#75 - Barry Zito

What’s that Turtle doin’? I'd say we are lookin' at a curveball there, cap'n. I mean, once 2/3 of the card kind of leads you over to see it, hiding from the batter there at the end of Barry's glove.

Fortunately, we are over behind the First Base Coach probably, to zoom in on this live baseball action like this. The other 1/3 of the card leads you back to home plate, where the baseball is going to end up here shortly. This is such a nice sunny day on the foggy Bay that Zito's face is still nicely lit up even fully in the shadow of his cap. Perhaps that works so well on this card that it kind of leads Topps to think that can work on other cards when there isn't enough sunlight to pull that off as well as it is done here.

One odd starring element in the image is the pin-striping on the uniform, which eventually somewhat roller-coasts the viewer right down to the high sock (team color, too), and straight off this here Sea Turtle baseball card.      

Uniform Hero? An affirmative there, cap'n. Zito wore #75 for every year of his career except his rookie season. 

This is actually a 'sunset' card so it is not too surprising to find it correlated with the uni # here on this checklist spot. It is not, however, a true final card as Topps would issue 2 more inserts featuring Zito in 2014, one of which simply uses the #75 on his uniform back rather than his face in the photo.

Where’d the egg hatch? Zito was actually drafted 3 times, by the Mariners in the 59th round (only 40 rounds in the 2010s) in 1996, then again in 1998 by the Rangers in the 3rd round after 2 years of junior college in 1998.

Ultimately Zito signed with the Oakland A's after they made him the 9th pick in 1999.

How about the migrations? Zito's career arc from there surely illustrates that the Athletics were on the upswing, as they never traded him while holding his first contract. However the realities of baseball in Oakland are illustrated by their not re-signing him after that contract ended in 2006, upon which he signed just across The Bay - the San Francisco Bay.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

And that's how you baseball card, folks. I like how the only 2 League Leader in Italics nicely yin-yang themselves illustrating life as a Major League Starting Pitcher. If Games Started separate from Games (as in Appeared In) could somehow fit on a card back, Zito would have four more bits of red ink here.

Though this is Barry Zito's final regular checklist spot in a Topps Baseball set, this card is not the more robust, but more rarely issued, type of Sunset Card which includes all final MLB stats.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 160 wins, Zito is 351 away from Cy Young's all-time record of 511.

On one of the inserts Topps issued for Zito in 2014, one of his career milestone marks listed by specific date is one for his 150th Win, which kind of illustrates how other-planet the Cy Young record really is.

Zito would pitch his final full regular season in the year of the Sea Turtle cards; a final attempt at a comeback back on the other side of The Bay in Oakland, in 2015, did not result in any baseball cards. It did however result in a tribute type start late in the season, his final in the Majors, vs. old team-mate Tim Hudson, which these days would probably have resulted in a Topps Now card, or 10, with relic and signature versions, etc., etc.

Barry Zito finished his career with 165 Wins.

Subspecies? Given his popularity in a general sense, it is not surprising to find this card on the Opening Day checklist, but meanwhile over at Topps Chrome, there isn't as much room for sentimental old favorite Veterans when brand new (will play 5 MLB games) Rookies have to be introduced to us all, so this card does not appear there. There are no photo variant versions.

Bling That Shell There must be something in my mind that connects the Giants and the Emerald parallel, something jolly and green, or maybe something connects Giants starting pitchers in the early 10s and the color green, like the way Zito was card #420, once upon a time, cuz here is the 3rd Emerald Giant in this project:

#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.

#55 - Tim Lincecum

What’s that Turtle doin’? "The Freak" is showing off some of his unique delivery motion, a delivery that was at times called 'iconic,' even. Meanwhile we are back in the other on-deck circle as Topps keeps switching the lefty-righty starters every card so we can't get too comfortable facing these hurlers.

As Lincecum's delivery was always more 'rotational' than some, this image does set up some contrasting lines with his raised left arm, but that is unavoidable for a photo shot so early in the delivery.

One very interesting photo element is again the pitch selected, which looks to be a 'circle change' off-speed pitch. This in turn makes one wonder how well the batter may have been able to see that, however that is probably just a trick of the photo selection as the ball would only drop into view like that for a brief portion of a second.

Overall, the most memorable take-away from this card is perhaps Lincecum's eyes and one of the more worried expressions I can recall on a Pitcher Pitching card like this one. Which, as we will see shortly, fits very well with the state of his career at the time this photo was shot and then this baseball card composed.

The card also shares a photo element with the CC Sabathia card in that Tim is wearing some sort of bracelet on his left wrist. Post-scan zoom reveals this one to feature Kanji characters (I think); his different bracelets in different seasons can still dredge up some Google results if you are curious.

There is a final element I quite like on this card, which is supplied by the Giants' "Home Alternate" uniform in and of itself, as a solid color alternate uniform makes for a better baseball card than one featuring home whites or road greys. This is only the 3rd card in 55 now to feature such a uniform, which somewhat surprised as I just counted them as I think Topps has been increasing their use of photos of these uniforms. And that colorful orange uni gives it a nice colorful harmony with the blurred advertising on the outfield wall - a well chosen ad strategy, it appears.

Uniform Hero? It can't be fully seen on-card but Lincecum did wear #55 throughout his career and he was still one of the brighter stars in the game when this card was composed.

Where’d the egg hatch? Lincecum showed so much promise as a teenaged Pitcher that he was actually drafted 3 times, something I figure has to be fairly rare. First the Cubs tried to sign him straight out of high school in 2003 (48th round), then the Indians tried again after two years of pitching in college in 2005 (42nd round), and then finally the Giants stepped up and made him their first round pick, 10th overall, in 2006.

How about the migrations? He would then debut with a nearly full (24 starts) Rookie season in 2007, before really 'nailing it' in 2008, making his first All-Star team, his first of 2 consecutive Cy Young awards, and earning the first red ink stat totals on the back of his baseball card -

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

By the late fall of 2012 when this card was being composed, Lincecum's unique mechanics were so well-known that they became a simple, and perfect, topic for the Topps scribe here.

Amongst all the red ink stats however are a trio of very telling ones from the 2012 season that perhaps inform that worried expression we see on the front of the card.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 1,317 strikeouts Lincecum is 4,397 away from Nolan Ryan's all-time record of 5,714.

After 3 league lead in italics for Ks in his first 4 seasons one would think that would be the perfect launching point for an attempt at Ryan's record. But despite starting a career with those 1,317 strikeouts in 6 years, here Lincecum is still more Ks away from Ryan than all but 2 MLB Pitchers have ever even thrown.

Lincecum would never return to his dominant early career results and would only pitch for the Giants through the 2015 season. A probably never-ending hope of finding the right mechanical adjustments, after this card was made, included a final attempt with a new coaching staff in southern California via 9 starts for the Angels in 2016, but then Tim Lincecum had to retire.

He finished his MLB career with 1,736 Strike-outs.

Subspecies? Only one year removed from elite MLB production, Lincecum probably appeared on every Topps checklist in 2013 and this same card can be seen in Opening Day and Chrome. There is also one photo variant for this card # which was released in Series 2 as part of the "sunglasses" set of Short Prints. It is a good looking card that I look forward to owning some day, and sharing with you here.

Bling That Shell As black is basically the secondary 'team color' for the Giants and one that is most easily noticed on the Home Alternate uniform shown here, a black parallel of this one would be a very nice card. However matching the black parallel to Adam Wainwright's special hat on card #50 has already used that color for this page. So I went with the emerald parallel seen below, which amuses me via tying into a lesser known, off-season incident in Lincecum's heyday that you can Google up if you wish. In this scan there does appear to be a print line running across the name plate/bar area of the card, but that is completely invisible in-hand. It has been a good 20 cards or so since we have seen one of these:

Normally right here it would be time to scan up a colorful page of 9 parallel Sea Turtles however page construction is on-going for this one. So this page will ultimately have 2 more photo upload updates as this blog moves along at a turtle's pace over the years to come.