Random Topps Card of the Day: 1995 Topps Traded and Rookies #50T Mickey Tettleton

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Tuesday, December 4, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1995 Topps Traded and Rookies #50T.
• Player Name, position, team: Mickey Tettleton, catcher-designated hitter, Texas Rangers.
• Major League Debut: June 30, 1984.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1994 stats (Tigers): 107 G, 339 AB, 57 R, 84 H, 18 2B, 2 3B, 17 HR, 51 RBI, 0 SB, .463 SLG, 97 BB, 98 SO, .248 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Athletics, #5th, June 1981.  Signed with the Rangers as a Free Agent 04/12/1995. Bats: both. Throws: left.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 16. This is his fourteenth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "A three-time Sporting News Silver Slugger award-winner at catcher, Mickey hooked up with Texas in 1995 primarily to assume a DH role.  On 06/04/1995, he nailed 2HR's with 6 RBI."
• Commentary: With a picture that looks like it could have been torn from a magazine (check the borders and shadow) to the unique font used for the player's name, the 1995 Topps Traded and Rookies set was the first update set created by Topps that was not sold in factory set form (or at least the first since 1976).  It was a hard set to complete, with Orel Hershiser being my final card, and I didn't get that one until late in 1996 (or was it in 1997...I may have told this story before).  Mickey Tettleton was already an established catcher with two All-Star appearances, including the year before with the Tigers.  The Rangers already had a superstar catcher in Ivan Rodriguez.  Why in the world did Tettleton sign with the Rangers?  While he did get some games in at catcher (3), he was primarily used as a designated hitter (58 games) and played in right field for Texas (61 games). In 1995, he appeared in 134 games, hit a decent .248, with 32 home runs, 78 rbi's, and an OPS of .906.  He stayed with the Rangers for two more years, announcing his retirement in July, 1997.  He left the game as one of the game's best hitting catchers.  At the time he retired, he was 8th in home runs by a switch hitter, 10th among catchers in OBP (.369) and eleventh in OPS (.821).
• Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 19 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be:  1993 Topps #723. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. We're looking back at a card from 1993 here on the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama