#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:

#50 - Adam Wainwright

What’s that Turtle doin’? Just about to deliver another Strike! on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon in St. Louis.

How do I know this photo was created on a Sunday? Wainwright is wearing the Cardinals' special 'one bird' cap only worn at home on Sunday, rather than the cap featuring the famous interlocking StL logo.

This is actually the 2nd card Wainwright has appeared on in the set as he is also a key part of the #4 - Yadier Molina card. 

Otherwise, this is a standard issue live action shot of a great MLB Pitcher playing the game. I like how the sun is still high overhead, making all the shadows on the card draw the eye up, as does the line of Wainwrights arm and even the bat on the uniform contributes to this. For a live action baseball photo, this is a very good one.

I like a few other tiny details on the card such as the probable appearance of the MLB Logoman on the baseball, and the way Wainwright's index finger probably hasn't finished placing his desired grip on the ball - or has it?

Uniform Hero? Once again, yes. And #50 is also a traditional "hero" # in Topps Baseball sets. As we will see for quite a while now, Pitchers like uni #s in the 50s.

Where’d the egg hatch? Wainwright was drafted by the Braves in the first round in the year 2000 as the 29th player selected.

How about the migrations? The Braves would then then trade him to St. Louis after the 2003 season with 2 other players in exchange for 2 players. The key piece going to Atlanta was J.D. Drew, who would accumulate a similar career WAR (44.9) to Wainwright's current tally (40.2); however Drew moved on to other teams whereas Wainwright has been a mainstay in St. Louis ever since. I would say St. Louis 'won' the trade in the aggregate.

The 2020 season is starting to to see bits of motion as I write this one & Wainwright is signed to another one year deal with the Cardinals. This 2013 card probably captures him at the peak of his career, stats wise; 2015 and 2018 would be only partial campaigns for him due to injury. But 2019 was a solid, complete season (31 starts) for him and a reliable veteran starter like Wainwright is a valuable part of an MLB rotation.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

This card back text now nicely mirrors Adam's current situation as this post is composed, after the 2019 complete season earned him another go in 2020.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 80 wins, Wainwright is 431 away from Cy Young's all-time record of 511.

As is semi-routine with the bulk of these comparisons, even a Pitcher as great as Adam Wainwright has little chance to match this one. After the 2019 season, Wainwright has 162 Wins.

Subspecies? Wainwright has always been a popular player and as much of a 'Face of the Franchise' as several of his teammates; after another strong playoff run in 2012 there would be little doubt about finding this same card in Opening Day and Chrome, but there are no other variants.

Bling That Shell I did go through some evolution on building this page; the more I thought about that Sunday cap the more I wanted to match it up with the just exactly perfect parallel to match. And after setting an eBay email alert for a couple years, one finally appeared:

#33 - Cliff Lee

What’s that Turtle doin’? Ever since I first pulled this card, I have thought it has some of the most "motion" of any card in the set.

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.