Random Topps Card of the Day: 1995 Topps #211 Kirt Manwaring

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Monday, December 10, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1995 Topps #211.
• Player Name, position, team: Kirt Manwaring, catcher, San Francisco Giants.
• Major League Debut: September 15, 1987.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1994 stats (Giants): 97 G, 316 AB, 30 R, 79 H, 17 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 29 RBI, 1 SB, .320 SLG, 25 BB, 50 SO, .250 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by Giants, #2nd, June 1986. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 10. This is his eighth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "'If he only hits .250...' It's a baseball expression reserved for sharp-fielding catchers such as Kirt, who hit .250 in '94 & continued the play that earned him a '93 Gold Glove.  Kirt played in the '89 World Series."
• Commentary: Ah, the 1995 Topps set...sponsored by Mitsubishi Diamond Vision. I guess this was Topps' way of incorporating the technology at the time (no HD scoreboards in stadiums yet), so the backs of the cards include a headshot of the player with all these dots on them (or are they squares?)  Kirt Manwaring was the Giants primary catcher from 1988 through 1996, when he was traded to the Astros for catcher Rick Wilkins (long past his glory year with the Cubs).  But with the Giants, he was a decent bat (batted .246 in his Giants career), but an incredible catcher defensively.  He was a Gold Glove winner as stated in the blurb on his card, and had a fantastic career fielding percentage of .991 (50 errors in 5485 chances).  In 1995, he hit above the .250 mark (.251, 95-379) with 4 home runs and 36 rbi's in 118 games played.  He is presently the Giants catching instructor and he's also a Hall of Famer.  He was inducted into the Coastal Carolina University Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.    
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.05-$0.15.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 11 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1991 Topps #169. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Flash back with the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama