"Baltimore Orioles" Jim Traber Hand Signed TOPPS Trading Card Todd Mueller COA

Description

Up for auction the
"Baltimore Orioles" Jim Traber Hand Signed TOPPS Trading Card.
This item is certified authentic by Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with their Certificate of Authenticity.
ES-1388
James Joseph Traber
(born December 26, 1961)
is an American former
professional baseball
first baseman
, who played in
Major League Baseball
(MLB) for the
Baltimore Orioles
and in
Nippon Professional Baseball
(NPB) for the
Kintetsu Buffaloes
. After retiring from baseball, he pursued a career in
broadcast media
. Traber was born in
Columbus, Ohio
, but grew up in
Columbia, Maryland
. While attending
Wilde Lake High School
in Columbia, he was an All-American — playing
football
, baseball, and other sports. Traber attended
Oklahoma State University
in the early 1980s, where he played both baseball (appearing twice in the
College World Series
) and football. Traber was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 21st round (544th overall) of the
1982 Major League Baseball draft
. and played parts of four seasons for the Orioles between 1984 and 1989, where his nickname was "
The Whammer
". During the biggest slump of his career for Baltimore, Traber found success by switching to a V-neck jersey. He soon found himself on a career-best hot streak that saw him crank out six
homers
and 17
runs batted in
(RBI), while
hitting
.340, in his first 13 games, after being recalled in the summer of 1986. Traber's success with Baltimore was hindered by unfortunate timing — as veteran first baseman,
Eddie Murray
, wasn't ready to retire and Traber was anxious to play in that position — and he had not received any instruction as an
outfielder
in
Minor League Baseball
(MiLB), as his
manager
Earl Weaver
lamented. Thus, Traber’s options were limited to being a
reserve
-first baseman,
DH
, and
pinch hitter
. After his MLB career, Traber played baseball in
Japan
for the Kintetsu Buffaloes in 1990 and 1991, and one season for
Monterrey
of the
Mexican League
in 1993. His time in Japan is perhaps most memorable for an incident in which Traber rushed the mound subsequent to being hit by a pitch, chasing the retreating
pitcher
into the outfield at the
Akita Yabase Baseball Stadium
. After charging the pitcher a second time, he was knocked off balance by the
catcher
while running and was kicked in the face on the way down by the manager,
Masaichi Kaneda
. Grainy footage of this incident is still widely distributed on the Internet.
Traber’s involvement with sports talk radio began after his retirement from professional sports. He served as a television
color analyst
for
Fox Sports
' regional coverage of the
Arizona Diamondbacks
during the team's World Series victory season of 2001, for which he was awarded a
World Series ring
. Traber was also part-time color analyst for the
2001 World Series
radio broadcast. He can be heard cheering in celebration behind
Greg Schulte
during the famous play-by-play call of "A little blooper... Base hit! Diamondbacks Win!" for
Luis Gonzalez's
game-winning hit. Traber continued announcing in 2002 and 2003. Currently, Traber hosts "The Afternoon Sports Beat" and "Total Dominance Hour," shows on
WWLS-FM
radio station in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
. He sometimes refers to callers as Yardbirds. Traber is most well-known for losing to "Radio Legend", "World Champion at FreeCell" and "King of the midgets" Al Eschbach every Friday at music.