- Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2003 Topps #43.
- Player Name, position, team: Javier Lopez, catcher, Atlanta Braves.
- Major League Debut: September 18, 1992.
- Last Line of Statistics: 2002 stats (Braves): 109 G, 347 AB, 31 R, 81 H, 15 2B, 0 3B, 11 HR, 52 RBI, 0 SB, .372 SLG, 26 BB, 63 SO, .233 AVG.
- Any special information about player: Signed with the Braves as a Free Agent 11/06/1987. Bats: right, Throws: right.
- Any special information about this specific card: Lopez' eleventh regular Topps card (total includes both Topps and Topps Traded cards). Okay, let's get this straight. This is not the Javier Lopez, the pitcher who started his career in Colorado, won a World Series with Boston, and is now set to begin the 2010 season with the Pittsburgh Pirates. This is the Javier Lopez, aka "Javy" Lopez, the All-Star catcher from the Atlanta Braves. Why, after all the years Topps used the name Javy on almost ALL of his cards up to this point, did they decide to use Javier for the 2003 set is beyond me. On all of his other 2003 Topps cards (from other sets like Heritage for example), he's listed as Javy. Why the formal Javier here? And in 2004, Topps had him as "Javy" again for all of his cards afterwards. Besides, Javier Lopez the pitcher has never (at this point in his career anyway) appeared on a regular Topps card. He does show up in the Topps Total sets (lets face it...EVERYBODY SHOWED UP IN THE TOPPS TOTAL SET!!!), and he makes appearances in both the 2007 and 2008 Boston Red Sox gift sets. But never on a regular Topps set (not even a Topps Updates and Highlights set). And now that he's with the Pirates, he's never going to have a Topps card made of him (what do you expect...he's a middle relief pitcher for Pittsburgh...literally the qualifications for not having a Topps card made in the 21st century). Let's get back to Javier...I mean Javy now. Now here is a picture that the other card company could have used for their 2010 product. No logos anywhere (with the possible exception of the back end of the tomahawk peeking out from under the catcher's chest protector). The baserunner is not even facing the camera, and the number on the back of the jersey could be of anybody. Okay, so it's Kirk Reuter of the Giants, but you get the idea. The only drawback is that in the big picture, you can't even see Javy's face. Ahh, but that's where the little picture in the baseball field shaped frame comes in. The blurb on the back of Lopez' card delves into his personal life. Javy...I mean "Javier was a star volleyball player as a teenager who met his future wife on the volleyball court." Volleyball must be in the genes of this Lopez family as his sister Elaine, at the time this card was printed, plays volleyball professionally.
- Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
- How many cards of this player do I own?: 29 cards.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
2 comments:
Nice catcher mask card.
Thanks for the bonus info about the "other" Javier Lopez. As he (the other one, the pitcher) is a fellow UVa grad, I'm always on the lookout for his cards -- and now I know he doesn't have any Topps regular issues. So it's like he doesn't exist, in my book! :-)
(Though it will pain my Yankee soul, perhaps I will look for those Bosox gift set cards.)
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