#73 - Brandon Crawford

What’s that Turtle doin’? Comin' right atchya there in the on-deck circle. I have always wanted to watch a game from there.

The actual star of the card is actually the sole of Crawford's left shoe. The card looks so 3D I half expect the various foil/shiny parallels of it to somehow make the rest of Crawford disappear into the shiny, leaving just that sole.

And there on the bottom of that shoe —— it is a little striking how no chance to put a corporate logo in to your field of vision is ever missed, these days. I have a sad hunch lately that Baseball is still in the early stages of slipping down an advertising-on-the-uniforms slope as attendance declines a little bit every year, but somehow, revenues manage to go up. And player salaries absolutely, positively must rise at all times, or else the players are getting ripped off - a sentiment of a large portion of the fans. I don't think it will all end up in NASCAR territory, but I also don't think the Swoosh now appearing on the right breast will be the last such uniform icon, either.

A minor star of the card is the ring of some sort on Crawford's left hand. I tried to do my best blogging due diligence on this, but Crawford has had so many miscellaneous small finger injuries during his career that tracking down just one in 2012, presuming this is a 2012 photo, wasn't actually possible at this point, nearly 8 years later.

I like how Crawford is not only illustrating near textbook sliding style but also seems to be waving Aloha! as he comes in to Home, without a Catcher or an Umpire anywhere to be found. 

This is another one that if I had to pick just 9 Sea Turtles to be stranded on a desert island with, I think might make that cut.

Uniform Hero? No sir.

Where’d the egg hatch? Crawford was drafted by the Giants in the 4th round in 2008.

How about the migrations? Brandon had good baseball skills it turned out, reaching the Giants in just three years in 2011, rather than 4.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

After just a season and a half in MLB for Crawford, we get full minor league stats and a text blurb. Neither of which really tell us a whole whole lot, so I guess when things get rather staid, leather and lumber always make for a good fall back. I have a nagging suspicion I will end up borrowing that technique myself as this blog moves along.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 148 hits, Crawford is 4,108 away from the all-time record of 4,256.

This one almost makes me like how it kind of dovetails with the image on the front of the card, but then the Hit King was famous for sliding in head-first, in photographs at least.

Crawford is a bit of a rare player in the 2010s MLB in that he has played his entire career in San Francisco; he is currently signed through the 2021 season.

After the 2019 season, Brandon Crawford has 1,055 Hits in MLB action.

Subspecies? Although Crawford was just getting established after a first full season in 2012, this card does make the Opening Day checklist as well, but has no variants. It takes a little more star-power to hang on to that checklist spot later in the year in the Chrome release, and there this card can not be found, which is a bit of a pity, really, as this would be one card I would want to check out with some shiny hub-caps.

Bling That Shell Of course, I do have some options for shiny even without an official Chrome card given all the 2013 parallels, one year before the total # of those options peaked in the 2014 release. Here I am once again finishing out a page with an Emerald Giant:

That means it is time to see how the parallels all fit together; I like how on this page, the 3 shiniest options all gravitate together on the bottom row. I'll have to let that row hang out in a bit of sunshine sometime, just to see what happens.

#66 - Daniel Nava

What’s that Turtle doin’? Hopin' it drops in for a hit, I reckon.

This card is kind of stuck in a bit of a neutral zone between being a Hitting card or a Base Running card — at first it sure doesn't look like Nava is running, yet.

But upon closer inspection, there is a definite amount of bright white there between Daniel's legs, which would have to be the bottom of his left leg. Which finally settles it for me — this is a Base Running card.

Further bits of confirmation of the true amount of kinetic activity here is the blurring of his right hand, and even some bits of, something, flying off his left hand. I scanned this card twice, thinking that was dust sticking to the card. Instead, it is dust now not sticking to Nava.

The only other realization that can be had about this card is that the photo was taken at night, given all the reflections on the batting helmet. It isn't all that exciting of a 'Night Card', but the card is still very workman-like and well done in that it shows the collector what Daniel Nava looks like, and most specifically, what he looks like while he is playing baseball.

Uniform Hero? Oh yes; again a bit of an accomplishment to work this trick this high in the uniform digits.

Where’d the egg hatch? Nava was a quite rare type of player in Major League Baseball today - an American player, who was never drafted. At all. As in, not even in the 49th round.

How about the migrations? Well, we are about to get some of the details here shortly. I will just borrow a bit from Nava's Wikipedia page: "...and signed with the Chico Outlaws of the Golden Baseball League. The Outlaws cut him after a tryout, only to bring him back a year later to fill a void." Which was Nava's experience with the very first baseball club that ever signed him, and a player/club dynamic that would follow Nava all the way through his career.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

I love the detail that Nava did go to college before playing baseball for money, but at a junior college. Which is just exactly perfect as one begins learning the full story of Nava's career.

What is slightly surprising is that the card back writer doesn't bring up the easy money story of Nava; I will borrow another sentence from the Wiki writer here: "Nava is only the fourth player in MLB history to hit a grand slam in his first major league at bat and the second to do it on the first pitch."

This is actually only Nava's 2nd Topps Baseball card, and fortunately for all that is well and good and to be expected of perfect Topps Baseball card backs, his Rookie Card in 2010 Update does get to use that bit of Rookie glory on the back.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 104 hits, Nava is 4,152 from the all-time record of 4,256.

It has been awhile in this set since we have forgotten all about Pete Rose all over again, thanks to all those Pitcher cards. This was a prophetic pick, sort of, for Daniel Nava and the 2013 MLB season. No, Nava never entered any All-Time lists for most Hits by any category you wish, probably not even short-term Fan Favorite in Boston, which always has 1-2 such players at all times given the enthusiastic fan base.

2013 would be Nava's best in the Majors, turning in a .303 AVG (good for 8th in the AL), and a .385 OBP (good for 5th). But as can already be seen in the results on the card back above, Nava could just never seem to string together 2 consecutive good seasons. His 2nd-best year in the Majors, with Philly in 2017, was also his last year in the Majors as he could not crack the 25 Man roster the next year with Pittsburgh.

In 2019, Nava went back to Independent League play with the Kansas City T-Bones.

He finished his MLB career with 452 Hits across 7 seasons with 5 teams.

Subspecies? If Daniel Nava could have strung together consecutive starting seasons with the Red Sox, he probably would have been an easy pick for the Opening Day checklist, given his spectacular baseball 'origin story', as it were. However this was his first card in 3 years and that bit of non-career-continuity kept him off the other entry level checklists in 2013.

But I think Topps has always liked the Fan Favorites in Boston more than elsewhere, probably because Topps is from Mets country, bottom line. And thus Daniel Nava does appear in another Sea Turtle set: Update! Probably only a never-drafted American player can also pull off that feat of having a card in the Topps Baseball set _and_ the Update set, without ever changing teams. So this blog will see Daniel Nava again, many, many years from now.

The enigmatic luck results of Daniel Nava and Baseball (I really want to go on a deeper dive with his BABIP stats now; I suspect they might be pretty odd) continued right to the end - he also managed to appear on a card in the 2018 Topps Baseball set as a Pittsburgh Pirate, without ever appearing in a game for them.

Bling That Shell Hitting a Grand Slam on your first Major League Pitch — that certainly seems worthy of probably the premiere parallels in Topps Baseball sets of the 2010s: the Topps Black. Perfect for a Night Card, too:

#27 - Mike Trout

What’s that Turtle doin’? I think he might have just stolen that particular Third Base, and stolen it in such a blink of an eye that the visiting team could not do a single thing about it, because they are nowhere to be seen.

This is also the first baseball card in the set that actually shows one of the bases, which are seen on baseball cards now much less often than is the ball. I like how different portions of the grass on this card have differing amounts of light on them. 

Writing in 2019, I now notice how this card foreshadows a certain nervousness among fans of Mike Trout today - the only injuries that have cost him any significant amount of playing time have each come while sliding into a base. I do not know if he has begun participating in the current trend of wearing a "sliding mitt" on the basepaths yet, but I know some fans hope that he does, just in case. No one who enjoys Major League Baseball wants to see Mike Trout hit the Disabled List.

At this point, there are new Mike Trout cards issued routinely in every product checklist, and most insert checklists as well. There are so many I don't even have time to scroll through online sources of all the imagery that would be involved - but I have to wonder how many of all those new cards depict a slide.

This card could ultimately become the "best" card in the set, for those who pick "best" to mean "most valuable." The Topps Rookie Cup remains a popular icon in the hobby, though for many only in so far as when it appears on a card of a player that goes on to financial success, with 'financial' meaning The Cup appears on a card worth more than several nickels and dimes, which is rare even for some eventual All-Stars.

Should Manny Machado ever fall back to more ordinary WAR #s in his still moderately young career, this card will then likely be THE card to own from 2013 Topps Baseball.

Uniform Hero? Topps is firmly back in the groove on this concept now, as this is the 4th sequential card to display a same # on the front and on the back. A fitting selection for the 2012 AL Rookie of the Year.

Where’d the egg hatch? It is now becoming a bit of a standard trivia question/answer to know for fans of the 24 teams that selected someone other than Mike Trout in the first round of the 2009 MLB draft - who did they pick instead? Trout would debut in 2011 for the Angels, but would not use up his "rookie limits," which are 135 At Bats or 45 days on the 25 man roster, though he came fairly close to those in '11.

How about the migrations? Mike Trout is currently signed through the 2020 season with the Angels. The amount of screen pixels that will be dedicated to pondering what happens after that in his career has only just begun to ramp up, but it will be considerable.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

It is rather nice that this card is Trout's 2nd regular Topps Baseball checklist appearance beyond his official Rookie Card in 2011 Update, so there are still only 2 MLB statlines to show and thus room to include both some basic text -and- his minor league stats, something one does want to read for a player as bound for glory as Mike Trout.

Of note on this card is the details in the "Acq:" slot which one would normally predict to read "Via Draft." Instead we see "Free Agent 1-28-11" which is much more curious. Baseball Reference just notes his initial contract signing in 2009, though there has been one extension signed just before the 2014 season, carrying through the 2020 season as noted above.

One thing I can find on the Internet connecting Mike Trout and January 28, 2011 is that on that date, official "Transactions" lists for 2011 mention that they "came to terms" with about 2 dozen players that day on their minor league contracts. Just what type of "Acq" action occurred between Mike Trout and the California Angels on that date can possibly only be divined in some future Trout biography, perhaps.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 149 runs, Trout is 2,146 away from Rickey Henderson's all-time record of 2,297.

This is the second sequential card to ponder this record, and the 2nd card to do so for a player that Lead the League in Runs. Though Trout also Lead the League in Steals in his Rookie season, making the Rickey Henderson comparison much more relevant for a Center Fielder than a 2nd Baseman.

And after this card appeared, Trout would go on to Lead his League in Runs in 2013 and 2014, and then again in 2016 before the pair of sliding injuries in 2017 and 2018 somewhat cut into his ability to Lead Leagues in counting stats. Otherwise one of his newer cards might well have more stats printed in red than in black.

After the 2018 season, Mike Trout had scored 793 Runs, placing him only 33rd on the Active list; however only one player in front of him has 10 or fewer seasons, as compared to the 8 seasons Trout has completed now. This places Trout 1,504 Runs away from Rickey Henderson's all-time record, which took Henderson 25 seasons to score. After his first 8 seasons, Henderson had 862 Runs scored.

Subspecies? No one should be surprised to know that this card is also in Opening Day, where it also is card #27, using this same image. The same image would also appear in Chrome, which has one of those exceptionally tough variations floating around in the world.

On the Sea Turtle design in this set, this card has 3 variations - including a "Great Catch" issued in Series One, which is probably the only one I will ever seriously consider tracking down, given the prices for Mike Trout cards. Series 2 delivered a new Mike Trout #27 card in each type of variation - "Sunglasses" and "Fan Interaction" / "Autographs".

A final Sea Turtle variant appears in the All-Star Game Factory Set checklist of 5 cards, which I can share with you:

Bling That Shell The realities of Mike Trout card values forces my hand on this selection once again. I think the varying brightness levels of the grass would make this a fantastic "Blue Sparkle" card but even in the summer of 2013 I was not going to luck into one of those by buying a random 4 dozen card lot of them. I hope to see that card in-hand someday.

I was fortunate enough to pull the Wal-Mart Blue version of this card in 203-2015, twice even, as well as one Target Red version. So perhaps those key "dups" will get me closer to owning a Blue Sparkle version, some day. Many Trout collectors consider the red 'team color' parallels to be non pareil; I much prefer good old red, white, and blue for such a quintessential American baseball player.

#20 - Kevin Youkilis

What’s that Turtle doin’? At first glance, this is the exact thing you want to see a baseball player doing - trotting home after hitting a Home Run. The crowd and his teammates in the dug-out are standing, cheering, and clapping. Hooray!

Except one guy on his team is looking behind Youkilis, as are many of the fans - another player is still rounding the bases. It seems to remain a Home Run card, in a sense, but Youkilis didn't hit the Homer. And it is a Homer, right? I mean, it could be just a Double or a Triple sending Kevin to Home Plate here. But it is definitely more fun to just imagine that it is a Home Run.

And those fans - the Sox did seemingly manage to bring one of their fans along to the game there in the front row, with his similar script Chicago uniform as 'Youk is wearing. Which is the road uniform. Probably, only that one fan is actually cheering.

And there is one fan in the stands, with a blue ball cap, with a round, red & white logo that should be oh so familiar to baseball card fans - is Kevin Youkilis rounding Third here, just after a teammate hit a Home Run - @ Wrigley Field?

Sea Turtle Detective is on the case. First stop, Getty Images. "Kevin Youkilis 2012 Wrigley Field" I ask the kind, but terribly silent, website attendant. "Sorry," replies the attendant, somehow, "there does not seem to be any records of such an appearance without Kevin wearing red socks." How did the Getty gate-keeper know I was looking for pics of Youkilis wearing white socks?

But I know the White Sox make that long road trip to the North Side annually, in the 21st century. Baseball Reference will surely lead me to the one game where he scored after a team-mate's Home Run.

Nope. The White Sox did visit Wrigley in 2012 - on May 18-20. On June 24, 2012, Kevin Youkilis played his last game for the Boston Red Sox. On June 25, 2012, Kevin Youkilis played his first game for the Chicago White Sox.

Oh well, it was an enjoyable baseball results research expedition while it lasted.

I can't think of another baseball card where the player is fairly definitively scoring a run after being knocked in by someone else, though I would imagine such do exist. Which makes this another enjoyable Sea Turtle card, for me.

I do like how the Turtle seems to once again be about to serve as Home Plate on Youkilis' next step. But that probably comes at the cost of cutting off most of his right foot. Sometimes I actually like such a framing cut - it can impart a sense of motion, as if the player is still in the process of zooming into view from the side of the card, cf.: #6 - Ryan Howard. Other times I find such cuts distracting.

This one falls in about the middle of that really like / not-so-much possibility. I just want to know who hit the Home Run I guess.

Uniform Hero? Topps is getting on a roll here, with the 3rd card in a row where the card # can be seen clearly, on the front of the card.

Where’d the egg hatch? Youkilis was drafted by the Red Sox in the 8th round in 2001, debuting in Boston with a solid 72 Game Rookie campaign in 2004.

How about the migrations? Unlike many in this checklist neighbord, Kevin did not complete his career in Boston, as we have seen, despite a very impressive run manning Third Base for them nearly every day from 2006 - 2009 making him a fairly maybe someday entry in the Topps "Fan Favorite" series in the Archives release, in my opinion.

Now Boston is a town pretty passionate about their Red Sox, generally a good thing in baseball. Except in 2011, the Red Sox disintegrated down the stretch and the hated Yankees took the division crown. A famous story about fried chicken and beer in the clubhouse soon appeared in the press and many people involved with the franchise soon departed, including one of baseball's most famous General Managers, Theo Epstein. It was felt within the club that the breaking of the what-happens-in-the-clubhouse-stays-in-the-clubhouse rule could be traced to Youkilis, perhaps contributing to the decision on the June trade the next season.

Kevin would finish the 2012 season in Chicago, as well as his then current contract. In December, 2012, as the finishing touches were being put on 2013 Series One, he signed a new one year deal with the Evil Empire - the New York Yankees. This was a year before his former team-mate Jacoby Ellsbury would do the same, and his Fan Favorite stock probably diminished a fair bit in Boston.

In the year of the Sea Turtle, Youkilis' career would come to an end as he needed back surgery in June, 2013, which became both season, and career ending, though he gave it one more brief try in Japan in 2014. Youkilis is currently re-united with Epstein, working as a Special Assistant to the GM of the Chicago Cubs.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

You can't go wrong with a Tom Brady name drop on the back of a sports card for a popular player in New England.

A bit more surprising on this card, considering what we will consider next here, is a complete lack of League Leads, but then Topps doesn't quite have room amidst baseball card stat columns for noting Youkilis' capture of the title in the Hit-By-Pitch category, with 17 of those in 2012.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 531 walks, Youkilis is 2,027 away from Barry Bonds' all-time record of 2,558.

Now here Topps is definitely paying attention to the player's reputation, as Youkilis' well-known nickname is "The Greek God of Walks," bestowed on him by Billy Beane and famously revealed in the book Moneyball. 

I also find it intriguing that 'Youk follows Joey Votto in the checklist, the player most known for walks in the succeeding decade to the peaks of Youkilis' career. As we saw yesterday, Votto has led his League several times in reaching base the easy way.

Youkilis would Walk only 8 more times in his final, 28 Game season with the Yankees, placing him tied for 637th place, All-Time.

Subspecies? Changing teams in December can result in multiple unique cards in the Topps Baseball product line the next season. We will see Youkilis again in Update, and he also appeared in Chrome, but not Opening Day; checklist decisions which probably all trace to his signing date with the Yankees, and his general base popularity with fans.

Which might also account for his appearance in the "Great Catch" series of Short Prints, meaning it is once again time for 

So, did he catch it? Let's consider the photographic evidence at hand:

Even before asking that inscrutable Getty gatekeeper, we can tell Youkilis is on the road in Toronto, an AL East team the White Sox only visit for one 3 game series per year.

And the Topps contract with Getty remains solid. Here is how Getty captions the result:

TORONTO, CANADA - AUGUST 14: Kevin Youkilis #20 of the Chicago White Sox dives into the crowd while catching a foul ball during MLB game action the Toronto Blue Jays August 14, 2012 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Brad White/Getty Images)

Ahh, but this just declares he is "catching" the ball. We don't see the ball, and there is more than a little Bartman action going on. Isn't there a law against that? Sea Turtle Detective will have to work a little harder to insure total live baseball accuracy for his devoted readers.

As it turns out, in the bottom of the 3rd Toronto First Baseman David Cooper (who?) popped up into foul territory along the third base line, and became the 3rd Out of the inning.

Where does Topps find these people to hit into these Great Catches, anyway? At least that Grand Slam which Andre Ethier couldn't catch was hit by a Topps Baseball alumni. David Cooper is the most tangential member of that club I ever did see....definitely a future blog topic, though probably over at Base Set Calling.

Bling That Shell Let's see a parallel already! I'm going in to withdrawal.

Yet another super simple selection: Black. I think this card came in as part of a small lot of parallels, rather than being purchased as a single. But once I had it, this checklist spot was secure as the team color / parallel baseball card synchronicity here with the road grey uniform is probably better than any other White Sox Uni.

Just recently, I figured out a technical point about the construction of the Sea Turtles that explains why I like the 2013 White Sox parallels so much. I'll illustrate that with this project's next White Sox parallel, which is majestic.

#5 - Carlos Gonzalez

What’s that Turtle doin’? For our second horizontal card, we get our second Base-Running card, and our first Sliding card. Gonzalez is so perfectly framed by the design elements that it appears the baseball diamond / turtle-back is the Home Plate he is aiming for.

Showing a player's complete body, from head-gear to toes, inevitably comes at a slight cost in facial recognition. But that is perfectly fine on this card, which includes nice, digital-photo-era captures of split-second action with the flying dirt, as well as a velcro strap on one of Carlos' batting gloves still streaming behind him as he slides.

He appears to be Safe at first glance. But the Catcher's glove either already holds the ball and is just waiting here to tag Gonzalez' foot Out on the left side of the card, or has not yet been raised to catch the ball on a throw in from the field. Could go either way.

Given Carlos' 3 year membership in baseball's "20-20" club (HR, SB) at this point in his career, using this image of "CarGo," a player known for speed on the basepaths, is a great choice.

Uniform Hero? A clear member of the club, seen right on-card.

Where’d the egg hatch? Hailing from a town that regularly produces Major Leaguers - Maracaibo, Venezuela, Gonzalez was never drafted. He was originally signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

How about the migrations? Like seeming every prospect playing in the western half of the United States, Carlos ended up in a trade with Oakland's Billy Beane, where he debuted in 2008 for half of the season. And like so many Oakland prospects, he was traded once again, that time to Colorado, where he has played ever since. The return player was Matt Holliday, who would end up back in Colorado some ten or so years later; this trade feels like a good even-up for 2 similarly good players.

In 2018, Gonzalez signed with the Rockies once again, on only a one year deal, which worked out well in Colorado, until a decided fall-off in September as the Rockies vied for the division crown. Writing in early 2019, Carlos is still 'on the board', unsigned as I go to press here, and has generated little buzz in MLB Free Agent coverage this off-season. There is a similar lack of news on his own thoughts on trying for another Go in the Major Leagues.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

On this card back we learn a more intimate, family nickname. We also see a League Lead in Hits and Average, something rarely a surprise for a good hitter playing in Colorado.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 648 hits, Gonzalez is 4,028 away from the all-time record of 3,608. 

Challenges continue down in the Topps baseball card mines, where we now wonder who has 4,676 Hits, or 3,608 Hits, for that matter. Maybe Charlie Hustle got wind of this effort at Topps, and was able to place a curse on it.

Gonzalez sits at 1,403 Hits after the 2018 season.

Subspecies? Another identical card in Opening Day & Chrome, with no SP variations that I know of, though with one more difficult-to-discern possibility, out there. Naturally, whenever new-to-me Sea Turtles are discovered, you will be notified, eventually.

2019 Update: I have now tracked down that difficult possibility:

This card was issued in the "Team Set" 'retail blister' product Topps issues for each team around June of each year. I have now begun adding the unique cards sometimes found in those, via adding them to the post for their pack issued cousin. More details can be found on the #49 - Chris Sale entry.

I do like this card as well as any other Sea Turtle; I particularly like the way the purple batting gloves complement the card design and finally help you notice the purple batting helmet as well. It does look like Carlos' eyes are following a grounder, rather than a swinging strike, but it is hard to tell.

The back of this card is the same as the pack issued card back seen above, outside of the card #, which is COL-1. This is now only the 2nd Rockies card I have scanned for this blog, but is the first where I have noticed a key detail on their cards - the color of the CR team logo is _not_ purple! 

After all these years of playing with these cards, I am amazed to still discover the fine details on them. And thus, a key reason I write this blog I guess.

The Team Sets included a card like the following, for most teams:

I don't believe these were the first "Stadium" cards ever issued, nor would be the last. Topps would return to the idea in a couple Opening Day sets in the 2010s, though without ever issuing all 30 of them. In 2019 they did do all 30 stadiums, via inclusion in Topps Baseball Series 1 & 2. Those cards also had features of a common Topps Baseball card in past decades - the "team card." These only have a breezy write-up on the back:

Bling That Shell This is the first card from a 'single color' team - the purple for the Rockies. At one point in assembling the All-Parallel set, I was going to prohibit a Rockies-Purple-on-Blue parallel of any of the 4 basic blue bordered parallels, due to a basic lack of contrast. But later I decided to only do that for the very close 'team color' and parallel color matches, so there will be no Rockies Toys-R-Us Purple card in the set. I also decided to insure there is one example of every color combination aside from the same-same matches. And I did warm up to seeing the Rockies on the light-blue 'Wal-Mart' parallel, which quite probably has the highest total print run of any 2013 parallel version. And here 'tis:

#1 - Bryce Harper

What’s that Turtle doin’? This is a fairly dynamic card once you dive in to imaging a live baseball game. It appears Harper is on the run, just out of the batter's box, with his classy home alternate uniform billowing in the resulting breeze — this is not an admire-the-moon-shot card, this is a playing hard card, for a player well known for his style of play. Meanwhile he seems excited to see if the ball might clear the fence, or just drop in for a likely Double. His clearly seen line of vision leads the viewer up, and away, out into the outfield, wondering what is going to happen.

A nice image to kick off a set of baseball cards, and probably one of the more epic applications of Eye Black ever captured on cardboard. Overall with the red turtle-diamond matching the Nationals' red logo and the uniform and the batting helmet, an all-around class baseball card.

+ Bonus points for starting a set with a Topps Rookie Cup winner - something that had only ever happened once before, in 1994 for Mike Piazza. That worked out pretty good.

Uniform Hero? In 2013 Topps made a ... new decision, I'll leave it at that, with this set of baseball cards. Some cards would sync up with the player's uniform # - and a ruckus was born! Change! Run! No longer could the player's value over randomly replaced players be calculated by the baseball card collector, simply by checking the card # and how many big numbers it divided into evenly, with the 100 series reserved for the current biggest superstars of the game and a -50 card indicating a not too shabby player either, and so on with the cards divisible by 25, and even 10 as well, most years.

But on this card, we clearly have the old-school use of the Hero # for one of the previous season's Rookies-of-the-Year. Plus you can see his Uni #34 there quite clearly.

Where’d the egg hatch? Harper was the first overall pick by the Nationals in the 2010 draft and quickly reached The Show in 2012.

How about the migrations? Bryce has been a famous, productive Major Leaguer ever since, winning an MVP in 2015 and making the All-Star team every year, save for 2014 when he was injured early in the season. As I am writing this inaugural post, he is about to sign .... somewhere, so there will an edit to this sentence, sometime soon, I expect.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

This is a nice, cleanly designed card back with just a single primary color, the matching 'team color' from the front, and includes a nice shading of the tint breaking up what would be a little more blah as just a single block of solid color. 

As they have since about 2006 or so, these card backs repeat design elements from the front of the card, including the Sea Turtle itself, though now with an at first seemingly extraneous triangle there down the third base line. However that small grey slice of graphic actually completes the arc across the entire card, just below the Player Name. More generally unnoticed are the faded-out lines of the team color in the bottom right corner, as on the front. 

In this set, the player's Position only appears on the back of the card, and without differentiating Left, Center, or Right for the Outfielders.

The Topps card back writer turned in a classic here on the back, too, using one of Harper's most famous quotes from his Rookie season, and some well selected stats about his age.

I guess by commenting on the card backs, this blog will be a little bit like writing a card back, but without any space constraints, just a general hope to avoid too much tl;dr posting.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit? 

CAREER CHASE: With 22 home runs, Harper is 740 away from Barry Bonds' all-time record of 762.

On every card back in the 2013 set, Topps worked in a bit of stat trivia revolving around the designated 'theme' of the set, which was a thing for these efforts in the early 10s. 2012's theme was "Gold" this that and another thing; 2013 was all about "The Chase," as in the way Topps expects us to chase their valuable baseball cards, and the way stats are chased in the game. One would think there could have been some good inserts built around famous Pennant Chases in baseball history, but that type of chase was forgotten.

As I write in January, 2019, Harper has 184 career Homers after his Age 26 season and is now 571 away from the real all-time record, in my never very humble opinion. 14 years of 40 Home Runs annually (a feat he has only accomplished once so far), until he is 40 years old, seems unlikely.

Subspecies? By 2013, the design used in the main Topps set for the year was also used in a variety of ways, such as in their other products Chrome and Opening Day, and occasionally in various other products and releases. And the now well known 'short prints' / 'photo variations' would also be inserted into packs on cards using the same design, -and- the same card #, but a different photo. In this section I will show off these cards, when I can, and where they vary from the regulation Topps set issue. I do plan to collect them, all of them, but that will be a very long-term project. Though I expect writing this blog might not hurt my chances of rounding up _all_ of the Sea Turtles, eventually, something I will explain a little more explicitly, shortly.

Harper's cards in Chrome and Opening Day repeat this image. The Chrome card has a photo variant that would require multiple 'S'es in front of the SP, existing in an edition possibly at /25 or as low as /10, across a 25 card checklist. They originally fell at about 2 such cards in 3 cases (of 12 boxes), making them difficult 'pulls.' Those cards rarely surface for sale and I can't say I expect to own any of those 25 cards for quite a long time, if ever. 

Back among the regular glossy Turtles, 2 far less scarce Short Prints exist. The first was issued in Series 1 as part of the 'Great Catch' photo variants which I have been making decent progress on over the years, with another in Series 2, of the 'Sunglasses' type.

This card also exists in the "NL Team" set Topps puts together annually for retail blister pack sales, with a National League logo stamped on the front, most years. All of those cards use the regular card image and I do not plan to collect, display, or further comment on those quite minor variations.

There is one further 2013 Bryce Harper card using this design, issued in a 5 card pack included with a complete Factory Set and sold in seemingly quite limited quantities, only at the All-Star Fan Fest:

Sadly, I think I will probably have to sell this card sometime this year, and I even plan to grade it first in hopes of increasing it's value (which is why I scanned it still inside a toploader). I am saving up for some medical expenses on the horizon and if a card in my collection goes over a certain value now, I know I would rather make progress on more important life goals than hold on to it. I do hope to replace the card with a beat-up version - if any exist in the fanatical card quality era of today - some day.

Bling That Shell I must confess that this blog will have a bit of a self-serving purpose as well - recruiting you, dear reader, into helping me complete a collecting project I have been working on since late in 2013 - an "All-Parallel" set of these cards. I still need a bit less than 100 /x numbered parallels of different types, and they circulate for sale a bit less and less with each passing year. 

I don't expect any trouble picking up needed parallels without serial #s; a large % of the set is for sale any given day on the Gold, Emerald, Wal-Mart Blue, & Target Red parallels. But ultimately I know I will have to really beat the bushes to find specific Series 2 Purples, /50 Pinks and especially the /230 Factory Set Orange parallels, and perhaps others. I think I know most of the possible ways to hunt for these cards online, but I often wonder how many of them might be locked up in a dealer's inventory, only exhibited once every few months or so, at the wonderful concept called the "Card Show," something I am never able to visit in the extremely rural areas where I work and live. Similarly, some of the cards I need are quite possibly sitting inside another wonderful construct called the "Local Card Shop." So eventually as the blog moves along, I will be pointing out where I can use a little help being on the look-out for certain cards. I would be more than happy to pay a small finder's fee in some sort of electronic dollars, or trying to help with whatever sets you might collect. There is a current list of what I need on the top left corner of the blog at all times, found at the link labelled "Parallel Project."

My most desired find is Platinum 1/1s from the Update Set, and also 1 Platinum from this list: 218 Ben Zobrist or 219 Josh Beckett or 220 Octavio Dotel or 222 Jason Heyward or 223 Yonder Alonso or 225 Will Venable or 226 Derek Lowe, all found on a difficult page to complete using the following set completion rules.

And finally, if anyone out there happens to need any 2013 S1/S2/Update parallels, I have a large amount of surplus parallels accumulated over the years. The Blue Sparkle parallels are actually /150, without a stamped #, and the Toys R Us Purple parallels can also be a little extra challenging to find.

The 'rules' of the set will be to place one parallel of each card on it's binder page of 9 cards, but using a given parallel color once per page. Since kicking off this effort I have refined my internal 'rules' some over the years, to increase the esthetics of the result. i will explain that in more detail once I finish the posts for the first 9 cards, and can show you what a completed page looks like.

For this card, I was glad to have a few options with cards pulled from my own regular retail purchases of 2013 Topps as it released and on into 2014 and even a little in 2015. Parallels of this card go for two figures, generally - more than my budget for most needed cards in the 990 card collecting effort.

So I was happy to pull both the Gold /2013 version of this, and this card

which is the 'Opening Day Purple' variety, only sold in blister packs at the now defunct Toys R Us chain. This card would be worth the time and effort to sell and ship individually, for sure, but I like the Red/Purple combo, and I like the idea of kicking off the All-Parallel set with the Opening Day logo, which I will be using occasionally in the set as it will help keep costs down quite a bit. We will see another Opening Day card after just a few more entries in the checklist.

Thank you for flipping your way through the baseball card seas with me here. If you ever detect an error in my musings in this blog, or can tell from a post that you have or know of a Sea Turtle designed card that I am unaware of, please let me know in the comments or via the contact button thingie just over to your left here. 

This blog will be published only in fits and starts, over the years to come, and it will take many years to complete. I work outdoors and away from home for much of the year, and generally camp on job-sites quite often. This is not a lifestyle very conducive to collecting baseball cards, and I certainly won't be bringing my All-Parallel collection out on the road with me.

But I know I will enjoy writing about my favorite set of baseball cards from the 2010s, and I hope you will enjoy these posts too.

P.S. A small Edit to add - a big thanks to Night Owl, from whom I obviously borrowed this Set Blog format.