The Sea Turtle Cards

Sunday, March 29, 2020

#81 - NL ERA Leaders

What’s that Turtle doin’? Leading the way from the mounds of the "Senior Circuit."

This is of course a long-standing tradition in a Topps Baseball set; my rough hunch is that more years have these cards than do not. Probably only Night Owl and some other baseball card historians know the actual % of Topps Baseball sets that include these. I do like these cards quite a bit; always have. I can't say I go out of my way to purposely collect them in a general sense, but I do always keep them; they are especially nice X number of seasons later, where X = any number you wish.

On this card, only Johnny Cueto is putting on an optimistic Pitcher Face here. But then he finished 3rd on this one, so it kind of seems like R.A. Dickey's wing&prayer outlook isn't the way to go either, and perhaps Kershaw's straight stare-down scowl at the batter is what gets you to #1.

That official National League™ logo sure is a classy bit of graphic design considering how old it probably is. If only there was a way it could add apple pie, hot dogs, and a Chevrolet symbol to all that glorious Americana there. But like many hard-working graphic objects, it probably wasn't designed to be shrunk down on to the corner of a baseball card, or look good on a TV camera from far away, like most Major League logos. In that way it kind of reminds of the way some excellent Minor League Baseball logos kind of struggle on baseball cards, too.

My favorite part of the front of this card is being able to see that Dickey is going to throw a knuckle-ball here. Recently I started trying to accumulate 9 copies of a card that shows this fairly rare pitch; one of my many extra copies of this card will certainly be a helpful 11% of that small-time collecting goal.

+Bonus points for all 3 teams issuing color-coordinated belts to their players.

Uniform Hero? 22 + 43 + 47 ≠ 81, sorry. Maybe the Topps checklist creator will slyly work that equation onto another one of these cards elsewhere in the checklist.

Where’d the egg hatch? The National League™ was formed in February, 1876.

How about the migrations? It has been in business ever since, making it the oldest currently active team sports League. And you thought it was called "The Senior Circuit" just because it is 25 years older than the American League.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

Now this is the real deal on why I like Leaders cards. I particularly like them years and years after the set was released, so my memory can be jogged of which baseball card in the set will be worth 10¢ instead of 2¢. And of course for just what the heck happened that particular season.

Here I am now pondering why I can't quite recall who the Cardinals beat in the Wild Card game that year, and then who they beat in the other NLDS. But I know Topps has me covered there, with upcoming cards in the checklist to help out an old man's fond baseball memories. But now I am really wondering just what happened to the Nationals and Phillies that October.

Subspecies? These cards only appear in the Topps Baseball set. Or, at least, with this design, as they usually appear in Heritage as well. Quite often, I prefer the old timey Heritage take on these, often with the top 50 players for the given statistic.

Bling That Shell As the National League™ logo deftly illustrates, when it comes to Baseball, you can't go wrong with red, white, and blue. Next time, let's get Kershaw to wear the rare Dodgers Home Alternate uni, so we can get this even more just exactly perfect:

Sunday, March 15, 2020

#80 - Ryan Zimmerman

What’s that Turtle doin’? ...and the ball is hit weakly to the the third base side where it is a routine play for Zimmerman as he sends it across the diamond....

This photo has elements that lead the viewer over to First Base (the uniform showing the rotation of Zimmerman's body, his eyes) as well as elements that focus your attention on the baseball about to be thrown (the right arm extending towards you, the glove aligned with that).

But overall it all just does seem like a routine bit of baseball action; a bit staid & lacking urgency, even, as if this photo was taken during pre-game infield warmups. Finally the blurred baseball - not quite as blurred as on a hitter hitting card, but still quite blurred - reveals just how fast baseball fielding action takes place.

This is the second time in the checklist that a team has 2 sequential cards. I have never understood why Topps does that more on the rarely-seen side than on the routine side, unless perhaps they use a random # generator to connect the players to a checklist #, or something, whenever building checklists outside of this unique effort.

Uniform Hero? #11 there on the right lung (possibly a unique uniform placement?) ≠ #80.

Where’d the egg hatch? The Washington Nationals drafted Ryan Zimmerman as their very first draft pick, ever, in the first round of the 2005 draft as the 4th pick.

How about the migrations? Zimmerman was fresh from a successful career at the nearby University of Virginia and he appeared on the diamond in Washington as a classic September call-up after just 67 games in the minors. He proceeded to almost hit .400 that September and has been in the Nationals' line-up ever since September 1, 2005.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

By the year of the Sea Turtle, Zimmerman was already pretty much the Face of the Franchise as the Topps card back writer notes in what was probably a pretty easy assignment here.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 593 RBI, Zimmerman is 1,704 away from Hank Aaron's all-time record of 2,297.

Though the card back does show one year probably amidst the National League Home Run Leaders, the more telling stat in Zimmerman's baseball #s oeuvre is the routine production of RBIs. Which is something that flows from Zimmerman's routine OPS values above league average, something that continued through the 2010s, for good OPS anyway, though RBI production has naturally been lessened whenever Zimmerman hits the injury-list.

