Thursday, January 5, 2012

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1999 Topps #267 Rick Helling

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, January 5, 2011:


  • Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1999 Topps #267.
  • Player Name, position, team: Rick Helling, pitcher, Texas Rangers.
  • Major League Debut: April 10, 1994.
  • Last Line of Statistics: 1998 stats (Rangers): 33 G, 216.1 IP, 20-7, 109 R, 106 ER, 164 SO, 78 BB, 33 GS, 4 CG, 2 SHO, 0 SV, 4.41 ERA.
  • Any special information about players: Drafted by the Rangers, #1st, June 1992. Traded by the Marlins to the Rangers, 08/12/1997. Bats: right. Throws: right.
  • Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 9. This is his fourth card.
  • Blurb on the back: "Rick's 20-win season (quadrupling his previous high) in 1998 was only the third in team history, as he followed the sizable footsteps of Ferguson Jenkins and Kevin Brown. The last pitcher to nab 20 without having ever won more than five previously was David Cone in 1988."
  • Commentary: Another design that focuses more on the picture than the design itself, Topps' unique gold border and unobtrusive name plate alongside a gold line that leads to the team name at the bottom, makes for a great card.  Rick Helling was part of the USA Baseball, the organization that competes for the Olympics and other international competitions, and thus had cards in both the 1991 and 1992 Topps Traded set as part of Team USA. His third card, from the 1994 Traded Set was his last card up until this one you see above.  I guess when you win 20 games, you deserve a card. Heck, he was even traded to the Marlins and didn't get a Topps card during his tenure in Florida.
    Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
    How many cards of this player do I own?: 9 cards.
Tomorrow's card will be: 1983 Topps Traded #131T. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

1 comment:

Ultimate Dog Stop said...

If you can believe it I actually used to collect this guy. I thought he was going to be really good. I was wrong.