Random Topps Card of the Day: 2005 Topps #44 David Bell

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Saturday, January 22, 2011:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2005 Topps #44.
• Player Name, position, team: David Bell, third baseman, Philadelphia Phillies.
• Major League Debut: May 3, 1995.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2004 stats (Phillies): 143 G, 533 AB, 67 R, 155 H, 33 2B, 1 3B, 18 HR, 77 RBI, 1 SB, 57 BB, 75 SO, .458 SLG, .821 OPS, .291 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Indians, #7th, June 1990. Signed with the Phillies as a Free Agent 11/24/2002. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 12. This is his tenth card.
• Blurb on the back: "David hit for the cycle on June 17, 2004 - a feat that had been accomplished only 242 times before, including by his grandfather Gus."
• Commentary: The 2005 Topps set, in my opinions, is one of the better sets of the 2000's. If I had to rank it among the ten sets of the decade, it would be at least a strong top 3, if not 4th, in the design category. The large pictures, easy to sort by either player name (can't go wrong with the player's last name in big bold gold letters above the picture), or by team name (where the team name stands out against the black at the bottom of the picture). The only drawback is that the gold foil sometimes doesn't reflect well when scanning the card, or at certain angles when looking at it. Otherwise, it was a great set to collect and look at, even six years later. The game of baseball has seen fathers and sons play in the majors (in one case, as teammates), brothers, uncles and nephews, and grandfathers and grandsons. There are few families that can claim to have multiple generations of major league ball players. Actually, as of right now, I can think of two. The Bells and the Boones. David (David Michael Bell) is the son of Buddy Bell (David Gus Bell), the grandson of Gus Bell (David Russell Bell), and the brother of Mike Bell (Michael John Bell). David was the Phils' starting third baseman in the mid 2000's, but had a run of success with the Mariners and Giants after the turn of the century. In his four season run in Philadelphia, David hit 38 home runs, drove in 209 rbi's to go with a .258 average and an OPS of .715. Before moving on to Philly, David was one of the hitting stars of the NL Champion Giants, getting 17 hits in 56 at bats (.303 average, one home run), scored 11 runs, drove in six combined during the 2002 NLDS, NLCS, and World Series.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of each player do I own?: 15 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: 1972 Topps #151. Come back at 1:00 PM CST to see who (or what) it is.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama