Random Topps Card of the Day: 2001 Topps #262 Scott Hatteberg

(Due to the flooding that occurred in my neighborhood on Thursday, April 18, 2013, I was not able to get this post out at the scheduled time. I am just catching up now.)

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Monday, April 22, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2001 Topps #262.
• Player Name, position, team: Scott Hatteberg, catcher, Boston Red Sox.
• Major League Debut: September 8, 1995.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2000 stats (Red Sox): 92 G, 230 AB, 21 R, 61 H, 15 2B, 0 3B, 8 HR, 38 RBI, 0 SB, .435 SLG, 38 BB, 39 SO, .265 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Red Sox #1st, June 1991. Bats: left. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 13. This is his sixth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Elbow surgery wiped out most of his 1999 season, but Scott returned in 2000 to re-establish himself as a valuable presence in the clubhouse. Neither his hitting, nor his throwing seemed to suffer as Hatteberg gave the Red Sox that rare treat of a left-handed hitting catcher. He also gives a manager flexibility in the lineup, with enough patience at the plate and pop in his bat to fill in at designated hitter or in a key pinch-hitting role."
• Commentary: I've always wondered...if the 2001 Topps set was the Golden Anniversary set, why did they go with green borders for the design? Was it because next to white, the green really accentuates the gold foil that Topps used for the cards? I don't know the reasons for sure, but I do know that gold and green go well together. Just look at that swing Hatteberg's taking. I don't know if it's the because the card is horizontally oriented, but it looks like he's about to fall over after swinging for the fences. In what was to be Scott Hatteberg's final season with the Red Sox, he would go on and hit .245 with 3 home runs and 25 rbi's in 94 games played. It was a good seven year run with the Red Sox, including a couple of cups of coffee in 1995 and 1996. In 1997, Hatteberg became the Sox' starting catcher, and in the two seasons following he would hit over .276 with 22 home runs and 87 rbi's (if you look at his stats from both 1997 and 1998, they are nearly identical...I said nearly, not exactly). But as the blurb on the back pointed out, he suffered an elbow injury that took him out for most of the 1999 season, and by that time, Jason Varitek took over the starting catcher duties. When he signed with the Athletics in January, 2002, he became the team's first baseman thanks in part to the elbow injuries that prevented him from throwing a baseball. With Hatteberg now entrenched at first, he would fill the void left by Jason Giambi who had signed on with the Yankees. He would man first for the A's for four very productive seasons (.269 average, with 49 home runs and 263 rbi's), before signing with the Reds in 2006. After two + seasons with Cincinnati, the Reds released Hatteberg after 34 games in which he was hitting .173 (9-52) in June. It would be his last action as a major league ballplayer. Since retiring, he is back with the Oakland Athletics, serving as a "Special Assistant to Baseball Operations" and even took in a few games as the A's TV color commentator in 2012.
• Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 21 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1994 Topps Traded #70T. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Flash back with the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama