland and Philadelphia organizations. From 1961-1964, Eppard continued to be featured in the annual Topps sets each year. The 1963 and 1964 cards capture a more seasoned Eppard with facial hair starting to grow in. By this point, he was carving out a role as a part-time utility infielder and pinch hitter at the major league level.
In 1965, Eppard was traded from Detroit to the rival Chicago White Sox in exchange for minor leaguer Dave Wickersham. This trade turned out to be a breakout for Eppard as he enjoyed his best season statistically in 1965 with Chicago. Used primarily as a second baseman and left fielder, Eppard set career highs with 127 games played, 66 starts, a .259 batting average, 3 home runs and 22 RBI. He earned a salary of $12,000 that year which was respectable for a part-time player in the mid-1960s. Eppard’s success led to continued, albeit diminished, roles over the next few seasons with the White Sox.
Eppard’s 1965 Topps card stands out as one of the more iconic from his playing days. It depicts him clean shaven in a White Sox road gray uniform, bat on shoulders in a classic baseball pose. The 1966 and 1967 cards continued to feature Eppard as a White Sox player while his stats and playing time slowly declined. These mid-1960s Topps issues remain some of the most visually appealing and nostalgic from the period. They capture Eppard during the peak of his MLB tenure and popularity as a cardboard collectible.
After the 1967 season, Eppard was traded by Chicago to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Larry Jaster. He spent the next two years, 1968-1969, as a utility player and pinch hitter for the Cardinal teams managed by Red Schoendienst. Eppard’s offensive production continued to taper off but he provided occasional late inning defensive replacements and pinch hits off the bench. He appeared in his final Topps card in 1969, which shows Eppard grinning in a Cardinals uniform with more facial hair than earlier photos. It was a sign his playing career was winding down after over 10 professional seasons.
In what turned out to be his last MLB action, Eppard was dealt by St. Louis to the Montreal Expos for the 1970 season. He struggled to earn much playing time and was released by the Expos in late August after hitting just .143 in 26 games. Eppard’s decade-long MLB tenure had come to an end at the age of 33. In a supporting role throughout his career, he batted .229 with 5 home runs and 82 RBI in 417 total major league games played. He continued to play minor league ball in 1971 with Triple-A clubs in the Cleveland and Milwaukee farm systems before finally retiring.
While Eppard never achieved MLB stardom, his baseball cards from the early-to-mid 1960s remain quite iconic for collectors today. As a role player who appeared in several key sets during the peak of Topps’ long run as the sole baseball card producer, Eppard can be found across 1961-1969 issues at affordable prices. His cards tend to depict him as an aspiring player in Detroit and rookie cards, then as a regular part of White Sox and Cardinals teams from 1965-1969. Eppard’s mid-1960s White Sox issues in particular are viewed favorably by collectors for their aesthetics and statistical details. Overall, Jim Eppard’s baseball card history serves as a reflection of his 10-year playing career spent primarily in a supporting capacity in Major League Baseball during the 1960s.