#78 - Dylan Bundy

What’s that Turtle doin’? Tryin' to hide the red rosy cheeks of a fresh-faced Rookie, perhaps?

But of course Rookies are always (err, well, almost always) clearly identified in a Topps Baseball set these days. And here after lo these many Hero cards: our first Rookie Card© in this Topps Baseball set. I seriously doubt any other set of the 2010s makes collectors wait this long on the checklist before the Rookie Card fiesta gets started.

This particular float in the Pitcher Parade created by the official photo style of these sets - live baseball action sourced photos - is little different than the last Orioles Pitcher card in terms of pose and zoom level.

Here, the flowing Orioles script of the uniform nicely leads the collector viewer nicely off into the future of this probable four-seam fastball Dylan is about to throw here. Thoughts of the future are very apropos for a Rookie Card.

The basic sheen at several points on Bundy's skin, and the dark portions of the background, suggest this is probably a night card. Though when a player image is cropped/zoomed this tightly, that matters little.

All in all, a nicely captured live portrait of a brand new Major Leaguer, and not a bad card at all to hang a career on. Which is very important in the world of baseball cards, as for so many, only Rookie Cards are actually baseball cards. 2nd year cards and beyond could be effectively invisible for many who participate in The Hobby.

Uniform Hero? 49 is not even divisible by 78, so, no.

Where’d the egg hatch? Bundy was drafted in the first round in 2011 by the Orioles; and notably as the 4th player selected. Also notable was that he had just finished High School and received heavy baseball media coverage as the top 18 year old draft prospect in the country.

Adding to the excitement was the 4th player selected in the 2012 draft, also by the Orioles, another young Pitcher named Kevin Gausman, who's Rookie Card we will see on the Update Checklist. Baltimore had high hopes for bringing out a brand new young rotation (to also include Bud Norris and Chris Tillman) all right about the same time.

How about the migrations? Though some Rookie Cards can feature a player drafted by another team before putting on the official RC uniform, Bundy did come up through the Orioles system, and came up fast...

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

A bit of a disjointed effort there in the 3rd sentence - what leather? - but if you read the whole thing twice, it does come together.

I like how it didn't take long to find another Switch-Hitting Pitcher after the #74 - Kenley Jansen card. 

This is the official format for a Rookie Card now - a single stat line from the previous season, and featuring only the MiLB stats, even when MLB stats also exist. This has never made any sense to me, at all.

Nevertheless Topps was so impressed by the 30 scoreless innings in A ball they created an insert card to memorialize it. Or, more accurately, they used that baseball feat to shoehorn a Bundy card into the "Chasing History" inserts which were part of the official theme of the Sea Turtle set: "The Chase."

Hmmm, haven't we seen this picture somewhere before?

Of course the real point of that card was to serve as a bed for an autograph sticker; it was more than a little incongruous to find an insert for a 2 Innings Pitched Rookie amidst an insert set chock-a-block with legendary Hall of Famers. But that's the way she goes in the Topps Baseball set.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 0 strikeouts, Bundy is 5,714 away from Nolan Ryan's all-time record of 5,714.

Well that didn't take long, i.e. for Topps to write one of these comparisons for a Rookie that created the greatest possible spread of any of the possible "counting" stats.

The irony of this one is something only hinted at on the card back text, and also something unknown as the card was being composed somewhere in Brooklyn. Bundy did debut in MLB in September, 2012, however he never appeared in a game during the year this card was for sale as he had Tommy John surgery in June, 2013. Perhaps his dominant High School success was built on throwing too many high quality breaking balls at very young hitters, which can certainly work for very young pitchers, but at that certain cost for so many of them.

Bundy would not return to MLB action until 2016 (and get his first K) after experiencing and rehabbing other injuries after the Tommy John surgery recovery process. And then it is worth remembering he had to pitch at home in Camden Yards, something not terribly unlike trying to be a young pitcher at Coors Field in Colorado.

When the 2020 season hopefully gets under way, Dylan Bundy should break camp, however that will work this year, with a new team - the California Angels, who traded away four very young pitching prospects to get him from Balitmore. Early Spring Training results have been quite promising and perhaps we are about to see Dylan Bundy 2.0 this year, eventually.

After the 2019 season, Dylan Bundy had thrown 602 Strikeouts. 

Subspecies? With all the basic great prospect hope hype surrounding Bundy, this card was a natural fit to be included in the Chrome checklist. But that hype power was also strong enough to land this card on the Opening Day checklist as well, where Rookie Cards are generally scarce, or, well, were at one time; the 2013 Opening Day set had only 8 RCs in it, a # which has since tripled despite the checklist shrinking by 20 cards. 

There is also a photo variation for this card #, of the "Fan Interaction" type which is probably an SSP, as opposed to an SP; that card did not appear until insertion in packs in Series 2. A copy of that one has not reached Sea Turtle HQ yet however, so you will have to check back here in a year or so to see that one.

There is also a Sea Turtle-esque card of Dylan Bundy that I hope to share with you eventually; one I only very recently discovered.

Bling That Shell I thought I saw a Purple Oriole? I did, I did:

#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.

#69 - NLCS

What’s that Turtle doin’? Celebration time, c'mon! Who doesn't want a champagne downpour on a baseball card?

I have always wondered about this card - were the Giants celebrating their League Championship out on the field, in a fresh rain, or could this card be from the locker room, afterwards? 

As it turns out, when the Final Out was caught (fittingly, by the player on this baseball card), the infield in San Francisco was already looking like open water puddles. Ahh, life in the 21st Century, where anything that ever happened can be watched again and again.

And thus, this is actually perhaps the most rain ever seen on a baseball card.

Other playoff/WS cards have probably done a better job of showing off a trophy handed to a player, but I don't expect very many such cards include the word "Champion" right in the image.

The only mystery left to this card is — just who are the two guys with grey hair?

Uniform Hero? While I think it would a pretty neat feat of baseball card trivia to somehow link a Playoffs card to some certain checklist #, the number 68 and this player and this event have exactly zero connection points. Which is of course par for the course on most baseball card checklists.

Where’d the egg hatch? The Giants had won the World Series just two seasons prior, making this the middle point of a mini-dynasty in the National League, as it all worked out.

How about the migrations? To reach this NLCS comeback from a 3-1 deficit to St. Louis, the Giants had first spotted the Cincinnati Reds a 2 game deficit before roaring back to win the NLDS, the hard way.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

14 Hits in a League Championship Series certainly explains the front of this card, perfectly. 

On this card, for once the usually rather plain line score by innings here nicely echoes the text, or vice versa perhaps.

Bling That Shell I don't plan to use the orange-on-red combo often as a go-to choice, particularly with how much more difficult it is to get good combos for the blue teams. But I want to get every (or, almost every) color combination into the project at least once; things are breaking right on this page for the Target Red parallel to meet an orange Sea Turtle:

#67 - World Series Game 4

What’s that Turtle doin’? Oh just gettin' all iconic here some 15 seconds or so after the very last second of live baseball action in the 2012 MLB season.

This is pretty much THE image that I now connect to on any stray thought of the 2012 World Series, and as a Tigers fan, I have more stray thoughts on it than most. But to have this image in my mind about that Series pretty much indicates how much time I have spent with this set over the years.

And some of that might actually flow from my experiences with the 2016 World Series, which has some definitely more well-known images of Bryant-to-Rizzo-to-History from the fielding of the final out there. Which is something I never saw on TV and in fact actually heard called by the great Cleveland radio broadcaster Tom Allen. But afterwards, Topps came to my rescue on that with several cards depicting the play, and in their low end sets, too.

So it goes here. I think most collectors would prefer some World Series cards in their Topps Baseball set, even if it is a card depicting basically the lowest point for their favorite franchise in an entire decade.

One thing that is striking about being a Tigers fan is the high levels of bitter vitriol one will encounter in the fan base. In the 2010s, Detroit went on a roll winning 5 straight AL Central titles. But not only did they not "win it all" in the end of any of those 5 years, their one World Series trip resulted in a sweep. And to twist the knife just a touch more, it is worth recalling that the photograph used on this card was shot on the Tigers Home field. It is quite easy to miss that Romo and Posey are wearing their road greys here, amidst all the other baseball goodness. I have long thought that if Detroit could have at least played a 6 or 7 game Series in 2012, Tigers fans wouldn't be quite so cynical and bitter about things, ever afterwards, really. It also doesn't help that by being swept, the Tigers didn't get even one World Series card of their own.

Another angle to the sadness of it all, for a Tigers fan, can be seen in one of the Associated Press photos from the game, which also captures just about this exact same moment:

FILE - In this Oct. 28, 2012 file photo, Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera walks away after striking out to end Game 4 of baseball's World Series against the San Francisco Giants in Detroit. Cabrera will be remembered for two things during the baseball season of 2012: Becoming baseball's first Triple Crown winner in 45 years, and striking out on an 89 mph, belt-high fastball to end the Giants' 4-3, title-clinching win. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

Yes in a phrase 20th Century Tigers fans can connect to this all too very well, Miggy stood there like the house by the side of the road to officially end the 2012 World Series. It was almost a bit of a blessing that Ernie didn't have to see this one.

Despite all that, I do like this baseball card quite a bit. Even half-sleepy baseball fans who can't even pick a favorite to win a given World Series will stir to action in the bottom of the 9th (or later) inning when the Series is on the line and the big celebration is about to erupt. So this is an excellent moment to immortalize on cardboard. Topps had no shortage of photos to pick for this particular card, from multiple photogs and angles, but this was a good choice.

Minor things I like on this card include seeing all the orange accents on Posey's catcher gear, and the way the World Series logo gets repeated on the card and on Romo's right shoulder. I work with trees for a living, and routinely work in Oak trees, so to get a few Oak leaves mixed in with my love of baseball is always nice, for me.

Uniform Hero? I wish I could tell you that Topps slyly gave some baseball card love to that one bench player who had that key hit in the middle of Game 2 of the Series, but neither S.F. nor Detroit had a player wearing #67 in 2012.

One thing I completely do not understand about this card is why it appears as the first World Series card on the checklist. What does this mean? Will there be other World Series cards? I wish I had a shelf full of perfectly organized Topps Baseball sets to consult on this question - how have other Topps Baseball sets handled this, of which World Series card goes where on the checklist. All I can note here is - I will be looking into that particular bit of baseball card trivia when I read about other World Series in other sets of Topps Baseball.

Where’d the egg hatch? The San Francisco Giants were organized in 1883 as the New York Gothams, only becoming the Giants in 1886.

How about the migrations? One can only imagine what it must have been like to be a huge baseball fan in New York in the 1950s, when not one but two NYC teams moved to California; the Giants became the San Francisco Giants in 1958.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

I noted on the first post-season card back in this set how there often seems to be only a 50-50 chance that the hero of the card back is the hero on the front of the card. So it is nice that Sergio Romo makes the cut here; Closing games in the World Series is a definite feat of skill. But there will be many more Giants-in-the-Postseason cards to come in the set, so I think the other Giants mentioned will be OK.

But overall, given how it must often be a four letter word spelled w-o-r-k to create baseball card backs, I often wonder why the post-season cards can feel so phoned in, quite often. A line score reveals so very little about a baseball game, compared to a box score, or even just two paragraphs of easy to compose text, rather than this short one. 

Bling That Shell Of all the parallels of the 2013 Topps Baseball set, I think there is only one that is just exactly perfect enough for each card, such that complete binder pages of just that parallel would actually look nice. And that is the classic Topps Gold. So for such a key card in the set, it feels like the right choice:

#62 - Tommy Hunter

What’s that Turtle doin’? I'm not sure but I think Tommy Hunter has a running convo going with the first baseman while he is pitching here. I can't quite make out what he is saying; something along the lines of "... and watch this" or possibly "betchya Texas misses us."

To be able to get this familiar with a Major League Baseball player busy playing baseball, we have to zoom in. On a single card basis, I like this, and I definitely like these live action images way better than a torso profile of a player posing at Spring Training Photo Day.

Though this card has strong lines from the script team name and then the glove leading your eye back, back, all the way back to the elbow and eventually the baseball there behind Tommy's head, that half-hidden ball kind of deadens the action at the end.

This is the 3rd solid-color 'Alternate' uniform image on this binder page and the 2nd sequential. The sum total of the card is a memorable one, though probably mostly for a collector inclined to enjoy the O's-ness of the whole thing. 

Uniform Hero? There is the numeral "2" clearly leading the uniform # (29, as it turns out), so that's a 'nope' on the card #. However as with the previous checklist spot, there were card # matching options available.

Where’d the egg hatch? Tommy Hunter had a 2-step draft history, first being selected out of high school by Tampa Bay in 2005 (18th round) but electing to try junior college rather than sign with the Rays. The Texas Rangers then selected him in the first round in 2007, though I must confess a bit of draft ignorance here on my part as I fail to understand how the 54th selection is still in the first 'round'. 

How about the migrations? Like most college draftees, Hunter soon got to visit The Show the very next year, but wouldn't really join the Rangers until the 2009 season and quickly become a quality starter.

But in 2011, the Rangers were eyeing the post-season and wanted more bullpen help; Hunter was shipped off to Baltimore along with an intriguing proto-slugger named Chris Davis. The return piece for Texas was ace reliever Koji Uehara, a very valuable piece everywhere he played. Meanwhile, Baltimore sure got a lot of Home Runs out of that deal.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

Chris Davis had just hit 33 Home Runs in his first season as on Oriole, so I'm a touch surprised his name wasn't mentioned here as well, seeing as how the writer had to reach back to Hunter's work in Texas for this one.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 33 wins Hunter is 476 away from Cy Young's record of 511.

As things turned out, this was just not a comparison to really ponder for Hunter's career. In the most recent year of Major League baseball action these stats cover, Hunter had been moved to the bullpen. The 33 games he appeared in only included 20 starts.

From 2013 forward, Hunter has been purely a reliever. Further stops on his tour of bullpens has included Chicago, Cleveland, a brief return to Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and recently one quite successful year (18) in Philadelphia and one clouded by injury (19).

For 2020 he has signed with Philly once again and seems ready to pitch.

At the close of the 2019 season, Tommy Hunter had 56 Major League Wins.

Subspecies? A struggling starter transitioning to the bullpen is not a spot that generates baseball card excitement even when the transition goes as smoothly as Hunter's did; this is the only card with this design.

Bling That Shell This card would most definitely look excellent on the black parallel, and I could see re-working this page perhaps if a cheap copy were to fall on me somehow. For now I am content with the easy-to-come-by Wal•Mart blue parallel, which was not used on the previous page and now hasn't been seen in the project for a dozen.5 cards. Alternate uniforms pair nicely with every parallel, really.

#60 - Jon Rauch

What’s that Turtle doin’? Dramatically planting it's actually quite large frame right into our frame of reference - this baseball card. 

As with the previous card, but even more impressively, a player missing a foot or lower arm in a picture sometimes seems to have suddenly leapt into the camera's lens. Despite the impressive entry, the missing foot also seems, to me, to stop the motion entirely at "Click."

A somewhat strange result of the image selected here is that the viewer of this baseball card has absolutely no way to guess a singular, trivia contest winning fact about Jon Rauch: he is the tallest player in Major League Baseball history at 6' 11".

After a while looking at cards for Pitchers from the New York Mets, one begins to theorize that CITI Field must have some sort of just slightly elevated area along the first base side, possibly in the lowest level of the various boxes above the lower level seats, for media photographers. The mound at CITI Field is a regular feature on Mets baseball cards.

Though I generally like bright sunny day baseball cards the most, I don't care for this card at all. I always want to see a baseball player's face on my baseball card, which was just about a golden rule of the genre for decades. I think 1991 Topps was the first set I can recall with a few cards that traded in showing the subject's face in exchange for a dramatic live action baseball photo; I do think that is worthwhile, sometimes. But for a player like Jon Rauch, who played for more teams (8) and in more seasons (11) than he had cards in a Topps Baseball set (7), I don't think this is a good approach to photo selection, particularly as this is Rauch's first card with the Mets after being skipped completely in 2012 Topps Baseball.

As I have owned and enjoyed this set of 2013 Topps Baseball cards all through the life-span of the TV series for "Game of Thrones," I sometimes look at this card and expect it to say "Valar morghulis."

Uniform Hero? Another clear card # just about perfectly centered - on the front of the baseball card. It is tempting to chalk up the appearance of a journeyman reliever here on a Series 1 card to the need to match those #s, but I think, as we will see shortly, that would be a touch overly cynical. Also, Topps was not without other options on this uni-card # choice.

Where’d the egg hatch? Rauch is one of the oldest Sea Turtles, as he was drafted in the last draft of the 20th Century (1999), in the 3rd round by the White Sox.

How about the migrations? Before Rauch would debut with the White Sox in 2002, he was a key part of a Championship baseball club: the gold medal winning Team USA at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

His time with the White Sox was brief (10 games) before they would trade him and another rookie reliever, Gary Majewski, to the Expos in 2004 (the White Sox received 1.5 years of still league average service from Carl Everett near the end of his career). Very few players on the Sea Turtle checklist have any remaining connection to Montreal.

Eventually as with most largely 'middle' relievers, Rauch's career became quite migratory, moving on from Washington to Arizona, Minnesota, and Toronto, usually as a Free Agent each time, before signing a one year deal to pitch for the Mets in 2012.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

I regularly presume that some of the favorite players at composition time for a new Topps Baseball set - are the ones with a long enough career to just simply fill up the back of the baseball card with their journeys.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 541 games pitched, Rauch is 711 away from Jesse Orosco's all-time record of 1,252.

Jesse Orosco broke in with the New York Mets and represented them on 2 All-Star teams early in his career. Topps Baseball cards are created right in the New York Mets' home-town, and Topps never forgets a good New York Met. 

541 games pitched represents a very successful out-of-the-bullpen career; it is a good thing the text for a Lead League in Italics always appears on the top right of the stats on a card, otherwise it would be easy to miss the one for Rauch, in 2007, for "G" - games pitched.

Another key stat to read on this card is near the bottom right. A 0.99 WHIP across 73 "G" is an excellent result for a reliever, and that is what probably explains the presence of a journeyman reliever card in Series One - a nice touch by Topps rewarding a job well done.

However, Rauch's one year deal with New York ended as this card was being created. He would sign for the 2013 season with the Marlins but would only pitch for them for about 6 weeks and would be unable to reach the Majors again despite 2 final attempts with the Orioles and Royals.

This, then, becomes the final baseball card for Jon Rauch, a first in this set; 2 other players, #23 - Jemile Weeks, and #40 - Chien-Ming Wang, technically appeared as a Sea Turtle on their final Topps Baseball card, but each had a minor league card issued later.

Rauch finished his career with 556 Games pitched.

Subspecies? No, middle relievers are lucky enough to appear in a Topps Baseball set at all, usually.

Bling That Shell There is one parallel from 2013 that I would really like to see Topps use again, and that is the "Blue Sparkle" edition with a print run of /150 (not stamped), that were issued via a wrapper redemption program for Series 1 and as a hobby shop giveaway for Series 2. I generally like sunlit cards with some infield grass on them the best on those, so went with that vibe for this spot with the Parallel Turtles: