Random Topps Card of the Day: 2004 Topps #559 Joe Mauer

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Wednesday, September 15, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2004 Topps #559.
• Player Name, position, team: Joe Mauer, catcher, Minnesota Twins.
• Major League Debut: April 5, 2004.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2003 stats (New Britain-Eastern AA): 73 G, 276 AB, 48 R, 94 H, 17 2B, 1 3B, 4 HR, 41 RBI, 0 SB, 25 BB, 25 SO, .453 SLG, .853 OPS, .341 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Twins #1st June, 2001. Bats: left, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Mauer's third regular Topps card (total includes regular and traded cards only). I don't think even Joe Mauer was sure if he was going to make the Twins in 2004. Why? Because if you notice at the lower left corner of the cards, near the silhouette of the player, is a number. And it appears that Joe's number heading into spring training that year was #71. Guys wearing that high a number normally aren't planning on joining the big club. But somehow, Joe Mauer did make it out of camp, and the uniform number assigned to him has been his ever since...#7. The demands of catching in the majors are incredible. You have to be able to call a game, know the strengths and weaknesses of all the pitchers on the staff. You're wearing a lot of equipment. You're squatting for long periods of time. You risk getting hit by pitches, bats, dirt, and in many cases, runners on third base. And, on top of all that, you have to hit. Every generation, every decade, definitely since Topps started selling baseball cards, there are catchers that define the decade or era he plays. Just mention the names Berra, Campanella, Crandall, Torre, Freehan, Fisk, Munson, Bench, Carter, Alomar, Rodriguez, Piazza, Posada, and even the brothers Molina, and memories of some of the greatest catchers in the history of baseball come back to life. In the 21st century, Joe Mauer has made a name for himself as one of the best catchers in the game. But before he could do all of that, he had to ply his trade in the minors. The back of Mauer's 2004 card includes his career minor league statistics, from his days with Elizabethton, to toiling in the Quad Cities. In 2003, he split his time between Fort Myers in the High A Florida Coast League and New Britain of the AA Eastern League. Topps named him baseball's
  "most eagerly anticipated rookie" for the 2004 campaign. The native Minnesotan was drafted by the hometown Twins, and signed a contract that would keep him with the Twins until the end of the 2018 season. The back of his card reads that Mauer "was the top quarterback in the nation coming out of high school." I think the Twins are happy that he decided to stick to baseball.
• Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 55 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: Thursday: 1980 Topps #539. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Hope you will be too.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama