The Trading Post #164: Nine Pockets

To celebrate his second blog anniversary, Gregory at Nine Pockets offered numerous goodies in a giveaway. I've seen a few posts from this giveaway across the community, including Night Owl's post on a pair of 1989 Donruss packs. My selection from this generosity was lot #3, which he called "Three Beltres Belting". That phrase, of course, is a play on the lyrics of "The 12 Days of Christmas", which I recently noticed is 50% birds.

While I'm keeping my bird enthusiasm going in other ways, I'm glad I got the chance to obtain these three cards of future Hall-of-Famer Adrián Beltré, a member of the 3,000 hit club who retired in 2018.

2018 Bowman Platinum #69 Adrián Beltré

This first card from Bowman Platinum wastes no time in telling us about that 3,000th hit, which occurred on July 30th, 2017. Here's the video of that double, a rocket down the third-base line, appropriately enough. That's the position Beltré covered throughout his career, and did so well enough to earn five Gold Gloves.

The card back also tells us that only two third basemen before Beltré reached the all-important 3,000-hit milestone, and those were George Brett and Wade Boggs. Beltré was the first native of the Dominican Republic to get there, beating Albert Pujols to the mark by less than a year. Those two were contemporaries offset by just a few seasons, and when the Angels honored Pujols's achievement, none other than Beltré was there to catch the ceremonial first pitch. Read more about this in one of my recent posts on 2019 Topps Big League.

I'm not really a Bowman guy, but I do actually have a tiny spot in my 2018 binder for this Platinum set already. Julie from A Cracked Bat sent me Charlie Blackmon's card a couple years ago, and I'll only need to move a couple cards around in the page to make this one fit.

2017 Panini Chronicles #25 Adrián Beltré

Next up is a Panini set, 2017 Chronicles. Curiously, I have A Cracked Bat to thank again for the only other Panini Chronicles card I've featured on the blog, a 2018 Arenado. 2017, the inaugural set, is definitely new to my collection, and while this has the look of an insert card, this is indeed the main set.

There are small bits of foil to be found, which include Beltré's uniform number 29 in the upper left and the Chronicles logo below that. The same photo is used three times, twice on the front and once on the back. Panini describes him as "A Powerful Corner Man", and indeed he is. 477 of his 3,166 hits were homers, and the card back notes how he spread those pretty evenly across three of the teams he played for. There was one year in Boston, but he spent the rest of his career as a Dodger, Mariner, and Ranger.

And once he got to the Rangers, he hit my radar as one of the most fun-loving players around. There was the on-deck circle incident, the embarrassing strikeout against King Felix, the perpetual good-natured feud he had with Elvis Andrus touching his head, and lots more.

How can you not love this guy?

2018 Donruss #6 Adrián Beltré DK

So that's why this particular giveaway offering caught my eye. He never played for the Rockies, but he was a fan favorite around the league, and is well-deserving of his eventual Hall of Fame honors.

He's a real Diamond King, and earned a spot in that Donruss subset for 2018. Donruss Diamond King cards aren't what they once were, as there's no Dick Perez artwork or special write-up on the back. Quite frankly, there's really not much difference between the front and the back of this DK design, other than the lack of color. There's no write-up, no stats, just the same photo in a slightly different diamond design.

But that's okay. In this trio, Bowman Platinum gives us the colors, Panini Chronicles gives us the write-up, and DK gives us a throwback to the early days of Donruss. 

And I'm left with a smile on my face for having watched all these Adrián Beltré highlights.

Thanks, Gregory, and here's to many more years!

Eight Clubby Nights: A Stadium Club Hanukkah (Night 7)

The seventh night of Hanukkah only leaves one branch of the menorah unlit. There are eight candles going, and when it gets this late in the holiday, my favorite thing to do is watch the candles as they're almost burned out and try to guess which one will extinguish itself first. I wouldn't go so far as saying I'm "betting" on which candle will last the longest. That's what the dreidel is for. It can be tricky, as sometimes there's a tiny bit of wax left over from the previous night that acts as a little extra fuel. Depending on the material of your menorah, you might even see flashes of green in the flame if there are tiny bits of copper or other pigments in the finish, but that's exceptionally rare and requires a patient eye.

I also have to admit that the smell of a recently-extinguished candle appeals to me a bit more than maybe it should.

There will be plenty of time to watch the candles burn down later, but for now, let's take a look at the penultimate pack from 2018 Stadium Club.

2018 Stadium Club #38 Jake Arrieta

Jake Arrieta has been a story of regression to the mean. His win/loss ratio has gone down every year since 2015, although to be fair, that was starting from a stellar 22-6 record, or .786, the year he won the Cy Young Award. Strangely, he's only been an All-Star once in his career, which came during his championship season of 2016. The Phillies spent an enormous amount of money on him, but there is always the chance his best years are behind him.

Topps did find a spring training shot of Arrieta for this year's set, so they didn't have to resort to Photoshop to picture him in a Phillies uniform. It's hard to miss that gigantic Grapefruit League patch on the right sleeve, but one other thing that tips us off that this is from before April is that different logo on his cap. I don't think people make a big enough deal about spring training hats, because they sure look awesome to me. Come on, people, the Liberty Bell is right there on the cap, instead of the usual white "P". That Philadelphia landmark is also going to be more prominent in their recently-redesigned team logo.

For their spring training gear, the Rockies have a great mash-up of the mountainous portion of their regular logo along with the Colorado state flag. We love the state flag in these parts. It's a defining feature of your identity as a Coloradoan.

2018 Stadium Club #173 Anthony Banda (RC)

Anthony Banda is joining Alex Verdugo in sporting a heavily-inked right arm. I'm not really a tattoo guy, but these guys can feel free to do whatever they'd like. In my opinion, they should even be able to choose their own footwear.

The Rookie Card logo is back, and has been present in every pack besides Night 4. Banda has appeared for two teams in his short two-season career, and they both happen to be the teams from the 1998 round of MLB expansion. 2017 was with the Diamondbacks, and he obviously ended up with the Rays in 2018. He originally came up in the Brewers organization, but has been involved in a few trades already, and his name appears in the transaction list alongside former Rockie Gerardo Parra and one of my favorite under-the-radar players, Mitch Haniger.

2018 Stadium Club #5 Johnny Cueto

I have this idea in my head that Johnny Cueto changes teams constantly, but other than that brief stopover with the World Champion 2015 Royals, he's only played for three teams. Just the Reds, Royals, and Giants have had him on their rosters. He's well-known for his "shimmy" during his pitching motion, something Topps calls "his pretzel-like delivery", and his dreadlocks, which, we're told, have been in the works for seven years. Of course, he's also an All-Star, and came oh-so-close to winning the Cy Young Award in 2014, finishing behind now-division rival Clayton Kershaw.

One drawback to these unorthodox pitching motions, like Cueto's shimmy, the "pause" that Kershaw, Kyle Freeland, and others have been incorporating into their motions, which dances on the edge of legality, or Tyler Anderson's leg kick, is that they don't show up very well in still photographs. A Sportflics-style lenticular insert set that shows these quirky deliveries in better detail would be an awesome idea.

2018 Stadium Club #234 Adrian Beltre

When Topps put this set together, they definitely had an idea of who they had in mind for retired players. We've seen Tim Raines, Hideki Matsui, and Mike Piazza. Technically Brad Ziegler is now in that camp too, and Ichiro was sort of a toss-up, but I really think Topps expected Adrian Beltre to call it quits at the end of 2018. Turns out, they were right, as he announced his retirement just a couple weeks ago. Beltre, a member of the 3,000 hit club, has quietly put together a Hall of Fame-worthy career, amassing nearly 500 home runs and even more doubles than Todd Helton.

I'm not sure what occasion this speech is from, but Rangers fans were surely happy to see Beltre on the field all these years. His goofy feud with Elvis Andrus is the stuff of legend, and he and Orbit share a special bond. Baseball just isn't going to be the same without Beltre, who was having so much fun that no one really noticed he was a superstar. He just quietly carried on and didn't want anyone to touch his head.

2018 Stadium Club #115 Greg Allen (RC)

These have been nice cards, but that marks two straight packs without an insert or parallel. The Rookie Card logo makes yet another appearance. Greg Allen isn't what we'd call a power hitter, but he clearly has good speed. He put up a top-25 number for stolen bases in 2018, and that was only while playing half the games. He even got a plate appearance in the ALDS this year.

It's starting to become clear that Night 4 may be the pinnacle of this blaster. At this point, there are more candles remaining than cards, and with just one pack left, the pack with the only Rockie of the bunch may be hard to top, especially when the vein of insert cards seems to have gone missing. One night remains, and I'm as interested as you in what that final pack contains.

I'll see your war hammer, and I'll raise you an elf!

I've had a lot going on the past couple of weeks. Summer (or at least late spring) has finally arrived in Colorado. On Saturday, I went to my first Rockies game of the year, a 10-5 loss to the Giants. Although the Rockies took the lead in the 7th on a Carlos Gonzalez home run to straightaway center, the Rockies bullpen played their usual role, blowing the lead before even retiring a batter in the 8th.

My Fantasy team seems to have turned a corner, with Greinke working his way to a decent record, and Mookie Betts crushing numerous home runs over a non-numerous series of games.

And oh yeah, I bought a new car. First time I've ever owned a car built in the current decade. A few days before, as part of a birthday present my family chipped in on in March, I got to drive a Ferrari for an hour in the foothills outside Denver. A bit anticlimactic to go buy a Mazda after that, but if anyone in your area offers cars like that for a quick, guided rental, it's well worth it, especially if you can find a Groupon.

With all that new stuff, surprise baseball cards from my girlfriend are still a common fixture, and she brought home a partial box of 2015 Allen & Ginter from a hobby shop that also sells coins and comic books. We had a bit of a pack war, and she definitely saw the appeal in cracking into a sealed pack of cards, especially A&G, a set that is well-known for more than just baseball.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Ancient Armory #AA-8 War Hammer

They pick some quite obscure things for insert sets, including battle gear from the days before mechanized warfare. The war hammer, quite a lethal-looking tool, is perfect for smashing through armor when a sword would likely just bounce off. When I pulled that card from the Ancient Armory insert set and showed it to my girlfriend, she responded with a quip that just had to be the title of this post.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Menagerie of the Mind #MM-2 Elf

And she used this card to do it. Elves can be found in the Menagerie of the Mind insert set, along with other mythological beings like fairies, trolls, centaurs, and a creature called a bunyip.

You learn something new every day.

These particular elves look like something out of a 1970s BBC production, and while the card mentions their current relation to Santa's workshop and the cookie factory, their roots can be found in Norse paganism. Their alleged immortality, found in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, is also alluded to.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Great Scott #GS-7 Continental Drift

This next set uses Doc Brown's catchphrase from Back To The Future to highlight some important scientific discoveries over the past century or so, including X-rays, DNA, and the Polio vaccine, right up to current endeavors like the Large Hadron Collider. It's rather amazing to think of all we've discovered in the last century. Of course we know that the sun's at the center of the solar system, and we figured that out over 400 years ago. But continental drift, the existence of other galaxies, and the discovery of Pluto are surprisingly recent.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #302 Fall of the Berlin Wall

Even more astonishing are the changes in geopolitics in my lifetime alone. The reunification of Germany had yet to occur when I was born, the USSR hadn't yet fragmented into countless breakaway republics, and the developed European economies each had their own currencies. The invasion of Kuwait and the first Gulf War are the first newsworthy world events that I can remember, and I would have been about six then.

If you're interested in this era of history, Bridge of Spies is worth seeing, although Tom Hanks is so A-List that it's become hard to see him as anyone besides Tom Hanks. For all I know, he'll be in an A&G set before too long.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini First Ladies #FIRST-23 Edith Roosevelt

The last time I wrote about 2015 Allen & Ginter, I remarked about how underrepresented women are in this set. The First Ladies insert set makes up for that a bit. Yes, that's a mini, but it's not the Mrs. Roosevelt that first comes to mind. Rather, she's Edith Roosevelt, wife of Teddy, serving in the role from 1901 to 1909. Edith was actually Teddy's second wife, as he became a widower in 1884. Perhaps you've seen his diary entry from that day, a day on which both his mother and wife passed away. Tragic, yes, but that didn't stop him from ascending to a two-term presidency, nor from having his likeness carved into Mount Rushmore.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #143 Mike Zunino

Despite all this scattered randomness found in the inserts, Allen & Ginter is still first and foremost a baseball set. Though he's at the Triple-A level right now after three seasons in the Bigs, all that catcher's gear makes for one of the more interesting photos in the set. And when I say "all that catcher's gear," really I'm just referring to the mask and mitt. He might have shin guards on, but no chest protector, so it's probably just a warm-up shot.

I still can't quite get over how A&G insists on spelling everything out, like writing a check. His slugging percentage is Three Hundred Eighty Three, though he just has Two triples to his name.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #23 Johnny Cueto

One aspect of baseball that was very, very different in the late 19th-century, when this brand got its start, is how little players moved around. Since this photo of Cueto as a Red just a year ago, he's pitched for the Kansas City Royals (and earned a World Series ring), and in 2016, he has an excellent 8-1 record with the San Francisco Giants, with one of those Ws coming just a few days ago against the Rockies. More on that series later, but the Rockies didn't do much to help their spot in the standings over the holiday weekend.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Starting Points #SP-87 Adrian Beltre

This is from the only Baseball-themed insert set found in 2015 packs, and it's rather astonishing to be reminded that Adrian Beltre is currently in his 19th season. He and Elvis Andrus have been up to all sorts of antics for years, but he was once just a green rookie like everyone else.

His debut came on June 24th, 1998, and as the back of this card tells us, Randy Johnson whiffed a dozen Padres that day, and Jeff Bagwell hit two home runs in a pre-humidor Coors Field. However, the card neglects to mention that those 5 RBIs were not enough to beat the Rockies.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Starting Points #SP-76 Buster Posey

Buster Posey's two home runs on Saturday, however, were indeed enough to sink the Rockies. His start came in 2009, just before the Giants started their every-other-year championship run, and they're up by a nice 4.5 game margin atop the NL West right now. Posey's 6-RBI performance on Saturday was a career high for him, and while the outcome wasn't what I'd hoped, at least I got a great view of Buster's homers, plus lots of quality time with my sister.

Posey hasn't been in the league nearly as long as Beltre, but already he has three World Series rings, plus his broken leg in 2011 is basically the reason why the rules for sliding into home plate changed. He's definitely an influential player, and he can add his name to the long list of San Francisco Giants whom I've seen hit a home run in person.

Plus, he sort of looks like an elf.