Random Topps Card of the Day: 1994 Topps #271 Brad Pennington

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Saturday, October 27, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1994 Topps #271.
• Player Name, position, team: Brad Pennington, pitcher, Baltimore Orioles.
• Major League Debut: April 17, 1993.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1993 stats (Orioles): 34 G, 33 IP, 3-2, 25 R, 24 ER, 39 SO, 25 BB, 0 GS, 0 CG, 0 SHO, 4 SV, 6.55 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Orioles, #12th, June 1989.  Bats:  left.  Throws:  left.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 2. This is his second and final Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Brad made the Orioles' roster after a scoreless spring training, then did not allow a rn in 15 of his first 19 appearances."
• Commentary: Brad Pennington is the first player that I can recall having Kane County appear in the statistics box on the back of his card.  The Kane County Cougars were just a new minor league team in 1991, and at the time was part of the Orioles' farm system.  While I lived nowhere near Geneva, it was close enough to be called the minor league team of the NW suburbs.  Pennington was one of the players under the "Coming Attractions" subset in the 1993 subset, and he impressed the O's management enough to earn a spot on their roster that year.  Yes, his ERA is ridiculously high, by any standards, but when you only average an less than an inning per appearance, any runs you're credit with will bloat that number.  In 1994, Brad spent most of the year in AAA, but when called up to Baltimore, he struggled.  By the middle of June of 1995, the O's traded him to Cincinnati.  He last appeared in the majors with the Devil Rays in a game where he faced four batters and allowed one earned run without getting an out...his ERA that year...infinity.  His final season in pro baseball was with the Allentown Ambassadors of the Northern League.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.02-$0.10.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 2.

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: 1973 Topps #389. Come back at 1:00 PM CST to see who (or what) it is.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama