The Trading Post #146: The Diamond King

In all these years of blogging, I believe I've yet to feature a basketball card on Infield Fly Rule. I'm a Rockies fan above all other teams, but I do enjoy the occasional Nuggets or Avalanche game. Depending, of course, on the state of negotiations between the cable company and the RSN, but that's a different story. Denver fans don't have it easy lately.

The Nuggets made the playoffs a couple times in the mid-'90s, coinciding with the arrival of their first-round draft pick Dikembe Mutombo. He was a big name in Denver sports when I was in middle school, and I remember a few life-size posters hung up around the school where you could compare your height to the 7'2" center.

Of course, there were cards, too.

1991-92 Upper Deck #3 Dikembe Mutombo (RC)

I'm not sure where I first saw this card, but I quickly recognized the Denver skyline and knew it would be a good addition to my collection. It wasn't on the Eight Men Out list for long before The Diamond King reached out and sent a copy my way.

The Denver skyline has changed a lot in the almost three decades since Mutombo got his rookie card. Honestly, it's changed a lot in the past five years. But I can still recognize a lot of it. Just beyond his right shoulder stands the Kittredge Building with its arched windows, built in 1891, which places this photo somewhere along Glenarm Place in Downtown Denver. Behind the Kittredge is the DC Building, formerly known as The Denver Club, built in 1954 as one of Denver's first high-rises. Charles Schwab has space in that building now. Hidden between those two is the historic Paramount Theatre, still home to a Wurlitzer theatre organ.

Beyond that is a much more modern-looking glass tower, one that has a consistent style with most of the more recently-built skyscrapers. That one is 555 17th St, once the tallest building in Denver until several others passed it in an early-'80s building boom. It's home to Holland & Hart, one of the premier law firms in Denver. Their name was added to the building's exterior since this photo was taken.

On the other side of the street, the white building is 1600 Glenarm, formerly the Security Life Building. That white bump you see on the exterior that interrupts the windows is actually a glass elevator shaft, once ferrying patrons to the now-defunct Top of the Rockies restaurant. The last visible building, the tan one on the right, is 410 17th Street, a rather unremarkable late-'70s office building.

Standing between all three of the tallest buildings here and obscured by Mutombo himself is the Midland Savings Building from 1925, located at 444 17th Street. It just so happens that my mom worked in that building at Midland Federal Savings & Loan, back from a mostly bygone era of banking when there were commonly such things as Savings & Loan associations. This would have been in the early 1980s after my parents moved to Colorado, and shortly before the Savings & Loan industry faced deep crisis later in the decade, through no fault of my mother's.

My mom has contributed plenty of cards to this blog, so it's fitting that I can find a card that somewhat shows her own personal history, even though it's a stretch.

So that's great for pinpointing which part of town Mutombo was in when he posed for his photo (complete with early-'90s lapel and tie), but where exactly? I guessed this was taken at a hotel where Mutombo might have been staying shortly after an early visit to Denver, but I couldn't really find a building that had outdoor patios like this. I rotated the Google Earth view around 180 degrees and the answer became completely obvious and made perfect sense: The Denver Athletic Club. It's at 1325 Glenarm, and is older than any building you see here.

Back in 1992, you had a straight-on view from the Denver Athletic Club to the Kittredge Building, across many surface parking lots that were once a common sight. That space is now occupied by the Denver Pavilions, a two-block shopping mall, which also houses the movie theater where I saw Inception and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Anyway, back to the card, as this drifted into tangent territory long ago. Since this is Upper Deck, of course there is a hologram on the back. It's not in the shape of a circle or diamond or home plate as found in early UD baseball sets, but rather in the shape of a triangle, generally representing the shape of a hoop and net.

Also on the back is Mutombo's career record at Georgetown. He won the Big East Defensive Player of the Year award in 1991, an award he'd win in the NBA four times. Georgetown alum Patrick Ewing is noted as the all-time leader in blocked shots for the Hoyas, and Mutombo is listed as being right behind him. Alonzo Mourning, a teammate of Mutombo's at Georgetown, is second on that career list.

I have to admit, I follow college basketball even less than pro basketball, especially in 2020 where the March Madness tournament didn't happen at all. But it is good to get a reminder of stars in other sports, especially in light of The Last Dance, the Michael Jordan documentary that aired this spring in which Patrick Ewing found himself in a fierce rivalry with His Airness. The documentary also fueled a flurry of interest in basketball cards throughout the hobby, and I got a glimpse at how highly valued some of these cards can be. Michael Jordan is right up there with Griffey and even beyond.

Leave it to me to turn a one-card post into a thousand words and take an entire Padres-Rockies game to write it. But I'm missing the city itself these days. I drive past many of these buildings when I go see a game anyway, and I haven't done that this year. Thanks to Upper Deck for giving us a look at Downtown Denver, circa 1992, and thanks to The Diamond King for crossing another want off my list.