Changing Positions

A Topps photographer's decision to take photos of Troy Tulowitzki pitching became an internet story yesterday, prompting Topps to create this Topps Now card as a way of laughing off the fact that their photographer actually thought Troy Tulowitzki was a pitcher. 

The mix-up involving Tulowitzki inspired me to look through some cards I was organizing to see if I could find any cards of position players pitching or of pitchers hitting just so I could find and show some cards that are different from what we're used to seeing of certain players.

Since the majority of the cards I went through were of players I collect, those are the players I found most of these types of cards of. Case and point; Greg Maddux, who is shown here getting ready for a bunt while batting at a home game for the Braves. This is something I consider one of the best parts of NL baseball, seeing pitchers batting, especially when those photos make it to baseball cards. I'm not saying Topps should use these pictures all the time, but with good hitting pitchers like Bumgarner and Arrieta in the NL, Topps could at least make a card or 2 showing these star pitchers, hitting the ball which is something they do pretty well.

The next card is of Tom Glavine, and it takes it up a notch by actually showing a pitcher in the batter's box hitting like a position player on a baseball card. It looked so much like a position player card that I mistook it for a card of Chipper Jones until I read Glavine's name. The card is from 2000 Upper Deck Black Diamond, a set that I have grown to like because of this card. I don't know how many cards there are that show pitchers batting, but I do know I have a really nice one in this Tom Glavine card.

Finally, the very opposite of pitchers batting is position players pitching, which is exactly what this 2016 Topps Pressed Into Service insert set is all about. The idea behind it is to highlight times where a position player was told to pitch in an MLB game, and in this case, that player was Josh Harrison. Other players in this set include Ichiro, Mitch Moreland, and even legendary Cardinal Stan Musial. 

I would certainly consider starting a mini-collection showing pitchers batting because of how unconventional it is and how it doesn't seem to be represented on cards all that often. I'd have more luck finding those cards than cards of position players pitching, because if that were to ever happen again, Topps would just make a Topps Now card of it and charge 10 dollars.