Random Topps Card of the Day: 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH15 Kevin Cash

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, October 17, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH15.
• Player Name, position, team: Kevin Cash, catcher, Boston Red Sox.
• Major League Debut: September 6, 2002.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2007 stats (Red Sox): 12 G, 27 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 1 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 4 RBI, 0 SB, 4 BB, 13 SO, .148 SLG, .390 OPS, .111 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Blue Jays as a Free Agent 08/07/1999. Signed with the Red Sox as a Free Agent 01/24/2007. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 4. This is his third Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Kevin won the Red Sox back-up catcher's job in 2008 thanks to his defensive acumen, and in particular, his proficiency at corralling Tim Wakefield's knuckleball. To practice the art, Cash catches from a pitching machine which spits out rag balls made of a tacky fabric that  makes them stick as they go through the mechanism, causing them to flutter"
• Commentary: It takes special skill to be able to catch a knuckleball. I think Bob Uecker said it best, "The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up." Kevin Forrest Cash did such a good job of training himself how to catch this unpredictable pitch that he made it onto the 2008 Red Sox roster as Tim Wakefield's personal catcher. Taking advantage of this new role, Cash appeared in 61 games for the Red Sox, hitting .225 with 3 home runs and 15 runs batted in. The following year, he signed a minor league free agent contract with the New York Yankees. He did appear in the Bronx for a ten game stretch when both the Yankees' regular catchers were on the DL, but Cash would wind up going on the DL himself, requiring surgery on a torn rotator cuff. He was released by the Yankees in September, and even though he had contemplated retirement, took another chance and signed another minor league deal, this time with the Astros. He did get called up to Houston in 2010, appearing in 20 games before being re-acquired by the Red Sox for the pennant chase. In his second run with the BoSox, he hit .133 with 1 rbi in 29 games played. In 2011, he signed on with the Rangers' Triple-A affiliate in Round Rock before calling it a career for good in January 2012. After one year as an advance scout for the Blue Jays, Terry Francona, his former manager in Boston, hired Cash to be his new bullpen coach for the Indians.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.12-$0.30.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 4.

Tomorrow's card will be: 2005 Topps Update and Highlights #UH311. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama