Saturday, June 1, 2013

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1998 Topps #281 Livan Hernandez '97 World Series Highlight

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Saturday, June 1, 2013:


  • Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1998 Topps #281.
  • Player Name, position, team: Livan Hernandez, pitcher, Florida Marlins.
  • Special: World Series Game 5, Florida 8, Cleveland 7.
  • Blurb on the back: "A 22-year old in the World Series. A Cuban pitching in 35-degree wind chill. A guy who walked eight in a 142-pitch stamina-strainer. The planets didn't seem to be aligned for a Livan Hernandez victory, but they were as Florida took a three games-to-two lead with an 8-7 win over Cleveland. Supported by Moises Alou's third home run of the Classic, he settled in after a rocky start to become the first rookie since 1947 to win a second World Series game. Hernandez also topped the Indians in the opener."
  • Any special information about this specific card: Sorry for the really bad scan. I don't know if you can describe the front of the card as total foil (akin to the 2002 Topps America: United We Stand cards), but other than the featured player (in this case Livan Hernandez) and the logos of the Indians, Marlins, and Topps, it's very hard to see the words numbers "'97" ghosted above and "World Series" along the edge of the card from a distance. You'd really have to get up close to see the details, down to the what I'm thinking is the runner on the base paths. Topps' description on the back of the card perfectly and dramatically describes the game situation and the eventual result, that of the Marlins winning game 5. Now there were seven cards in the '97 World Series subset, one for each game. But unlike previous years, there is no mention about which game is featured on the front of the card. You'd either have to assume that each card looks back on a specific game in order (when the cards are sorted in numerical sequence), or read the back of the card to find out for sure. On the back of the card as well, behind the text and the picture of Hernandez, there is a sketch of a newspaper with the headline of World Series! and the two teams' logos, but again, it would be hard to see either of them unless you took a really close look at the card.
  • Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
Tomorrow is Retro Sunday, the one day of the week that we feature a card from 1951-1975. The card we will feature tomorrow is: 1960 Topps #377. Come back at 1:00 PM CST to see who (or what) it is.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

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