There is a vague sense of motion, but only a vague one. Though it does seem Moreland just made contact with his swing, it leaves the viewer with the impression that he is not all that optimistic that his AVG, rather than only his BABIP, will be going up. Unlike the Bryce Harper #1 card, I would hesitate to call this a Base Running card, even though a similar amount of time has likely passed since the swing was completed.
One odd thing about the card is what is going on with Mitch's left hand and that batting glove. Try making your fingers appear like that - this is making me wonder just how the pads and velcro on the palm of a batting glove might be working.
One positive thing about the card is the nice, clear, script "Rangers" being so prominent, a good thing for a team essentially without any iconography at all. Unlike a solid majority of teams in the set, the team name is printed on the card for the Rangers, but in the smallest type of any such effort. A perfectly illustrated team name on the uniform generally makes for a solidly executed baseball card image composition - examples of such are not as common as you might think.
+Bonus points for another tiny appearance by MLB's Logoman, upside down this time and possibly in black&white, there on the wrist cuff of Moreland's batting glove. Which just now made me realize, after all these years of staring at it, that the Paul Konerko #14 card is actually a Double Logoman card - there can't be too many of those.
Uniform Hero? Another card in this set telling you the card #, by looking right at the picture on the front.
Where’d the egg hatch? Mitch Moreland was drafted by the Rangers in the 17th round in 2007, the highest pick we have seen yet in this set. He reached the Majors with Texas in 2010, his official Rookie season.
How about the migrations? Moreland is a First Baseman that was still with Texas when this Sea Turtle card was contemporary; he remained in Texas until the completion of his contract after the 2016 season.
For the 2017 season, Mitch signed a one year deal with the Red Sox. This makes Moreland somewhat confusable with Mike Napoli, as he basically replaced Napoli on each of Texas and Boston at First Base, before Napoli returned to Texas in '17 and replaced Moreland at First Base there. A pity that a potentially epic Who's On First? dual card was never created along the way somewhere.
Moreland subsequently signed a 2 year deal with Boston for 2018 & 2019.
First Base is often somewhat dismissed by fans, compared to other positions, but much is expected of a First Baseman, specifically in the power department. It is not completely easy to maintain status as a regular starter at the position, particularly in the American League, as the Yankees have been demonstrating lately.
Don’t flip over real Turtles.
A straight-forward example of Topps keeping you up-to-date with some basic player news from around the League, covering what happened last year and what to expect this year.
Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?
CAREER CHASE: With 40 home runs, Moreland is 722 away from Barry Bonds' all-time record of 762.
Even without a calculator, we can do our own double check of the Topps math here.
Moreland's power #s (SLG) have remained remarkably consistent through his career. Before the 2019 season commences, he has 147 Home Runs.
Subspecies? This is our first singular Sea Turtle, with no other variants or appearances on other Sea Turtle based checklists, beyond the 'Mini' version of this set. And, of course, those parallels -
Bling That Shell As construction of this page continues, for now I have a /2013 Gold card lined-up for this one, because that is what I pulled from a pack, though I am essentially leaving that card on the extensive roster I have for such cards, as I still need a difficult parallel on this page before assigning a final starting line-up.
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