Random Topps Card of the Day: 1980 Topps #300 Ron Guidry

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, February 21, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1980 Topps #300.
• Player Name, position, team: Ron Guidry, pitcher, New York Yankees.
• Major League Debut: July 27, 1975.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1979 stats (Yankees): 33 G, 236 IP, 18-8, 83 R, 73 ER, 201 SO, 71 BB, 2.78 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by Yankees #3rd, June 1971. Bats: left. Throws: left.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 14. This is his fifth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Was A.L. Cy Young Award winner in 1978, led majors with 25 Wins, 1.74 ERA and 9 shutouts for year."
• Commentary: A repeat Random Card of the Day subject (figures it would be the same exact CARD). This is what I wrote on January 7, 2010: "In 1979, Ron lead the AL in ERA, was an All-Star, and finished third in the AL Cy Young voting, behind Cy Young winner Mike Flanagan and teammate Tommy John. The blue background on the backs of each 1980 Topps cad made for easy reading of the text. A cartoon featuring a trivial stat regarding Guidry (establishing Yankee record for K's in a season) and a blurb regarding his Cy Young award the year before complement Guidry's career statistics." Yikes!!! Okay, let's improve upon this, especially since it's been more than two years since this first was posted. In 1980, Guidry finished the season with a 17-10 record, a higher (for him) ERA of 3.56 and 166 strikeouts in 29 games started. In his lone post-season appearance in the 1980 ALCS, he pitched Game 1 against the Royals, and lasted three innings against KC, allowing five hits, four walks, and four earned runs (an ERA of 12.00) amongst the 17 batters he faced. This would technically be considered an off year for him. The following year he led the AL in WHIP with a scant 0.992 and a strikeout/walk ratio of 4.00 to go with a 11-5 record, 2.76 ERA, and 104 strikeouts in a strike-shortened season. He finished his career with the Yankees, spending fourteen seasons in the Bronx. He won five straight Gold Glove awards (1982-1986), was a four-time All-Star, six-time Cy Young candidate (winning it in 1978), and a five-time MVP candidate. Of the 368 games he pitched, 323 of them starts, Guidry went 170-91 with a 3.29 ERA, 1778 strikeouts, and a 1.184 WHIP. He was in the HOF balloting for 9 years, before a 4.9% vote in 2002 took him off for good. He remains a Yankee great, and his uniform #49 was retired on August 23, 2003. He has served the Yankees as both a pitching coach (in 2006-2007), and a spring training instructor.  On the back of Guidry's card is a cartoon mentioning that his "248 strikeouts in 1978 established a new all-time Yankee club record."
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.30-$0.75.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 40 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 2012 Topps #386. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama