Random Topps Card of the Day: 1995 Topps #103 Mariano Duncan

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, March 4, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1995 Topps #103.
• Player Name, position, team: Mariano Duncan, shortstop-second baseman, Philadelphia Phillies.
• Major League Debut: April 9, 1985.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1994 stats (Phillies): 88 G, 347 AB, 49 R, 93 H, 22 2B, 1 3B, 8 HR, 48 RBI, 10 SB, .406 SLG, 17 BB, 72 SO, .268 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Dodgers as a Free Agent 01/07/1982. Signed by the Philles as a Free Agent 12/10/1991. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Duncan's tenth regular Topps card (total includes regular and traded cards only). I think the biggest memory I have of Duncan was that he was the first NL second baseman to start an All-Star Game after Ryne Sandberg retired for the first time in 1994. This card came out the following year. I didn't realize though that Duncan only played half of the season (must have been injured not long afterwards). The 1995 Topps baseball design (which was also used for their 1995 football and basketball design), features a picture that looks like it has torn borders (as if you folded a piece of paper and just cut it without scissors), or cut from cloth. Action shots aplenty that year. The back features two more pictures, a headshot picture akin to something you'd see on a scoreboard (compliments to Mitsubishi's Diamond Vision technology), and a cropped action shot. The blurb on the back talks about Mariano contributes "hoards of equipment to kids in the Dominican Republic" because he once played ball with "tree branches, cardboard gloves, and stuffed socks."
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.05-$0.15.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 14 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1984 Topps #620. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama