The Trading Post #104: Dime Boxes (Part 2: Random Goodies)

Last time I posted, the League Championship Series were just getting underway. Today, the World Series started, featuring an old NL West matchup between the Astros and Dodgers. It's shaping up to be an interesting series already, as the temperature at gametime was 103°F. That's a scorcher, and much, much warmer than Game 3 of the 2007 World Series, where it was so cold the vendors were selling hot chocolate in the aisles of Coors Field.

My Rockies are long since out of it, and I'm not sure how far they would have made it even if they won the Wild Card game. But I have plenty of cards to write about, such as the team bag of "Random Goodies" that Dime Box Nick included in a recent trade. Unlike the long part 1 post, there are no Rockies to be found in this one, but it's a quintessential Nick trade package.

2017 Donruss #173b Daniel Murphy SP ("Murph" Black and White)

As luck would have it, I commented first on one of his frankenset posts, voting for a Wilson Alvarez card, who was a member of the White Sox in 1993, the first Postseason I ever watched. Or at least the first one I remember watching. That comment earned me a "little something special", starting off with a short print from 2017 Donruss featuring Daniel Murphy. The runner-up for the NL batting title in two straight years is referred to by his nickname "Murph" in a classic Donruss script font.

That nickname reminds me more of Matthew McConaughey's daughter in Interstellar, but I don't regularly listen to Nationals broadcasts, so maybe they really do call him that. Still, it doesn't quite have the same ring as "The Duke of Flatbush" or "Charlie Hustle", players who also got a short-printed variation in 2017 Donruss.

2015 Topps Update Chrome #US377 Taijuan Walker

Like Daniel Murphy, Taijuan Walker exited the postseason in the NLDS, of course earlier than he intended. The former Mariner had a disastrous outing in Game 1 of the NLDS, giving up four runs in the first inning. He got through the first, if you can call it that, but the bullpen took over to start the second inning, and the Diamondbacks didn't muster much of an offense against the Dodgers.

I've been hearing hype about Taijuan Walker for a long time, even picking him for my fantasy team a few years ago. He does have a .500 winning percentage in his five seasons, but I think he's past the "Future Stars" stage of his career. Star or not, I'll add a sparkly card like this from Topps Chrome any day of the week. It's not even a parallel; all the Chrome Update cards that year looked like this. And judging by the cold reception that 2017 Update has received, Topps might want to do something similar to jazz up the set.

Or put Chris Taylor in the set. The guy did just hit Dallas Keuchel's first World Series pitch for a long home run in Dodger Stadium.

2017 Stadium Club Black Foil #18 Fernando Rodney

This Stadium Club card tears at me in two directions. It is a Stadium Club card, and it's a black parallel, which goes quite well with the Diamondbacks uniform colors. But on the other hand, it's no secret that I'm not a big fan of the D-Backs, and Fernando Rodney might be my least-favorite player in all of baseball. There's never a dull moment when he's on the mound, which is fine when you're a Rockies fan, but it's nerve wracking to watch. And this sideways thing he and Pedro Strop do with their caps makes me cringe a bit.

2016 Topps Amazing Milestones #AM-05 Nolan Ryan

Despite his long and storied career, Nolan Ryan played in just nine postseason games. Some of those were in 1969, when he won the World Series with the Miracle Mets, but he never won another Postseason series. He has ties to the Astros organization right now, but he suffered some hard luck when he was CEO of the Rangers franchise earlier this decade.

Of course, he's well known for his eye-popping total of 5,714 strikeouts, which is the subject of this Amazing Milestones insert card. It's a staggering number, but I won't necessarily call it unbreakable. Randy Johnson fell short by close to a thousand when he retired, but the way strikeouts are piling up more and more in today's game, it's not inconceivable that someone might beat that. On the other hand, Rickey Henderson's stolen base record is probably safe, and coincidentally, Rickey was Nolan's 5,000th strikeout victim in 1989, as this card tells us.

2016 Topps Pink #237 Carlos Ruiz /50

The smoke effect of 2016 Topps is replaced by a pattern of small hexagons and "2016 Topps" lettering on colored parallels, just like you might have seen in Opening Day. When it's pink, that means it's pretty rare, and if you flip this foilboard card over, you'll see a silver serial number to just 50 copies! This one is rare enough that I'll probably put it in a toploader rather than a binder.

Horizontal cards are always welcome, and I particularly like that we're staring directly down the barrel of a TV camera in the background. And it's always a bonus when the parallel color matches the team colors reasonably well. The shades are rarely exactly perfect, but close enough, I say.

1991 Stadium Club #388 Jeff Bagwell (RC)

A very young-looking Jeff Bagwell was a highlight of 1991's inaugural Stadium Club set, marking the year when Topps starting taking their upstart competition seriously. Full bleed, gold foil, a colorful back. Put yourself in your 1991 shoes and remember how amazing (and expensive) this card once was. It was cutting edge, and let's not forget that we're looking at 1991's NL Rookie of the Year, back when the Astros were still in the NL West. Or in the National League at all, for that matter.

The Hall of Famer wasn't always a big-leaguer. Once upon a time, even future MVPs had to take practice next to the metal bleachers behind the school. 1991 wasn't that long ago, and while Heritage still gives us images like this, it's hard to picture a current flagship card showing us such humble beginnings. Let's be honest, this doesn't look too different from our Little League team photos, does it?

2016 Topps Archives Bull Durham #BD-T Tony / Tom Silardi

Nick finds oddballs better than just about anyone. I realize this is an official Topps insert set from Archives, but it's just whimsical enough to qualify as an oddball in my book. Topps accurately used the 1988 design for their Bull Durham insert set, starring none other than Kevin Costner, the king of baseball movies. The '88 film has plenty of memorable scenes, including the rainout scene, where Tony, the subject of this card, wants a day off in the middle of a dry spell. Crash Davis sabotages the sprinkler system, and minor league antics ensure.

There's already been a Major League insert set, and with the number of baseball movies out there, Topps could milk this idea for years to come. You can bet that I'd chase a Terence Mann card from Field of Dreams. Or maybe a Danny Hemmerling card from Angels in the Outfield, featuring a young Adrien Brody.

2017 Topps MLB Network #MLBN-10 Dan Plesac

So I guess the question before us is this: can Topps make an oddball? They're the only licensed brand left, and they're practically synonymous with the hobby, at least from a postwar standpoint. But this is the second guy in a suit and tie to make it onto the blog this month, and both have been Topps cards. Most of my Dan Plesac cards show him in a Brewers uniform, where he's the career leader for Milwaukee in ERA, saves, and a few other categories. But now he's part of the MLB Network crew, with a card that somehow looks less like a TV graphic than some recent Topps sets.

The photo is rather fuzzy, just like Tony's card from Bull Durham. Topps might be using some inferior screen captures for these cards, and it's conspicuous considering how sharp Topps Bunt cards look to my eye. So yes, even though they're the juggernaut of the industry, my vote is that there can be oddball Topps cards.

Discuss.

2006 Greats of the Game Nickname Greats Autographs #NG-JM John Montefusco The Count (AU)

It's been all Topps so far, but Fleer got in on the action, too. Here's a beautiful autograph from Giants pitcher John Montefusco, a player I must admit I'd never heard of. "The Count" was 1975's NL Rookie of the Year, but had somehow escaped my baseball knowledge until now. I forget where, but I just saw another card from this set on another blog recently, and judging by today's nicknames, I doubt we'll see a set like this anytime soon featuring current players. As much as Donruss insists, I just don't see "Murph" showing up on a sticker autograph.

Bonus points to this card for giving us just a tiny bit of gold foil on the back, in the form of a Fleer logo.

1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes #179 Don Baylor

There's an error on this card. It's not that Don Baylor is pictured with a Rockies hat, as he was managing the young club when this card was printed. It's not a flipped negative or anything like that. The error can be unearthed in the paragraph on the back, where Baylor is said to have been hit by 244 pitches in his career. That number happens to be incorrect.

It's just one of those statistics etched into the baseball area of my brain, but Don Baylor was hit by 267 pitches. This was mentioned rather frequently in early Rockies TV broadcasts, and is rather difficult to forget once you hear it. I also remember when Craig Biggio took over this record, and these guys must have nerves of steel. My career HBP in little league was about two. Once on the helmet, once on the elbow. That was about enough for me. And I was not facing Major League pitching. I imagine that would look something like an old Western, where a single shotgun blast sends a bad guy tumbling backwards through a wooden wall and into a trough.

1980 Kellogg's #56 Don Baylor

That familiar-looking UD card highlights Baylor's MVP 1979 season. Kellogg's gave him a card in their 1980 set, and the fragile plastic has only picked up a single crack in over 35 years. No Angel had won the MVP award before Baylor, and only Vladimir Guerrero and of course Mike Trout have picked up the award since. The back has the old California Angels logo, which is just the outline of California with "Angels" written vertically down the state, a little halo up at the Oregon coastal border, and a tiny star right in Anaheim.

Kellogg's was giving us middle names of players before Donruss was around to educate us, and I'm glad to have a couple new cards of Donald Edward Baylor, who passed away just a few months ago.

1964 Beatles Black and White #145 John, Paul, George, Ringo

Further to my point that Topps can make oddballs, Nick found a card of The Fab Four from 1964, the year The Beatles became a worldwide sensation. Nick is a huge Beatles fan, so I'm not surprised that he sent me something like this. The back is plain, containing little more than the card number and copyright date, and this particular example has a bit of adhesive tape residue on both sides, and a little conveniently-located paper loss on the front.

Not to mention a facsimile signature of John Lennon.

I'm sure a rock-and-roll buff could pinpoint this photograph quite accurately, the way we baseball nuts can find out which game George Brett's sunset card is from. I'm not that expert, but I'm happy to add a card from the most influential rock band in history to my collection.

1969 Topps #285 Don Mincher

Many of my Seattle Pilots cards are really hastily rebranded Brewers cards. And the others probably came from Nick. I have a half page worth of 1970 cards, but the expansion draft took place in late 1968. That gave Topps enough time to get an actual Pilots team set together for the 1969 set, but not with new jerseys. Rockies and Marlins collectors in 1993 ran into that a lot. Don Mincher (another player I'd never heard of) is an airbrushed California Angel, selected in the 1968 draft just a few years after the Angels themselves came into existence.

That led me to wonder how the Rockies and Marlins fared in the 1997 Expansion Draft to stock the newly-created Diamondbacks and Devil Rays, and it turns out that two of the first four picks came from the Marlins and Rockies. Tony Saunders was taken first overall from Florida, then the Rockies lost Quinton McCracken in fourth. Both teams had playoff appearances under their belt by then, and the Marlins were fresh off a World Series championship.

I wasn't really collecting in 1998, nor did I have much geographic proximity to either of the new teams, but I remember the card industry being a lot more focused on the Rockies and Marlins than on the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays.

Of course, I obviously wasn't collecting in 1969, either. Although I did find it interesting to see that the Padres, Expos, Pilots, and Royals all had to stay in their respective leagues for the '68 draft, and Mincher went second overall on the AL side of things.

And it was a much safer draft than some other drafts that took place in the late 1960s, if you get my meaning.

1962 Topps #133 Felipe Alou

I'll never know why a past owner of this 1962 Topps card decided to mark it with a large "W" in ballpoint pen, but it's a prominent feature. Felipe Alou would later go on to manage the team he used to play for, as well as one of those '68 expansion teams, and also presided over one of the worst baserunning blunders in baseball history.

I notice that these older sets were more likely to talk about a player's minor league performance. This was Alou's fifth Major League season, but the card back mentions his 1958 Pacific Coast League season, and his cartoon calls out his league-leading.380 batting average from his time in the Class-D Florida State League in 1956. .380 is great and all, but wasn't there anything he did on the 1958-1961 Giants besides have a brother on the same team?

Even Mickey Mantle's 1962 card was not immune. Despite Mantle winning six World Series rings by then, numerous consecutive All-Star appearances, a Triple Crown (which the paragraph at least mentions), and leading the league in pretty much everything for a decade, the cartoon could do no better than to feature Mantle's .383 average in the Western Association with Class-C Joplin in 1950.

Suddenly some design gripes here and there on modern cards don't seem so bad.

By the way, I also checked Al Kaline's 1962 card. Kaline never played in the Minors, according to the back, so Topps had no choice but to make the cartoon about his 10 All-Star appearances.

Regardless of any, um, customization that was done to this card, and despite some less-than-relevant statistics, it's my favorite vintage Topps set ever. I'll forgive a lot for a woodgrain design, apparently.

You never know where these vintage cards will take you. I hadn't even heard of two of these guys before. As well as you think you know this sport, or this hobby, there's always more to learn. And Nick is a great guide.

The Trading Post #74: Cards on Cards

I have a ton of Rockies duplicates. When you're the representative for a team on the #SuperTraders list, it's likely that you'll end up with a few extras.

1992 Donruss #350 Ray Lankford

I can safely assume that's the case for my fellow trading partners, judging by the Cardinals extras used as packing material in a trade from Cards on Cards earlier this year. He sent me lots of, um, cards, and even though I've completed 1992 Donruss, a dugout shot of speedster Ray Lankford before I got to the Rockies nestled safely within the team bag is a nice bonus.

2007 Upper Deck #667 Byung-Hyun Kim

Byung-Hyun Kim was a Rockie for a couple seasons, primarily in 2006 and for a handful of games in 2007 before being traded to Florida. His sidearm delivery is pictured well on this 2007 Upper Deck card (one of the few later UD sets I can recognize on sight), and the card mentions his transition from closer to starter.

He always seemed to be on the wrong side of famous home runs, allowing the Yankees to nearly grab the 2001 World Series, and helping Derek Jeter get his "Mr. November" nickname. He also gave up #715 to Barry Bonds as a Rockie, on which Bonds passed Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list with only Hank Aaron ahead of him.

Amazing that Bonds hit that shot over ten years ago.

1997 Bowman #349 Shawn Chacon (RC)

That was the only one that Bonds got off Kim, but he did hit three off Shawn Chacon. Chacon, a native of Alaska, began pitching in the Rockies rotation a few seasons after his first Bowman card. He was picked for the All-Star team in 2003, one of the few Rockies pitchers to have that honor. But he went an abysmal 2-16 in his next two seasons for the Rockies, who traded him to the Yankees in 2005.

1997 Bowman #331 Todd Helton

Todd Helton appeared just a few cards prior in that same Bowman set, and 1997 was the exact year Helton kicked off his memorable career. This card was printed before that, so it doesn't have much to talk about beyond a scouting report, listing his success in the Minor Leagues, his "swing to die for", and his three starts at QB at the University of Tennessee.

Though the card doesn't mention it, Helton had to come out of the game in that third start, replaced by a now well-known NFL player named Peyton Manning. No one knew it at the time, but this card had a lot of Denver sports history ahead of it.

2011 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball Highlight Sketches #BHS-22 Ubaldo Jimenez

Allen & Ginter gave Rockies Fans an insert card in 2011 commemorating the first, and so far only no-hitter in Rockies history. The back is sure to point out that this feat wasn't achieved at Coors Field, but he had untouchable stuff on April 17, 2010, even though he walked six batters.

April is a fun time to be a Rockies fan, let me tell you.

Surprisingly, six or more walks in a no-hitter isn't that uncommon. Dock Ellis walked eight in his LSD-fueled gem, A.J. Burnett walked nine earlier this century, and the record is ten in ten innings by Jim Maloney of the Reds in the mid-'60s, of course against the Cubs. Could it be that batters hold back in some of these games expecting to get a free pass?

2008 UD A Piece of History #115 Seth Smith (RC)

I've been sent a couple cards form 2008 A Piece of History via trade, which were printed right after the Rockies' magical 2007 season. this Rookie card, which looks more like a tombstone than 1972 Topps ever did, has Smith listed as a rookie on both the design itself and the logo in the upper right. He was a mid-September call-up in 2007, but did well enough that he got to be a part of the Rockies playoff run, getting a few clutch pinch hits and scoring or driving in some key runs.

You never know what can happen in September. Hopefully you keep yourselves in the pennant race long enough for some star rookie to help push you over the edge.

2016 Topps Spring Fever #SF-33 Jon Gray (RC)

I'm always surprised at how many Spring Fever cards I run across, given how limited their distribution is. I guess there are still a lot of card shops out there. This one has some great color-coding to match Jon Gray's jersey. I've seen him pitch a few times in his short career, including his fourth career start, in which he faced Bartolo Colon but got chased out of the game in the 2nd inning, partially by the first of Yoenis Cespedes' three home runs that day. He's settled down for the most part, but still tends to have a rough first inning.

2015 Topps Toys R Us Purple Border #540 Drew Stubbs

Even though Drew Stubbs isn't a Rockie anymore, he did get this Purple parallel in 2015 Topps, as perfect a colored border as ever there was one. These came from packs exclusively sold at Toys-R-Us, and while I haven't been to a Toys-R-Us in decades, most of my 1991 Score collection came from there.

This isn't just a colored border, there's actually some foil and shininess going on here. The three rows of dots at the bottom are printed in silver foil, as his Stubbs' name. I don't like it quite as much as 2013 Topps Emerald, but I'd love to find more of these.

2015 Topps Chrome Prism Refractors #58 Justin Morneau

Morneau isn't a Rockie any longer either. He's now on the White Sox, who a few days ago reached a 55-60 record after 110 games, precisely as they did in 2015 and 2014. This Chrome card looked like a base card to me at first glance, but it has a pattern in the background of some kind. There doesn't seem to be any sort of colored border, so I'll guess that this is the Prism Refractor. Under the right light, it's pretty striking.

2010 Topps Chrome #93 Carlos Gonzalez

This is definitely CarGo's Chrome base card from 2010, and happily, it's about the flattest 2010 Chrome card I've ever seen. The curl in that set was the worst I've ever seen, but this is a pretty good specimen. You tend not to see umpires on cards very often, but the home plate ump #41 is watching what looks like a walk-off hit by Gonzalez.

2015 Topps Chrome Sepia Refractors #77 Charlie Blackmon

Charlie Blackmon has continued to grow as a baseball player and as a beard-wearer. He hit three home runs in a game against the Phillies last week, though they were in vain in a 10-6 loss. His post-swing pose appears on this Topps Chrome Sepia parallel, one of the more common of the many varieties from that release. It's actually a pretty interesting juxtaposition of a photograph that looks like it could be a century old (especially with that beard) on a card with lots of shininess and gloss. Topps elected not to specify what variety this card is, or even that it's a refractor of any kind.

If they want to print up all these varieties, fine, but I'd find if extremely helpful if they told us which was which, even a little bit.

2015 Topps Update Tape Measure Blasts #TMB-2 Andres Galarraga

In a stack of Rockies this big, there are sure to be plenty of Blake Street Bombers. This is actually a pretty recent card, but fan favorite Andres Galarraga hit such a memorable grand slam one day in Miami that he got honored in this 15-card insert set from 2015 Update. It went halfway up an empty third deck, driving in four (yes, you get your own RBI on a home run), and cementing his place in Rockies highlight reels for years to come. Other players in this set come from the annals of baseball history, including Ted Williams, Josh Gibson, David Ortiz, and Reggie Jackson.

The Marlins had a tarp over the upper sections that day, one of which had the Jackie Robinson 50th Anniversary logo on it. That logo patch appears on Galarraga's sleeve...

1998 Score #97 Vinny Castilla

...as well as on a very cold Vinny Castilla's sleeve on this Score card. It's a Coors Field card, with the right-center wall just visible in the background. I don't know when this was taken, but it looks absolutely freezing out there. I don't envy whoever's at the plate. Hitting a ball in cold weather really does a number on your hands and wrists. It could be in April or even May, as wintry weather still tends to hang on a bit into spring around here.

As is common for a late-1990s card, there are a lot of fonts being used. The last name is in an easy-to-read stencil font, the team name in a basic serif font, and the letters of his first name each housed in their own little rounded cylinders, sort of like an old-time cash register. The color-coding is nice, though.

1994 Score Rookie/Traded #RT16 Walt Weiss

Score's Rookie and Traded sets tended to be a bit louder than the base sets, but the front of the card is relatively simple. It's almost like an evolved 1990 Donruss. There's a Pittsburgh Pirates cameo here alongside a young Walt Weiss, and it's fellow middle infielder Carlos Garcia.

When Weiss signed with the Rockies, triggering this late-series update, he became the first player to represent both the expansion Marlins and Rockies. He's currently managing the Rockies, but some question remains as to whether he'll continue that job in 2017 and beyond.

2016 Topps Heritage #166 Tom Murphy (RC) / Jon Gray (RC)

This year's Heritage set, using the 1967 design, has a few multi-player cards to be found in it. Both these rookies have reached the Majors, though Jon Gray seems to have more staying power. Tom Murphy does seem to show up on a lot of Topps cards, though. That same structure is behind Jon Gray as we saw on numerous Heritage cards last year. The back of the card mentions Gray's last Triple-A start before his call-up, where he struck out eight batters on the Salt Lake Bees.

More on why I know that Salt Lake's Triple-A team is called the Bees in an upcoming post.

2011 Topps Update #US2 Ty Wigginton

Ty Wigginton has been coming up a lot around here, previously on some Topps Minis I received from Tony L at Off Hiatus Baseball Cards. This one is from the 2011 Update set, a year before that 2012 card of his was printed for the main set.

Though he's listed as a third baseman, he's stretching with all his might to catch the ball at first before Rickie Weeks (another #23) beats it out. I'll guess this is from May 21st, 2011, a day when Wigginton started at first in place of Todd Helton. Hard to say which exact play it was, or whether Weeks made it to first safely. It's definitely a bang-bang play, and the lower banner mostly obscures what's occurring on the bag itself.

1993 Upper Deck Home Run Heroes #HR20 Ray Lankford

Seeing as these Rockies cards all came sandwiched in team bags between Cardinals, I figured it would be appropriate to do the same on this post. I'll pick another Ray Lankford card, and even though he was a leadoff center fielder, obviously a player you'd expect to have lots of speed, he still got a card in Upper Deck's Homerun Heroes insert set from 1993 UD by leading the Cardinals in home runs for 1992. He was only one behind Ozzie Smith on stolen bases, so Lankford was clearly a well-rounded player.

A fitting bookend to a well-rounded trade package.

The Pity Prize Group Break (Part 1: The Rockies)

Back in October, Nachos Grande ran a group break consisting of some later 2015 releases: Stadium Club, Heritage High Numbers, Chrome, etc.... I signed up for my usual Rockies slot, knowing full well that he'd throw in some extras regardless of what came out of the primary boxes. And what did come out of those boxes was all sorts of shiny goodness.

2015 Topps Chrome #108 Rafael Ynoa (RC)

Rafael Ynoa has yet to really make his mark as a Rockie, but with the Rockies continuing to stockpile outfielders, and Arenado firmly entrenched at third base, there might not be much room for him on the roster, especially given his late arrival to the Majors. Still, he got a card in Topps Chrome, and I really like that the chromey outline that usually just surrounds the player extends to the ripple and curved lines on the bottom. See all the extra things you can do without a plain white border?

2015 Topps Chrome #66 Nolan Arenado

Arenado's Chrome card came my way too, which shows off his uniform number in a great post-swing pose, just like the rainbow foil version that I got via trade earlier this year. The curl on this year's Chrome cards isn't too bad, and the awesome border of the 2015 set gets even more accentuated with the shiny treatment.

2014 Stadium Club #132 Wilin Rosario

I'm pretty sure I had this one already, as my trading career in the cardsphere kicked off right around when 2014 Stadium Club launched. Rosario is stoked about something, and you can even see a reflection of Coors Field in his helmet. There was a bit of 2015 Stadium Club as well, which I'll get to later, but of the two, I think I prefer the 2014 set. It was pretty groundbreaking when it came out (assuming you're not an autograph collector), and the photography really couldn't be beat. 2015 is pretty similar, but I prefer the color coding found in 2014.

2015 Topps Heritage #532 Daniel Descalso

I've never been that interested in Heritage High Numbers; usually the first series is sufficient. All I'm really after with Heritage is the design. They don't need to deliberately reproduce the same errors and gimmicks that existed 49 years ago. Still, it is nice to see some of the lesser-known players in this later series. Descalso pretty much flew under the radar for his first year as a Rockie, but it's always nice to have a guy or two with playoff experience in the clubhouse. Just in case. His 44 postseason games are even the subject of the cartoon on the back.

2015 Topps Heritage #540 Rafael Betancourt

Wherever they shot Descalso's photo, they also shot Betancourt's and most of the other Rockies in this set. I can't quite tell what that structure is behind them. Probably the back of the scoreboard in whichever spring training facility they're in, but at a distance, it looks like the mesh fence at the edge of a driving range.

2015 Stadium Club #242 Troy Tulowitzki

I usually don't have much of a problem with foil, but that's really all there is on the front of 2015. I like to see just a bit of color. Of course, it has the stellar photography this brand is known for, and they even spelled his name right. I got Morneau's card too, which somehow looks even sharper. Printing technology has progressed dramatically, so I can see plenty of detail with that magnifying glass I just got.

2012 Triple Play #26 Todd Helton

2012 Triple Play was a late addition to the group break, and this might be my first time seeing it. I built the complete short set of 2013 Triple Play, and I feel like the caricatures that year were way more interesting than this inaugural (and penultimate) year.

2012 Panini Prizm #170 Drew Pomeranz (RC)

Let's not forget Prizm, another Panini brand that Chris threw in later on in the break. This Prizm set has the MLBPA logo front and back, surely to compensate for the fact that they don't have an MLB license. It's more or less a Topps Chrome equivalent, and now that we have a couple years of the resurrected Donruss under our belts, the little printed (though textureless) indentations look a lot like 2014 Donruss.

2012 Panini Prizm Prizms Green #162 Jordan Pacheco

This Pacheco rookie card parallel was the only "hit" I got from this break. My luck ran a little short, and I didn't end up with any other inserts, parallels, or relics/autos. I was shut out on the Topps High Tek box, which is fine, since I struck it big last time.

So if this is the only one, at least it's green.

Now, I don't tremendously mind the lack of logos and team names on Panini products, but the fact that they totally altered his jersey does bug me a bit. The Rockies have never worn solid white jerseys; their home jerseys have always had pinstripes. He is clearly at Coors Field here, so they did some pretty extensive photo editing on this one. All the black trim and accessories make him look like he's on the White Sox, but they have pinstripes, too!

But at least it's green.

2001 Stadium Club Diamond Pearls #DP19 Todd Helton

So is this one of Helton, though it's a different shade than I usually see. We're past the main group break items, so now we're into the stack of extras that Chris invariably throws in. It's an insert card from early in Helton's career, but toward the end of Stadium Club's initial run. I've seen so few of the late-90s insert sets that every one is pretty much new. This even lives up to its name, as the white area of the infield really does have an iridescent look. Even all the little white baseballs front and back look like pearls.

2008 Topps Gold Foil #25 Kaz Matsui

Kaz Matsui was one of the heroes of the Rockies 2007 postseason, drilling a grand slam in game 2 to set them up for the NLDS sweep. Though he became an Astro the following year, I won't soon forget his performance as a Rockie.

Even better, this is the gold foil parallel, one of which was found in every other pack. I wasn't really collecting that year, and all I know is the usual silver foil on the base cards. They kept up the tradition of printing a gold-bordered card with a /2008 serial number, but these gold foil cards aren't serial numbered. They do make the 2008 design look a bit better, even though that Topps logo encroaches on the photo, leading some to call this the "uvula set".

2008 Upper Deck X Xponential 2 #X2-TT Troy Tulowitzki

The second horizontal Tulo card in this post is brought to you by the letter X and the number 2. Upper Deck really likes the letter X. You've seen Xponential cards before, as I got an Xponential Griffey from a Collector's Crate box about a year ago, which is the most common of four insert sets. But this is the rarer Xponential 2 insert set (Xponential Squared?) which had fewer cards and was harder to find in packs. Perhaps one day I'll find cards from the Xponential Cubed and Xponential to the power of 4 insert sets.

That's not really what they were called. I'm just a math nerd.

1994 SP Die Cuts #164 Dante Bichette

When I was a kid, I knew of Upper Deck SP, but it was way out of my price range, and I liked Topps Finest better, anyway. It wasn't until the last few years that I started seeing SP cards. I knew I had seen the standard-cut version of this card before; turns out Chris sent it to me as a bonus card in his previous group break! Oddly, this card has a silver UD hologram on the back. I had always thought that SP cards came with a gold hologram, but I stand corrected. I like the shape, too. In my interpretation it's supposed to look like a Hall of Fame plaque, something any Rockie has yet to earn.

It doesn't end there, though! In Chris' judgment, my Rockies slot did the "worst" of all the 30 teams, so I ended up with a special prize as a consolation. Keep an eye out for my next post on that.