The Trading Post #101: Baseball Cards Come To Life! (Part 2: Not Topps)

There's always plenty of digging out to do whenever Bo sends a shipment. The writer of Baseball Cards Come To Life! sent me so much great stuff that I had to split it up into two posts, and it easily could have been three. You already saw the Topps cards, but between Upper Deck, Fleer, and others, I was in Mini Collection heaven.

2008 Upper Deck #483 Matt Holliday

At Coors Field on Friday, the Rockies held a ten-year reunion of 2007's Rocktober team, and Matt Holliday was a key part of that playoff run. He's less remembered for his performance in the 2007 Home Run Derby than for a few other plays, but he's very clearly in AT&T Park representing the National League on this 2008 UD base card, on his way to finishing tied for third with Albert Pujols. In fact, there's so much black and orange on this card that I didn't initially spot the glimpse of the catcher's mitt in the corner.

I don't know the UD designs well enough to recognize this set off the bat (pun not intended), but they moved back to a full-bleed design after the slightly cramped 2007 design, which is one I can recognize on sight. The shutter speed used for this photograph is just a touch too slow to truly capture the moment of impact, but we can see this was one of his first nine outs, since they were using the Gold Ball for the tenth out at that time. The Home Run Derby format has changed since then, and the league uniforms have gotten a bit wilder, but it's still a great event.

2000 Fleer Focus #205 Dante Bichette

Dante Bichette was a fan favorite and a key member of the Blake Street Bombers, but his storied Rockies career was winding down at the turn of the millennium. He was traded to the Reds after the 1999 season, allowing Fleer enough time to update the team logo and colors in 2000 Focus, but not to obtain a new photograph. It's not quite an unfamiliar uniform card, but it's one that kind of screws up your binder organization methods. If we're being truly honest here, I'd file this as a Reds card, despite how important Bichette was to the early days of the Rockies.

2000 Fleer Focus #110 Darryl Kile

The same situation affected Darryl Kile, who ended up on the Cardinals a couple weeks after the Bichette trade. Jose Jimenez was the key piece of that swap, a player who ended up being a rather successful Rockies closer for four seasons.

Fleer ever-so-slightly raised the surface of the player's photograph, applying a matte backdrop on the rest of the card. At least, I think it's raised. The texture is so dramatically different between the foreground and background that it's hard to tell whether it's raised or just has a little more friction when you run your finger across it. I also noticed the plus sign Fleer used as a delimiter between the team and the position, making it look like Kile is a "+Pitcher". It's still better than a comma, in my opinion, since any text that actually contains a grammatical comma screws up CSV files and comma-delimited data.

I'm guessing this is a spring training shot. There are an awful lot of billboards in the background, and your primary pitchers don't generally throw BP. They have guys specifically for that job. Based on the net in front of Kile, that's probably what's going on here, unless it's the Home Run Derby.

2000 Upper Deck Victory #66 Henry Blanco

This isn't as much an unfamiliar uniform as it is an unfamiliar player. I've heard of Henry Blanco before, a Venezuelan who played into his early forties, but I don't recall the one year he spent as a Rockie in 1999. He was a journeyman backup catcher, and he played for every NL West team besides the Giants.

The Rockies continued to clean house in the 1999 offseason, trading Blanco to the Brewers as part of a circuitous three-team trade, netting Jeff Cirillo in the process. That transaction caught even Upper Deck off-guard, who listed him as a Brewer but still pictured him as a Rockie in Coors Field. Obviously this is from the 1999 season, not only because that was Blanco's only season in Denver, but also because the Rockies wore a "CHS" memorial patch on their right sleeves that year, in memory of the tragedy that occurred at Columbine High School.

2003 Upper Deck Vintage #181 Preston Wilson

Wrapping up the uniform/team set mismatch foursome is Preston Wilson, who's listed as a Rockie after a trade in the 2002 offseason. The Marlins got Juan Pierre, who ended up with a World Series ring in 2003 when all was said and done, and also Mike Hampton, whom the Marlins flipped to the Braves a couple days later.

After completely ripping off 1971 Topps with their 2002 Vintage product, in 2003 Upper Deck pretty much Xeroxed 1965 Topps the following year, complete with the little pennant in the lower left.

The thing is, I have no clue what helmet Wilson is wearing here. He had been a Major Leaguer for five seasons, so I doubt they'd have dug up a Minor League shot. And those aren't Marlins colors. It looks like a University of Michigan helmet, but the colors aren't quite right. After a bit of research, it's apparently a throwback to the minor league Miami Marlins, who played a few Triple-A seasons in the late 1950s.

2002 Upper Deck Vintage #270 Larry Walker TC

Speaking of UD Vintage, this is indeed a dead ringer for 1971 Topps, although that set never showed such an, um, intimate-looking moment at second base. In Dodger Stadium, Larry Walker is being tagged out by a Dodgers middle infielder. No idea who that cameo is, so perhaps a Dodger blogger can help out.

This is one of those meta-checklists, one whose own card number appears on the list. Only nine Rockies appear on this checklist, which is about right for a 300-card set. That doesn't come close to covering even a majority of a team's roster, but is just enough for a starting lineup. The top 300 players in the league generally get the most attention in fantasy baseball, assuming a 12-team league with a full lineup, rotation, bullpen, and a few bench spots.

2002 SP Authentic #90 Mike Hampton

I mentioned Mike Hampton a bit earlier, and he showed up in this trade box with a bunting card, always another favorite mini-collection, especially when it's a pitcher. The Rockies spent big bucks to bring him on board, and his 2001 season was pretty good, good enough to become the first pitcher the Rockies would send to an All-Star Game. He even pitched a complete game shutout that year, a night game against the Mets on May 9th, 2001. I remember that one in particular, since my dad and I were watching one of my sister's softball games. My dad had it on the radio and was keeping some of the other parents in the loop about how the Rockies' new ace was doing.

Despite his textbook bunting form, 2002 brought less success, dropping him to a 7-15 record, which led to the Preston Wilson trade mentioned above.

2002 Upper Deck #721 Denny Neagle

The Rockies also spent big on ex-Pirate Denny Neagle before the 2001 season, fresh off a World Series win with the Yankees. He and Hampton were both billed as huge additions to the Rockies rotation, but it didn't quite pan out that way. Neagle actually pitched his last game in 2003 as a Rockie after his third season, despite signing a five-year contract. He missed 2004 due to injury, then started running afoul of the law, causing the Rockies to cancel the remainder of his contract. I don't remember hearing about that one, but he ended up as a cautionary tale to other free agent pitchers on the market.

I do like how this bunting card is basically a mirror image of Hampton's (possibly even from the same photo shoot), but his backwards batting helmet makes it a bit more whimsical. You can even see the Rockies' 10th Anniversary patch on his right sleeve, which was really quite a while ago. They'll be wearing a 25th Anniversary patch next year, and we're sure to see that all over their cards in 2019, the same year Game of Thrones wraps up.

That seems like quite a long time away. Hopefully the Rockies have some more success in the Postseason by then.

2003 Fleer Tradition #165 Juan Pierre

Juan Pierre's Fleer Tradition card from 2003 checks two of the Mini Collection categories. Obviously he's showing the two pitchers above how bunting is done outside a batting practice setting, but he also has a Traded card, listing him as a Marlin (the same trade that sent Preston Wilson to the Rockies), yet they still have him pictured as a Rockie.

Pierre is also sporting the Helmet-over-Cap look, which is exactly what I used to do in Little League. Night Owl wrote a post about this recently as it applied to George Hendrick.

Of course, this is the 1963 Fleer design, but it's OK to plagiarize when it's your own product.

2000 Ultra #44 Neifi Perez

Here's the double play entry into the Mini Collection parade, a high-altitude shot of shortstop Neifi Perez on a Fleer Ultra design that hasn't yet drawn comparisons to recent Stadium Club sets. Rico Brogna gets a cameo, kicking up quite a cloud of dust onto the artificial turf at Veterans Stadium. As it always does on turf, the dirt just weirdly sits there until someone sweeps it up.

I do not miss the days of Astroturf. Only the Rays and Jays still use it, and the Rockies play in those parks so infrequently that I almost never have to see it. Usually it's just on Blue Jays highlights, and that last-place team hasn't had many this year, so that highlight reel usually involves Kevin Pillar, complete with warning track-colored Astroturf.

2002 Fleer Maximum #61 Juan Uribe

Elsewhere around the stadiums of the National League, Juan Uribe practices his short game in Dodger Stadium during batting practice. There's even a bat donut, so I hope Daniel has a copy of this one to feature on his newly-redesigned site. Pretty much everyone who has played the game has putted a baseball at some point in their lives. Definitely an activity in Little League for when we're waiting for our parents to pick us up after practice.

I think modern cards could use a few more shots of BP, if only to illustrate how much these guys have to practice honing their trade. It's almost becoming its own Mini Collection.

I've written about Fleer Maximum before, and this one is in noticeably better condition than I've seen before. This one didn't fall victim to being stuck to the card on top of it, but one of the corners has a slight ding, and the purple area near the top is getting a tiny bit chipped. It surprises me how fragile this set is, despite the thick card stock.

