#44 - Anthony Rizzo

What’s that Turtle doin’? This is a fittingly perfect pose on a perfect baseball card, though of course it is not actually a pose. Baseball card collectors near and far love a Topps Rookie Cup card. With what I have been seeing on the #27 - Mike Trout card, in terms of prices, I think this card is probably one of the sleeper cards in the set in terms of ultimate future value.

Although as I consider the card closely, I think the lack of a complete follow through probably indicates that Rizzo is just watching a simple fly ball Out, rather than a Home Run. It does take some thought to arrive at that conclusion. One shouldn't really over-think baseball cards like this one.

On my main blog, Base Set Calling, I have a series I call "What IS That?" I am a bit surprised I have never noticed whatever it is that is sticking out of Rizzo's back pocket - What IS That?

Uniform Hero? Most definitely. There will never be much debate on who the All-Time best player to ever wear #44 was - that would be Hank Aaron. Because of that, certain other players have selected it; most notably Reggie Jackson and Willie McCovey.

So far, Anthony Rizzo seems to have selected his uniform # very well.

Where’d the egg hatch? Rizzo was actually drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2007, and only in the 6th round. I write 'only' because that feels a little surprising to me, considering his franchise moves. He earned his trade value through post-draft play and then high prospect rankings.

How about the migrations? Considering how his career has developed in Chicago, his early career moves are fairly well known. The Red Sox traded him to San Diego, with 3 other prospects, in exchange for Adrian Gonzalez.

That one seems about equal, as these things go. After his 2011 MLB debut, where he seemed a touch overmatched, San Diego in turn traded him to Chicago. The Padres received starting Pitcher Andrew Cashner in return; I would say they did not do as well as the Red Sox.

All of these roster decisions involved baseball executive Jed Hoyer, who scouted him with the Red Sox and then ended up working in both San Diego and then Chicago at the points these trades were made.

Rizzo is signed with the Cubs through the 2019 season, however the Cubs have a team option for 2020 and 2021, which they will almost certainly use.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

When Topps notes Complete Major and Minor League Batting Record, they mean it, and it is handy to see all of Rizzo's professional stats here, which dovetails nicely with the simple, direct, efficient, and informative text.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 57 RBI, Rizzo is 2,240 away from Hank Aaron's all-time record of 2,297.

This is a nice touch by the Topps card back writer, picking the Hank Aaron RBI record for a young player wearing #44, rather than that Home Run record which would not reference Hammerin' Hank any more.

After the 2019 season, Rizzo has hit 729 RBI.

Subspecies? This beautiful card would also appear in Opening Day and Chrome. It does have a "Great Catch" variation which we will see shortly.

But a baseball card blog post can't have too many baseball cards in it, so I thought I would show off one of my favorite "pulls" from 2013 Topps Baseball. I have always managed to hit rare Anthony Rizzo cards for some reason, starting with a /60 version of his RC in 2011, which will probably fund some expensive dental work later this year. Thanks, Topps. And that trend has continued on past 2013 as well. Although I don't buy baseball cards looking for a financial return or the ooh-ahh factor of owning someone's autograph, I can't say I am displeased when I pull a card like this:

So, did he catch it? First, an image from Getty:

Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo (44) catches a foul ball for an out that is hit by Houston Astros shortstop Jed Lowrie (4) in the first inning at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday, July 1, 2012. The Cubs beat the Houston Astros 3-0. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/MCT via Getty Images)

Now, the Topps version:

Though the baseball didn't make the framing cut here, the original newspaper caption says "catches."

Bling That Shell This is yet another card that contributed a fair bit to the genesis of this project. I pulled this parallel from a pack, and knew it was a just exactly perfect baseball card combination of red, white, & blue. But how could I "collect" it, in it's all-by-itselfness perfection? It would need some qualified neighbors, I figured.

This is one of my favorite parallels in the project:

...and, we're back. I have missed y'all, and missed my beloved Sea Turtle cards. I recently finished a minor remodeling project that moved the key piece of baseball card blogging equipment: the scanner. That will make blogging a lot, lot easier.

Though I don't know how many turtles I will be able to hatch for this run as I might be back on the road in a few weeks, I am really looking forward to writing a new batch. It did turn out to be a little strange writing up set blog entries for players that are still playing - after all, a player featured just 3 entries before this one ended up closing down Game 7 of the 2019 World Series not long ago. Thankfully, I did OK on predicting his future on that one.

When I came to a stop on these last year, I was also not looking forward to writing about a soon upcoming player - Craig Kimbrel - who hadn't even signed for the 2019 season yet.

But at this point, not very many Sea Turtles are still playing Major League Baseball, so those sorts of concerns will largely fade, going forward. It will still require several years to write about all of the Sea Turtles, but it will be my pleasure to do so. Thanks for reading!

#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.

#16 - Andre Ethier

What’s that Turtle doin’? "I got it!" A basic Outfielder in Action card. A complete player image that is nice to see for a complete player. There are some combinations of parallel lines to consider, but none of the combos really add together in any cohesive way. Even the ones that lead you to the ground, not always a good thing on a baseball card, don't really matter - he's about to catch the ball. Out!

I would hand out only a 9.5, Gem/Mint, for the way the tennis shoes come to rest on the frame; more like the Adam Jones card than the more near to Pristine framing effort on the Ryan Howard card, though his isn't quite a Black Label in that regard.

This Fielding card reveals something on the checklist - Fielding cards are easily keeping up with Hitting cards. Hitters Hitting cards are so same-same sometimes, that I bet you expect there a lot more of them than Fielding cards. I know I do. So I decided to add a "Hitting" label to each appropriate blog post, to keep track of Topps here, over the long haul. Adding a "Pitching" label still seems a little pointless however, but if I am keeping track of all the rest...

Probably my favorite element on the card is the classic red Uniform # the Dodgers wear. Without it, this would be a fair bit more dreary of a card; blue, blue, blue. I am fairly sure I have a Wal-Mart Blue copy of this card in a little pile somewhere for a future "None More Blue" baseball card contest on my other blog.

Blue is a solid baseball color, but it really needs it's eternal American trinity mates red & white to be hanging out with it, too. The odd red dot on Ethier's wrist-band and the red stripe on the outfield wall advertising helps, a little, but those also just remind you of how this card is almost a monochromatic card like a White Sox card. A Blue Sox card? We can't see his socks. Ahh, red #16 to the rescue. 

Fortunately, in 2013, we have all those parallels....

Uniform Hero? A just about perfect example, just about perfectly in the center of the card.

Where’d the egg hatch? Would it surprise you to learn that Ethier was actually drafted by Billy Beane? (2nd Round, 2003). Has anyone ever calculated what % of MLB players have passed through Oakland? It certainly seems like Beane would have some League Leader #s in italics on the back of his card, under Transactions.

How about the migrations? Beane traded Ethier to L.A. in December, 2005, before Ethier had ever appeared in MLB. The return player? Milton Bradley, and one other player who adds little to this narrative, but can be discovered easily enough.

Ethier debuted with a full, excellent Rookie season in 2006. He went on to play his entire career in L.A. with eventually fairly similar, and quite good, #s as Bradley, though without all the drama. Advantage: L.A.

After 2 frustrating seasons of injury-comeback-attempts, Ethier retired after the 2017 season.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

That Rookie season was no fluke as Ethier became a model of excellent consistency. 

Usually in a set of baseball cards the Topps card back writer is too, effortlessly summoning classic (imaginary?) statistical bon mots like this one, casually dropping a "Jerry Mumphrey" from way downtown! 

Oh sure, _you_ remember the game on the 50th anniversary of Dodger Stadium like it was yesterday, but I bet _you_ can't name all the other players who hit Home Runs on their 30th birthday, let alone which ones did it after the 8th inning. But Topps can.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 535 RBI, Ethier is 1,702 away from Hank Aaron's all-time record of 2,297.

1,702 away, huh? I think we have a long way to go with these in this set.

Ethier finished his career with 687 RBI, 1,610 away from Hank Aaron's All-Time record. Wait. So much for trusting Topps math, which was off. 

Ethier was 1,762 RBIs away from breaking Aaron's record when this card was created. So close, Topps, so close.

Subspecies? Like a few more than 200 of the other top 1/3 of MLB players, and a bit before RC logo mania commandeered ever more checklist spots, Ethier appears in 2013 Opening Day and 2013 Chrome with this same card image.

I can't think of owning too many Ethier cards from the first half of his career, when my collecting activity was quite low. But I also thought Topps and Andre Ethier and baseball cards got on pretty well, when I did find one of his cards a bit later in his career. And that warm touchy-feely feeling is reinforced by his presence in the "Great Catch" SP series, which I can share with you below. Pondering that Lawrie "Great Catch" card just 2 cards ago, I realized the blog needs a new section here in Series One, for these cards -

So, did he catch it? I mean, Topps probably wants you to just presume the player caught the ball. What fun would it be if he didn't? We don't need to know this, to show off a cool looking baseball picture card like this one.

But if you buy Topps products for long enough, you can start to become a little suspicious. You know things are not always as they seem in the cheerful world of Topps baseball cards. You would enjoy your "Great Catch" baseball card so much more if you could just hear the announcer definitively giving you some closure with a bumped up volume "And He Makes THE CATCH!!!"

So you want to be sure, and you double check to see if Getty Images was the original hook-up for Topps here. Odds are usually good on such an inquest, with all the live baseball used in the Topps Baseball set now. I'm not perfectly clear on using the images here, so for now I will just tip with you an example of how easy their search window is to use: "Andre Ethier 2012 Catch."

And there it was, a photo obviously taken just after, probably even the next shutter click after, the one on this card. Confirmed by the exact same set of fans in the stands, and is a fun photo worth a quick copy/paste and a few clicks of your own to see it; it looks like Ethier is casually drinking a Coke during this catch. On that photo, you can see the ball, and it is not where Topps probably thinks you should think it is. So instead of the second photo, and to still give a minor, probably never seen shout-out to the sports photog for this one, I will share just the caption of the 2nd photo with you, since you have a digital baseball card of the first photo to go along with it:

HOUSTON,TX- APRIL 22: Andre Ethier #16 of the Los Angeles Dodgers leaps but can't make a catch on a grand slam home run off the bat of Jordan Schafer #1 of the Houston Astros in the second inning on April 22, 2012 at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas.(Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)

Bling That Shell

A package of 2013 Parallels has arrived here at Sea Turtle HQ! An original sealed package of Parallels packaged by Topps Chewing Gum Co. New York, NY, no less! Tune in to blog post #19 in a few days to see what's in the little package of baseball cards from all the way back in the year two thousand, thirteen, as well as actual construction techniques used to create an all-parallel page of 2013 Topps!

#13 - Brett Lawrie

What’s that Turtle doin’? This is an interesting card, which looks good on a page of 9. It is the 4th Fielding card in the set, placing them currently ahead of the Hitters Hitting cards. That surely won't last. I prefer this card to other Lawrie cards, as his tattoos aren't as distracting here.

On this card, for some reason, it seems uncertain if Lawrie will actually throw the ball. Normally that would be part of what a Third Baseman does, imminently after fielding a ball. But something about the 'air' of the card leaves the viewer thinking Lawrie is staring down a runner on another base - "if you take one more step, I'm gonna throw this thing!"

I'm not sure why that is, that is just my reaction to the card. Has been since I first saw it. It is also the first card so far where the crowd can be seen, somewhat. They are all sitting, looking at Lawrie. I think they have the same question I do. 

Uniform Hero? Yes, though we don't have much of a Star power convergence here, as it turns out. In 2012, Lawrie had to wear #17 when Omar Vizquel came to Toronto for his final 60 Game swan-song. But he went back to #13 in 2013, probably indicating a personal choice, and it seems the correct choice for his basically star-crossed career.

Where’d the egg hatch? Lawrie was actually drafted by the Brewers in the 1st round (16th pick overall) in 2008. Toronto thought highly enough of him to send their #2 Starter at the time, Sean Marcum, to Milwaukee in a straight-up single player trade after the 2010 season. Lawrie's debut and official Rookie season then came in 2011.

How about the migrations? Brett hails from a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, so his early career in Toronto was looking to be a win-win for everyone as a Canadian player on the Blue Jays squad is always going to be popular.

After putting up largely ordinary numbers from 11-14 along with plenty of injury down-time, he was included in the package of players sent to Oakland for Josh Donaldson, after Donaldson was overheard bad-mouthing Billy Beane in the clubhouse. Beane promptly traded him, and Donaldson promptly won the 2015 AL MVP. This all seemed dramatic at the time but was probably largely a wash for both clubs, and was probably better for Oakland to have an extra handful of lottery tickets while mired in multiple 4th place finishes, which would have largely wasted the talents of Donaldson. Once the tickets were all scratched off, none of them are/were really key pieces of the, as I write in early 2019, newly contending again Oakland Athletics.

Lawrie was subsequently traded to the White Sox for one more try to beat what the analytics were saying, and the injury bug, in 2016, but has not returned to the Majors since.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

Sometimes, I am a little intrigued by Minor League stats. But without the context of which minor League is considered "hitter-friendly" or not, and without knowing when a player was playing at a younger age than the rest of that minor League, etc., I usually can't pull much out of reading them. "Prospectors" probably can, but they aren't interested in 2nd year MLB cards.

I mention all this because I don't see anything in his '09 & '10 MiLB stats that screams out - "trade away our #2 starter, we gotta have this guy!" But then I am not a Major League scout or General Manager, I just play one in my mind, with 20/20 hindsight too, while reading baseball cards.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 73 RBI, Lawrie is 2,154 away from Hank Aaron's all-time record of 2,227.

Lawrie produced exciting power #s in his 43 game Rookie campaign, before the AL pitching staffs could "write the book" about him, so RBI production seems an appropriate choice.

Brett eventually knocked in 253 'ribbies'.

Subspecies? Topps was certainly excited about Lawrie's potential, making him one of the "It" Rookies in 2012, placing him on plenty of checklists including the special 5 card pack issued in Factory Sets, along with Bryce Harper and Yu Darvish. The '12 card was his official RC logo card, the affixing of which is not an exact science, considering his official Rookie status ended in 2011.

Nevertheless, the checklist love continued on many products in 2013, when he also made the Opening Day checklist, but not the Chrome checklist, a somewhat unusual combination but the opposite of the previous card on this checklist, A.J. Pierzynski.

All of that flurry of Topps activity probably led to a Sea Turtle to show you; I am now happy to share with you the first card I have from the "Great Catch" series of photo variations / short prints:

With these cards, even more than most action image cards, the viewer is left with an immediate question: So, did he catch the ball?

Given the web resources at our fingertips today, particularly that ever handy website of Getty images, reveals that this photo was taken on April 29, 2012 when the Seattle Mariners were in Toronto. The only pop-fly in foul territory to Third Base was hit by Seattle Shortstop Munenori Kawasaki, a player who managed 633 At Bats in the Major Leagues but never appeared in the Topps Baseball set, so I had never heard of him until .... just now.

In that game, Toronto was up 7-2 in the top of then 9th with one out already when Kawasaki came to the plate. Lawrie didn't hesitate to keep playing the game the right way, as they say, and made the catch.

Bling That Shell Here we have another temporary (I hope) blank spot in the proceedings, though I am cheered that I do have 2 cards shown in this post already. I am basically looking for a /50 Pink version of this card, or one other on this page. I will do a quick run-down of the possibilities after card #19.