Random Topps Card of the Day: 1958 Topps #22 Hal Naragon

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, July 11, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1958 Topps #22.
• Player Name, position, team: Hal Naragon, catcher, Cleveland Indians.
• Major League Debut: September 23, 1951.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1957 stats (Indians): 57 G, 121 AB, 12 R, 31 H, 1 2B, 1 3B, 0 HR, 8 RBI, .256 AVG, 179 PO, 14 A, 2 E, .990 F. AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed by the Indians as a Free Agent before the 1947 season. Bats: left, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Naragon's third regular Topps card. The 1958 set was not necessarily unique with the use of cropped photography, but in the way that it was presented. Whereas the 1957 Topps set showcased the entire photograph, the 1958 set design cropped the entire background, leaving just the picture of the featured player in a colored background (whether it be red, blue, yellow, green, etc). Now cropping the photo may not be new to Topps (see 1954 Topps), but this kind of work could lead to missing elbows, bats, hands (as was the case on some 1958 Topps cards). But I digress. Hal Naragon was the Tribe's back up catcher (to Jim Hegan in the 1950's). And he was a rather decent catcher who could have caught on with other teams. But as he was a native Ohioan (from Barberton, OH, roughly 30 miles or so south of Cleveland), he stayed with the local club. Now the back of his card shows only two lines of stats (his previous year and lifetime stats) to make way for large cartoon snapshots of Naragon's career. Now for a role player who never played more than 57 games a season at the time, Topps really had to get creative to make Naragon look good to the many kids opening packs of 1958 Topps Series 1 cards and never heard of the guy. To wit: one cartoon depicts a really large batter hitting one out, and the caption reads "In 1955, Hal had a big year with a lusty .323 average." What it doesn't mention is that this was accomplished with him seeing 57 games worth of action, with 41 hits in 127 at bats. The second cartoon shows a catcher nose to nose to his pitcher with the words, "He's a fine fielder who knows how to handle hurlers." No arguments there. A career .991 fielding average shows that he's excellent with the glove. Hal went on to coach for the Twins and then the Tigers in the 1960's. And 50 years later, appeared in Topps' salute to the 1959 and 1960 Topps sets with an autograph cards inserted into both products.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $6.00-$12.00.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 0 cards.

In case you're actually wondering, I don't own this card, but was able to get a crystal clean copy of the image from the from the Baseball Card Cyber Museum. So thank you Joe McAnally and the folks at the BCCM.

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 2007 Topps #572. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Come on back then to see what the Topps Card Randomizer gets us to look at then.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Reyes, Heyward, and Morneau out of the ASG, Furcal, Kuo, and Konerko Named Replacements.

As we get closer and closer to the All-Star Game, there are more and more roster updates to report.


Jose Reyes of the Mets, named to the All-Star team as the replacement for Troy Tulowitzki of the Rockies, was put on the DL this weekend. Rafael Furcal of the Dodgers will now be taking his spot on the NL Roster. He is now a two-time All-Star, last appearing in the ASG for the 2003 classic.


Jason Heyward, who was on the DL at the time and was going to be a last minute decision as to whether or not he'd make the game, has now taken himself off the roster. Corey Hart of the Brewers will now start in Heyward's place, and Hong-Chih Kuo, a relief pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has been added to the roster in his place. Originally, Charlie Manuel offered the invitation to Braves closer Billy Wagner, but Wagner, a final man candidate, declined. Furcal and Kuo, the first Taiwanese-born player to be named an All-Star, join Jonathan Broxton and Andre Ethier as the Dodgers contingent on the NL squad.


Finally, Justin Morneau is taking himself out of the game because of concussion related issues. Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers will take over at first base as the starter, and Paul Konerko of the Chicago White Sox, another Final Man Candidate, will now join the AL roster as a reserve. He joins fellow Pale Hoser Matt Thornton on the AL side.

If you're going to add Furcal, Kuo, and Konerko's 2010 Topps cards to your All-Star binder (I'm doing this, I can't be the only one), Furcal's cards are #491 and LAD12, Kuo is LAD16 (he doesn't have a regular Topps card this year, maybe he'll be added to Topps' Update Series), and Konerko comes in as #638 and CWS13.

More roster changes (if any) to come soon.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1986 Topps #588 Steve Lake

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Saturday, July 10, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1986 Topps #588.
• Player Name, position, team: Steve Lake, catcher, Chicago Cubs.
• Major League Debut: April 9, 1983.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1985 stats (Cubs): 58 G, 119 AB, 5 R, 18 H, 2 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 11 RBI, 1 SB, .193 SLG. 3 BB, 21 SO, .151 AVG.
• Any special information about players: Drafted by the Orioles #3rd, June 1975. Traded by the Brewers to the Cubs 04/01/1983. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Lake's third regular Topps (total includes regular and traded cards only). This is the first time that the randomizer chose two cards from the same year on consecutive days. Granted, we went from the Traded set to the regular set, but that's how it works. Lake was the premier back-up catcher for the Cubs, Cardinals, and Phillies, never appearing in more than 75 games in his 11 seasons in the majors. He would be one of the players who would not have a Topps card because he was the third string catcher. The back of his card mentions that Lake hit his first career home run on 4/26/1983.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.02-$0.10.
• How many cards of each player do I own?: 11 cards.

