Now That I'm Caught Up...

If you're still a regular reader of this humble, little blog, you'll notice that I fell behind quite a bit with the Random Card of the Day posts and have not even had time to post anything new, like:

• the fact that the sell sheets for 2013 Topps Update Series are live
• the fact that 2013 Topps Archives are live, and that I was debating doing the autograph set this year, but then I saw what they look like, and am not leaning towards not doing so (that may change...)
• the fact that Topps is coming out with something called a Qubi? (I think that's the name...)
• the fact that I have all 2013 Topps retail team sets and have not had the opportunity to OPEN THEM YET!!!

Well now that I'm caught up, I will finally get to commenting about all of the above and much more.

In the mean time, do you like the new layout for the blog? It's been five full years now since I started this one-trick pony and I thought it was time to change. After trying to figure out the best blogger layout to do so, I found what you see now. And what's even cooler is that I can change the background whenever I want. If you've seen the blog since the makeover, I've had my All-Time All-Star Teams from 2012, 1987, and 1988 as background images. As the year goes on, all the other teams I've made up in the last 25 plus years will be utilized.

So stay tuned. After I get my posts on the 2008 Topps Cardinals team set and the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, I'll get started.

Or maybe I'll fall behind and then forget everything I've written here.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 2004 Topps #590 Kerry Wood

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Wednesday, June 5, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2004 Topps #590.
• Player Name, position, team: Kerry Wood, pitcher, Chicago Cubs.
• Major League Debut: April 12, 1998.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2003 stats (Cubs): 32 G, 211 IP, 14-11, 77 R, 75 ER, 266 SO, 100 BB, 32 GS, 4 CG, 2 SHO, 0 SV, 1.19 WHIP, 3.20 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Cubs, #1st, June 1995. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 17. This is his seventh Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Anyone who saw Kerry work in the 2003 postseason was treated to a glimpse of someone who might be baseball's next superstar pitcher - if he's not that already. Last year, Wood became the quickest pitcher ever to 1,000 strikeouts, both by games (134, besting Roger Clemens' 143) and innings (853 to Hideo Nomo's 927 2/3)."
• Commentary: Oh what could have been. It was supposed to have been their year. And they were five outs away from getting there. It's such a shame that even with that meltdown in game 6, that the Cubs couldn't muster enough strength to win the next day. But alas, it was so. But don't blame Kid K. He did his best despite the controversies and the conspiracy theories (not to mention the injuries). Because his 2001 Topps card was a previous Random Card of the Day subject, a review of his 2004 season is in order. A strained triceps injury sidelined Wood for two months. But when he was on the mound, he was still a pitcher to be feared. He did finish the season with an 8-9 record, a 3.72 ERA, and struck out 144 of the 595 batters he faced. For the record, since December 20, 2012, I managed to add exactly one Kerry Wood card to my collection: the 2013 Topps Chasing History Kerry Wood #CH-36.
• Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 60 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be 2009 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH104. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Hope you will be too.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1976 Topps #87 Tom Burgmeier

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Tuesday, June 4, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1976 Topps #87.
• Player Name, position, team: Tom Burgmeier, pitcher, Minnesota Twins.
• Major League Debut: April 10, 1968.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1975 stats (Twins): 46 G, 76 IP, 5-8, 32 R, 26 ER, 41 SO, 23 BB, 3.08 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Colt .45's as a Free Agent 09/24/1961. Traded by the Royals to the Twins 10/24/1973. Bats: left. Throws: left.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 16. This is his seventh Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "In American Legion, Tom once hurled 11-inning no-hitter, fanned 23 batters in game, but was defeated 2-1."
• Commentary: You do realize that he can't possibly be holding a ball in his left hand and that there is nothing in the glove, right? Would this be what his follow-through would look like? The St. Paul, Minnesota-born Tom Burgmeier was traded by the Royals to the Twins after the 1973 season concluded. Prior to that, he was drafted by the fledgling Kansas City franchise in the 1969 expansion draft from the California Angels. For five seasons, he performed very well in the KC bullpen, saving 28 games while earning a 24-16 record with an ERA of 3.20. His best season in KC was in 1971, when Tom saved 17 games and earned a record of 9-7 with what would eventually be a career low 1.73 ERA. In 1976, his third season in the Twin Cities, had a fantastic season as a middle reliever. In 115.1 innings of work (a career high), he would win eight of nine decisions, have an ERA of 2.50, strikeout 45 batters, and have an WHIP of 1.075. After four years, Tom would conclude his run in Minnesota with a record of 24-16 (the same record he earned in five seasons with KC) along with a 3.77 ERA in 380 innings pitched. Burgmeier signed a Free Agent contract with the Red Sox in 1978, and spent the next five years in Boston, becoming an All-Star in 1980. He would finish his career in Oakland, spending two seasons with the A's until he retired after the 1984 season. He has gone on to be a pitching coach in the Royals' and Orioles' farm systems over the years, and was a video coordinator for the Royals before turning to coaching. The SABR BioProject has an article on Tom Burgmeier's career that you can access here.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.15-$0.40.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 11 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 2004 Topps #590. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. 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

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1982 Topps #493 Chet Lemon

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Monday, June 3, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1982 Topps #493.
• Player Name, position, team: Chet Lemon, outfielder, Chicago White Sox.
• Major League Debut: September 9, 1975.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1981 stats (White Sox): 94 G, 328 AB, 50 R, 99 H, 23 2B, 6 3B, 9 HR, 50 RBI, 5 SB, .491 SLG, 33 BB, 48 SO, .302 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Athletics #1st, June 1972. Traded by the Athletics to the White Sox 06/15/1975. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 17. This is his seventh Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Chet led the White Sox in Batting in 1979 & 1980."
• Commentary: Personally, I don't really collect autograph cards. I do have some in my collection, including one of Chet Lemon from the 2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites set, and that was only because he did not have a card in the base set, and I decided (I don't know where my head was at the time) that I wanted to know what design was used and what his card would have looked like had he appeared in the base set. So I managed to acquire all (except one...Tug McGraw) of the cards of the players who only had auto cards from that set and were not part of the base set. I did this for the remaining two years of ATFF's existance (yes, there were a few). When Topps Archives came back, I thought (again, don't know what I was thinking), "Why not collect all the autographs of the players who were not part of the ATFF SP subset?" Not including Gary Carter's 1975 sticker auto card, the Yu Darvish '86 card, and the Jose Oquendo "nine", there are 33 autographed cards of players who did not make the base set. I have 31 of them now, one I'm still looking for is Doug Drabek (whose card, ironically, was the first one I had "won" on the Bay only to learn that the card got lost in the mail). The other one, unless I somehow win the lottery, will be just a dream to buy. The card? Hank Aaron! Back to the point. Chet Lemon was a hitting machine for the White Sox from the mid 70's through the early 80's. In seven years with the White Sox, Lemon would hit for a combined .288 average, with 73 homers, 348 rbi's, and an OPS of .814. He led the AL in doubles in 1979 with 44, and proudly represented the Pale Hose in two All-Star Games (1978 and 1979) On November 27, 1981, Lemon was traded to the Tigers for outfielder Steve Kemp. While Kemp did well in his lone year in Chicago (.286, 19 HR, 98 RBI), Lemon spent the rest of his career as a member of the Tigers. In 1982, Lemon appeared in 125 games, hit .266 with 19 homers and 52 rbi's, and an OPS of .815. He led all of MLB by getting hit by a pitch 15 times, a trend he carried over from Chicago (he led the league in two of the three previous seasons) and would get plunked a career high 20 times in 1983. Firmly entrenched as the Tigers' center fielder, Lemon helped the Tigers run roughshod over the American League in 1984, culminating to a World Series victory over the Padres (curse you Garvey). For his part, Lemon went 5-17 with one rbi and two stolen bases in the five-game series. After nine seasons in Detroit, Lemon became ill with a serious spleen disease called polycythemia vera. After going through successful surgery, he tried for a comeback, but decided to retire after learning he would need a second surgery. In 2003, he had his spleen removed and is still active in baseball. He coaches two AAU teams (the appropriately named Chet Lemon's Juice and Juice II) in Florida. His son, Marcus, was a fourth round draft pick by the Rangers in 2006. He is currently playing for the Erie SeaWolves, the AA team of the Tigers.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.10-$0.30.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 28 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1976 Topps #87. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Flash back with the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Pro Debut Card of the Week: 2010 Topps Pro Debut #227 Todd Frazier

It's Minor League Monday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Pro Debut Card of the Week:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2010 Topps Pro Debut #227.
• Player Name, position, team: Todd Frazier, outfielder, Louisville Bats.
• Level-League, Team Affiliation: AAA-International League, Cincinnati Reds.
  
• Minor League Stats (stats with team depicted only): 16 G, 63 AB, 9 R, 19 H, 5 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 2 SB, 6 BB, 12 SO, .476 SLG, .839 OPS, .302 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Reds #1st, June 2007. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Major League Debut: May 23, 2011.
• Baseball America Organizational Ranking After Season with Team: Cincinnati Reds #1 prospect after the 2009 season .
• Blurb on the back: "Frazier batted .296 through his first three professional seasons, including .302 in a short Triple-A debut with Louisville in 2009. An exceptional athlete who holds his high school hoops record with 27 rebounds in one game, he has gained extensive experience not only in left field, but at every infield post."
• Official Topps Rookie Card: 2011 Topps Update #US270.
• Commentary: The reason why his 2009 numbers with the Louisville Bats are low are only because he spent most of the year with the Reds' AA team, the Southern League's Carolina Mudcats. In Zebulon, Frazier appeared in 119 games, hit for a .290 average, blasted 14 homers and drove in 68. No wonder the Reds moved him up to AAA. He spent all of 2010 with the Bats, hitting .258 with 17 homers, 66 runs batted in and 14 stolen bases in 130 games. In 2012, became the Reds' regular third baseman. He finished third in the NL Rookie of the Year voting, and was voted by the MLB managers as Topps' 2012 third baseman for their All-Star Rookie Team.

Next week's featured card will be: 2010 Topps Pro Debut #358. Post will arrive at 9:00 AM CST. Hope you enjoyed this week's installment of Minor League Monday.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1960 Topps #377 Roger Maris

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, June 2, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1960 Topps #377.
• Player Name, position, team: Roger Maris, outfielder, New York Yankees.
• Major League Debut: April 16, 1957.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1959 stats (Athletics): 122 Games, 433 At Bat, 69 Runs, 118 Hits, 21 2B, 7 3B, 16 HR, 72 RBI, .273 Avg.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Indians as a Free Agent before the 1953 season. Traded by the Kansas City Athletics to the Yankees 11/11/1959. Bats: left. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 11. This is his third Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: n/a.
• Commentary: Topps first standard-sized set (2½" x 3½") that utilized horizontal fronts, the 1960 set was named by Topps Magazine readers as the set of the decade. It truly was unique in that regard. Now, I don't know what controversies there were with collectors in the 60's (or were there any...compared to now anyway), but it seems that Topps put this set out to market just before spring training (at least their Series 1 product anyway). How else would they have been able to include Roger Maris, who played for the Athletics just the year before and was traded on the KCA-NYY pipeline on December 11 (or December 13 if you believe the back of the card), as a member of the Yankees? Complete with an airbrushed (crudely by today's standards) NY logo on his cap? I guess it made sense for Topps to take tons of pictures of players without their caps. How else could they put many of these players in cards with their new teamsif they moved during the off season? Because so much has been written about Roger Eugene Maris (Maras), and you can learn more about him thanks to the SABR BioProject, the commentary will be about his 1959-1960 seasons, with a dash of the famous 1961 campaign and his final totals as a Yankee. Taking full advantage of their Kansas City A's connection, the Yankees sent Hank Bauer, Don Larsen, Norm Siebern, and Marv Thornberry to the A's in exchange for Joe DeMaestri, Kent Hadley, and KC's All-Star outfielder Roger Maris. Now while DeMaestri and Hadley really didn't have much to contribute during their brief stays in the Bronx (Hadley appeared in 55 games in 1960, never played in the majors again; DeMaestri played sparingly in 79 games over two seasons, and then his MLB career was over), it was Maris that the team really wanted. An All-Star just the year before, the Yankees knew that Maris would be reaching his full hitting potential (he was 25 when the 1960 season started) right at this time. Inserting him into a lineup that included the likes of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Bobby Richardson, and Bill Skowron could only help build on his first All-Star campaign. Sure enough, Maris did thrive. In his first year in pinstripes, Maris hit for a .283 clip, hit 39 home runs, drove in 112 runs batted in (led the league), hit for a league leading .581 slugging percentage, and returned to the All-Star Game. He was awarded his first and only Gold Glove that year on the heels of a .985 fielding percentage (4 errors in 273 total chances). He was also voted as the American League MVP (his first). Although the Yankees would fall to Pittsburgh in the 1960 World Series, Maris contributed with 2 solo home runs among his eight hits in 32 plate appearances. It can be argued that his 1960 season was better than the following one that would put Maris' name into the stratosphere. We all know how he did that year (61 home runs, 141 rbi's, 132 runs scored all led the AL and a .269 average to boot). He would be named to his third All-Star Team, controversy with a certain * aside, he would be named the AL's MVP for the second year in a row. During the 1961 World Series against the Reds, he hit .174 with a homer and 5 rbi's as the Yankees made quick work of the Reds winning in five games. Maris would play with New York for seven seasons, hitting for a combined .265 with 203 home runs, 547 rbi's, an OPS of .872, three All-Star Game rosters, a Gold Glove and two World Series rings. He was traded to the Cardinals on December 8, 1966 for Charley Smith. In St. Louis, he helped lead the team to two consecutive World Series appearances, winning the 1967 Series over Boston in seven games with a postseason best .385 average, one home run, 7 rbi's, and an OPS of .972. After he retired in 1968, he worked with the Busch family and set up a beer distribution company in Florida. It proved to be a very successful enterprise as by 1983, he was able to ease back on the travelling that had kept him occupied in the years previous. All the while, he was placed on the ballot for enshrinement into Baseball's Hall of Fame. In fifteen years however, he would reach no higher than 43.1% in his last eligible year (1988). Sadly, Maris would pass away on December 14, 1985, due to complications with lymphoma. He was 51 years old. On the back of the card, there were five season higlights listed from Maris' 1959 campaign: May 10: Has 2 HRs, 5 RBIs vs. Det.; June 22: After being out for 30 days, Rog hits 2 doubles vs. Yanks.; July 11: Drives in 3 runs against Chisox; July 23, Hits HR, double and single against Orioles.; July 27: Blasts grand slam homer to beat Washington 7-6. The last highlight? December 13: Rog is traded to Yanks. The cartoon depicted on the card shows a ball going over the fence saying (yes the ball is talking) "Roger and out!" The caption below says that Rog (yes, ROG) hit 28 homers for K.C. in 1958. In 2010, Topps included a copy of this card in the series 2 edition of their Cards Your Mother Threw Out insert/reprint set. This card will forever hold a place in my heart because it was the last one that I needed to complete the massive 174-card Original Back reprint set.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $50.00-$100.00.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 47.

In case you're actually wondering, I don't own this card (I do own a reprint of it as mentioned in the commentary), 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: 1982 Topps #493. 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

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