Random Topps Card of the Day: 1975 Topps #273 Steve Braun

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, January 30, 2011:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1975 Topps #273.
• Player Name, position, team: Steve Braun, outfielder, Minnesota Twins.
• Major League Debut: April 6, 1971.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1974 stats (Twins): 453 AB, 127 H, 12 2B, 1 3B, 8 HR, 40 RBI, .280 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Twins, 10th, June 1966. Bats: left. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 14. This is his fourth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Always high on the On Base Average" statistics, Steve is a key weapon in the Twins' offensive attack. He enjoyed first two-homer day of his career, 05/30/1973, with two Wallops against Orioles which sparked a 10-3 Minnesota triumph. Comic: When was Steve Braun married? Answer: October 6, 1973.
• Commentary: The 1975 set was voted by Topps collectors as the #1 set of the 70's (Topps Magazine #7, 1991 Summer). With it's multi colored borders, and the rash of HOF's that would eventually be on it, it is no wonder why this set has been mimicked by that other card company when they did their "Tribute to the 1970's" (or whatever they called it) set. Steve Braun's card above tells us two things: One, that Topps really gets into the personal lives of the players they sign (how many kids would have known the answer to the cartoon question above?), and that that even then, On Base Percentage (On Base Average from the blurb) was starting to become a very important statistic. I don't know when the sabermetrics started, but apparently it was important and showed baseball fans what the Twins already knew...that Braun was a very important player on their team. One error of note. That two-homer game against the Orioles did not happen on 05/30/1973 as the blurb on the back indicates. It happened two days earlier on May 28.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• How many cards of each player do I own?: 10 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. (You have to stop by and visit them now. They just announced that they are allowing more people to enter the museum at one time.)

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 2000 Topps #134. 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: 2003 Topps #614 Kevin Brown

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Saturday, January 29, 2011:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2003 Topps #614.
• Player Name, position, team: Kevin Brown, pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers.
• Major League Debut: September 30, 1986.
• Last Line of Statistics: 2002 stats (Dodgers): 17 G, 63.2 IP, 3-4, 36 R, 34 ER, 58 SO, 23 BB, 10 GS, 0 CG, 0 SHO, 0 SV, 4.81 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Rangers, #1st, June 1986. Signed with the Dodgers as a Free Agent 12/12/1998. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 18. This is his sixteenth card.
• Blurb on the back: n/a.
• Commentary: The 2003 set, with it's easy to chip blue borders, was the last set in the "colored borders" era for Topps baseball card sets. Because there were two pictures in the front (following a tradition that goes back to 1963), there were no color pictures on the back of the card, save for the team logo that could have easily gone on the front. But that's neither here nor there. Kevin Brown, who by now was a four-time All-Star and a perennial Cy Young candidate, was the prize free agent of the 1998 off-season. Pried away from the defending NL Champion Padres, Brown signed for a deal that reached into the 100 million dollar range. And in his first year in LA, he delivered. An 18-9 record to go with an ERA of 3.00 and a WHIP of 1.066 gained him votes in that year's Cy Young voting. The following year, he became an All-Star (his fifth appearance), and led the NL in ERA with 2.58 and WHIP with a incredibly low 0.991. But in 2001, injuries began to damper on his stay in Tinseltown. By 2002, he only started 10 games for the Dodgers. The next year, he rebounded nicely, even making it to his final ASG. But by year's end, it was felt that he wasn't worth the money, so he was traded to the Yankees in the offseason, where he finished his illustrious career.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of each player do I own?: 33 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: 1975 Topps #273. Come back at 1:00 PM CST to see who (or what) it is.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1984 Topps #89 Mike Smithson

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Friday, January 28, 2011:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1982 Topps #470.
• Player Name, position, team: Mike Smithson, pitcher, Texas Rangers.
• Major League Debut: August 27, 1982.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1983 stats (Rangers): 33 G, 223.1 IP, 10-14, 102 R, 97 ER, 135 SO, 71 BB, 33 GS, 10 CG, 0 SHO, 0 SV, 3.91 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Red Sox, #5th, June 1976. Traded by the Red Sox to the Rangers 04/09/1982. Bats: left. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 9. This is his second Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Mike recorded 7 strikeouts in pitching 6-5 Complete Game Victory vs. Athletics, June 24, 1983."
• Commentary: I think it was the 1984 set that made it's way into the TV show Silver Spoons (the episode called The Great Baseball Card Scheme) where Ricky and was it his grandfather somehow managed to manipulate the prices of Tommy Lasorda's baseball cards by saying that he made it to the Hall of Fame? While Lasoda did eventually make it to Cooperstown, Mike Smithson became a regular in the Texas Rangers' rotation in 1983. While he didn't necessarily did a bad job, he was consistent. However, this was his last card as a Ranger as he was traded to the Minnesota Twins before the end of the year. Joining the Twins, he was rather reliable as a starting pitcher, although his ERA left much to be desired. With the Rangers, he was 13-18 with an ERA of 4.10 and 159 K's.
• Beckett value: $0.05-$0.15.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 11 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 2003 Topps #614. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Flash back with the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Who Wants to Win...This Diamond Ring???

It could all be yours if you wind up redeeming the correct code in the Topps Diamond Anniversary Giveaway that will be held when Series 1 makes its way to the stores.

Now the boys and girls at the number one source in the Hobby says that they're going to get one ring to giveaway to its readers. Ten stores will be randomly selected to get one as part of the 2011 promotion, and the rest (about 50 or so???) will be planted as giveaways at the Topps Diamond website.

At 50 diamonds a ring, this is going to be an extremely rare commodity. All I know is...

I want one!!!

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1989 Topps #710 Dave Cone

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, January 27, 2011:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1989 Topps #710.
• Player Name, position, team: Dave Cone, pitcher, New York Mets.
• Major League Debut: June 8, 1986.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1988 stats (Mets): 35 G, 231.1 IP, 20-3, 67 R, 57 ER, 213 SO, 80 BB, 28 GS, 8 CG, 4 SHO, 0 SV, 2.22 ERA.
• Any special information about players: Drafted by the Royals, #3rd, June 1981. Traded to the Mets from the Royals, 03/27/1987. Bats: left. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 18. This is his third card.
• Blurb on the back: "He earned his 1st major league Win: 05/12/1987. Recorded 1st major league Shutout: 05/03/1988."
• Commentary: Just two weeks ago, Cone appeared on this little segment thanks to the Randomizer. Now another Cone card shows up, and it's from my favorite set of all-time, the 1989 Topps set. The card from two years ago showed how great a pitcher Cone had become over the years. This card features Cone as he was making a name for himself as a pitcher to be reckoned with in the National League. A dominating 20-3 record, a stellar 2.22 ERA, 213 strikeouts, the Mets couldn't have asked for anything more from a young pitcher who seemed to be going nowhere the year before. He made his first All-Star team that year, placed third in the Cy Young voting, and even finished 10th in the NL MVP balloting. Because he only had three lines of major league statistics, his complete minor league stats are on the back of his card as well. We learn here that Cone was on the DL the entire year while assigned to Jacksonville in 1983, that while he showed visions of things to come in the lower leagues (including as a member of the Sarasota Royals "B" team), his stints with Memphis and Omaha didn't do him any favors. But he was called up anyway in 1986. But in a year where Orel Hershiser kept runners from scoring, and Danny Jackson would pitch a perfect game, the man my brother came to know as "Enoc" paced the Mets to the NL East division title.
• Beckett value: $0.02-$0.10.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 27 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1984 Topps #89. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Just a Quick Reminder...

for those of you who have not yet finished entering your 2010 Topps Attax or ToppsTown code cards into the ToppsTown website (http://toppstown.com/):

You have until 02/01/2011 to enter your codes!!!

I'm probably going to spend the weekend at the local library entering all the code cards my kids and I have acquired. Figures we wait until the last minute.

That is all.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Topps 60 Best Cards...#23-28!

The countdown is inching its way towards #20. Until then, and because it's been awhile since the last update, it's time to announce the cards that have been added to the countdown so far this week.

Here are card #'s 23-28 "on Topps 60 Greatest Cards of All Time":

• #28: 1982 Topps #21 Baltimore Orioles Future Stars Bob Bonner/Cal Ripken/Jeff Schneider
• #27: 1954 Topps #94 Ernie Banks
• #26: 1979 Topps #116 Ozzie Smith
• #25: 1957 Topps #1 Ted Williams
• #24: 1953 Topps #1 Jackie Robinson
• #23: 1971 Topps #5 Thurman Munson

Thoughts: A couple of the cards I voted for are starting to show up. The Banks card is where I thought it should be (at least within the Top 30), the Ripken card I thought should have been voted a bit higher. That's all right though as his solo Traded card is still in play. Although now Bonner and Schneider can at least say their card was the 28th most popular according to those who voted. Gotta love the Ozzie RC. At least the Company is acknowledging their big screw up by using his 1980 Topps card as his rookie in the Archives set ten years ago (was it really that long ago???). Also a good reminder that Smith was a Padre before becoming a Cardinal (next stop...Saint...oh wait...they play in the NFL...never mind). Two #1 cards (Williams and Robinson) that are key not only because of the players depicted (and how could you go wrong with Ted Williams and Jackie Robinson), but because of the abuse the first cards always took with rubber bands and other handling. The 1971 Topps Munson card ranked within the Top 30 at #23 could have been at least in the top 15 of all time. But nevertheless, I have no arguments here. As Topps started to use action shots in their cards, how could you go wrong with a play-at-the-plate shot?

Card #22 on the countdown will be announced maybe tomorrow, maybe on Friday, depending on when it shows up on the website. Whenever it shows up, we'll get to it...eventually.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama