For some fairly more well famous examples of the phenomena I am describing, just run "Guitar Face" through Google Images sometime.
And that is basically what we are looking at on this card, for the fifth time in the set already, and probably nowhere close to the last time, either. Who knew that so many Hitters need such a strong exhale, just as their swing ends?
This one shows just a hint of something being still 'in progress,' with Teixeira's right sleeve still billowing out at the very end of his swing. But his very stationary-ness doesn't add much to the overall pessimistic cast of his expression, and then ours, with regard to what is happening on the field of play.
More telling is where the swing ended - very short. Probably the swing started 1 or 2 hundredths of a second too late and contact was thus made that much of a sliver of time too early, leading to a chip shot out into the field somewhere, with no possibility of much follow-through on the swing to really drive the ball. It's a game of micro seconds.
This card brings a rare evidence of the Nike corporation in Major League Baseball, twice even. I can't recall this being very common anywhere else in the set, either. I think this will be changing in MLB in 2019 and beyond, however - I saw a headline recently, is all I got for yas on that.
Uniform Hero? The Yankees don't have a uniform # on the front of their unis, but this image manages to display it, anyway.
Where’d the egg hatch? It always strikes me as a tad unfortunate that "Tex" Teixeira didn't remain with Texas, who drafted him in the first round (5th overall) in 2001, after a collegiate career. He had also been drafted out of high school by the Red Sox in the 9th round in 1998.
How about the migrations? With 1.5 seasons left on his first contract, in 2007 the Rangers traded him to Atlanta for an impressive haul of 4 future MLB regulars, including an eventual Rookie-of-the-Year (Neftali Feliz) and a two-time All-Star (Elvis Andrus). With just a half season left on that contract, Atlanta in turn traded him to the Angels for a much less notable return.
Before the 2009 season he would sign with the Yankees and eventually play 8 impressive seasons (really, he was quite good everywhere he played) with them before retiring after the 2016 season.
For me, that classic career arc of earning one of the premiere salaries in the game, but having that salary being paid by the New York Yankees like so many stars before, well, I never really warmed up to Teixeira. I have a hard time considering the Yankees at any given point without considering salary structures in other sports leagues.
These days, I like Mark Teixeira a fair bit more, as I am always happy to luck into finding a television with access to the MLB Network, where he works routinely as an analyst now.
Don’t flip over real Turtles.
As I write this post, just after opening up my first copies of a brand new edition of Topps Baseball cards for 2019, Topps has returned to printing complete career stats on the backs of the cards, as opposed to 5 or so recent years of stats.
Stats like these speak for themselves.
Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?
CAREER CHASE: With 338 home runs, Teixeira is 424 away from Barry Bonds' all-time record of 762.
"Tex" hit 26 Home Runs as a Rookie for Texas and reached 43 HRs in just his 3rd season - the kind of career launch that might generate a shot at an all-time record. Being an excellent switch hitter playing in Yankee Stadium later in his career certainly didn't hurt his chances, though ultimately multiple run-ins with the Disabled List probably ended any serious possibility for this one for Teixeira.
He would finish his career with 409 Home Runs, placing him 54th All-Time.
Subspecies? Teixeira appears in both Opening Day and Chrome with this same image, but no other Sea Turtle cards.
Bling That Shell Yet another card where I am quite grateful for the existence of the mass-produced parallels without which a project like this would be impossible, at least for me. For a star player on the Yankees, the Target Red edition is an efficient choice.
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