Random Topps Card of the Day: 2000 Topps #391 Bill Mueller

We reset the Topps Card Randomizer to come up with seven new cards to present for this week. Introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Monday, September 13, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2000 Topps #391.
• Player Name, position, team: Bill Mueller, third baseman, San Francisco Giants.
• Major League Debut: April 18, 1996.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1999 stats (Giants): 116 G, 414 AB, 61 R, 120 AB, 24 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 36 RBI, 4 SB, .362 SLG, 65 BB, 52 SO, .290 AVG.
• Any special information about players: Drafted by the Giants #15th, June 1993. Bats: both, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Mueller's fourth regular Topps card (total includes regular and traded cards only). It was in this third year of Topps "colored borders" period (which ran from 1998 to 2003) that I really started to miss white bordered cards. Sure the colors were a nice change of pace, but three years in a row? I guess it could have been worse...like the 1977-1980 period of classic but boring designs. At least collectors who were active at this time can look at the card and know what year it's from (even if it says Topps 2000) at the bottom. Bill Mueller became the Giants' regular third baseman in 1997, and at this point, his season batting averages never dipped below .290 (that's the big highlight Topps mentions in the bio below the stats). It also says that his 1999 season started off with a big toe fracture that occurred in his first at bat of the year. He missed 37 games because of it. The card also says that Mueller has a career batting average of .355 in the month of August (and he had a .376 average that month in 1999). He would go on to play for the Cubs, and the World Series winning Red Sox in 2004 (winning a batting title and his only appearance as an All-Star the year before). He ended his career in 2006 with the Dodgers, first working in the front office of the Dodgers' organization, then as the hitting coach of the team. In 2009, he returned to the Dodgers' front office, named as a Special Assistant to General Manager Ned Colletti.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of each player do I own?: 19 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1976 Topps #655. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. See you then.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama