Blanton does seem optimistic on the call and this card almost makes the cut for a sub-collection I like to keep called The Pitcher Is Smiling At Me.
This Pitching card is a little less common than others in that a photo clicked _after_ the Pitcher completes his delivery is not the norm for an 'In Action' card of a Pitcher. This is only the 3rd such card in the set of 24 Pitchers on the checklist so far.
Overall though, this is a nice sunny day baseball card day out in sunny Los Angeles. It has a nice balance of sunlight and shadow created by Blanton himself, which makes one forget this is almost a purely 2-tone card of all white and blue but ultimately works very well thanks to all that sunshine.
One new element on this card is the right shoulder patch Joe is wearing, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Dodger Stadium. However we will see much better views of that patch on other cards in this set.
Uniform Hero? Normally home Dodger uniforms give a splendid view of the player's # on their baseball cards but such is not the case here. Nevertheless, Blanton did wear #56 for the Dodgers in 2012, but by 2013, he was wearing a different uni # for a different team.
I mentioned a 'Pitcher parade' at the head of this post as we have just passed the half-way point of a very long string of Pitchers on this checklist, likely the longest in the set. Pitchers do seem to favor uniform #s in the 50s; of 21 players that wore #56 in the 2012 season, 17 of them were Pitchers.
I mentioned a 'Pitcher parade' at the head of this post as we have just passed the half-way point of a very long string of Pitchers on this checklist, likely the longest in the set. Pitchers do seem to favor uniform #s in the 50s; of 21 players that wore #56 in the 2012 season, 17 of them were Pitchers.
Where’d the egg hatch? Blanton is one of the more veteran Sea Turtles in the set, as he was drafted in the 1st round in 2002 by the Oakland A's, right at the core of the action in the book "Moneyball," which does discuss the pre-draft thinking on Blanton some. He was actually Oakland's 2nd pick in the 1st round (24th overall), as the A's had 4 picks in the top 30. This all makes him 33 years old on this card, though he looks not far removed from his Rookie season on the front.
How about the migrations? Blanton's 8 IP 'cup of coffee' debut came in 2004 before joining an A's rotation depleted by trades in 2005. Naturally, he would eventually be traded away from the A's in 2008, off to the Phillies (Josh Outman only really known return piece; not one of Billy Beane's better trades but then Beane is always hamstrung by looming player paydays). Has Beane ever drafted a player who retired from the Oakland A's? Not that all that many MLB players do that any more for any team, but to see a career arc like that in 21st century Oakland would be noticeable.
After that mid-season trade in 2008, Blanton would hit a Home Run while pitching for the Phillies in the World Series, currently the last MLB pitcher to perform the feat.
Blanton landed on this baseball card via a trade to L.A. on August 3, 2012, a few days after the 'no-waiver' trade deadline which confuses 99% of baseball fans, but does not confuse Topps, who will definitely not print an Update card for a player traded that late in the summer. The return piece for the 'rental' of 2 months of Blanton's contract never made the Majors, well illustrating a common outcome of such trades despite the value casual fans place on them.
Blanton would then sign a contract with the Angels on Dec. 12, 2012 and would not actually pitch an inning for L.A. in the actual year of the Sea Turtle cards. He would appear in the Heritage set, which releases a month after Series One, as a photo-shopped California Angel. All of which probably illustrates something about the lead-time required for Topps to create accurate Topps Baseball cards.
After that mid-season trade in 2008, Blanton would hit a Home Run while pitching for the Phillies in the World Series, currently the last MLB pitcher to perform the feat.
Blanton landed on this baseball card via a trade to L.A. on August 3, 2012, a few days after the 'no-waiver' trade deadline which confuses 99% of baseball fans, but does not confuse Topps, who will definitely not print an Update card for a player traded that late in the summer. The return piece for the 'rental' of 2 months of Blanton's contract never made the Majors, well illustrating a common outcome of such trades despite the value casual fans place on them.
Blanton would then sign a contract with the Angels on Dec. 12, 2012 and would not actually pitch an inning for L.A. in the actual year of the Sea Turtle cards. He would appear in the Heritage set, which releases a month after Series One, as a photo-shopped California Angel. All of which probably illustrates something about the lead-time required for Topps to create accurate Topps Baseball cards.
Don’t flip over real Turtles.
A player in the Leagues this long runs out of room for the Topps crew to write up a blurb for them, in any set with "full stats" like this one, rather than 5 year stats. It is often a bit of a pity whenever a Lead League in Italics is a counting stat the player would rather not have compiled, although in this case Blanton had such respectable WHIP and ERA figures there that allowing 240 Hits is more a positive indicator of his ability to stay in games — and pitch his rotation spot 100% reliably as this card misses the fact that by starting 34 games in 2007, Blanton should have earned another Lead League in Italics bit of red ink for that.
Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?
CAREER CHASE: With 228 games started, Blanton is 587 away from Cy Young's all-time record of 815.
Now this is a surprising comparison in a couple ways. For one, this is the first such comparison in the set here on the 56th card. It is also a stat that the card collector can't verify for themselves right on the back of the card. I suspect we might see a few more of these unexpected All-Time stat comparisons sneak up on us as we read the back of each and every card in the set, as composing them had to have been a bit of a chore, really.
Blanton would pitch for the Angels in 2013 before one could almost call him a journeyman starter for the rest of his career, if he hadn't largely switched to the bullpen after this card was created. After a season with the Angels additional stops included a 2nd stop in Oakland though injury would prevent him from pitching there, a 2nd stop in Dodger Stadium, as well as time in the bullpens of the Royals, Pirates, and Nationals before he retired after the 2017 season.
With 252 games started of 427 games appearing in, Blanton finished his career 563 away from Cy Young's all-time record.
Now this is a surprising comparison in a couple ways. For one, this is the first such comparison in the set here on the 56th card. It is also a stat that the card collector can't verify for themselves right on the back of the card. I suspect we might see a few more of these unexpected All-Time stat comparisons sneak up on us as we read the back of each and every card in the set, as composing them had to have been a bit of a chore, really.
Blanton would pitch for the Angels in 2013 before one could almost call him a journeyman starter for the rest of his career, if he hadn't largely switched to the bullpen after this card was created. After a season with the Angels additional stops included a 2nd stop in Oakland though injury would prevent him from pitching there, a 2nd stop in Dodger Stadium, as well as time in the bullpens of the Royals, Pirates, and Nationals before he retired after the 2017 season.
With 252 games started of 427 games appearing in, Blanton finished his career 563 away from Cy Young's all-time record.
Subspecies? This is the only Joe Blanton Sea Turtle designed card.
Bling That Shell We have started a new binder page now and this one leads off with a blue on Gold choice, one which will be pretty common in the all parallel set as the blue Sea Turtle baseball diamonds don't mix so well with some of the blue Sea Turtle shells. But these always look classy:
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