The Trading Post #174: Dime Boxes (Part 3: Shiny)

One year later, I'll finally be wrapping up the longest post series ever. I've had this last little pile of goodies set aside from Nick's 10th anniversary over at Dime Boxes, which has now moved houses with me in the same little team bag.

But wait, you might say. Didn't Nick just celebrate his 12th blog anniversary with another giveaway? Yes, yes he did. And I have a whole new stack of cards on my desk related to that, which I hope to get to before his 13th. 

No promises.

But even with all the changes over the past year, weekends in mid-January still mean NFL playoffs, which make for some of my favorite background content while writing these posts. 

What completely escaped my attention several days ago is that somehow I just passed my own tenth blog anniversary! As of the 15th, apparently I've kept this little thing going for a full decade. And looking back on my first-ever post, it was pretty much just an explanation about how Nick got me started on this whole thing in the first place.

We have truly come full-circle.

2002 Topps Chrome Traded #T68 Sandy Alomar Jr.

What hasn't changed in the past decade is my love for shiny cards. Part 3 of this blog series that has sprawled across the biggest period of change in my life will focus on the shiny, or at least the serially-numbered.

If any of my readers play the daily baseball-themed puzzle game Immaculate Grid, take note of the above card for the next time Cleveland and Colorado intersect. Sandy Alomar, Jr., the 1990 AL Rookie of the Year (also a useful bit of info) briefly stopped by 20th & Blake for 38 games in 2002, as documented on this Topps Traded card. A true "Short-Term Stop", to borrow Nick's phrase.

Alomar was well into a lengthy career by 2002, so the short paragraph on the card back only has room to simply tell us that the White Sox traded the veteran catcher to the Rockies for Enemencio Pacheco, a pitching prospect who never progressed past Triple-A.

Speaking of the White Sox, the team where Alomar spent the second-longest portion of his career, I recently learned of a documentary available on YouTube called Last Comiskey. I've only watched one of three parts so far, but it offers a look at the 1990 White Sox season, their last in the original Comiskey Park.

2017 Finest Breakthroughs #FB-NA Nolan Arenado

Turning to 2017, when Nolan Arenado still covered the hot corner for the Rockies, we come to the Topps Finest insert set "Breakthroughs".

As best I can tell, this set was unique to 2017, but it absolutely has the look and feel of a mid-90s insert set, something like Power Zone from Stadium Club. It has all the elements. Huge block lettering in all capitals, an eye catching star pattern suitable for a comic book panel, a team logo that is bursting through an area of fractured rock or broken glass, and a close-up action shot. The player's name and the Topps Finest logo are squeezed into the corners like a mere afterthought.

How can you not love something like this?

The theme does actually have a point, in that the card back gives us the player's "Breakthrough Moment". One of Nolan's mentioned was his second-ever Major League home run, a grand slam off of Cy Young winner David Price in early 2013.

2017 Topps Chrome #92 Trevor Story

I'm not sure where Nick found all this 2017 Topps Chrome, but he sent me a base card that could possibly have come from the same pack as that great Arenado insert card. 

Six years ago to the day, the Refractor version of this Trevor Story card appeared on the blog in The Trading Post #112, and then the Prism Refractor version about a year later, both courtesy of Julie at A Cracked Bat, whose blog has sadly gone silent.

Surely I am nearing having the rainbow by now, right?

2021 Topps Update Gold #US195 C.J. Cron /2021

To my eye, this C.J. Cron parallel from 2021 looks more bronze than gold, but there's a /2021 serial number to prove that this is indeed the gold parallel, serially numbered with a print run equal to the card's calendar year.

Cron, currently a free agent, finally found a spot to settle down for a few seasons after changing hands like a hot potato. The card back calls it "five homes in five years", bouncing between the Angels, Rays, Twins, and briefly the Tigers, before finally reaching the National League and spending a few seasons in Colorado. The Rockies traded him back to the Angels in late 2023 along with Randal Grichuk in return for a couple pitching prospects.

Guys like that are useful to keep in mind for Immaculate Grid. I can't tell you how many times I should have guessed Nelson Cruz.

2003 Topps Traded Gold #T265 Clint Barmes FY (RC) /2003

Going back to 2003, we find that Topps Gold had a slightly lower print run. Topps oddly decided to document their 52nd Anniversary on the card front, as well as adding a 1st-year Card stamp that I believe is unique to 2003. The Chrome variety of this card has the same stamp in a non-foil version, and I've also seen it on a Hanley Ramirez card.

Thanks to Google Image Search for finding those. This is my 379th post. No one's memory is that good, not even mine.

Prophetically, in The Trading Post #134, I pointed out exactly where on the card back I would expect to find a serial number if I had a rarer version of this Clint Barmes card. Little did I know that one would eventually find its way to me.

2018 Topps Fire Hot Starts Gold #HS-19 Charlie Blackmon

This is not the first gold parallel from 2018 Topps Fire that has been added to my collection. In fact, it's not even the first such card of Charlie Blackmon. For a brand I can't recall ever purchasing at retail, I have a surprising number of Topps Fire cards filling my binders.

This one of Blackmon and his iconic beard is from the Hot Starts insert set, which highlights strong early-season performances. Topps got pretty specific on the card back, pointing out that Blackmon's first seven home runs of 2017 came in a mere 77 plate appearances, good for a "blistering" [note the fire pun] 9.1% Home Run Percentage.

Interestingly, for all you "Coors!" folks, those first seven home runs all came on the road, tying the team mark set by Ian Stewart in 2010. Even Trevor Story's white-hot 2016 debut included some shots at Coors Field. Refer to my prior post in this series for my fond memories of catching at least one of those at Buffalo Wild Wings.

It seems quite rare for the Rockies to play at home on Opening Day. Their home opener is usually a few days into the season, and that trend will continue for 2024, scheduled for April 5th, on what would have been my dad's 77th birthday.

The Rockies are indeed known for hot starts. More often than not, April and May is the best time to be a Rockies fan. No wonder I like spring so much. But by the time we reach the All-Star break, the team is usually out of the running.

By the way, we know Blackmon will be a Rockie for at least one more year, but to my knowledge he has not yet announced any plans for retirement.

2016 Donruss Optic Pink #48 Jonathan Gray RR

Jon Gray, who went by Jonathan on this 2016 Panini card, finally got a taste of the World Series and even won his ring with the Texas Rangers last year. If it's not going to be here, at least it's nice to see former Rockies find success somewhere.

In the 2023 Fall Classic, Gray threw 4.2 innings, struck out seven, and even got the win in Game 3 after taking over for Max Scherzer who had to depart with back spasms. That's the perfect way to get around the difficulty Jon Gray often had in the first inning.

This shiny Donruss Optic card is the Pink parallel, unique enough to warrant a second look on this blog, but not rare enough to earn a serial number.

2021 Bowman Chrome Prospect Autographs #CPA-DM Daniel Montano (AU)

Nick was apologetic about this card's condition. He knew I'd enjoy an on-card Rockies autograph, no matter how obscure the player, and I'm glad he threw it in. The blue ink is a little smudged, and though I was able to clean it up somewhat well, I assume it once had something spilled on it. I probably could have done a better job cleaning it, but didn't want to further damage the autograph.

We'll see how Daniel Montano progresses, but he hasn't really spent much time above the High-A level yet and has dropped off the team's top-30 prospects list. It isn't looking too promising. Still, I'll never turn down a shiny autograph.

2020 Topps Chrome Rookie Autographs #RA-DN Dom Núñez (AU)

The final card of this series is another on-card autograph which seems to have made it through the past few years in much better shape. Dom Núñez even cracked the code and made it to the Majors, though unfortunately he put up a -1.0 bWAR over three seasons, and despite showing a bit of pop for a catcher by hitting twelve home runs, he never exceeded a .200 batting average. Even in this day and age where a guy like Luis Arráez can hit .354 and be an extreme outlier, .180 for your career is not going to cut it.

In any case, I do remember seeing Núñez play, and I can at least make out his initials in his signature. I also enjoy the 2020 design. It's one of those designs I got quite familiar with, given how much time I spent on Topps Bunt when nothing was happening in the early years of the pandemic.

It's unlikely I'll ever match my high-water mark from 2015 of 72 posts in a year, but I certainly hope to beat 2023's total of just 6. I'm a third of the way there already, and looking forward to my second decade of baseball card blogging.

Congratulations to Nick on on ten, eleven, and twelve years!

Rockin' Retro Group Break the First (Part 1: Rockies)

Seeing as how Nachos Grande shipped my haul from his current group break today, it's probably a good idea for me to look at the retro cards he sent last time. I haven't blogged since the World Series ended, and then some, so I haven't offered my congratulations to the Red Sox for winning their fourth championship of the millennium, nor have I expressed condolences for the loss of Willie McCovey. May he and Stan Lee rest in peace.

Will I ever be caught up again? Time will tell. In the meantime, prepare to start seeing a lot of Topps Gold Label in these parts.

2017 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #15 David Dahl (RC)

David Dahl, who wisely scheduled his recent wedding for after the postseason (just in case), gives us our first look at the recently resurrected Topps Gold Label. After the success of Stadium Club's rebirth, Topps decided to dig into the archives for more ideas. Unfortunately, they brought the idea of a fractured set along with the name. I've never been thrilled with the concept, but at least there is some actual structure to all the variants, as opposed to the purely random variant chaos they've been giving us in flagship for a long time.

In a nod to the early Gold Label sets, the baseball fundamental depicted in the primary photo helps you identify which of three "classes" the card is in. A photo of a position player fielding indicates you're holding a Class 1 card. There's also an unbelievably faint vertical banner (almost like a security strip) on the left side of the card. Even under a magnifying glass, the light has to be just perfect to even glimpse it.

2017 Topps Gold Label Class 2 #15 David Dahl (RC)

Class 2 for a position player is a batting photo, which is slightly redundant, since the secondary picture already shows Dahl at the plate. Fortunately, the security strip is a touch easier to read, especially in the spot where it overlaps Dahl's uniform. The back is identical in both classes, and it mentions the record-tying 17-game hitting streak that he opened his career with. Dahl has a Gypsy Queen Allen & Ginter card that alludes to this as well, but Gold Label tells us that he shares this record with a Cincinnati Red named Chuck Aleno, who set the mark back in 1941.

1941 was a good year for hitting streaks.

2017 Topps Gold Label Class 3 #3 Trevor Story

I don't have a clue on the relative scarcity between the three classes, but I managed to obtain an example from each of them. Trevor Story on the basepaths signifies Class 3, confirmed by an even more visible security stripe. Story's been around for a while, so he doesn't get that nifty gold foil RC logo that David Dahl has, but there's still plenty of gold to go around, including the Topps logo in the upper right, which uses a logo I've never seen before. Seeing a capital "T" like that is just strange.

Story is a great all-around player, though he does strike out at an alarming rate. Still, he's excellent at the plate, and he now has a Silver Slugger award for his efforts, joining fellow Rockies Nolan Arenado and German Marquez in that award class.

1998 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #77 Dante Bichette

Brand-new sets of Gold Label aren't exactly "retro", but the inaugural 1998 set is. True to form, Dante Bichette's fielding pose identifies this as a Class 1 card, even though it's unlabeled. There's much more of a relief on this original set, especially the stamped logo, which contains the proper Topps font. It's delightfully thick and solid, and appears to be acetate, though it isn't transparent anywhere. The only slight gripe I have is that Bichette is wearing home and away jerseys on his two photos, but I'm splitting hairs. It's awesome that Nachos Grande found unopened boxes of these retro sets.

2016 Donruss Optic #9 Carlos Gonzalez DK

Shiny, too! Did I say shiny? It comes in the form of Donruss Optic, the quasi-Chrome set, and this time it's the normal white border, unlike the purple-bordered variety I once received from Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary, which I had slightly mislabeled until two minutes ago. Same painted look, same shiny finish, same unreadable kerning on the card back.

Seeing this in the normal white border makes me appreciate the colored borders even more. Purple is such a bold color, unique in baseball, that the base card almost seems like a different set. It looks more metallic, somehow more serious and weighty than with a fun purple border. I don't dislike it; it just has this visual sense that it could have been carved from an ingot of silver.

1998 Bowman Chrome #53 Neifi Perez

1998 Bowman Chrome is an under-represented set in my collection, which will become a theme throughout this post. Before this, I only had six cards from the set. I can at least fill one side of a page now, and Perez will be up toward the top. Under the right light, the Chrome finish makes Perez' uniform lettering, Jackie Robinson patch, batting glove, and shoes really pop. I don't recall most Chrome cards looking like that. Usually the player's outline is more prominent, but it's a really eye-catching look, almost like there are little jewels in the card.

Design-wise, it's a Bowman set that I can vaguely place within a 5-year window, but it looks very similar to 1999 Bowman. As with many years, the accent colors maintain the red/blue distinction between veterans and rookies. Todd Helton's card this year was a blue card; that's how retro we're talking here. And the card back is typical of Bowman, with a single year of stats and a scouting report. We're told about Perez' performance on June 26th, 1997, a win over the Giants in which he "participated" in five double plays. Knowing Perez' tendencies, I checked the box score to ensure he didn't "participate" by grounding into one. Luckily, his team had the ball (as the defense, weird, I know) during each of those five.

I wasn't really collecting in 1997. In fact, '97 was one of just two seasons in which I didn't go to a game at all. The other was 2000, which happened to coincide with the rise of a now-defunct online instant messaging program.

2002 Fleer Triple Crown #131 Larry Walker

2002 Triple Crown, the next retro set, is quite unfamiliar. Before this break, which massively expanded my hoard of this set, I had one single, lonely card in the bottom portion of a 2002 Fleer page. Too bad, because it's really a nice set, probably my favorite so far in this break. The three silver bars on both top and bottom look vaguely like something Pacific would have done. I don't think they ever did the whole selective glossy thing, where the player is glossy but the background is matte. It's nice to touch, one of those sets I can't resist touching perhaps a bit more than I should. Any lenticular card is like that in the extreme, of course, and my collection of 1994 Sportflics was a little mistreated by my 10-year old self and my fingernails.

Fleer didn't seem to make the trek to Denver in 2001 to snap their photos, since almost all the Rockies in this set are in their away uniforms. Confusingly, that involved pinstripes at the time, but Larry Walker is clearly sliding into third in front of a Cardinal (?) who is definitely considered to be part of the background.

2002 Fleer Triple Crown #107 Ben Petrick

Same goes for the tall Giants player behind Ben Petrick, who is flinging away his glossy catcher's mask. The cause of that is a bit unclear. It's likely a foul, but it could have been an extremely wild pitch that took an odd bounce or three. I don't recognize the Giant on this card, nor can I find anything out about the blue ribbon on his jersey. All I know for sure is that it's in SBC Park, a place where many Rockies were photographed for Fleer's multitude of 2002 sets.

The back of Petrick's card mentions another catcher whose name I haven't heard in years, Jason Kendall. Apparently, Jason's father, Fred, an ex-MLBer himself, served as a coach on the Rockies at the time.

2002 Fleer Triple Crown #251 Todd Helton PS

Fleer Triple Crown (not to be confused with the longer-lived Donruss Triple Play), included a few subsets at the end of the checklist. Pace Setters was one of them, and in addition to a little extra silver foil, the card took the opportunity to recount Helton's already stellar statistics both at the plate and in the field. Helton earned three Gold Gloves in his career, and if the Platinum Glove had existed at that time, he might have been in the running for that, too. Helton had numerous years under his belt by the time Yadier Molina reached the Bigs, and that's who has been winning most of the NL Platinum Gloves since its debut in 2011.

Nolan got it this year, though.

If Coors is such a hitter's park, then standout defenders playing there had better be getting that kind of recognition.

2012 Panini Cooperstown #97 Al Barlick

Things got a little weird after '02 Triple Crown. I'm fairly certain that I have an umpire or two in my Conlon Collection cards, but they're extremely rare. Topps has even gone so far as to edit umpires entirely out of photographs. But just look at Al Barlick's "You're Out!" call. If I were the batter, I would do everything humanly possible to make sure I got on base. Maybe even lean into a four-seam fastball.

