Random Topps Card of the Day: 2003 Topps #614 Kevin Brown

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Saturday, January 29, 2011:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2003 Topps #614.
• Player Name, position, team: Kevin Brown, pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers.
• Major League Debut: September 30, 1986.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2002 stats (Dodgers): 17 G, 63.2 IP, 3-4, 36 R, 34 ER, 58 SO, 23 BB, 10 GS, 0 CG, 0 SHO, 0 SV, 4.81 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Rangers, #1st, June 1986. Signed with the Dodgers as a Free Agent 12/12/1998. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 18. This is his sixteenth card.
• Blurb on the back: n/a.
• Commentary: The 2003 set, with it's easy to chip blue borders, was the last set in the "colored borders" era for Topps baseball card sets. Because there were two pictures in the front (following a tradition that goes back to 1963), there were no color pictures on the back of the card, save for the team logo that could have easily gone on the front. But that's neither here nor there. Kevin Brown, who by now was a four-time All-Star and a perennial Cy Young candidate, was the prize free agent of the 1998 off-season. Pried away from the defending NL Champion Padres, Brown signed for a deal that reached into the 100 million dollar range. And in his first year in LA, he delivered. An 18-9 record to go with an ERA of 3.00 and a WHIP of 1.066 gained him votes in that year's Cy Young voting. The following year, he became an All-Star (his fifth appearance), and led the NL in ERA with 2.58 and WHIP with a incredibly low 0.991. But in 2001, injuries began to damper on his stay in Tinseltown. By 2002, he only started 10 games for the Dodgers. The next year, he rebounded nicely, even making it to his final ASG. But by year's end, it was felt that he wasn't worth the money, so he was traded to the Yankees in the offseason, where he finished his illustrious career.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of each player do I own?: 33 cards.

Tomorrow is Retro Sunday, the one day of the week that we feature a card from 1951-1975. The card we will feature tomorrow is: 1975 Topps #273. Come back at 1:00 PM CST to see who (or what) it is.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama