Random Topps Card of the Day: 2006 Topps #23 Jonny Gomes

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Monday, November 12, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2006 Topps #23.
• Player Name, position, team: Jonny Gomes, outfielder, Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
• Major League Debut: September 12, 2003.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2005 stats (Devil Rays): 101 G, 348 AB, 61 R, 98 H, 13 2B, 6 3B, 21 HR, 54 RBI, 9 SB, 39 BB, 113 SO, .534 SLG, .906 OPS, .282 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Devil Rays, #18th, June 2001. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 9. This is his third Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Jonny's swagger aided Tampa Bay hugely in 2005.  The team, in turn, kept him modest - as when Travis Lee served him a shaving cream-pie in the kisser while Jonny did an interview after his three-dinger day on 07/30/2005."
• Commentary: How awkward was it to find "reprints" of 2006 Topps cards in a 2005 calendar product?  2005 Topps Rookie Cup came out some time before the end of 2005 to capitalize on the fact that people actually collect players who made their All-Star Rookie Team.  Thanks to the new MLB Properties/MLB Players Association rules, a set that featured a majority of retired players was no longer to be allowed.  So what better way to celebrate the 47th Anniversary of the ASRT (and to get this product out of the way before the new rules hit) than with Rookie Cup (although, ironically enough, none of the players from the 1959 ASRT found their way onto this set)?  Well, their set also included six players who made the 2005 team, including Jonny Gomes.  The catch?  It would mean that their 2006 cards would be included in the retrospective reprint set.  Problem?  The 2006 Topps cards had not yet officially been put out to market (thanks to the new rules, the cards were not allowed to be distributed until February).  So the "reprint" cards came out before the actual cards.  Not knowing who's job it was and how the card numbering was supposed to be done, but Gomes' card was #6 in the set.  Which put him amongst the players who's cards were adorned with the Rookie Cup in the 1960's while the other five players on the squad were placed together at the end of the set.  Okay, enough about Rookie Cup.  Gomes was technically still a rookie coming into the 2005 campaign, and what a year it was.  On the strength of 21 home runs and a .282 average, Gomes finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.  A three-home run game (which was mentioned in the blurb AND in the cartoon on the back of the card) marked his reputation as a power hitter.  In six year with the Devil Rays/Rays (yes, he was still with the team after the name change), Jonny hit 66 home runs, drove in 184 rbi's, and had a batting average of .235.  He has since played for the Reds (2009-2011), Nationals (2011), and Athletics (2012).  Of his nine regular/traded Topps cards, five of them appear in the Traded/U&H/Update Series category.
• Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 22 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1993 Topps Traded #80T. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Flash back with the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama