Random Topps Card of the Day: 2009 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH104 Geoff Blum

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, June 6, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2009 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH104.
• Player Name, position, team: Geoff Blum, third baseman, Houston Astros.
• Major League Debut: August 9, 1999.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2008 stats (Astros): 114 G, 325 AB, 36 R, 78 H, 14 2B, 1 3B, 14 R, 53 RBI, 1 SB, 21 BB, 54 SO, .418 SLG, .705 OPS, .740 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Expos #7th, June 1994. Signed with the Astros as a Free Agent 11/19/2007. Bats: both. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 8. This is his sixth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "By shocking the Cubs on June 10 and 11, 2009, Geoff became the first Astros player sine Derek Bell in 1996 to notch game-ending hits in back-to-back games."
• Commentary: The one thing I love about horizontally oriented cards is that the pictures, if properly utilized, can bring you so close to the action, it's almost cliché to say that it's like you're right there. Now obviously the photographer isn't really at the home plate area when this shot was taken, but it is so close, and Topps cropped it just right, that you can see the dirt coming up as Geoff Blum is sliding towards home, trying to beat the catcher's tag. You can see the pitcher just standing there (arm on the left) hoping that Blum is out. The first base umpire, albeit blurred, can still be seen in the background watching the play. The only thing you don't see? Home plate. And even that is fine, because thanks to the design element of home plate used on the lower right hand corner of the card, it's like Blum is sliding into that instead. Based from what I can see, it looks like the Pirates were visiting Minute Maid Park that night. I'm not going to take the time this time around to figure out what game this because there is no way to tell if Blum was safe or called out. The only run he scored against the Bucs at home in 2009 (if that was when this shot was even taken) occurred on June 7 and the game summary does not indicate if there was a play at the plate. Geoff Blum had been with the Astros once before, spending two seasons with Houston before he was traded away to Tampa Bay after the 2003 season. After being released by the Devil Rays in 2004, he signed on with the Padres. His stay in San Diego didn't last long in 2005 as he was traded to the White Sox in a deadline deal, just in time to help the White Sox win the 2005 World Series (he hit the eventual game winning home run in the 14th inning against (ironically enough) the Astros in Game 3. Instead of sticking around in Chicago, he re-signed with the Padres after the 2005 season (talk about your rent-a-player). Blum re-signed with the Astros after the 2007 season ended, becoming the 'Stros primary third baseman. Oddly enough, even though he played in 114 games in 2008, he did not get a card in the 2009 Topps set. Instead, he was relegated to the Updates and Highlights set. In 2009, Blum appeared in 120 games, hit for a .247 average, hit 10 home runs, drove in 49 rbi's, and committed only 3 errors in 212 total chances (.986 fielding percentage). After the Astros declined his option for the 2011 season, Geoff signed with the Diamondbacks. But after two years and a combined 40 games, the D-Backs released him in 2012. He retired as a player soon afterwards and in 2013 returned to the Astros again, this time as a color analyst.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.12-$0.30.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 14.

Tomorrow's card will be: 2011 Topps Update Series #US102. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama