Eight Clubby Nights: A Stadium Club Hanukkah (Night 7)

The seventh night of Hanukkah only leaves one branch of the menorah unlit. There are eight candles going, and when it gets this late in the holiday, my favorite thing to do is watch the candles as they're almost burned out and try to guess which one will extinguish itself first. I wouldn't go so far as saying I'm "betting" on which candle will last the longest. That's what the dreidel is for. It can be tricky, as sometimes there's a tiny bit of wax left over from the previous night that acts as a little extra fuel. Depending on the material of your menorah, you might even see flashes of green in the flame if there are tiny bits of copper or other pigments in the finish, but that's exceptionally rare and requires a patient eye.

I also have to admit that the smell of a recently-extinguished candle appeals to me a bit more than maybe it should.

There will be plenty of time to watch the candles burn down later, but for now, let's take a look at the penultimate pack from 2018 Stadium Club.

2018 Stadium Club #38 Jake Arrieta

Jake Arrieta has been a story of regression to the mean. His win/loss ratio has gone down every year since 2015, although to be fair, that was starting from a stellar 22-6 record, or .786, the year he won the Cy Young Award. Strangely, he's only been an All-Star once in his career, which came during his championship season of 2016. The Phillies spent an enormous amount of money on him, but there is always the chance his best years are behind him.

Topps did find a spring training shot of Arrieta for this year's set, so they didn't have to resort to Photoshop to picture him in a Phillies uniform. It's hard to miss that gigantic Grapefruit League patch on the right sleeve, but one other thing that tips us off that this is from before April is that different logo on his cap. I don't think people make a big enough deal about spring training hats, because they sure look awesome to me. Come on, people, the Liberty Bell is right there on the cap, instead of the usual white "P". That Philadelphia landmark is also going to be more prominent in their recently-redesigned team logo.

For their spring training gear, the Rockies have a great mash-up of the mountainous portion of their regular logo along with the Colorado state flag. We love the state flag in these parts. It's a defining feature of your identity as a Coloradoan.

2018 Stadium Club #173 Anthony Banda (RC)

Anthony Banda is joining Alex Verdugo in sporting a heavily-inked right arm. I'm not really a tattoo guy, but these guys can feel free to do whatever they'd like. In my opinion, they should even be able to choose their own footwear.

The Rookie Card logo is back, and has been present in every pack besides Night 4. Banda has appeared for two teams in his short two-season career, and they both happen to be the teams from the 1998 round of MLB expansion. 2017 was with the Diamondbacks, and he obviously ended up with the Rays in 2018. He originally came up in the Brewers organization, but has been involved in a few trades already, and his name appears in the transaction list alongside former Rockie Gerardo Parra and one of my favorite under-the-radar players, Mitch Haniger.

2018 Stadium Club #5 Johnny Cueto

I have this idea in my head that Johnny Cueto changes teams constantly, but other than that brief stopover with the World Champion 2015 Royals, he's only played for three teams. Just the Reds, Royals, and Giants have had him on their rosters. He's well-known for his "shimmy" during his pitching motion, something Topps calls "his pretzel-like delivery", and his dreadlocks, which, we're told, have been in the works for seven years. Of course, he's also an All-Star, and came oh-so-close to winning the Cy Young Award in 2014, finishing behind now-division rival Clayton Kershaw.

One drawback to these unorthodox pitching motions, like Cueto's shimmy, the "pause" that Kershaw, Kyle Freeland, and others have been incorporating into their motions, which dances on the edge of legality, or Tyler Anderson's leg kick, is that they don't show up very well in still photographs. A Sportflics-style lenticular insert set that shows these quirky deliveries in better detail would be an awesome idea.

2018 Stadium Club #234 Adrian Beltre

When Topps put this set together, they definitely had an idea of who they had in mind for retired players. We've seen Tim Raines, Hideki Matsui, and Mike Piazza. Technically Brad Ziegler is now in that camp too, and Ichiro was sort of a toss-up, but I really think Topps expected Adrian Beltre to call it quits at the end of 2018. Turns out, they were right, as he announced his retirement just a couple weeks ago. Beltre, a member of the 3,000 hit club, has quietly put together a Hall of Fame-worthy career, amassing nearly 500 home runs and even more doubles than Todd Helton.

I'm not sure what occasion this speech is from, but Rangers fans were surely happy to see Beltre on the field all these years. His goofy feud with Elvis Andrus is the stuff of legend, and he and Orbit share a special bond. Baseball just isn't going to be the same without Beltre, who was having so much fun that no one really noticed he was a superstar. He just quietly carried on and didn't want anyone to touch his head.

2018 Stadium Club #115 Greg Allen (RC)

These have been nice cards, but that marks two straight packs without an insert or parallel. The Rookie Card logo makes yet another appearance. Greg Allen isn't what we'd call a power hitter, but he clearly has good speed. He put up a top-25 number for stolen bases in 2018, and that was only while playing half the games. He even got a plate appearance in the ALDS this year.

It's starting to become clear that Night 4 may be the pinnacle of this blaster. At this point, there are more candles remaining than cards, and with just one pack left, the pack with the only Rockie of the bunch may be hard to top, especially when the vein of insert cards seems to have gone missing. One night remains, and I'm as interested as you in what that final pack contains.