#62 - Tommy Hunter

What’s that Turtle doin’? I'm not sure but I think Tommy Hunter has a running convo going with the first baseman while he is pitching here. I can't quite make out what he is saying; something along the lines of "... and watch this" or possibly "betchya Texas misses us."

To be able to get this familiar with a Major League Baseball player busy playing baseball, we have to zoom in. On a single card basis, I like this, and I definitely like these live action images way better than a torso profile of a player posing at Spring Training Photo Day.

Though this card has strong lines from the script team name and then the glove leading your eye back, back, all the way back to the elbow and eventually the baseball there behind Tommy's head, that half-hidden ball kind of deadens the action at the end.

This is the 3rd solid-color 'Alternate' uniform image on this binder page and the 2nd sequential. The sum total of the card is a memorable one, though probably mostly for a collector inclined to enjoy the O's-ness of the whole thing. 

Uniform Hero? There is the numeral "2" clearly leading the uniform # (29, as it turns out), so that's a 'nope' on the card #. However as with the previous checklist spot, there were card # matching options available.

Where’d the egg hatch? Tommy Hunter had a 2-step draft history, first being selected out of high school by Tampa Bay in 2005 (18th round) but electing to try junior college rather than sign with the Rays. The Texas Rangers then selected him in the first round in 2007, though I must confess a bit of draft ignorance here on my part as I fail to understand how the 54th selection is still in the first 'round'. 

How about the migrations? Like most college draftees, Hunter soon got to visit The Show the very next year, but wouldn't really join the Rangers until the 2009 season and quickly become a quality starter.

But in 2011, the Rangers were eyeing the post-season and wanted more bullpen help; Hunter was shipped off to Baltimore along with an intriguing proto-slugger named Chris Davis. The return piece for Texas was ace reliever Koji Uehara, a very valuable piece everywhere he played. Meanwhile, Baltimore sure got a lot of Home Runs out of that deal.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

Chris Davis had just hit 33 Home Runs in his first season as on Oriole, so I'm a touch surprised his name wasn't mentioned here as well, seeing as how the writer had to reach back to Hunter's work in Texas for this one.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 33 wins Hunter is 476 away from Cy Young's record of 511.

As things turned out, this was just not a comparison to really ponder for Hunter's career. In the most recent year of Major League baseball action these stats cover, Hunter had been moved to the bullpen. The 33 games he appeared in only included 20 starts.

From 2013 forward, Hunter has been purely a reliever. Further stops on his tour of bullpens has included Chicago, Cleveland, a brief return to Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and recently one quite successful year (18) in Philadelphia and one clouded by injury (19).

For 2020 he has signed with Philly once again and seems ready to pitch.

At the close of the 2019 season, Tommy Hunter had 56 Major League Wins.

Subspecies? A struggling starter transitioning to the bullpen is not a spot that generates baseball card excitement even when the transition goes as smoothly as Hunter's did; this is the only card with this design.

Bling That Shell This card would most definitely look excellent on the black parallel, and I could see re-working this page perhaps if a cheap copy were to fall on me somehow. For now I am content with the easy-to-come-by Wal•Mart blue parallel, which was not used on the previous page and now hasn't been seen in the project for a dozen.5 cards. Alternate uniforms pair nicely with every parallel, really.