Eight Clubby Nights: A Stadium Club Hanukkah (Night 2)

The first night of Hanukkah is kind of a big deal. It's usually the night when you might dig out the grater or food processor and begin the messy (but worth it) project of making potato latkes. You're reminded of the tradition in a religion that's steeped in tradition, and there's even a special third prayer to say that night, rather than just the usual two. Sometimes, the gift given on the first night is a bit bigger than the subsequent seven.

But once the sun sets a second time, and you start increasing the number of candles in the menorah, you can start doing fun things with all the different colors. My personal favorite is to save up all the blue and white ones until the final night and alternate their colors, and there's usually a night in there where you burn through your less favorite colors all in one go. You especially have to watch out for the red ones, because they have a tendency to drip like crazy.

You're still just getting started by the second night, and our second pack from this festive blaster of 2018 Topps Stadium Club represents just cards 6-10 of this theme. There is plenty yet to come.

2018 Stadium Club #135 Chance Sisco (RC)

Unlike the rookie in last night's post, Chance Sisco's early career looks a lot more promising. His .181 batting average this year needs quite a bit of work, but he's only 23 and already has experience in two seasons. Unfortunately, those two seasons both saw the Baltimore Orioles finish in last place. 2017 wasn't so bad, as a 75-87 record is generally good for about third or fourth place outside the AL East, but this year's 47-115 record took its place among the historically bad teams in baseball history.

There are usually some orange candles in your standard box of Hanukkah candles, so it's appropriate that we have a nice mix of color so far in these packs. Green is a rarity, but there's plenty of it behind Sisco as he holds his catcher's gear on a sunny day.

I'm always a fan of commemorative patches, and the one on Sisco's right sleeve marks the 25th year of Camden Yards, celebrated in 2017. It kicked off a flurry of construction of retro-classic ballparks around the league, including my beloved Coors Field.

2018 Stadium Club #19 Garrett Richards

Red candles are unavoidable during Hanukkah, and they tend to burn themselves out ten minutes before the rest, just because they drip so much. And Garrett Richards is dripping with red in this posed spring training shot, right down to his glove. I always thought gloves that weren't black or tan were pretty weird, especially the red ones. Probably because Mitch Williams wore a red glove, and he seemed like the oddest player on a 1993 Phillies team filled with odd players.

In little league, I was generally a middle infielder, that is, during the innings I wasn't way out in right field. I was definitely not a pitcher, and a knowledge of pitch grips and pitch paths remains one of the weaker areas of my baseball fandom. Richards, who will likely miss the 2019 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, shows us his version of the four-seam fastball.

This card has it right. He pitches at an ace level when healthy. Unfortunately, a healthy pitching arm has been elusive for Richards, as has command. Even when he went 13-4 in 2014, he led the AL in wild pitches, something he's done twice since then, including in an injury-shortened 2018. Still, the San Diego Padres have enough faith in him to sign him to a two-year deal, looking forward to 2020.

2018 Stadium Club Special Forces #SF-KB Kris Bryant

This pack's insert arrived one card earlier than last night. New for 2018 is the Special Forces insert set, or at least it's new since the brand's 2014 resurgence. Mid-'90s Stadium Club still surprises me, so this could very well have been a subset in past years. It's generally busy, and doesn't rank among my favorites as Topps insert sets go.

Kris Bryant, who was 2015's NL Rookie of the Year and 2016's NL MVP, appears exceptionally sharp on this photo. Printing technology has come a long way. It's more or less the difference between SD and HD video, and has progressed about as quickly. We even get to see Bryant's monogrammed blue and red batting gloves. There are Hanukkah colors all up and down this card. The back is pretty plain, and replaces the usual paragraph with a series of bullet points. "Serious quickness for a 6-foot-5 man", Topps opines.

Inserts are inserts, but it's definitely not as awesome as the Instavision parallel I pulled of Bryant last year.

2018 Stadium Club #163 Ryan Zimmerman

Now that's the way you do a horizontal card. I'm not sure exactly when this is from, but it likely shows Ryan Zimmerman triumphantly leaving the batter's box after what appears to be a walk-off hit of some kind. Most likely it's a homer; because that #11 you see on Zim's back also happens to be the number of walk-off home runs to his name, second only to Albert Pujols among active players.

Things were a little confusing when Jordan Zimmermann pitched for the Nats, but his ancestors did Ryan the courtesy of adding an extra "N" to the family name to avoid needing first initials. Ryan went by "Zim" on his Player's Weekend jersey, matching that sign in the stands, but he just as easily could have gone with "Mr. Walk Off", as he's commonly known in the D.C. area, and rightly so. He's closing in on Jim Thome's all-time record of 13.

2018 Stadium Club #20 Stephen Strasburg

Between these two and Daniel Murphy last night, this is rapidly becoming a Washington Nationals hot blaster, but that's just what red does on Hanukkah. It gets everywhere. Strasburg is even wearing a red jersey and going with the red knee-length socks. Even his beard is sort of reddish. I remember when he was a baby-faced youngster with a $25,000 1/1 rookie card and was drawing comparisons to Mark Fidrych.

I agree with one criticism of this set, that the team name is too faint. It's still pretty easy to tell, because Topps is more than happy to show off team logos. Still, with as much as players move around, it might be nice to have that outline just be a little bit thicker.

The obvious National missing so far is Bryce Harper, who won the 2018 Home Run Derby in front of his home crowd, but he's nearly certain to play for another team next year.

I haven't managed to pull any Rockies yet, but fortunately I have several already, thanks to a group break that Trevor ran over the summer, including an extremely rare Jon Gray parallel.

Each night it gets just a little brighter, so we'll see what tomorrow's pack yields soon enough. Harper can't be far behind, given the way this blaster has gone so far.