Random Topps Card of the Day: 1986 Topps #184 Tim Laudner

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, September 2, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1986 Topps #184.
• Player Name, position, team: Tim Laudner, catcher, Minnesota Twins.
• Major League Debut: August 28, 1981.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1985 stats (Twins): 72 G, 164 AB, 16 R, 39 H, 5 2B, 0 3B, 7 HR, 19 RBI, 0 SB, .396 SLG, 12 BB, 45 SO, .238 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Twins #3nd June, 1979. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Laudner's fifth regular Topps card (total includes regular and traded cards only). By the time I started following baseball in 1987, the Twins had just changed their jerseys, logos, and everything else, from the TC (for Twin Cities) to the big M logo on their caps, the word Twins in a baseball instead of two players on either side of the the river shaking hands, and new uniforms to boot. So it was kind of weird seeing the older jerseys, logos, et.al instead of what I had been so accustomed to in the late 80's to early 90's. Of course now, retro is cool again, and the Twins have gone back to the TC caps and occasionally don the old uniforms to celebrate their history. Heck, I'd love to visit Target Field just for the fact that they have signs with many of their players' Topps cards all over the place (or so I heard). Tim Laudner's cards should be amongst them. He was the Twins' primary catcher throughout the 1980's, although he didn't surpass 100 games played until 1987, the year the Twins won the World Series. He became an All-Star the following year. He finished his career with the Twins in 1989, playing in 734 games. His final numbers include 77 home runs, 263 runs batted in, a batting average of .225, and an OPS of .662. He will best be remembered for hitting .318 with a homer and 4 rbi's in the '87 series. The back of the card reads that he hit his first MLB home run on 08/28/1981, the day he debuted. At the bottom of most player's cards featured a boxed in segment called "Talkin' Baseball." The factoid on Laudner's card reads that "The first two native Minnesotans to play for the Twins were pitchers Fred Bruckbauer and Paul Giel in 1961."
• Beckett value: $0.02-$0.10.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 12 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 2002 Topps #285. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama