#71 - Kyle Kendrick

What’s that Turtle doin’? I don't know, I'm kinda hypnotized by all that blurry scoreboard action back there. I often enjoy a nice blurred out background on a card.

This card is a good example of the down-side of my frequent blog comments on wanting to see a few more complete baseball players — & this card still does not feature 100% of Kyle Kendrick. After looking through a lot of cards featuring players often from the belt-up, only, one kind of gets used to being as acquainted with the player's face as on a posed/portrait card. 

Then sometimes when Topps decides to zoom out for a change, I end up squinting at the card to get a clear view of the player's face. Here, I also end up flipping the card over quite quickly when it is in my hand, because the near-complete view of KK but with a face so distant quickly leads to an obvious conclusion: Kyle Kendrick must be pretty tall. So the quick flip to the back informs us that he is indeed 6'3", tall but not extraordinarily so.

All this loss of perspective on just what Kendrick looks like may have even confused Topps during production of this card, as we will see later in this post.

A different loss on this view-from-farther-away card is as much of a sense of motion as can be quickly picked up on cards more zoomed to the player. Here, the billowing uniform is the only small clue to the fact that this is a picture of live motion.

Aside from the various pretty lights in the distance, this card has one more eye-catching detail: the patch on Kendrick's left breast. This is the 4th Phillies card in the checklist but only 2nd to show a uniform front, and on the first card #6 - Ryan Howard, this uniform patch addition is not present. What gives?

Turns out, Topps had to go back in time for this picture of Kendrick, for some reason, as that letter "B" memorial patch was worn in the 2011 season "in honor of minority owners Alexander and John Buck, who died in late 2010," as Wikipedia kindly explains. All of which might also tie into how things went during production.

Uniform Hero? Nope. I'm sure Topps still hopes some free spirit can be found that makes us all rise to notice such a high uni #, but we shall see. In 2012, Uniform #71 managed all of 3 At Bats in MLB action.

Where’d the egg hatch? Kyle was drafted by the Phillies in the 7th round in 2003.

How about the migrations? Kendrick then debuted at what is probably a league average for a player drafted out of high school - four seasons later, in 2007. He then settled in as an example of how the draft system is supposed to work - a team drafts a player, they come up from the minors, and become a regular player for the team, as Kendrick had done for 6 seasons before this card was created.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

And yes, Topps notices the regular every day players too, and often explains why you should notice them, too.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 54 wins, Kendrick is 457 away from Cy Young's all-time record of 511.

As the card back just explained Kendrick's value as a starter (though he had some stints of bullpen experience, too), this is the natural stat to pick for a Pitcher seeming to profile, in the stats, as a bit of a 'pitch-to-contact' type Pitcher.

Kendrick finished out his contract in Philly and then signed with Colorado for the 2015 season; always a forbidding place to pitch but one that proved especially forbidding for a Pitcher in his Age 30 season. A final pair of starts in Boston in 2017 were the final footnote.

Kyle Kendrick finished his MLB career with 81 Wins.

Subspecies? #3-4 starters routinely make the Topps Baseball checklist, but they routinely do not make the more star-driven Opening Day and Chrome checklists.

Nevertheless, there is sort of a known variant to this card, though not all collectors would consider including it to 'complete' this set, not even for a 'master set.'

But here it 'tis, you be the judge:

This is just a production error card; it was only ever found in early deliveries of Factory Sets in the early summer of 2013. I was quite happy to see one appear on COMC recently, though my quick purchase of it hasn't arrived at the home of the Sea Turtles as of yet.

But outside of generally quite rare minor printing snafus affecting one card at a time, this is the only known 'error card' in the set, at least as far as I am aware.

My hunch is that someone noticed how distant Kendrick looked on the card, and attempted to 'zoom in' while the image was already part of a sheet about to be clicked along to the next step in the production process. 

Overall, a pretty rare thing in the world of 21st century baseball cards. Now, I just have to figure out where to keep my copy, when it eventually arrives.

Bling That Shell This was another easy selection; I figured all that blurred scoreboard goodness there in the background would make for a fun 'Blue Sparkle' card, and that did not disappoint:

#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.

#26 - Chase Utley

What’s that Turtle doin’? Playin' baseball right on the baseball card - as definitive of a "live action" baseball card as you can get.

A 'live' baseball captured on a baseball card rarely disappoints. On this one, you can even see the laces. That suggests to me that Utley hasn't made contact with the ball yet, because when that has already happened in a photograph, with the ball that close to the bat, the ball usually blurs significantly, and quite often appears as no longer perfectly round, even. If Utley had just finished driving the ball with the bat a split-second before the shutter-click, I suspect the baseball would look much different in the photo.

There also appears to be a bit of shadow on the bat, caused by the actual baseball in the directly overhead sunlight. Although it is exciting to see the live pitch and live swing in this image, it seems highly likely we are about to hear a "Strike!" or whatever odd sound the Ump will make to indicate the same. Though perhaps Utley still has a chance to Foul it off with some brief minor contact on the top of the bat.

This striking image seems so familiar on baseball cards of the 2010s that it made me reach for the adjacent binder for the 2014 set, to see how many examples it held. I only found one, the Avisail Garcia card, on a pleasant journey back through that set. Something I always enjoy about baseball cards; when one card leads you off into absorbing other cards.

There is definitely one more identical card to this arriving later in the set, and Topps has never stopped using this vantage point for cards throughout the 2010s. I am not always a fan of an action shot that obscures a player's face, but I guess with the number of different baseball cards produced annually for many players, particularly extremely popular players of Utley's caliber, it is probably better to produce a card like this.

+Bonus points for a tiny Logoman on the back of Utley's uniform. 

-Bonus points for the Umpire's fingers creepin' in off the side of the card.

Uniform Hero? Yes.

Where’d the egg hatch? Utley was drafted by the Phillies in the first round of the 2000 draft, selected 15th overall, and broke in with them in 2003.

How about the migrations? When this card was produced, one would have thought there would be an excellent chance that Utley would retire a Phillie, as similar to so many of the players near him here on the checklist. A highly successful member of a relatively recent World Series winner, why wouldn't he play his whole career in Philadelphia?

One thing that reading baseball cards does not reveal much about the game is the ceaseless chatter from all the other fans, specifically on the way rosters are constructed. Fans often decry the loss of favorite players, but at the same time many other fans can often want to 'cut bait' on most any player the instant they don't make an All-Star team. 

So it was for Philadelphia around the time of the Sea Turtle cards - some fans were more than ready to drop all of the remaining World Series heroes on the club and pick up a new set of Legos, err, prospects, and start over. The Phillies brass eventually agreed though by the time they did, with just 6 weeks to go in the 2015 season they could only essentially purchase a pair of unlikely prospects from the Dodgers by sending Utley to L.A. while still paying a portion of his remaining salary.

Still, as one would expect for a player sporting the descriptor noted on the back of his card, Utley wished to keep playing even at a reduced salary (in his hometown, too) and he went on to complete 3 more increasingly part-time seasons with the Dodgers, drawing some praise for his intangible "veteran leadership" that remains largely inscrutable to those of us outside of a Major League clubhouse.

He announced his retirement during the 2018 season; it is thought he will draw a healthy amount of votes for the Hall of Fame some day, making this 3rd binder page in the set the 3rd page, sequentially, likely to hold multiple Hall of Famers some day.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

A bit of a prescient effort here by Topps as that highly respectful adjective for Utley would really come into use around him the year of his retirement. A more telling nickname for Chase is revealed on his Baseball Reference page: "The Man."

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 779 runs, Utley is 1,516 away from Rickey Henderson's all-time record of 2,295.

I would expect few baseball fans check out a player's Runs total in any given year; even more than with RBI stats most would understand how beyond a player's control scoring a Run is - except for the best base stealers in the game, who help manufacture them.

But it seems clear this selection was made obvious by Utley's sole League Lead up there in red in his stats. Still, invoking Rickey Henderson leads the reader to consider any potential ability to steal bases. This reveals a single 20-20 season for Utley, in his 7th season, which would be a bit late to become a noted base stealer, manufacturing Runs along the way.

Utley would retire having scored 1,103 Runs.

Subspecies? Naturally for such an epic baseball card, Topps would want to use this elsewhere, and it does appear in both Opening Day and Chrome. A short print / photo variation did arrive with this card # inserted in Series 2 packs, of the "Autographs" variety.

Bling That Shell As we will see with the final card on this binder page, I have not quite set this card in stone, in terms of parallel desired. I would rather have a Toys-R-Us Purple card here, to preserve a little more of the totality of the live game action, much of which disappears on a foil card. Hopefully that will become true some day, but until then this card will be represented by an Emerald:

#6 - Ryan Howard

What’s that Turtle doin’? This might be one of my favorite photo framing efforts in the set, though we will just have to keep looking at these cards, closely. One can almost hear the announcer calling the action - "and the big lanky first baseman ranges to his left to scoop up the slow roller." It is the first Fielding card in the set, yet features a famous slugger.

What I like of course is the way Howard's shoe seems to be coming to a stop on the design itself, as if the game is being played on a baseball card squash court. All-in-all another sterling compositional effort from 1 Whitehall St.

+Bonus points for a dirty uniform. Everyone likes those on a baseball card.

Uniform Hero? Yep. Howard started out with #12 on his back during his Cup-of-Coffee type MLB debut in 2004, before switching to #6 for his Rookie-of-the-Year season in 2005.

Where’d the egg hatch? Ryan was drafted by the Phillies in the 5th round in 2001.

How about the migrations? Like many players in this star-studded start to the checklist, Howard played his whole career in Philadelphia. Fans and card collectors always like that, too. Ryan retired after the 2016 season.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

Ouch!

That's a nice amount of League Leads - 7 - placing Howard firmly in the Sea Turtles Card Backs League Leads lead.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 300 home runs, Howard is 482 away from Barry Bonds' all-time record of 762.

After some impressive homer totals from his 3rd (when he was the NL MVP), to his 6th seasons, this does seem an appropriate stat to daydream a new All-Time record about, though the card-back writer leads one to think Howard could make a go at an RBI record. After the 2012 season however, Ryan was 32 years old, and still 415 Homers away from the already-broken record held by Babe Ruth.

Howard finished his career with 382 Home Runs.

Subspecies? As we will see later on in the set, solid players staying put during the winter of 2013 are unlikely to receive a unique card in Chrome or Opening Day. Ryan Howard has cards in each, identical to this one.

There is a Short Print Photo Variation of card #6, in packs with Series 2, of the "Signing Autographs" variety. I will be collecting those cards, but probably not until I finish the All-Parallel set, and also the 'Great Catch' SPs issued with Series 1.

Bling That Shell Given the distribution of 'team colors' on this page and the card-color combos remaining, time is running out on selecting an Emerald parallel, the basic Foil parallel for the 2013 set, issued in all product configurations. The Red/Green combo works well for me, and brightly lit background elements shine out from under the foil a little.