The Devilishly Affordable Group Break

A long time ago in this exact galaxy, specifically back in August, Colbey at Cardboard Collections ran an affordable group break that cost only $6. It wasn't the latest and greatest product, but he did have two Fleer products from the mid-2000s on offer, both of which are underrepresented in my collection, so I joined. Who could keep up with all those Fleer releases back then, anyway? As we wrap up 2017, I thought I'd take a look at this stack before the ball drops. At least then I could keep the post in the same calendar year.

2003 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition #2 Preston Wilson

First up is 2003 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition (JE), a set I'd never even heard of before, let alone collected. Presumably, there were some relics to be found in this set, but I didn't have the good fortune of nabbing any with my two team slots. Fleer also tied in the player's uniform number into the print run of the Century parallels, adding 100 to their number. Frank Thomas, for example, had a print run of 135. The base cards are nicely color-coded, giving us a clean, if verbose, design. Between the right vertical banner and the set logo, "Focus Jersey Editon" appears twice.

I guess with so many Fleer sets on the market, they really wanted us to know which was which. Don't forget that Fleer also tells us on the fine print in the back. Topps is (sort of) finally doing this, but that is one thing I miss dearly about both Fleer and Upper Deck. We all know the yellow-bordered set is 1991 Fleer, but as more and more sets hit the market, there's a real need for some identification.

In a move which should surprise no one, I selected the Rockies for my primary team slot. Preston Wilson was about to join the Rockies after his first five seasons as a Marlin (save for his two weeks as a rookie Met), coming over in an offseason trade with Charles Johnson and a couple others in return for Mike Hampton and Juan Pierre. The Florida Marlins (yes, before they were known as the Miami Marlins) promptly flipped Hampton, but they kept Pierre and went on to win their second World Series in 2003. Juan Pierre certainly drew the lucky hand that year.

Like most well-known Marlins, Pierre was traded away during their 2005 fire sale, an event that the Marlins seem to hold about once a decade with alarming regularity. Obviously, we're in the middle of one now, and Preston Wilson didn't even survive this one, as he and Jeff Conine were both shown the door of the broadcast booth.

2003 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition #127 Jose Hernandez

Journeyman infielder Jose Hernandez has only appeared on this blog once before, on another 2003 card, his only year as a Rockie in a long, 15-season career, which immediately followed his only All-Star appearance. Fleer only gave us five years of stats on the back, and a giant, empty gray box below it, leaving us to wonder about his Major League performance dating back to 1991. I vaguely remember his time in Denver, but I can't say I knew how much time he'd spent in the league. I probably have tons of overproduction-era cards of him, but had no idea it was the same guy.

I don't entirely agree with Topps' latest method of only printing the last five years of statistics, especially in this era of Sabermetrics and StatCast. We should be getting more stats, not fewer. But at least they're not tantalizingly filling up the card backs only halfway like Fleer did.

2003 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition #128 Ben Grieve

The team I ended up with in the random selection was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the other Florida team that's undergone a name change in their short history. I guess it makes sense for the Marlins to rename since they're no longer the only team in Florida, which makes you wonder how the Angels got away with being the California Angels for so long. That leaves the Rockies, Rangers, Twins, and Diamondbacks as the only teams named after their states instead of their cities. There's a touch of ambiguity in the Yankees and Mets, but the state name came after the city, so I'd file those two under the "city" column.

Going the opposite direction down that path leads to some very odd-sounding names, like the Washington Mariners, Wisconsin Brewers (not to be confused with the Badgers), the Ontario Blue Jays, the Ohio Reds, and the Maryland Orioles.

Maybe that's why Major League teams tend to go for a city name; they sound a bit like colleges otherwise.

But back to the card. Ben Grieve had cooled off after his red-hot start to interleague play against the Rockies, and spent a little time on America's (southern) third coast. As we can see in the lower left corner, Grieve coincidentally wore the number 18, just like the Rockies' Jose Hernandez. And in the checklist, this is exactly one card further down the stack (or up the stack, depending on which direction you hand-collate). He's precariously balanced on his right heel, and happens to be wearing a wrist band that precisely matches the Rays' later colors after they dropped the "Devil".

2005 Fleer Showcase #106 Scott Kazmir ST

The second set was 2005 Fleer Showcase, a wonderfully color-coded set that uses a lot of thin silver foil lines. I had six cards from this set already, so at least I had a little familiarity with this one. Tampa Bay's team was still known as the Devil Rays at this point, keeping that name until 2008, the same year they finally reached the Postseason. In fact, they'd lose the World Series that year, following in the Rockies' footsteps and crossing their name off the short list of teams without a World Series appearance.

None of the base cards that Colbey pulled from 2005 Showcase depicted a Rockie, nor do any of my other six cards, but this is my first from the short-printed Showcasing Talent subset. That makes this an odd set in my collection, one in which I have no Rockies but at least a dozen or so base cards.

I picked Scott Kazmir as the first one to show, a southpaw who led the AL in strikeouts in 2007. I selected him in a Fantasy baseball draft or two, and I even saw him in person when he was an Angel, toeing the rubber against A.J. Burnett when the Yankees visited Anaheim on September 23rd, 2009. That was the only regular season Major League game I've had a chance to see outside of Denver.

Kazmir didn't pitch in 2017, but his name crossed the wire a few weeks ago, as the Dodgers shipped him and a few other former stars off to the Braves for Matt Kemp. Scott Kazmir, Adrian Gonzalez, Brandon McCarthy, and ex-Rockie Charlie Culberson for Matt Kemp sounds like a mega-blockbuster, until you remember that this isn't 2011 anymore.

2005 Fleer Showcase #66 Carl Crawford

Carl Crawford would fit into that transaction perfectly, and the Dodgers might have actually included him if the last of his giant contract didn't finally expire at the end of the 2017 season. The speedy outfielder inked a monster deal with the Red Sox in 2011, but he was almost immediately plagued by injury problems. The Red Sox managed to get the Dodgers to take him off their hands, and the Dodgers finally cut him in 2016, while still owing him tens of millions of dollars.

But once upon a time, he was the best base stealer in the American League, and led the league in triples three years in a row. That was right around the time this card was printed, which tells us that Crawford was one of less than a dozen AL players with over 50 stolen bases, 50 extra-base hits (including 19 triples), and 100 runs scored in a single season. Decades from now, if the game continues to be more power-focused, Crawford's name might come up as one of the last great base stealers with power. Dee Gordon has the speed, but nowhere near the same power. Even over the course of one man's career, the game can change quite a bit.

2005 Fleer Showcase Swing Time #7 Todd Helton

I didn't get any Rockies base cards from '05 Showcase, but I did end up with a hit in this insert of Todd Helton. The angles on this card don't look that different from 2017 Topps, just shifted a bit. It's just about as thick as the base cards, and has that sturdy feel of a premium set. I'm not sure why Fleer felt the need to work the numbers "97" into the Swing Time lettering, but it looks odd, and even more so on the back, where the "N" is written in the preschool-backwards style.

That back uses the same angles, the same noticeable triangle in the center, and the same photo, which is slightly more zoomed in. The upper area has the same partial opacity, which means that Todd Helton's throat is the only area of the photograph that isn't obscured by the design or the paragraph. Stadium Club this is not.

In fact, I think this card helps me understand why so many of you dislike 2017 Topps. The sharp angles detract from the photograph, and just seem to force a lot of odd shapes. Shifting this all to the left a bit wouldn't really help much. But a hit is a hit, and seeing a pre-goatee Todd Helton brings about a sense of nostalgia.

2016 Topps Chrome Pink Refractors #59 Tom Murphy (RC)

Colbey was nice enough to throw in a recent Topps Chrome parallel in addition to the haul from this Fleer group break. Tom Murphy showed up in my last post on another 2016 Topps product, and they both get the Rookie Card logo. As with most Chrome cards, there's a little bit of a curl, but that's expected at this point. This time, the Pink parallel does not get a serial number, but it is a refractor. Topps does not label it as such, but if the light is right, it's easy to tell.

It's surprising how much sharper this photo looks compared to just a decade or so prior. That could have a bit to do with the camera technology, but cards have come a long way since Fleer's relatively recent demise.

Thanks to Colbey for running this group break way back in August, when the thermometer read a wee bit more than 14 degrees Fahrenheit. I hope you all have a healthy and fulfilling 2018, and remember that Opening Day is less than three months away!

The Trading Post #75: The Lost Collector

Even though the #SuperTraders group seems to be winding down a bit, I'm still seeing a few trades pop up in my mailbox. This Labor Day weekend gave me a chance to finally sort the 5,000-count box that these 75 trades (and more) have been going into for the past couple years. Feels great to have that organized and ready to put into binders. I'm sure more are on the way, as I'm pretty sure Night Owl just sent me something, based on USPS tracking data. By the way, if you haven't registered your address with My USPS, which sends you an email whenever you have a package on its way to your address, it's a great little service. UPS and FedEx have something similar.

Anyway, the latest arrival was from The Lost Collector, the Yankees representative in our little group.

2016 Topps Chrome Refractors #9 Nolan Arenado

This marks the third time he's sent me cards, and he wasted no time in getting to the good stuff. The rookies have been the Story this year (pun intended) in Denver, with Trevor Story, Jeff Hoffman, David Dahl, and others making an impact already. Stephen Cardullo, who at one time was the longest of long shots to make the Majors has already hit two home runs, and Raimel Tapia, another young Rockies prospect, got his first big-league hit on Friday night. Meanwhile, Nolan Arenado has been quietly doing his thing, brilliantly playing third base and going stroke-for-stroke in the NL home run race with Kris Bryant, a fellow player covering the hot corner.

This is my first look at 2016 Chrome, and right away one of the first things I noticed is the "refractor" label on the back. 2016 is an on-year for that helpful labeling, and even though it still has that great rainbow appearance under the right light, I'm not forced to check it to know what I have.

There's also a bit of extra design in the lower left area, which is just plain white in the base set. There are a bunch of little bars and hexagonal grids and dots, plus "2016 Topps" running vertically, almost like the security strip in a banknote. It's a bit like the Blue parallels in Opening Day. The curl is a little bit uneven, but it's a great-looking card! It could pass for a Finest card if it didn't reuse the design from Topps Base.

2012 Topps Update #US259A Carlos Gonzalez

If it's from an All-Star game, it's probably from Topps Update. Carlos Gonzalez does look like a Royal here, but rest assured, he's still a Rockie. The Kansas City Royals hosted the All-Star Game in 2012, and Gonzalez made his first of two appearances in the Home Run Derby that year. He didn't progress past the first round, hitting only four out of Kaufman Stadium. He did quite a bit better this year, hitting a beer-destroying 12, but still didn't make it past the first round.

2012 Topps Opening Day Fantasy Squad #FS-20 Carlos Gonzalez

Still, anyone good enough to appear in the Home Run Derby is definitely someone to target in a fantasy baseball draft. This insert set from 2012 Opening Day (of course) has CarGo as one of 30 cards, and even offers a rare bit of foil. The surfboard design in the lower left matches the base design of that year, just a bit smaller. The surfboard on his Update card is about as big as they come, as the "National League" text under his name forced it to grow.

2015 Topps Update Chrome #US291 Eddie Butler

Knowing what we know about Rockies pitching, putting a "Future Stars" label on a Rockies pitcher card is a risky proposition. Topps did it anyway, but Eddie Butler lost his roster spot over the summer and has been toiling away for Triple-A Albuquerque since then. He might get called back up now that rosters have expanded for September, but he has a long way to go before he lives up to that label.

This is Butler's Chrome parallel from 2015 Update, which means it has that extra-sparkly background that was all the rage last fall. Fuji sent me one too, and I'm glad my trading buddies are looking out for me. It's almost a cross between glitter and pointillism, without the risk of glitter getting all over everything.