He had a 27-season career as an ump, taking off a few years to serve in the Coast Guard during WWII. He earned "the utmost respect" from players, and he looks a bit more docile, if stern, on the card back. He became a member of Cooperstown in 1989, and since he's not wearing an official team logo, his forehead isn't oddly cropped out like many cards in the Panini Cooperstown set.

Barlick is one of just ten umpires in the Hall of Fame, and I doubt we'll be seeing anyone new enter the Hall anytime soon. Jim Joyce perhaps, but if Joe West makes it into the Hall before a Rockie does, I'm going to continue my fandom under protest.

1997 Sports Illustrated #27 Jamey Wright

Our final set is 1997 Sports Illustrated, a co-branded set released by Fleer. It's another set I only had a single card from, so this is mostly new to me. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but a grainy, sepia-toned headshot was probably not it. It's part of the Fresh Faces subset, documenting the early years of journeyman pitcher Jamey Wright's career. His longest tenure was with the Rockies, but after that, he spent time on nine other teams. Despite that, his only postseason appearance came in 2013 with the Rays as his career was drawing to a close.

Young Rockies pitchers held a lot more promise in 1997 than in later years, although that reputation is finally changing. But case in point, Fleer basically tells us on the back of this card that Roger Bailey, whose career would be over after 1997, had better stuff that Wright.

1997 Sports Illustrated #109 Vinny Castilla

Position players have always had an easier time at Coors Field than pitchers, and Castilla is so nonchalant that he's comfortable blowing a bubble as he jogs after a popup, batting gloves casually flopping out of his back pocket.

This is a player at ease.

The full-bleed photography found in this set is appealing, which is to be expected. Unfortunately, Sports Illustrated no longer has any photographers on their full-time payroll. I'm sure it saves money, but it erodes their brand if anyone else can pay to license the same photograph. That 1991 Topps set we all love so much had SI to thank for a lot of those images. And in a world where Topps has exclusivity, sports photographers don't have it easy.

1997 Sports Illustrated Great Shots #13 V.Castilla/A.Galarraga

The final bit of strangeness comes with this 5x7 folding photograph of who we're told is Andres Galarraga and Vinny Castilla. It's a 1997 set, but the player on the left really does not look like Vinny to me. He might be quite a bit younger, but I'm not 100% sure on identity here. And we can't see much of Galarraga's face at all, as he's clearly attending to something in his eye.

It's an odd picture on an odd card. The back is blank, and there's no card number, but the cropping works well to fit the fold of the paper. Each player is definitely on his own side.

This is a really great selection for a group break. It's nice to get the latest and greatest cards since it saves me a trip to Target, but to unearth these old gems really makes things different and reminds us how things have changed.

When I started today, Jason Kendall was not a a name I thought I'd hear.

That about wraps up the Rockies (and umpires, because there are no Rockies in the Hall yet). Part 2 will feature the Athletics.

The Shiny Donruss Group Break

Two months ago to the day, the cards from Colbey's Donruss Optic group break showed up in my mailbox. After a bunch more travel in September, and a nail-biter of a sudden-death game last night, I have a little time to get back to blogging. In the 2018 NL Wild Card Game, the Rockies managed to hold the Cubbies to a single run in 13 innings, the longest-ever elimination game in MLB Postseason history, advancing to the NLDS and bringing the month of Rocktober back to Colorado.

The cards that arrived from Cardboard Collections looked pretty familiar, and I've seen plenty of 2016 Donruss in the past few years. It's a common fixture in trade packages, and it's only 150 cards large, not counting short prints. But the shiny version, Donruss Optic, basically a clone of Topps Chrome, is a bit harder to come by. $4 to add the shiny quasi-parallels was literally a small price to pay.

2016 Donruss Optic #107 Nolan Arenado

Nolan Arenado will start us off today, and he began the scoring last night with a sacrifice fly, allowing his buddy Charlie Blackmon to score from third. Charlie was sent back to third after a ground rule double ended the previous play before he could score. But number 28 came through in the first, though he and much of the Rockies offense were shut down by Jon Lester and the Cubs bullpen for most of the game.

It was one of the greatest pitcher's duels I've ever seen, and to have Kyle Freeland on one end of it was amazing.

There are a handful of parks with brick behind the plate, and this Donruss Optic card may have gotten its photo courtesy of Wrigley Field. It's a bit tough to tell for sure. Regardless, Nolan won't soon forget his most recent game in the Windy City, including that odd hug with Javy Baez.

2016 Donruss Optic #48 Jonathan Gray RR (RC)

The Rockies gave Jon Gray the ball in last year's Wild Card game, which they lost to the Diamondbacks. Gray is notoriously unreliable in the first inning, so Bud Black decided not to go with him this time around. He'll surely start at some point in the NLDS. 

He's long past being a Rated Rookie, perhaps Donruss' most famous subset besides Diamond Kings. And he's shortened up his name, just going by Jon these days. He's a strong pitcher, and I'm glad to have him in the rotation, but he hasn't quite been able to handle the pressure like Kyle Freeland. 

2016 Donruss Optic Purple #53 Trevor Story RR

It doesn't seem that long ago, but Trevor Story was once a Rated Rookie, too. His flurry of home runs at the beginning of the 2016 season is mentioned on the back, but no one knew that he'd soon take to regularly launching home runs onto the left field concourse at Coors Field, some even eclipsing 500 feet. I've seen him hit home runs in person, and I can assure you, he absolutely puts them into orbit.

This purple parallel (a border color tailor-made for Rockies cards) shows Story in the field, where he's no slouch, either. In fact, he speared a liner yesterday with a man on, which kept the momentum on the Rockies' side.

I've noticed that Donruss is prominently featuring player's uniform numbers on these photos, which is just as well, since this is of course an unlicensed set. Gray's #55 is a bit covered up, but #27 and #28, the stellar left side of the Rockies infield, are clearly visible, and show one of the more significant uniform changes since Marvin Freeman and the early days of the franchise. 

2016 Donruss Optic Purple #56 Tom Murphy RR

There were about as many purple parallels in this shipment as base cards, and that Rated Rookie logo is enjoying its time back in the spotlight, after years of being shoved into basements and closets.

Tom Murphy, #23, played in a handful of games for the Rockies this season, but there is a bit of a logjam at the catcher's spot this year. Chris Iannetta is enjoying Rocktober once again, and apparently Drew Butera became a Rockie about a month ago, unbeknownst to me. But the real catcher hero yesterday was none other than Tony Wolters (which ESPN kept mispronouncing "Walters"). With two outs, Wolters singled Trevor Story in during the top of the 13th, and it ended up being the game winner. Scott Oberg wasted no time in striking out the side in the bottom of the 13th, and the Rockies got to pop some champagne for the first time in quite a while.

2016 Donruss Optic Aqua #72 Carlos Gonzalez /299

CarGo has been a Rockie for ten seasons, but other than when they clinched a playoff spot last year just edging out the pre-Yelich Brewers (and I guess Friday when they sealed this year's spot), yesterday was the first time CarGo got to spray champagne around the clubhouse. It couldn't have been easy for the Cubs to watch two teams in two days celebrate in Wrigley Field as visitors, but that's how it ended up this year with the two tiebreaker situation. One of the four teams had to lose two winner-take-all games in a row. I would have preferred it if that had been the Dodgers, but we'll get them in the NLCS, unless the Braves take care of them first.

The Yankees have won the AL Wild Card as I wrap up this post, so I'll close with this Aqua parallel of Carlos Gonzalez' Donruss Optic card, serial numbered to 299 copies. I bet this one is at Wrigley, too, judging by that brick and the fan in blue and red apparel. Maybe even from the same game as Nolan.

CarGo's Diamond Kings card from 2016 Optic is the only one from the set that has appeared on this blog before, a trade post concerning Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary. Looking back, that was one of my favorite posts I've ever written. It might be a while before I find the time to do an 18-card post like that again, but five cards at the beginning of the month is a good start, and that means I might be able to do multiple posts in October.

Er, Rocktober.