The Trading Post #134: Blog Reader TSHenson

What's the first thing you think of when you see a card from 1998 Circa Thunder? The first time I did, I called it the "Dr. Who wormhole". That's still accurate, but have a look at this Mike Lansing card and let me know what comes to mind.

1998 Circa Thunder #128 Mike Lansing

For me, after that always-welcome green color, is AC/DC's Thunderstruck, the epitome of a stadium rock anthem. It's played at sporting events across the land, and even appeared in the soundtrack of the latest Deadpool movie.

Am I off base here? I may not do music tie-ins as well as Night Owl or Off Hiatus Baseball Cards, but I really think this one fits. You can practically hear the guitar just from that yellow scribble in the upper left.

Mike Lansing, a Wyoming native and former Rockies second baseman, has the minor-league park in Casper named after him. He also got a card in 1998 Circa Thunder, one of the earlier cards to feature Lansing in his new Rockies uniform. Circa used his quote from The Denver Post on the card back, where he says, "I don't walk much. My attitude is, I've got a bat in my hand and I'm going to use it." He retired with 299 walks to his name.

At first, I was wondering why The Denver Post was interviewing him in mid-November 1997, but upon further investigation, that quote was from a day after he was traded to the Rockies from the Expos. That trade, by the way, was how Jake Westbrook left the Rockies organization, then just a Single-A pitching prospect.

1996 Emotion-XL #173 Ellis Burks

These cards arrived many months ago from blog reader TSHenson, who I have seen commenting on blogs throughout the cardsphere. He doesn't have a blog of his own that I know of, but I swapped some Indians in exchange for this stack of Rockies. And I'm glad we did, because it's not often I get a look at rare Skybox sets like these.

Every 1996 Emotion-XL card in my collection so far had a green border, like you see here. Julie at A Cracked Bat sent me a few a long time ago, but this is the first one I've seen with the maroon border. As in the set's inaugural 1995 release, which was masterfully recapped by The Angels In Order, the 1996 cards include a somewhat relevant word on the card front. Ellis Burks got "Mile-High". Technically, that relates more to geology, but John Denver and a whole lot of Colorado natives like myself can certainly understand how that would be an emotion.

1997 Topps Chrome #139 Vinny Castilla

Most of these cards seemed to pair up pretty well, like those two Skybox cards above. The next two are from the perennial shiny favorite, Topps Chrome. It was still a burgeoning brand in 1997, but Vinny Castilla had established himself as a bona fide member of the Blake Street Bombers, joining Ellis Burks on that squad. He was remarkably consistent in the mid-'90s, hitting precisely 40 home runs and 113 RBI with a .304 average in two consecutive years. Not quite Khris Davis levels of consistency, but impressive nonetheless.

The card back tells us that Castilla was the fourth Rockie to reach the 100-RBI threshold in 1996. The Rockies were the first team with that many players to do so since 1929, when both the Athletics and Cubs did. And, small world, the 1929 Cubs were in the news today, as they were the only team in Postseason history to give up 10 runs in an inning until the Braves took the field today against the Cardinals. The Redbirds chased Mike Foltynewicz after just 0.1 IP, then continued to lay it on Atlanta's hapless bullpen to advance to the NLCS.

It just blows my mind a little bit, being able to tie two statistics together like that after having this stack of cards awaiting a write-up for nearly all of 2019.

2003 Topps Chrome Traded #T265 Clint Barmes FY (RC)

By 2003, my favorite set of the colored-border Topps years, Topps Chrome was established enough and enticing enough to get me back into the Hobby after many years away. I know just where the gold serial number would go on the card back if this was a more rare variety.

Clint Barmes, the longtime Rockies shortstop, made both his MLB and baseball card debut in 2003. I wasn't following the hobby closely enough to know whether the "1st Year Card" logo in the lower right was used elsewhere in the industry or just by Topps, but either way, it didn't last long. Barmes was a well-known figure in Denver for a few years, but he is perhaps best known for injuring his collarbone while carrying a package of frozen deer meat up to his apartment, a gift from Todd Helton.

You can't make this stuff up.

2004 Fleer Tradition #480 Javier Lopez / Garrett Atkins / Clint Barmes (SP)

Fleer recognized his talent in the following year's Tradition set, including two other prospects, all of whom would go on to play in the Major Leagues, most for quite a few years. Javier Lopez, the pitcher on the left, ended up spending most of his career with the Giants. His Prospect photo came full circle, as that shot of a much younger Lopez was clearly taken in what was then known as SBC Park.

There's not much on the card back, but well done, Fleer, for picking a prospects card so accurately.

2004 Fleer Tradition #100 Chris Stynes

The base cards from 2004 Tradition had a rather different look when compared to the Top Prospects subset. There's much more purple to be found on this Rockies card. And even after all these years, former Rockies are still making their debuts on Infield Fly Rule. Chris Stynes, briefly the Rockies third baseman, only played in Denver for a year. He moved on to Pittsburgh for his final season in 2004, but not before getting a year's worth of cards to add to my team sets.

I don't remember much about him, not even this batting stance.

1993 Triple Play #257 Charlie Hayes

I do, on the other hand, remember Charlie Hayes. The Yankees left him unprotected in the expansion draft, and the Rockies snapped him up with the third overall pick. The franchise was awarded in the summer of 1991, but the team didn't really start to come together until November 17th, 1992.

I always enjoy seeing the pre-inaugural year Rockies logo, and the kid-friendly 1993 Triple Play set is one of the best sets out there in which to find it. You also run into longtime Rockies fans at Coors Field sporting apparel with this logo, though nothing in my wardrobe contains it. For now, the only way I could wear this retro logo to the ballpark is if I pinned one of these Triple Play cards to my shirt.

2018 Topps Big League Gold #305 Charlie Blackmon / Dee Gordon / Ender Inciarte

Topps Big League is the closest spiritual continuation of Triple Play on the market today, perhaps even more so than Bunt, which could never really distance itself from the mobile app of the same name. I haven't opened much of it, but it's made its way into a few trades.

Unlike the usual white-bordered cards, this is the Gold parallel. There is no serial number on this, which is actually somewhat refreshing. Charlie Blackmon led the Majors in hits in 2017, with 213, including a team-record 68 multi-hit games. Dee Gordon, now with the Mariners, and Ender Inciarte rounded out the top three. Inciarte and Gordon both had 201 that year, so the little "3" next to Inciarte's name isn't accurate.

Just a little nitpick, because all of these players truly are Stat Kings. And Dee Gordon would surely be on the Stolen Base version of this subset card, if one exists.

2018 Topps Update #US61 Mike Tauchman (RC)

The Rockies obviously did not make the postseason this year, although they managed to avoid last place by a game. Part of the reason is that a few ex-Rockies are now playing for the Yankees, including DJ LeMahieu, Adam Ottavino, and this gentleman who isn't on their postseason roster, Mike Tauchman. He's been a surprising talent for the Yankees, and even hit his first big-league home run with them earlier this year. I bet the Rockies wish they could have kept at least one of those guys around for 2019.

2018 Topps Update #US53 Seung Hwan Oh

Seung Hwan Oh joined the Rockies via trade in 2018, and one year to the day later, the Rockies released him. The team is perennially on the lookout for relief pitchers, and they know it is job #1 this offseason. I was impressed with DJ Johnson's performance in the final game of the regular season, other than a wild pitch that still went the Rockies way, thanks to a baserunning error by Ben Gamel of the Brewers. But they'll need much more than that if they want to improve on one game above last place.

Perhaps next year's Topps Update series will give us a look at the new Rockies bullpen.

2018 Topps MLB Awards #MLBA-19 DJ LeMahieu

Speaking of DJ LeMahieu, who had to leave Coors Field to break the 100-RBI mark in a season, Topps gave him an MLB Awards card for his second Gold Glove, which he earned in 2017. He got a third in 2018 and could very well start racking them up on the AL side of things. He joined his then-teammate Nolan Arenado in this insert set, who is still a wizard in the field. DJ didn't have quite as many "Good Fielding Plays" as Nolan, but 50 is still a award-winning number.

2018 Topps Salute #TS-10 Charlie Blackmon

The All-Purpose Topps Salute insert set picked a Jackie Robinson Day theme for Charlie Blackmon's card. Just like on Jackie Robinson Day 2015, the Rockies were visiting San Francisco in 2017 as well. They found themselves on the winning side of the scoreboard in 2017, thanks to Charlie Blackmon's two-run single, an important enough event to earn him this insert card. Sure enough, the #42 that's worn league-wide every April 15th graces Blackmon's uniform, in place of the usual #19.

2018 Donruss #236 Nolan Arenado RETRO

Closing our post today is a retro 2018 Donruss card modeled after the 1984 Donruss set. It's a pretty accurate reproduction of the 1984 design, except for the team name in the yellow wave area. In fact, I'd go so far as to say Panini did a better job reproducing this set design than Topps often does with Archives.

I'm guessing those are Diamondbacks in the background, so there's no real hope of finding a date for this card. The card back describes Nolan Arenado's game-winning heroics on Sept. 11th, 2017 against Arizona, although that one was played in Phoenix. Just for a split second, I thought this photo might have matched the paragraph on the card back. It was a preview of the 2017 Wild Card Game, which unfortunately had a different outcome.

One odd thing about the card back is that the statistics are presented as his "Professional Batting Totals". However, what we do have are simply Arenado's Major League stats. None of the totals include any minor league play, leading me to believe that Panini can't even say "Major League", let alone an actual team name. One other change from the '84 design is that the card back is printed in black, unlike the light green of the original.

I appreciate all my readers, including those that choose not to dive into the world of blogging. Thanks to TSHenson for these great cards, including sets I rarely see!