1995 Ultra Gold Medallion #159 Eric Young

As tough as Gold Medallion parallels are to pull in mid-'90s Fleer Ultra, the generosity of my fellow bloggers has me pretty well on the way to completing the Rockies team set. Young might have skied one here, but it looks awfully similar to his leadoff home run in the first-ever Rockies home game.

It's really quite fitting, isn't it? After 25 seasons of Rockies baseball and the reputation the stadium has, it makes perfect sense that a contact-hitting second baseman launched one out to left-center in their first at-bat in Denver. Lesser known is the fact that he also hit two in their final home game that season. Those two, plus the famous Opening Day shot, marked the only three homers he had all season.

By the way, that final game was just the second major league game I attended. We sat in the movable left field stands at Mile High Stadium on a sunny fall day, and even though I was just 9, I remember it like it was yesterday. I still have one of those miniature bats my parents bought as a souvenir, and you can count me twice in the record-setting attendance of 4,483,350, which stands to this day.

And I helped.

1993 SP #221 Joe Girardi

Joe Girardi caught that game, and he practically looks like a kid in this shot, quite different from how he appears as the current skipper of the New York Yankees. Usually when I see him these days, the veins are bulging out of his neck as he reads some umpire the riot act.

Also, if MLB really wants to shorten the time of games, they really ought to just automate the calling of balls and strikes. I guarantee the time that pitchers, catchers, batters, and managers have spent this season arguing balls and strikes drastically offsets any time saved from the automatic intentional walk.

Anyway, the blue nametag that Girardi is wearing reminds me of a particular Curtis Leskanic card that Bo sent in our previous trade. Rather than a series of numbers, Joe actually wrote his name on the sticker. This was to help out Bryn Smith, who handed out the nametags in spring training, according to the back of the card. Yes, Bryn Smith was briefly a Rockie at the end of his career, joining Dale Murphy and Charlie Hough as they lent veteran expertise to the MLB's shiny new expansion clubs. Smith even started the famous home opener, and earned the first "W" in Rockies history.

In looking at that Leskanic card, I'm betting that Upper Deck dug into the archives for their 1995 Collector's Choice set. It's probably from the same photo shoot as Girardi's. The design of the name tag is precisely the same, so unless the Rockies kept a Costco-sized pack of them at Hi Corbett Field throughout the early '90s, I bet we're looking at the same day on cards two years apart.

1995 Studio #149 Joe Girardi

I've mentioned the 1995 Studio set before, and even shown later Studio cards that were likely influenced by it, but I think this is the first time I've actually featured this credit card-themed set on the blog before.

Studio did a great job with this one. Naturally, the facsimile signature on the back goes right where you'd expect it to, and some of the lettering on the front is raised. It's probably not enough relief to get an imprint with one of the old ka-chunk machines, but the hologram and "MLB Member since" features pretty accurately represent what we carry in our wallets.

Of course, the parallels are gold, but that was also when a "gold" credit card was the top of the pile. Now we have diamond, platinum, sapphire, etc.... From there, who knows where it will go? Black Opal? Meteorite? Maybe the banks should reach out to the Topps Colored Border Parallel team for ideas. Because I'd totally carry a Snow Camo credit card.

1997 Cracker Jack #10 Gary Sheffield

As with the Topps stack, there were some unlicensed and Fleer minis as well. This tiny Cracker Jack card features Gary Sheffield, and is just a hair wider than the Cracker Jack Ballplayers reproduction set from a few years earlier. Obviously there is no logo on Sheffield's cap, and the Marlins had moved away from the radioactive turquoise color of their first couple seasons. He's just listed as a player for "Florida".

It's really a small card, and a bit difficult for adult hands to work with. I collected all three years of Topps Micro once upon a time, but I find them rather tricky to sort through now. I imagine collecting postage stamps would be like this, and you have to be careful not to let your hand cramp up. Fortunately, it's just a 20-card set, so it can't cause too much strain.

2003 Fleer Double Header #219-#220 Eric Chavez / Miguel Tejada

2003 Fleer Double Header #219-#220 Eric Chavez / Miguel Tejada (Unfolded)

I doubt I've seen even half of the sets that were released in the early 2000s. There were a ton, and it would have been a lot to keep up with even if I had been regularly collecting at the time. Apparently, I had a base card from 2003 Fleer Double Header in my collection already, but I had never seen these "Flip Cards" from higher up in the checklist. Eric Chavez is the main subject here, but if you flip it up at the fold (right about at belt level), you'll reveal Miguel Tejada leaning to his right to catch a popup.

Interestingly, both Chavez and Tejada have separate card numbers, even though this is just one piece of paper. That's something I've never seen before. Bo sent a few others from this set, and it seems like it's hit-or-miss whether the photographs line up perfectly. On the Rangers' card, even the pinstripes are just off a hair. But Chavez' body proportions on this one look a bit strange.