The 2019 season was particularly rewarding for Zimmerman after such a good long career in Washington as he hit a Home Run in Game One of the World Series. Though his playing time has decreased some after 15 seasons in MLB, Washington did keep the band together and re-signed him on a one-year deal for 2020.

At the start of play in 2020 (I hope), Ryan Zimmerman has 1,015 RBIs.

Subspecies? A player as well known to the local fans as Ryan Zimmerman, if perhaps not to all MLB fanbases via becoming an All-Star (only one appearance before this card), well is an easy choice to include on the Opening Day checklist, where he also receives two insert cards. And that same basic routine, everyday, I want his baseball card calculation sees this same card in Topps Chrome. Though there are no photo variations, there are plenty of choices on what color frame you can admire for this card.

Bling That Shell Is any team more solidly red, white, and blue than the Washington Nationals? That sure seems to make the Opening Day Blue frame a solid pick for this card:

Saturday, March 14, 2020

#79 - Adam Eaton

What’s that Turtle doin’? Oh just runnin' one down out here by the warning track before a nice smooth landing for the 2nd Rookie Card to appear in the set.

Here, Eaton just makes this running catch look downright easy, but the distance he is airborne, and the bit of blur around his shoes indicate how fast he is running to make this catch — he might have got a late break on the ball, or had been playing a weaker hitter a bit shallow.

Not too many baseball cards show the warning track; usually a player photographed this deep in the outfield is closer to the wall, attempting to steal a Home Run away from a batter, and then photographed up in the air, from the ground, which in turn cuts the ground (& the warning track) from the picture. This card looks like it was shot by a drone camera, or a 2nd baseball sent out to follow the first one, or something. It does make the viewer feel like they are up in the air, too somehow, along with that fly ball.

The photo composition works very well. An odd thing about that is the way his right leg and shoe, extended back upwards in the running motion, help draw the eye to the top of the card, where the baseball appears just as it plunges into the glove. That then draws the eye downwards & following his left leg and the whole result conjures up that nice smooth landing idea I just mentioned. And yet the rotation of Eaton's body so he can see the ball perfectly presents himself to have his live action portrait taken.

Really one of the best motion capture cards in the set, and one more that would make a final countdown of my favorites in the set were I to compile one. Though I'm not sure I would really want to start picking one over another for such a list.

+Bonus points for one of the coolest sunglasses-on-baseball-card shots I can ever remember. How often do you ever get to see The Sun, on a baseball card?

Uniform Hero? Not even close. Though the image on this card might make you think that @ #79, that would make a great # for a Wide Receiver, those uniform #s don't actually start into the 80s range, and #79 is traditionally a defensive lineman so this whole thought now has absolutely nothing to do with this baseball card.

Where’d the egg hatch? Adam was drafted in the 19th round of the 2010 draft by the Diamondbacks.

How about the migrations? Eaton would then debut quickly in Arizona in September, 2012, only a few months before this card was composed.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

Here the card back text really kind of battles with the official Rookie Card© stat format with that refusal to acknowledge any MLB stat production before the magical logo was applied to the front of the magical Rookie Card. Which of course these days, is no longer quite a Rookie Card anyway considering how players can have a dozen or more base baseball cards created for them before they reach the Topps Baseball set.

All I can say on the single stat line here is that Mobile and Reno must have some mighty big ballparks for Eaton to have hit only 7 Home Runs with a .523 Slugging % - that, or he was really good at stretching out singles vs. minor league outfielders. I will go with the latter idea there I think.

So I guess you can gleam something from that weird, one year, multi-team stat line officially created for all Rookies© on the back of their big card. But I will still never warm up to this ever so weird back-of-baseball-card format.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 2 stolen bases, Eaton is 1,404 away from Rickey Henderson's all-time record of 1,406.

It has been many, many cards since we have seen the Henderson record. I think Jesse Orosco is probably beating out Rickey on this card back line so far.

In the 2010s it is nice to consider players known for stealing bases, when The Data strictly controls the Go sign probably more than the Manager does at this point. So it is nice to see this comparison, but I am slowly realizing that the vast majority of players drafted out of College have lesser chance at baseball immortality in the record books or eventually Cooperstown, given the way counting stat comparisons and age and career length all work, particularly in this century.

Eaton would move on from Arizona to play in Chicago after a 3 team trade (can Arizona participate in a trade any other way? I sometimes wonder), and then in Washington after another high leverage trade, where he had a very nice performance in the 2019 World Series after a couple injury shortened campaigns in '17 and '18. He is signed with the Nationals through this coming (I hope) 2020 season, with a team option for 2021.

However in MLB action he has never stolen even half as many bases as he did in that 2012 minor league campaign. As games commence in 2020 (I hope), Adam Eaton has stolen 81 bases.

Subspecies? Fortunately for checklist completers everywhere, another Adam Eaton wrapped up an MLB career in 2009 so we have never had to deal with 2 Adam Eatons on one checklist. Topps more generally manages to do that with 2 cards of one player usually.

This is such a champion baseball card image I am a little surprised it does not appear on the Opening Day Checklist. But then the Diamondbacks aren't exactly a team with a long baseball card tradition, so I would expect their portion of the Opening Day checklist is rarely very long.

However given those exciting AA&AAA stats compiled on the back of this card, it is not surprising that this one was chosen for inclusion on the Topps Chrome checklist. And as a Rookie Card© there, that means there is an autographed version and that means there is an image variation for those cards. And that means I am collecting that checklist, although the Eaton card will have to be added here, someday.

Bling That Shell For such a sweet sunlit action card I wanted to go with maximum shiny; I suspect the Topps Chrome parallels of this would make a nice 'rainbow' effort. I am working on one of those for this card, though so far I only have the tough Black /62 parallel.

But given the varying tones and the strip of green grass, I picked up a Blue Sparkle copy of this card pretty early on:

Thursday, March 12, 2020

#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:

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

#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:

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

#76 - Brandon Inge

What’s that Turtle doin’? Just funnin' around there in the dugout. For the first time in the set, Topps keeps it loose as it breaks the official set theme of live action baseball and chillax' a little.

Over time collecting Topps Baseball cards created by photographs from inside MLB stadiums, one begins to recognize where the various pro photogs around the League tend to shoot from. In Oakland, for some reason, the photographer seems to have total access to the dugout; I base that on the # of cards created from either dugout there, which are not rare.

And that's a good thing. A good set of baseball cards should let the atmosphere of the game out onto the baseball cards sometimes, too, and this certainly does that.

One thing I like about Dugout Cards is a quick glimpse at the card subject's teammates. I think that is Chris Carter going a round with Inge here. Meanwhile Josh Reddick seems about to say "hey, I'm trying to watch a game here" while for some reason Jarrod Parker looks like he is about to cry. Over to his right, it looks like the actor who played Jeremy Giambi has stopped by fresh from the set of Moneyball, though now sporting Catcher gear for some reason. Can't explain that one.

+Bonus points for a nice view of the classic A's shoulder patch.

Uniform Hero? No; Inge was just a regular baseball 'positional' player, who wore rather basic, low uniform #s commonly associated with starting fielders.

Where’d the egg hatch? Brandon was drafted by the Tigers in the 2nd round of 1998, a year earlier than checklist neighbor Barry Zito, and is thus one of the older Sea Turtles still playing in 2013.

How about the migrations? This card documents the first of such actually. Inge reached the majors at 24, in 2001, debuting as a Catcher, where he would play about a quarter of his career. Known for his overall athleticism, he was a mainstay at Third Base for Detroit through the decade of the '00s, but also played a fair bit of Outfield as well.

But after the '00s ended, Time was starting to assert it's inevitable presence, specifically on Inge's offensive production, which had only occasionally reached league average. Though he was well liked by his Manager and General Manager for his defensive versatility, his reception in the fanbase was wearing thin despite his being a survivor of the worst Tiger season ever in 2003. Perhaps in the 20th Century, he may have been considered a Fan Favorite, but in the Social Media 21st Century, well, I'm not sure there are quite as many Fan Favorites as there used to be, when it is so easy to casually hate people online whenever one wishes.

When Dave Dombrowski unleashed his latest blockbuster signing of 2013 Topps Baseball cover star #28 - Prince Fielder in early 2012, Miguel Cabrera returned to Third Base and Brandon Inge was basically out of a job, though the Tigers seemed unwilling to forget his ten years of service with the club. The result felt rather cruel as the team kept Inge on through Spring Training with vague plans to play him at Second Base, some, and elsewhere, somehow, but Inge was totally unable to warm up his bat that early April and finally after just 9 games Dombrowski had to pull the plug he should have pulled back in January.

Oakland promptly signed him for infield depth and he promptly hit a Grand Slam for them on his first visit to Detroit in early May 2012. But as this card was being pulled from packs, Inge was in camp with a new team, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Don’t flip over real Turtles.

What I like about this card back is that for a Tigers fan, this is pretty much the complete story of his career in Detroit, excepting the slow conversion from Catcher to Third Baseman, for which there isn't room on complete stat card backs.

Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?

CAREER CHASE: With 641 RBI, Inge is 1,656 away from Hank Aaron's all-time record of 2,297.

I like how this comparison draws the card back reader to Inge's 2006 season, which was one of his best at the plate and the year the Tigers lost a World Series. But for most collectors, that would probably be just a whatever.

Brandon Inge finished his career with 648 RBI.

Subspecies? Though this 'fun' card image would seemingly be a perfect fit for the Opening Day set, an almost sunset card for just an ordinary everyday Major Leaguer isn't something that Opening Day nor Chrome has much checklist room for. There are no variants.

Bling That Shell For this somewhat goofy card, I went with the somewhat goofy parallel choice, the Factory Set Orange. Which somehow slightly pays a little tribute to Inge's time in Detroit too, if you mentally squint at the idea a little: