#20 - Kevin Youkilis

What’s that Turtle doin’? At first glance, this is the exact thing you want to see a baseball player doing - trotting home after hitting a Home Run. The crowd and his teammates in the dug-out are standing, cheering, and clapping. Hooray!

Except one guy on his team is looking behind Youkilis, as are many of the fans - another player is still rounding the bases. It seems to remain a Home Run card, in a sense, but Youkilis didn't hit the Homer. And it is a Homer, right? I mean, it could be just a Double or a Triple sending Kevin to Home Plate here. But it is definitely more fun to just imagine that it is a Home Run.

And those fans - the Sox did seemingly manage to bring one of their fans along to the game there in the front row, with his similar script Chicago uniform as 'Youk is wearing. Which is the road uniform. Probably, only that one fan is actually cheering.

And there is one fan in the stands, with a blue ball cap, with a round, red & white logo that should be oh so familiar to baseball card fans - is Kevin Youkilis rounding Third here, just after a teammate hit a Home Run - @ Wrigley Field?

Sea Turtle Detective is on the case. First stop, Getty Images. "Kevin Youkilis 2012 Wrigley Field" I ask the kind, but terribly silent, website attendant. "Sorry," replies the attendant, somehow, "there does not seem to be any records of such an appearance without Kevin wearing red socks." How did the Getty gate-keeper know I was looking for pics of Youkilis wearing white socks?

But I know the White Sox make that long road trip to the North Side annually, in the 21st century. Baseball Reference will surely lead me to the one game where he scored after a team-mate's Home Run.

Nope. The White Sox did visit Wrigley in 2012 - on May 18-20. On June 24, 2012, Kevin Youkilis played his last game for the Boston Red Sox. On June 25, 2012, Kevin Youkilis played his first game for the Chicago White Sox.

Oh well, it was an enjoyable baseball results research expedition while it lasted.

I can't think of another baseball card where the player is fairly definitively scoring a run after being knocked in by someone else, though I would imagine such do exist. Which makes this another enjoyable Sea Turtle card, for me.

I do like how the Turtle seems to once again be about to serve as Home Plate on Youkilis' next step. But that probably comes at the cost of cutting off most of his right foot. Sometimes I actually like such a framing cut - it can impart a sense of motion, as if the player is still in the process of zooming into view from the side of the card, cf.: #6 - Ryan Howard. Other times I find such cuts distracting.

This one falls in about the middle of that really like / not-so-much possibility. I just want to know who hit the Home Run I guess.

Uniform Hero? Topps is getting on a roll here, with the 3rd card in a row where the card # can be seen clearly, on the front of the card.

Where’d the egg hatch? Youkilis was drafted by the Red Sox in the 8th round in 2001, debuting in Boston with a solid 72 Game Rookie campaign in 2004.

How about the migrations? Unlike many in this checklist neighbord, Kevin did not complete his career in Boston, as we have seen, despite a very impressive run manning Third Base for them nearly every day from 2006 - 2009 making him a fairly maybe someday entry in the Topps "Fan Favorite" series in the Archives release, in my opinion.

Now Boston is a town pretty passionate about their Red Sox, generally a good thing in baseball. Except in 2011, the Red Sox disintegrated down the stretch and the hated Yankees took the division crown. A famous story about fried chicken and beer in the clubhouse soon appeared in the press and many people involved with the franchise soon departed, including one of baseball's most famous General Managers, Theo Epstein. It was felt within the club that the breaking of the what-happens-in-the-clubhouse-stays-in-the-clubhouse rule could be traced to Youkilis, perhaps contributing to the decision on the June trade the next season.

Kevin would finish the 2012 season in Chicago, as well as his then current contract. In December, 2012, as the finishing touches were being put on 2013 Series One, he signed a new one year deal with the Evil Empire - the New York Yankees. This was a year before his former team-mate Jacoby Ellsbury would do the same, and his Fan Favorite stock probably diminished a fair bit in Boston.

In the year of the Sea Turtle, Youkilis' career would come to an end as he needed back surgery in June, 2013, which became both season, and career ending, though he gave it one more brief try in Japan in 2014. Youkilis is currently re-united with Epstein, working as a Special Assistant to the GM of the Chicago Cubs.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

You can't go wrong with a Tom Brady name drop on the back of a sports card for a popular player in New England.

A bit more surprising on this card, considering what we will consider next here, is a complete lack of League Leads, but then Topps doesn't quite have room amidst baseball card stat columns for noting Youkilis' capture of the title in the Hit-By-Pitch category, with 17 of those in 2012.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 531 walks, Youkilis is 2,027 away from Barry Bonds' all-time record of 2,558.

Now here Topps is definitely paying attention to the player's reputation, as Youkilis' well-known nickname is "The Greek God of Walks," bestowed on him by Billy Beane and famously revealed in the book Moneyball. 

I also find it intriguing that 'Youk follows Joey Votto in the checklist, the player most known for walks in the succeeding decade to the peaks of Youkilis' career. As we saw yesterday, Votto has led his League several times in reaching base the easy way.

Youkilis would Walk only 8 more times in his final, 28 Game season with the Yankees, placing him tied for 637th place, All-Time.

Subspecies? Changing teams in December can result in multiple unique cards in the Topps Baseball product line the next season. We will see Youkilis again in Update, and he also appeared in Chrome, but not Opening Day; checklist decisions which probably all trace to his signing date with the Yankees, and his general base popularity with fans.

Which might also account for his appearance in the "Great Catch" series of Short Prints, meaning it is once again time for 

So, did he catch it? Let's consider the photographic evidence at hand:

Even before asking that inscrutable Getty gatekeeper, we can tell Youkilis is on the road in Toronto, an AL East team the White Sox only visit for one 3 game series per year.

And the Topps contract with Getty remains solid. Here is how Getty captions the result:

TORONTO, CANADA - AUGUST 14: Kevin Youkilis #20 of the Chicago White Sox dives into the crowd while catching a foul ball during MLB game action the Toronto Blue Jays August 14, 2012 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Brad White/Getty Images)

Ahh, but this just declares he is "catching" the ball. We don't see the ball, and there is more than a little Bartman action going on. Isn't there a law against that? Sea Turtle Detective will have to work a little harder to insure total live baseball accuracy for his devoted readers.

As it turns out, in the bottom of the 3rd Toronto First Baseman David Cooper (who?) popped up into foul territory along the third base line, and became the 3rd Out of the inning.

Where does Topps find these people to hit into these Great Catches, anyway? At least that Grand Slam which Andre Ethier couldn't catch was hit by a Topps Baseball alumni. David Cooper is the most tangential member of that club I ever did see....definitely a future blog topic, though probably over at Base Set Calling.

Bling That Shell Let's see a parallel already! I'm going in to withdrawal.

Yet another super simple selection: Black. I think this card came in as part of a small lot of parallels, rather than being purchased as a single. But once I had it, this checklist spot was secure as the team color / parallel baseball card synchronicity here with the road grey uniform is probably better than any other White Sox Uni.

Just recently, I figured out a technical point about the construction of the Sea Turtles that explains why I like the 2013 White Sox parallels so much. I'll illustrate that with this project's next White Sox parallel, which is majestic.