The Trading Post #136: The Lost Collector

I've been writing some marathon posts lately. It's rare for me to wind up under 1,500 words. By comparison, this two-card post will be more of a small morsel, an amuse-bouche, if you want to be fancy about it.

The Lost Collector, who has appeared multiple times in The Trading Post series, thought of me when he pulled a few Topps Update cards from 2019. I haven't built a pie chart of the various collectors who have appeared in The Trading Post over the years, but The Lost Collector would certainly have a sizeable wedge. This time, he found some Rockies parallels from the quasi-Series 3 that Topps releases annually.

2019 Topps Update Walgreens Yellow #US42 David Dahl AS

One look at these and it should be plainly obvious that these aren't the base Topps Update cards. They have the look of Gold parallels, but they're not those either. What I was sent were a pair of Yellow parallels, exclusive to Walgreens. Yellow certainly isn't one of their corporate colors, but Target already has the red parallel color locked up, and Toys R Us seems to have taken the purple color into bankruptcy with them, so yellow it is. As far as how well the color itself shows up, I'd say 2019 does a much better job than 2018 did.

The All-Star Game is always one of the primary features of any Topps Update set, and both these cards are from the 2019 Midsummer Classic, held this year in Cleveland. With the pitchers duels these games have become, crossing the plate is a real accomplishment, as is getting on base in the first place. And David Dahl did just that, singling in the 5th inning and scoring thanks to an RBI single from Pete Alonso, who had just won the Home Run Derby the night before, and was recently named the NL Rookie of the Year.

Dahl is certainly wearing a lot of numbers on his uniform in this photo. There's obviously his uniform number, #26, the number previously worn by Ellis Burks and Jeff Francis. On his right, he has the number 45, a memorial for Tyler Skaggs, the Angels pitcher who died tragically just over a week before the All-Star Game. On Dahl's right sleeve, we can see the MLB 150 logo worn league-wide this year, as well as a "1" inside a five-pointed star. which represents Dahl's first All-Star selection. MLB has been adding service stars to All-Star Game uniforms for a few years now, and I think they're a nice touch.

2019 Topps Update Walgreens Yellow #US44 Trevor Story AS

Incrementing the Rockies uniform number by one, we come to #27, Trevor Story. We're facing him at a different angle here, so we can't see the "2" inside his service star patch. On the other hand (pun intended), there is a slight glimpse of the All-Star Game logo itself, which for 2019 was a little baseball-stitched electric guitar, a nod to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which sits just several blocks beyond Progressive Field's left field.

Both these card backs describe why each of these players warranted an All-Star selection, as well as their in-game performances. Trevor Story went 0-1 while facing Liam Hendriks, one batter before his buddy Charlie Blackmon would hit a home run. Yes, Rockies had two of the three runs scored by the National League that day, which was still not enough to beat the American League.

Story's other "All-Star Game Creds" included his fourth NL Player of the Week award, a seven-RBI game against the Blue Jays in late May, and his 100th career home run a week before that, the fastest-ever shortstop to reach that mark. His two All-Star selections go into the same trophy case as his two Silver Slugger awards, though he's yet to win a Gold Glove.

If he keeps that kind of performance up, he'll need a bigger trophy case, and can expect to appear in many more Topps Update sets yet to come.

I'm a lot more confident in that than what the colored parallel situation will be next year.

Thanks to The Lost Collector for adding a little extra color to my 2019 binder!