If This is His Topps Card, Then What Card is This?: Hanley Ramirez

It's time to stir things up around here with a new feature called, "If this is his Topps card, what is this???" How does this work?

I will show you a picture of a player's card whether it's from Topps or Topps Traded (Updates & Highlights, whatever). Somehow, this player has a card with the same design, all the bells and whistles of the regular card, but has a different picture? Is the card real? Absolutely. I don't have the photoshop skills to fake a card. Most of the cards we will use will be promo cards, or bonus cards found in factory sets (yes friends, I open factory sets for the bonus cards). So here goes...

Our first installment features the Florida Marlins' All-Star shortstop Hanley Ramirez. He was sent to the Marlins from the Boston Red Sox along with Anibal Sanchez, Harvey Garcia, and Jesus Delgado in exchange for Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, and Guillermo Mota in 2005. Since then, the twenty-four-year old Ramirez has been a superstar for the Marlins. He was named the NL Rookie of the Year in 2006, and was voted a starter in the 2008 All-Star Game.

So back to the point. Here is Hanley Ramirez' rookie card, a 2003 Topps Traded card #T181:


Here, 19 year old Hanley is taking his cuts in spring training. So now...

Hey, he's on the field. So if the card above is from the Traded set, then (all together now...)

What Card is This?

Well, this card is one of five that were inserted in 2003 Topps Retail Factory Sets (Wal-Mart, Target, etc.) The only way to get this and the other four cards that came with it (Ismael Castro, Branden Florence, Michael Garciaparra, and Pete LaForest) was to buy one of these sets.

And that's how you play, "If This is His Topps Card, Then What Card is This?"

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama