Random Topps Card of the Day: 1994 Topps Traded #92T Charlie O'Brien

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Wednesday, June 12, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1994 Topps Traded #92T.
• Player Name, position, team: Charlie O'Brien, catcher, Atlanta Braves.
• Major League Debut: June 2, 1985.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1993 stats (Mets): 67 G, 188 AB, 15 R, 48 H, 11 2B, 0 3B, 4 HR, 23 RBI, 0 SB, .378 SLG, 14 BB, 14 SO, .255 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by Athletics #5th, June 1982. Signed as a free agent with the Braves 11/27/1993. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 10. This is his eighth card.
• Blurb on the back: "Because of his defensive genius, Charlie was hand-picked by the Braves as a back-up and mentor to super-rookie Javy Lopez."
• Commentary: If this card looks familiar as a previous Card of the Day...it is. This is the second time that the Randomizer picked this card for today's subject. And as much as I would have loved to switch cards (using maybe the card before or after this one), I thought to honor the Randomizer's wishes and use this card again. The original post became one of the most read post on my blog thanks to an article linking my post and this card to his site (there were over 4000 hits to this humble, little blog thanks to this). To save time and agony, I'll just keep the original commentary, just changing a couple of things. Making his third appearance on the Randomizer, Charlie O'Brien, who never played more than 70 games up to this point in his career, was known more for his defense than he was for his bat. But it was what he brought to the game later on that revolutionized the catcher's position. Inspired by the goalie masks that hockey players use, he created a mask for catchers that was, yes a bit larger, but provided more protection for the man behind home plate against foul balls, against bats against the back of the head, et al. And, the view was amazing. You didn't even have to remove the mask to catch those pesky foul balls. And once it was approved by MLB to use in play, well, lets just say his mask added years to a catcher's health. At this time, the Braves had a young superstar waiting in the wings to become their primary catcher. O'Brien's signing guaranteed that a young Javy Lopez would learn from one of the better defensive catchers in the game.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.02-$0.10.
• How many cards of each player do I own?: 10 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be 1981 Topps #666. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Hope you will be too.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama