Random Topps Card of the Day: 1985 Topps #108 Darnell Coles

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Monday, February 11, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1985 Topps #108.
• Player Name, position, team: Darnell Coles, third baseman, Seattle Mariners.
• Major League Debut: September 4, 1983.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1984 stats (Mariners): 48 G, 143 AB, 15 R, 23 H, 3 2B, 1 3B, 0 HR, 6 RBI, 2 SB, .196 SLG, 17 BB, 26 SO, .161 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Mariners #1st, June 1980. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 8. This is his first Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: n/a.
• Commentary: I love the colors on this card. The yellow and blue almost matches the uniform and logo of the Mariners. The team logo (or at least some semblance of it) makes its first appearance on a Topps card since 1965. Here is another player who I didn't realize appeared in the majors long after his last Topps card was produced. It turns out that Darnell Coles' last appears on a Topps card in 1991 (when he played for the Tigers). However, a season plus stint in Japan with the Chunichi Dragons and Hanshin Tigers, he played in the big leagues until 1997 (with the Colorado Rockies). But today's card features a young Darnell Coles, the team's first round draft pick in 1980 (6th overall), who at that point in time was shuttling between the Mariners and their AAA team in Salt Lake City. In 1985, he joined the team in the middle of May, making his season debut on May 17. Though primarily a third baseman, he was called in as a defensive replacement at left field as well as at shortstop. He started in 16 of the 27 games he appeared for the M's that year, hitting for an average of .237 with a home run and 5 rbi's in 71 plate appearances. In December of 1985, Coles was traded to the Tigers, who planned on making Coles their primary third baseman. In his first full season in the majors, he showed the Tigers' brass that he could hit, with 20 home runs and 86 rbi's, an average of .273, and an OPS of .786. He was traded in a mid-season deal to the Pirates in August, 1987, who in turn traded him back to the Mariners in July, 1988. In his first and final full season with the Mariners of 1989, he appeared in 146 games, hitting a decent .252 with 10 home runs and 59 rbi's. But as the M's decided to go with a younger team that included superstar-in-the-making Ken Griffey, Jr, as well as stars to be Edgar Martinez, Tino Martinez, Randy Johnson, et.al, Coles found himself traded AGAIN to the Detroit Tigers. He would begin his trek through the majors in 1991 signing with the Giants. He would play for the Reds in 1992, the Blue Jays in 1993-94 (just in time to earn a World Series ring), and the Cardinals in 1995 before heading off to Japan in 1996 to play in Nagoya with the Dragons. He returned to the US, signing with the Rockies for the 1997 campaign. But he returned to Japan after the Hanshin Tigers purchased his contract, ending his playing career in the Far East. In 2006, he was hired by the Nationals to be a roving hitting instructor. In 2007, he began his journey as a minor league manager, first with Vermont (short season A), and then the next year with the Hagerstown Suns (A-South Atlantic). He was named the hitting coach of the Nationals' AAA team in Syracuse for the 2009 season. He is now the manager of the Huntsville Stars, the AA team of the Brewers.
• Beckett value: $0.05-$0.15.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 10 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1994 Topps #162. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Flash back with the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama