2013 Topps Darwin Barney

As I've done previously, I'm taking a closer look at the 2013 Topps Cubs team set card by card.

As the title says, today's topic is Darwin Barney, card #299.

2013 Topps Darwin Barney #299

Does this photo look familar? It should, it's the same picture I used for my This Day in Cubs History custom card that's been in my header for several weeks, if not months and originally showed off the day after it happened. Seeing as Topps probably paid for the rights and I merely borrowed it, I guess I can't complain.

Photo by David Banks, courtesy of Getty Images

At this point in the season (May 30, 2012), the only team in baseball with a worse record than the Cubs was their opponent that day, the San Diego Padres. Following a 12-game losing streak for the Cubs, this moment culminated a 3-game sweep of the Padres. The Cubs tied the game at 6 in the bottom of the 8th inning when Tony Campana pinch ran following a Reed Johnson single. He proceeded to steal both second and third bases before being singled in by Starlin Castro.

Despite giving up two hits, reliever James Russell escaped a 9th inning rally by inducing a double play and a strike out. Bryan LaHair led off the bottom of the 9th with a single. Alfonso Soriano struck out and Ian Stewart flew out to right field, bringing Darwin Barney to the plate. As we all know now, Barney hit only the 5th home run of his career to end the game and the series.

Barney's Career Chase stat is Pete Rose's all-time hits record of 4,256. Unless Barney's fielding coach knows his way around the batter's box too, this is probably another safe record.

As with the DeJesus black bordered parallel, I also picked up this camo parallel of Darwin Barney from a seller to save on shipping.

2013 Topps Darwin Barney Camo Parallel (#70/99)