This card has a bit of reverse motion, really. Parra's body has rotated all the way through the swing and now even the uniform lettering teams up with his left fore-arm to draw the eye down and almost off the card, until the bat knob is encountered. Which kind of reminds the viewer what just happened, and perhaps one should look up, up, and away, like Parra is — and then finally the gaze reaches his eyes, and the card collector too is lofted up, up, and away.
So I would have to say this is a nicely chosen photograph just for it's capture of live baseball playing action. The card has some other nice elements such as the strangely deserted Marlins dug-out in the background which makes for a nice dark background making the baseball player stand out even more, and also contributes to a miscellaneous set of horizontal image components that do the same for the vertical subject.
+Bonus points for the mysterious symbology of those wristbands. I got nothing, on those. But that is kind of cool as someday, somewhere else, I will see that oddly flag like red ball on a green & yellow stripe, and I will instantly think A-ha! Gerardo Parra!
Uniform Hero? Parra wore a lot of uniform #s in his career, but never #72.
Where’d the egg hatch? Gerardo is a Venezuelan national, so he was never drafted; rather he signed with the Diamondbacks when he was just 17, in 2004.
How about the migrations? And would debut with them in 2009, quickly becoming a regular in Arizona's outfield, as Topps picks up on...
Don’t flip over real Turtles.
I do like the seemingly relatively recent tread of just simply quoting the baseball player on the back of their baseball card. But then sports quotes, sports quotes - how often do you ever hear a sports quote you have never heard before? And then how often does that happen on the back of a baseball card? That does happen, but not on this card.
Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?
CAREER CHASE: With 462 hits, Parra is 3,794 away from the all-time record of 4,256.
I enjoy writing this blog so much that the other night I had a dream about this section of the card back. In the dream, I discovered a totally new all-time record that Topps started comparisons with. Except of course, they only did it on one card, and try as I might, I could not find that card in the binder. What was the elusive all-time record? I will have to await my next Sea Turtle dream, sorry.
On this card, Hits is certainly the category to expect possible notable results from Parra, who upon cruising into the middle years of his career as this card was pulled from packs, didn't seem to have exceptional power or base-running speed. And these cards have no defensive stats.
Parra would move on from Arizona to play in Milwaukee, Colorado, San Francisco and Washington; in the 2019 World Series he did see some action though largely as a defensive replacement in the late innings, despite putting up an OPS still above league average during the stretch run for the Nationals, who were already pretty stacked beyond the infield.
For the 2020 season, Parra signed a one year deal in Japan, which doesn't always preclude future MLB action, but in the Data Age of MLB, an 11 year career is now a fairly long one.
At the close of the 2019 regular season, Gerardo Parra had 1,312 Hits.
I enjoy writing this blog so much that the other night I had a dream about this section of the card back. In the dream, I discovered a totally new all-time record that Topps started comparisons with. Except of course, they only did it on one card, and try as I might, I could not find that card in the binder. What was the elusive all-time record? I will have to await my next Sea Turtle dream, sorry.
On this card, Hits is certainly the category to expect possible notable results from Parra, who upon cruising into the middle years of his career as this card was pulled from packs, didn't seem to have exceptional power or base-running speed. And these cards have no defensive stats.
Parra would move on from Arizona to play in Milwaukee, Colorado, San Francisco and Washington; in the 2019 World Series he did see some action though largely as a defensive replacement in the late innings, despite putting up an OPS still above league average during the stretch run for the Nationals, who were already pretty stacked beyond the infield.
For the 2020 season, Parra signed a one year deal in Japan, which doesn't always preclude future MLB action, but in the Data Age of MLB, an 11 year career is now a fairly long one.
At the close of the 2019 regular season, Gerardo Parra had 1,312 Hits.
Subspecies? Parra was certainly established enough in the Arizona outfield to make a few more checklists, so this card does appear in Opening Day. But when it came time to cut a few players to make way for Rookies in the Topps Chrome release, Parra didn't make that checklist. There are no other variants.
Bling That Shell As I pulled this card out of the binder to scan, I had a touch of regret that I didn't try a Blue Sparkle here, rather than on the previous card. But these 'Opening Day Blue Foil' cards can really deliver a shiny punch sometimes, & this one did not disappoint:
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