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: 1958 Topps #22 . Come back at 1:00 PM CST to see who (or what) it is.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1986 Topps Traded #102T Ted Simmons

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Friday, July 9, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1986 Topps Traded #102T.
• Player Name, position, team: Ted Simmons, catcher-first baseman, Atlanta Braves.
• Major League Debut: September 21, 1968.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1985 stats (Brewers): 143 G, 528 AB., 60 R, 144 H, 28 2B, 2 3B, 12 HR, 76 RBI, 1 SB, .402 SLG, 57 BB, 32 SO, .273 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Cardinals #1st, June 1967. Traded by the Brewers to the Braves 03/05/1986. Bats: both, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Simmons' eighteenth regular Topps card (total includes regular and traded cards only). It never dawned on me that Topps could print cards on a sheet upside down the way the had to have done it here with the 1986 Topps cards. I always imagined all 132 cards on a each sheet somehow printed right-side up, and then the cards would be placed on the cutters ever so carefully so that when the cards were cut, there wouldn't be any white borders above where the black field that housed the team name (I'm curious as to what the name of the font used to create the team name is...). It was only later on in my studies of baseball cards (that, and when I actually saw an uncut sheet of 1986 Topps Baseball) did I realize that it was possible for there to be cards printed upside down. Ted Simmons had already become one of the great ballplayers of the 70's and early 80's when this card appeared in the 1986 Topps Traded set. He was already an 8-time All-Star, an MVP candidate 17 times, had hit 238 home runs, driven in 1323 runs, hit .287 lifetime, and drew more walks (807) than struck out (648) in 18 seasons as a Cardinal and a Brewer. He was even a key cog for Milwaukee's Harvey's Wallbangers in 1982. But as his career was starting to wind down, the Brewers traded Simmons for Rick Cerone and two minor leaguers. Not exactly a lopsided trade, but you have to wonder who got the better of it. In three years of limited duty (he never played more than 78 games with the Braves), he hit .248 with 10 homers and 66 rbi's. He finally called it a career after the 1988 season.
• Beckett value: $0.05-$0.15.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 22 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1986 Topps #588. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Flash back with the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

2010 Topps Update Series Sell Sheets are Live!!!

The highly anticipated sell sheets for 2010 Topps Update Series (no longer being called Updates and Highlights) are out. See scans below for more information.













As previously announced card #661 (the Stephen Strasburg card that will be included in every factory set) will also be inserted here. As it is going to be numbered #661, it technically isn't part of the actual Update Series (the cards will be numbered #US1 to #US330).

The official breakdown of the 330 card set includes:

• 187 veterans (Matt Thornton and Omar Infante are confirmed on the checklist, Arthur Rhodes and Evan Meek are not...there are a lot of TBD's so here's hoping)
• 55 rookies (including Strasburg, so he will have a card within the set...according to the Topps fact sheet, although the breakdown page says 45 rookies...that might be an error)
• 10 "Rookie Debut" cards (featuring ten rookies and what they did in the major league debut...hey it's not the MLB Debut set I've been screaming for, but it's a start. Jason Heyward and nine others will be featured here).
• 60 All-Stars (which is ridiculous because there are 68 All-Stars, active players, on both rosters...eight guys, possibly more, will be missing in this subset)
• 8 Home Run Derby participants (As of right now, that would be Ortiz, Cabrera, Wells, Hart, Holliday, and three others TBD)
• 10 Classic Combos/Checklists

The variation cards this time around will include fifteen legends and 10 "historic franchises" that no longer exist (possibilities could include the Seattle Pilots, St. Louis Browns, Montréal Expos, Brooklyn Dodgers, Cleveland Spiders, who knows). Again, the variations have a print run of 3,000 cards each.

The Cards Your Mother Threw Out continuity finally ends in the Update Series. It's another 58 cards, but this time many of them, specifically the ones towards the end of the series, are going to be reprints of Topps Traded cards (or should be anyway). To wit, here is the preliminary checklist:

CMT117 Eddie Mathews (1952)
CMT118 John Podres (1953)
CMT119 Tom Lasorda (1954)
CMT120 Harmon Killebrew (1955)
CMT121 Jackie Robinson (1956)
CMT122 Yogi/Mantle (1957)
CMT123 Roger Maris (1958)
CMT124 Lew Burdette (1959)
CMT125 Roger Maris (1960)
CMT126 Carl Yastrzemski (1961)
CMT127 Lou Brock (1962)
CMT128 Willie McCovey (1963)
CMT129 Willie Stargell (1964)
CMT130 Ernie Banks (1965)
CMT131 Robin Roberts (1966)
CMT132 Brooks Robinson (1967)
CMT133 Tom Seaver (1968)
CMT134 Mickey Mantle (1969)
CMT135 Nolan Ryan (1970)
CMT136 Steve Garvey (1971)
CMT137 Frank Robinson (1972)
CMT138 Luis Aparicio (1973)
CMT139 Juan Marichal (1974)
CMT140 Yogi/Campanella (1975)
CMT141 Fergie Jenkins (1976)
CMT142 Mark Fidrych (1977)
CMT143 Andre Dawson (1978)
CMT144 Dale Murphy (1979)
CMT145 Lou Brock/Yastrzemski (1980)
CMT146 Dave Winfield (1981)
CMT147 Cal Ripken Jr. (1982)
CMT148 Wade Boggs (1983)
CMT149 Dwight Gooden (1984)
CMT150 Gary Carter (1985)
CMT151 Bo Jackson (1986)
CMT152 Greg Maddux (1987)
CMT153 Roberto Alomar (1988)
CMT154 Ken Griffey, Jr. (1989)
CMT155 Larry Walker (1990)
CMT156 Ivan Rodriguez (1991)
CMT157 Jason Varitek (1992)
CMT158 Todd Helton (1993)
CMT159 Billy Wagner (1994)
CMT160 Juan Lebron (1995)
CMT161 Chipper Jones (1996)
CMT162 Derek Jeter (1997)
CMT163 Piazza/Griffey, Jr. (1998)
CMT164 CC Sabathia (1999)
CMT165 Miguel Cabrera (2000)
CMT166 Albert Pujols (2001)
CMT167 Mark Prior (2002)
CMT168 Robinson Cano (2003)
CMT169 Felix Hernandez (2004)
CMT170 Ryan Braun (2005)
CMT171 Jon Lester (2006)
CMT172 Justin Upton (2007)
CMT173 Evan Longoria (2008)
CMT174 Tommy Hanson (2009)

Product information is here. A preliminary checklist can be found here, only because magazine-exchange.com tried to put it out as a .pdf file and the document crashed. But remember, it is always subject to change.

Bring on November!!!

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Votto and Swisher win the Final Man Vote!!!

It was "Bran-Torino" last year. This time, it's "Swishotto??!"
Last year, Brandon Inge of the Tigers and Shane Victorino of the Phillies won the Final Man Vote, sending both men, forever linked as "Bran-torino" to the All-Star Game. This year, while there were supposedly many alliances between the ten men vying for the two final spots on each All-Star team (including "Third Base Ticket" of Michael Young and Ryan Zimmerman, the Rox and (White) Sox featuring Carlos Gonzalez and Paul Konerko), all fell to "Swishotto???"

The fans have voted, and did so in record numbers. Thanks to the more than 23.5 million fans combined, both Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds and Nick Swisher of the New York Yankees are going to the All-Star Game!!!

In what has to be the tightest race since the Final Man balloting began nine years ago, Swisher's 9.8 million votes were just enough to pull away from runners up Kevin Youkilis and Paul Konerko of the Red Sox and White Sox respectively. And with 13.7 million votes, Votto led the way from start to finish to earn his spot on the roster, holding off Ryan Zimmerman.

Votto now joins fellow Reds All-Stars Arthur Rhodes, Brandon Phillips, and Scott Rolen to the squad. Swisher is now the eighth Yankee named to the All-Star team, joining Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Phil Hughes, Andy Pettitte, CC Sabathia, and Mariano Rivera.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

P.S. Swishotto??? Really??? jba

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1993 Topps Traded #37T Tyler Green

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, July 8, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1993 Topps Traded #37T
• Player Name, position, team: Tyler Green, pitcher, Philadelphia Phillies.
• Major League Debut: April 9, 1993.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1992 stats (Scranton Wilkes-Barre-AAA): 2 G, 10.1 IP, 0-1, 7 R, 7 ER, 15 SO, 12 BB, 2 GS, 0 CG, 0 SHO, 0 SV, 6.10 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Phillies #1st, June 1991. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Green's second regular Topps card (regular cards are just his base and traded cards only). We've already waxed poetic about what I think of the 1993 set, with the picture the main focal point of the card, and the simple multi-colored banners that hold the player's name and team affiliation. The card stock used here was an upgrade over the 1992 set, and seems to have been the paper of choice for future sets. Green's brief career with the Phillies included an All-Star selection during the 1995 season. But cardboard immortality came for Green because he made the roster for the 1993 Phillies out of Spring Training. Granted he didn't have the best MLB debut you could ask for (gave up two runs in his one inning of work against the Cubs), and he didn't appear after that game for the Phil's until August. But he made the team. And that team made it to the World Series, shocking the Braves, and the world for that matter. That's all one could ask for. He missed all of 1994 and came back in time for the 1995 season, where as mentioned earlier, he did indeed become an All-Star.
• Beckett value: $0.02-$0.10.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 6 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1986 Topps Traded #102T. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama