Random Topps Card of the Day: 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH305 Ben Francisco

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Friday, September 17, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH305
• Name, position, team: Ben Francisco, outfielder, Cleveland Indians.
• Major League Debut: May 1, 2007.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2007 stats (Indians): 25 G, 82 AB, 10 R, 17 H, 5 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 0 SB, 3 BB, 19 SO, .500 SLG, .803 OPS, .274 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Indians #5th June, 2002. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Francisco's second Topps card (total includes regular and traded cards only). Lots of circles on both sides of the cards in 2008. I guess it was to make up for all the squares that popped up the year before. Ben Francisco's first Topps card actually appeared in the 2003 Topps Traded set (as one of the millions of First Year Players). While waiting for the eventual call up to Cleveland, Francisco spent five seasons in the Tribe's minor league program. Starting in Mahoning, to Lake County, then onto Akron, and a season and a half in Buffalo before making his MLB debut. The back of his card reads that "Ben wound up being Cleveland's most dependable corner outfielder. On 06/04/2008, he was the first Indians rookie in 28 years with a five-hit game." Francisco is now with the Philadelphia Phillies, traded by the Tribe in the Cliff Lee deal. He is the fourth outfielder, and a valuable member of the bench as the Phils try to hold off the Braves in the NL East.
• Beckett value: $0.12-$0.30.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 7 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1976 Topps Traded #231T. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Flash back with the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Feast Your Eyes on the 2011 Topps Baseball Design!!!

Word came out that Topps would give a sneak preview of what the 2011 Topps Baseball cards are going to look like. So feast your eyes on what Topps will be giving us on their Diamond (that's 60th) Anniversary!!!

I'm going to stare at it in awe for a while. When I recover from my euphoria over the design, I'll let you know what I think of it.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1980 Topps #539 Rudy May

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, September 16, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1994 Topps Traded #39T.
  Player Name, position, team: Rudy May, pitcher, Montréal Expos.
  Major League Debut: April 18, 1965.
  Last Line of Statistics: 1979 stats (Expos): 33 G, 94 IP, 10-3, 30 R, 24 ER, 67 SO, 31 BB, 2.30 ERA.
  Any special information about player: Signed with the Twins as a Free Agent 11/05/1962. Traded by the Orioles to the Expos 12/07/1977. Bats: left, Throws: left.
  Any special information about this specific card: May's twelfth regular Topps card (total includes regular and traded cards only). You have to admire the fact that because Rudy May has only seven letters in his name...total...that his autograph isn't as large as many other players and that the facsimile signature doesn't interfere with the picture. After seven seasons with the California Angels, and another three with the New York Yankees, May found himself traded to the wilds of Montréal in a six-player deal. With les Expos, May was used primarily as a relief pitcher, after many seasons as a starter with a lot of success. This card, however, was his last as an Expo. He returned to the Bronx in 1980 as a free agent and turned in one of his finest seasons with a 15-5 record, 133 strikeouts and an AL league leading 2.46 ERA to go with an AL low 1.044 WHIP. He finished his career with the Yankees, helping them get to the playoffs in both 1980 and the strike shortened 1981 seasons. The back of his card featurs a cartoon featuring a player with scoreboard numbers and the caption "Rudy tied for Carolina League lead with 4 shutouts at Tidewater in 1974." The blurb below the stats mentions a 4-hitter vs. the Phillies in 09/26/1978.
• Beckett value: $0.08-$0.25.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 10 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH305. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 2004 Topps #559 Joe Mauer

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Wednesday, September 15, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2004 Topps #559.
• Player Name, position, team: Joe Mauer, catcher, Minnesota Twins.
• Major League Debut: April 5, 2004.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2003 stats (New Britain-Eastern AA): 73 G, 276 AB, 48 R, 94 H, 17 2B, 1 3B, 4 HR, 41 RBI, 0 SB, 25 BB, 25 SO, .453 SLG, .853 OPS, .341 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Twins #1st June, 2001. Bats: left, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Mauer's third regular Topps card (total includes regular and traded cards only). I don't think even Joe Mauer was sure if he was going to make the Twins in 2004. Why? Because if you notice at the lower left corner of the cards, near the silhouette of the player, is a number. And it appears that Joe's number heading into spring training that year was #71. Guys wearing that high a number normally aren't planning on joining the big club. But somehow, Joe Mauer did make it out of camp, and the uniform number assigned to him has been his ever since...#7. The demands of catching in the majors are incredible. You have to be able to call a game, know the strengths and weaknesses of all the pitchers on the staff. You're wearing a lot of equipment. You're squatting for long periods of time. You risk getting hit by pitches, bats, dirt, and in many cases, runners on third base. And, on top of all that, you have to hit. Every generation, every decade, definitely since Topps started selling baseball cards, there are catchers that define the decade or era he plays. Just mention the names Berra, Campanella, Crandall, Torre, Freehan, Fisk, Munson, Bench, Carter, Alomar, Rodriguez, Piazza, Posada, and even the brothers Molina, and memories of some of the greatest catchers in the history of baseball come back to life. In the 21st century, Joe Mauer has made a name for himself as one of the best catchers in the game. But before he could do all of that, he had to ply his trade in the minors. The back of Mauer's 2004 card includes his career minor league statistics, from his days with Elizabethton, to toiling in the Quad Cities. In 2003, he split his time between Fort Myers in the High A Florida Coast League and New Britain of the AA Eastern League. Topps named him baseball's
  "most eagerly anticipated rookie" for the 2004 campaign. The native Minnesotan was drafted by the hometown Twins, and signed a contract that would keep him with the Twins until the end of the 2018 season. The back of his card reads that Mauer "was the top quarterback in the nation coming out of high school." I think the Twins are happy that he decided to stick to baseball.
• Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 55 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: Thursday: 1980 Topps #539. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Hope you will be too.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1976 Topps #655 Mike Vail

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Tuesday, September 14, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1976 Topps #655.
• Player Name, position, team: Mike Vail, outfielder, New York Mets.
• Major League Debut: August 18, 1975.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1975 stats (Mets): 38 G, 162 AB, 17 R, 49 H, 8 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 17 RBI, .302 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Cardinals #4th, June 1971 (Special). Traded by the Cardinals to the Mets 12/11/1974. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Looking at the scoreboards at stadiums now, it's hard to believe that the one behind Vail in this card was considered high tech in the 1970's. And that's a big one too. The colors used for the 1976 Topps cards almost makes sense. The blue fits perfectly, and while it should have been orange, the shade of yellow does seem to fit for the Mets. The back of Vail's card, with it's dark green background and brown text, is a bit hard to read. The blurb on the back mentions that Mike tied a rookie record for hitting safely in 23 straight games, a record. He did lead the International League in batting average in 1975 (a high .342). Vail and his hitting gave the Mets good reason to trade Rusty Staub to the Tigers. But Vail would injure himself in the offseason, and his hitting did not return. He would go on to have the journeyman's career, travelling from the Mets to the Indians, Cubs, Reds, Giants, Expos and Dodgers.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.15-$0.40.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 12 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 2004 Topps #559. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. We're looking back at a card from 2004 here on the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Plugging the Sports Card Blogroll...Did You All Know There is One???

I just caught Wrigley Wax' post about keeping up with the number of Hobby Blogs that seems to increase daily. He has 120 of them on his blogroll. The reason? Because Steve at White Sox Cards, one of the few bloggers who started up before 2008 (when it seems the Hobby Blogging Community started to explode), wrote about the same thing.

Now I know that my readership is down, due to the fact that I haven't posted regularly (and the Random Card of the Day thing is still behind...I'm working on that...), but I am still maintaining the Sports Card Blogroll, which as of right now has a whopping 316 Hobby Blogs on it. Many of them were added because the blog's writer sends an e-mail to me (at bdj610@hotmail.com), others I find when reading other bloggers and I notice a blog that I had not seen before. In fact, I did have For Cards Sake, the blog that Steve recently added to his blogroll, on there already. I always make sure that when I add the new blog onto the big roll that I notify the reader that his or her blog has been added (and will also send a tweet for the people at Twitter...you can follow me there too). So far in 2010, I have added a staggering 125 new blogs to the big blogroll. That's 125 new writers. One hundred twenty-five new voices. One hundred twenty-five different points of view. And there are more that I haven't even heard about...yet.

And the cool thing is that all have recently posted within the last six months (any blog that hasn't been touched beyond that is removed, but prior to that is put in the "Blogs Being Removed from the Sports Card Blogroll" section on the sidebar). So if you have recently started up a blog that is no longer on the roll, let me know so I can add it back.

For anybody that still reads this blog, if you do find a new blog that isn't on the roll, please let me know about it. If you want to start a new blog, please send me an e-mail and tell me about it. The Sports Card Blogroll, while initially was a toy for me to use so I can keep up with the Hobby Blogosphere, is free for anybody to use, and no, I'm not charging anybody to get in it or use it (and never will).

Already, more than 60,000 people have used the Sports Card Blogroll to find a blog they want to read. Why not give the blogroll at try? You may find blogs you've never seen before and want to follow. But make sure you go to the site of the Blogroll's sponsor. He could use some attention too (okay, ego, stop it now).

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 2000 Topps #391 Bill Mueller

We reset the Topps Card Randomizer to come up with seven new cards to present for this week. Introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Monday, September 13, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2000 Topps #391.
• Player Name, position, team: Bill Mueller, third baseman, San Francisco Giants.
• Major League Debut: April 18, 1996.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1999 stats (Giants): 116 G, 414 AB, 61 R, 120 AB, 24 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 36 RBI, 4 SB, .362 SLG, 65 BB, 52 SO, .290 AVG.
• Any special information about players: Drafted by the Giants #15th, June 1993. Bats: both, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Mueller's fourth regular Topps card (total includes regular and traded cards only). It was in this third year of Topps "colored borders" period (which ran from 1998 to 2003) that I really started to miss white bordered cards. Sure the colors were a nice change of pace, but three years in a row? I guess it could have been worse...like the 1977-1980 period of classic but boring designs. At least collectors who were active at this time can look at the card and know what year it's from (even if it says Topps 2000) at the bottom. Bill Mueller became the Giants' regular third baseman in 1997, and at this point, his season batting averages never dipped below .290 (that's the big highlight Topps mentions in the bio below the stats). It also says that his 1999 season started off with a big toe fracture that occurred in his first at bat of the year. He missed 37 games because of it. The card also says that Mueller has a career batting average of .355 in the month of August (and he had a .376 average that month in 1999). He would go on to play for the Cubs, and the World Series winning Red Sox in 2004 (winning a batting title and his only appearance as an All-Star the year before). He ended his career in 2006 with the Dodgers, first working in the front office of the Dodgers' organization, then as the hitting coach of the team. In 2009, he returned to the Dodgers' front office, named as a Special Assistant to General Manager Ned Colletti.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of each player do I own?: 19 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1976 Topps #655. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. See you then.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama