It all starts with the uniform wrinkles on Lee's right leg and just keeps on moving from there. Maybe there is a light breezing blowing in from the left side of the card - or maybe Cliff Lee's motion is that dynamically rapid that it is starting to wrinkle his jersey as well.
Then the arms are lifting somehow and you also start to realize his whole body is spinning off the pivot point of his left leg a little bit and towards the unfortunate batter. The whole thing made me write a post about this card, and one other, on my regular blog some 5.1 innings ago, err, years now, that I titled "These Cards Make Me Dizzy."
I think I could probably include this card in my The Pitcher is Smiling At Me collection, which includes cards that are actually quite menacing. But that is a very slow collection to build up.
The only other area of note on the card is the way the extra bright summer sunshine is so bright on Lee's upper right calf sleeved in the white uniform that a little blurring results. Something hardly ever seen on the focused object in a high end digital photograph taken in the high technology 21st century.
Overall, a very good example of the live action motif that now constitutes the Topps Baseball set.
Uniform Hero? It seems to me that of any and all remaining ways that connect Major League Baseball and the innocence of enjoying baseball as a child, Topps Inc. would most appreciate that Cliff Lee chose a uniform # that rhymed with his last name. A simplistic fact that I am sure the ever happy world of Topps Baseball cards is quite happy to show off on this card so clearly, allowing them this opportunity to match their usual joy of word play with the # of the baseball card.
Where’d the egg hatch? The back of this card informs us that Cliff Lee was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 4th round of the 2000 draft. I expect there will be very, very few Sea Turtle cards with any connection to the Montreal Expos.
What Topps doesn't have room to explain on their usual information dense card back is that the 2000 draft was actually the 3rd time Lee was drafted. His first suitors were the Marlins in 1997 after he completed High School and the Orioles in 1998 after his first year in junior college. Each time he elected not to sign and continue his college education.
How about the migrations? Lee would be involved in a # of trades in his career that are well known to the fanbases of the teams involved and fans of some of the many other MLB players involved in them, such as Bartolo Colon, who was sent to Montreal in exchange for Lee's arrival in Cleveland, where he debuted in 2002.
As his initial MLB contract wound down he would be traded several times; the first such trade resulted in his first brief stint in Philadelphia, for which Cleveland received prospect Carlos Carrasco, who is now routinely putting up Cliff Lee like #s for the Indians.
Finally after the 2010 season Lee could sign his first main Free Agent contract, which resulted in a 5 year deal with Philadelphia. He could not quite complete the contract once injury struck half-way through the 2014 season, nor return to Major League play in 2015; making July 31, 2014 his last game.
Don’t flip over real Turtles.
At first glance this seems to indicate 8 League Leads, however the Complete Games stats for 2010 are shown in red twice with 2 different teams, and an overall tie for the Lead with 7 that year. Carl Pavano in Minnesota shares that Lead, which seems an amazing total just 9 years later — in 2018, only 8 Pitchers would Complete even 2 Games for an 8-way tie for that Lead. 7 League Leads makes for the fourth card back to achieve that in this set, but I expect someone will break this logjam eventually.
Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?
CAREER CHASE: With 1,530 strikeouts, Lee is 4,194 away from Nolan Ryan's all-time record of 5,714.
Generally to be among the leaders in Strikeouts for a given season, 200 Ks is a rough threshold for the top 3 or so each year. That is a level Lee only reached late in his career, for 3 seasons.
Cliff Lee would finish with 1,824 SOs, still 3,890 away from Ryan's record; perhaps a good illustration of how that mark is not dissimilar from Cy Young's All-Time record for Wins.
Subspecies? This same image would appear in the Opening Day and Chrome checklists, but there are no other variations.
Bling That Shell I lucked into the following classy Black parallel by purchasing several dozen at once for about $1 each; otherwise this card would more likely have to be a much simpler color to obtain.
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