2016 Topps Bunt Platinum #140 DJ LeMahieu /99

DJ LeMahieu is the NL batting average leader, just ahead of Daniel Murphy. Jose Altuve is a few points ahead, but the Astros switched leagues a few seasons ago, possibly clearing the way for a Rockie to win yet another batting title. His average isn't quite as good as what this serial number would suggest, but it's clear that the Rockies came out ahead in their 2011 trade with the Cubs.

I didn't pull one this rare from my Bunt pack at Target, nor any Rockie for that matter. The Lost Collector gave me five base cards plus this parallel, and DJ's defensive skills are apparent, as he's intently watching the ball arrive into his glove, and hoping it doesn't collide with that pesky Bunt logo.

1997 Collector's Choice #102 John Vander Wal

Pinch hitter extraordinaire John Vander Wal did so well at the plate in 1996 that Upper Deck did most of the write-up on the back of this 1997 Collector's Choice card about his record-setting performance. He still holds the Major League record for most pinch-hit, um, hits in a season, with 28 in 1996. Four of those were home runs, including a walkoff shot on May 18th as noted on the card (off of Dennis Eckersley), and a go-ahead homer on June 30th, one of the greatest games in Rockies history. He only started about 20 games that year, so this photo of him on the basepaths (probably about to round third) is likely from one of his many pinch-hit appearances.

1997 Leaf #385 Larry Walker GM

Larry Walker made his claim to fame on a more regular basis, and he darn near won the Triple Crown the year this card was printed. It's shinier than it looks in the scan. Copper foil was all the rage in 1997, as was Walker himself. He led the league in home runs, was only a few behind teammate Andres Galarraga in RBIs, and was edged out on batting average by the great Tony Gwynn. Still, his performance in '97 (the same year as this photo, judging by that Jackie Robinson patch) earned him the NL MVP award, so far the only time a Rockie has won it.

1998 SkyBox Dugout Axcess #120 Todd Helton

Todd Helton was just breaking into the big leagues at that point, and he had a long way to go before becoming a legendary figure in Denver sports history. He was still a green rookie in 1998, earning a spot in this "Little Dawgs" subset of Skybox Dugout Axcess. All those deliberate misspellings are strange, but it's explained on the back of this card. According to Barry Larkin, who has a tiny cameo on the back, Larkin "simply refers to the players he doesn't recognize [in Spring Training] as 'Little Dawgs."'

Makes sense. But spelling "Axcess" with an X just to use two crossed bats in the logo is stretching it. I've never seen this card before. And I doubt I could have even imagined it.

1997 Donruss Signature Autographs #79 Neifi Perez /3900

Our final traded card of today, a Donruss autograph card of Neifi Perez, came in the same penny sleeve as that LeMahieu card, which I missed the first time. I always like when the special cards are separated somehow in the package, whether with a handwritten note, a penny sleeve, or put in the stack backwards and/or upside-down (one of my favorite strategies), and this Perez card was clearly set apart. The red background is very striking, and a color not often seen so boldly on a Rockies card.

Beckett claims this is card #79, but I can't find a card number anywhere. There's also supposedly a serial-numbered print run of 3,900, and while the print run may be accurate, there is definitely no serial number here.

Believe it or not, I actually had a card from this set already. Andy Ashby signed one of these, and it's been in my collection for a dozen years at least. I'm pretty sure I got it from one of my first visits to Christian, my primary local card dealer.

1997 Donruss Signature Autographs #8 Andy Ashby /3900

But sure enough, there's no card number on Ashby's card either, nor a serial number. I guess there's a master reference checklist somewhere, and it sort of makes sense when you think about it. This is not a sticker autograph, it's on-card. So it earns a point in that department. But as autograph issues often fall through in production, it's hard for a card company to put together a numbered checklist when it's so far beyond their control. That's why Topps does that alphabet soup on their relic and autograph card numbers.

If I had to take something like DSS-NP over no card number at all, I'd pick the alphabet soup every time. I bet most of us would.

So maybe we stop griping about letter-only card numbers now, yes?