#77 - Dustin Moseley

What’s that Turtle doin’? Serving up a gopher ball, perhaps? Can't say that is a very optimistic look about this next pitch.

Like cards with a cut-off foot, Moseley's right leg disappearing just above the knee (much like the  #59 - John Axford card) gives an appearance that he just this instant bounded onto the baseball card, but then the planted right leg suddenly anchors the viewer, too. That transference of the line finally draws the viewer back to the baseball about to launch from his right hand.

Overall though, after owning this card for just about exactly 7 years as I write up this entry, I still know almost nothing about Dustin Moseley. Which is why I started this blog, actually, rather than simply reading the whole card back before I file away the matching parallel and then go another who knows how many years still not knowing very much about Dustin Moseley.

I particularly like that in the "Gem Mint" era of collecting baseball cards, where so many collectors lean on outside validation of their choices before committing to own a 3.5" x 2.5" picture of a baseball player, well ... I doubt if anyone reading this blog happened to notice how off-centered my copy of this card is. No way will this one make a PSA 10.

Which makes me like this one all the more. It is actually a little challenging to pull a copy of a 2013 Topps Baseball card this noticeably off-centered. So, yeah, that makes MY copy better than your copy.

Uniform Hero? yeah, nope. But then I got to thinking - #77 would be a pretty cool # to have in the NFL, wouldn't it? Double Touchdowns would be the nickname, wouldn't it? That stray thought only yielded Red Grange however.

Still though, two 7s - anyone, anyone? Bueller? No, he wasn't playing baseball yet in 2013. 

So I looked it up, and one player did wear #77 in MLB in 2012. He appeared in 76 Games and hit .293. That should earn a Topps Baseball card, shouldn't it? Alas, it did not; bench utility guys can be a bit like middle relievers when it comes time to make a Topps Baseball checklist, and Pedro Ciriaco did not appear on a Sea Turtle card.

Where’d the egg hatch? Dustin Mosely was actually a 1st round pick by the Cincinnati Reds way back in 2000 - that should yield a treasure trove of Bowman cards, wouldn't it? 

Actually he was the 34th pick in that round - of 30 teams? I looked into this as I keep discovering this about so many players on this checklist. After the 1st round of the draft, there are certain "compensation picks" related to the current state of the Free Agent system rules in MLB, and lately also what is called the "competitive balance round" as MLB continues to try to help the small market teams battle the large market teams, somehow.

How about the migrations? As it turns out, there are some Bowman cards for Dustin Mosely, even a Topps Traded & Rookies card, all featuring him in a Cincinnati Reds uniform that he never wore in an actual MLB game. Before his MLB Debut could occur, the Reds traded him to the Angels for one Ramon Ortiz, who managed to put up a perfect 0.0 WAR value in his one season in Cincy. Moseley finally did make The Show in 2006, though his Odysseus like career continued from there onto the back of this baseball card...

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

So I launched this quest to understand this baseball card and I found really one of the more amazing card back quotes I have ever read: "who happens to have very bad luck."

This is so simple and direct it is a little staggering. Imagine if the Topps card back writer could deploy this basic honesty whenever it was called for, which would be rather frequent, really. I have to wonder how often the word "luck" ever appears on the back of a baseball card.

I mean, there is a lot of luck involved in the game of baseball, we all know that. But only recently, with deeper 'sabre-metric' analysis, has this been talked about openly all that much, perhaps most commonly around the BABIP stat. And I doubt a Topps card back writer would call out a player who finishes a season with a high BABIP (indicating a bit of a lucky season), even though most of the rest of the baseball commentary class does, routinely.

But the card back does explain the bad luck directly, as best it can in such a small space, though again this is different than how most baseball commentators would likely refer to Mosely. The common descriptor would be "injury prone" and the tone of that is almost always fairly dismissive, not sympathetic about "luck."

A savvy reader will notice the totals in the "G" column, which also seem to indicate bad luck with injuries. A little more context on what the Topps writer was referring to is that the 2011 season, where Mosely finally triumphed with the best results of his career, was cut short by an injury (shoulder) that happened while batting, not pitching.

The final line of the card back text also proved prophetical - the one start in 2012 was Dustin Moseley's final game in the Major Leagues. Which somewhat explains why I could never connect any baseball memory to this baseball card. That makes this a Final Card, as well as a true Sunset Card; those MAJ. LEA. TOTALS you see there are his total career #s, somewhat rare to see on the back of a baseball card. 

This is not his most epic card, a very memorable issue in 2011 Update, which I never mentally connected to this card before as the '11 card is really just one of the more amazing Pitcher In Action cards you ever will see. So amazing that I never noticed that on that card, the Moseley I had never heard of was a Pitcher and thus connected to this obvious Pitcher named Moseley I had never heard of on this baseball card. But I will leave that other card for a 2011 Topps Baseball set blogger to highlight, some day.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 101 games pitched, Moseley is 1,151 away from Jesse Orosco's all-time record of 1,252.

Appearing in an average of only 14 Games a season is going to make it pretty tough to catch the all-time record holder. But I would bet the Topps card back writer was pretty glad this particular CAREER CHASE was available to use here.

The 101 Games pitched is Dustin Moseley's career total.

Subspecies? By now you can probably guess that a hard luck career like this one can generate a sympathetic card back, but no other variant versions.

Bling That Shell That navy blue Home Alternate San Diego uniform calls for a tasteful choice here, so I went with the Target Red parallel. I particularly like that my particular copy is also off-center, but off to the left, rather than the right as on the base copy at the top of this post. They make a nice pair this way:

#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: