The Trading Post #117: Baseball Every Night

Sometimes it feels like if I blog about a six-week old product, I might as well be blogging about a repack or even vintage. The Cardsphere has largely moved on from the release of 2018 Topps, now focusing on Gold Label and Opening Day, with a brief stop at Heritage.

And here I am, just a couple weeks before the start of the 2018 MLB season, with an NCAA bracket that's busting worse by the hour, posting a 2018 card for the first time.

2018 Topps #230 Trevor Story

Trevor Story's card from 2018 Topps Series 1 is about as purple as a card can get, thanks to his jersey that barely stands out from the Yahoo! banner on the outfield wall at AT&T Park, not to mention the purple "waterslide", the key design element of another borderless Topps base set.

The card backs are pretty similar to last year's, and the waterslide and banner with tiny dots makes another appearance, although with a bit less color. Trevor's a solid defender, which is the subject of the photo, but he's also talented at the plate, sophomore slump notwithstanding. The card tells us that Story is the first Rockie shortstop to exceed 20 homers in each of his first two seasons, and longtime fans will notice that not even Troy Tulowtizki did that.

Instagram and Twitter handles return for another year, leaving room for just five years of stats once again. They're certainly of the moment, but I can't help but agree with some of my fellow bloggers who think this could eventually make the cards look severely dated. I've been online long enough to see my share of social networks come and go, like the early AOL properties, and more recently Digg and MySpace.

Just look at 1998 Pacific Online cards, and even some early screenshots of Topps Bunt.

2018 Topps #269 Greg Holland

These cards came to me from everyone's favorite Darryl Strawberry collector, Peter of Baseball Every Night. He sent quite a few Rockies from 2018 Topps, about half of which I promptly flipped to Nachos Grande for one of his trade stacks. More to come on that in a future post, and I'm sure I'll see more examples of the waterslide set. You should see how many 2016s I have left over.

An airborne Greg Holland, who will not be returning to the Rockies in 2018, piled up a league-lead-tying 41 saves last year, and this action shot may be from one of them. It's one of the more unusual shots to appear on a card, and Topps is certainly getting better at making the most of their full-bleed design. This one in particular wouldn't work so well in the 2008 set, the one where the Topps logo occupies a "notch" in the top center, a term familiar to all iPhone X users.

I have not upgraded to the iPhone X, but I think it's clear that the chief Apple designers didn't collect '08 Topps.

2018 Topps #92 Charlie Blackmon LL

Holland was worthy of a League Leader card in this set, and here's hoping that Wade Davis can perform as well this year. Charlie Blackmon, on the other hand, will continue to patrol the, um, spacious outfield at Coors Field, and even if he's pulled out of the leadoff spot, the winner of yet another NL batting title for the Rockies will remain a fan favorite. Daniel Murphy is sure to be hot on the heels of whichever Rockie comes forward next year to collect that award, perhaps Nolan Arenado or 2016's winner, DJ LeMahieu, both found in the top-ten list on this card back.

2018 Topps #192 Nolan Arenado LL

Speaking of Nolan Arenado, he was awarded with a league leader card of his own, thanks to his 130 RBIs, runner up to now-Yankee Giancarlo Stanton. I didn't even buy a value pack of '18 Topps, and I haven't seen much of it recently now that Topps is cranking out other products, so I don't know whether Stanton's 132 earned a separate card, or just top billing on the back of this one.

As usual with the league leader cards, the front does not use color-coding or the team logo on the waterslide or banners, but the familiar purple does appear on the back, carrying the National League logo down for some watery summer fun.

To my post-Olympics eye, it could also be equated to a ski jump, but the waterslide really fits better with baseball's summer theme. Meanwhile, some surprisingly large snowflakes are falling outside, making summer all the more welcome when it finally gets here.

2018 Topps #273 Charlie Blackmon LL

Switching back to Charlie Blackmon, this time on the road, he tied for third in NL home runs, matching Nolan and ex-Marlin Marcell Ozuna with 37. Dodgers rookie sensation Cody Bellinger tacked on two more, winning the NL Rookie of the Year, an award the Dodgers hoard much like the Rockies do with batting titles. It's even named for a Dodger, technically titled the Jackie Robinson Award, though no one really seems to call it that.

Standing heads and shoulders above any of those guys in the standings was previously-mentioned ex-Marlin Stanton with 59. He and Aaron Judge could seriously become the new M&M boys. Be prepared for lots of free souvenirs at Yankee Stadium this year.

I wonder if it gets old for them. If you hit 59 home runs in a year, do you still get the same rush as that first time you connect in little league? I can remember a few of those, including one high and outside pitch in high school gym class that went opposite field. I usually liked them low, but I'm sure I surprised a few people that day including myself.

But even a pro like Stanton has to enjoy it when the crack of the bat resonates throughout the whole zip code.

2018 Topps Salute #TS-46 Nolan Arenado

Finally, one last cycle back to Arenado, pun not intended. Topps brought back the giant Salute insert set for another year, which is still a bit underwhelming. There's a "Memorial Day" marquee all over this card, but the photo in question was taken on July 9th, a day on which active military members got free admission to Coors Field. That's nice, but what Topps neglects to tell us about that 10-0 win the day before the All-Star Break is that Kyle Freeland took a no-hitter into the 9th inning at the hitter-friendly ballpark. It was so impressive that I even bought the Topps Now card to commemorate it.

Military Appreciation Day at Coors Field must be a regularly-scheduled event the Sunday before the All-Star Break, as I remember seeing the Phillies the day before the break in 2016, complete with a parachutist landing on the field before the game. If that tradition continues, then don't miss the Rockies hosting the Mariners on July 15th.

Topps might even tell us more than just the score if this insert set returns another year.

Thanks for the cards, Peter! I'm dropping a PWE in the mail for you tomorrow with a '92 Topps need.