2002 Fleer Authentix #115 Todd Hollandsworth

Todd Hollandsworth, the last of the Dodgers' five consecutive Rookies of the Year, doesn't show up as a Rockie very often. But he was a capable outfielder, spending more time in purple than for any team besides those Dodgers. Fleer Authentix, a new brand in 2002, made the most of his Rockies tenure with this color-coded card patterned after a ticket stub. The border is raised, or really more like embossed, since you can see the imprint on the back.

This "ticket" is for the Rockies' 2002 home opener against the Houston Astros, a game they lost with Denny Neagle on the mound, facing off against Roy Oswalt, who would later join the Rockies to close out his career with a dismal 0-6 record in 2013. The game did take place at Coors Field, but some of the seat information Fleer came up with on this card makes me laugh.

I'm supposed to enter at Gate 27, which sounds like an awful lot of entry points to monitor. Coors Field really just has five. Once inside, I need to navigate to the nosebleed row of 115. Where is this game being played, the Pentagon? Not even the Big House in Ann Arbor has that many rows. Once I've ascended into the stratosphere, I only need to climb across a few people to seat 6. I'm unlikely to spill any beer on those people, since I probably either dropped it or drank most of it on that trek to row 115. Perhaps I'll have to send my Sherpa back to the Gate 27 concession stand for another one.

I suppose the row number does match the card number, meaning there are another 20 rows behind me full of exhausted fans, thanks to Andy Pettitte's card. Mercifully, from that point on, Fleer just marked the ticket area with "Future Star" for the final 15 cards.

2003 Fleer Authentix #59 Jeff Bagwell

Fleer got their act together for the following year's set, sending me to the much more plausible location of Section 291, Row 12, Seat 5 inside the newly-renamed Minute Maid park. That stadium had previously been called Astros Field in 2002, after Enron returned its naming rights to the park following their well-publicized collapse for the bargain price of $2.1 million. Fortunately, that transaction took place early enough for the Enron name not to disgrace the inaugural 2002 Authentix set. Having to trudge up 95 rows in a place named Enron Field would just be too much to bear.

At first, I wasn't sure why Bo included this card. Maybe he just needed to offload a few Astros, like that Colin McHugh card in part 1. But then I noticed the Astros opened their 2003 season against the Rockies, as noted in the lower right, just above the quasi-perforation on the "ticket stub". The Rockies lost that one too, with Bagwell himself launching two homers off of Jason Jennings.

1998 UD3 #166 Dante Bichette EE

This has been a long post written over two sittings, and I just don't have it in me right now to figure out a fractured set I've never seen before. Upper Deck. Copper. That's about it.

1993 Score #428 Dante Bichette

I'll wrap up this 115-row marathon with Dante Bichette, who appears on this 1993 Score card with a picturesque Colorado mountain, similar to the card backs of 1993 Leaf and the Rock Solid Foundation card from 1993 Upper Deck.

The newly created Rockies and Marlins didn't make it into every 1993 main set, especially not wearing their actual uniforms. Fleer and Donruss both had the new logos but used their previous uniforms, although Fleer remedied that with Final Edition. Upper Deck had them in uniform in the main set, as did Topps Series 2, but all this time I thought Score missed the party.

I should have known better, since I do have a Marlins card of Dave Magadan in my binders. And this set has been in my collection for a very long time. I remember getting a pack of it for Hanukkah that winter. But after all this time, I finally know there are 1993 Score cards depicting Rockies. It's amazing I've never seen one until now, and I'm interested to see what else is out there.

Anyone know where I can score some Score?

The Trading Post #100: Baseball Cards Come To Life! (Part 1: Topps)

Any time a trade comes in from Bo at Baseball Cards Come To Life!, you'll probably need to split it up into two posts. This isn't the first time Bo and I have swapped cards, and it's quite fitting that such a prolific trader ended up as my 100th trade. I was wondering who would end up with that frankly amazing number, and he packed a 400-count box to the gills which will earn him The Trading Post #101 as well.

2001 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #67 Larry Walker

I've consistently found that the best way to split posts is grouping Topps and then all the other brands. Starting with Topps, here's an exceptionally shiny card of Larry Walker from the Gold Label set, a brand that's fairly well-represented in my collection, except for the recent 2016 and 2017 releases, which I've yet to run across.

The 2001 set has just a tad more gold than I remember from past years, and Topps color-coded it with a deep purple at the bottom, a purple that amazingly scans better than it looks. It's much darker than the actual Rockies colors, especially after this year, when they changed the official hue to a lighter purple. That was just back in spring, but already I'm pretty set on official Rockies swag in the new color, thanks to a gift bag I won at Coors Field a couple weeks ago when I saw the Detroit Tigers visit.

I've been checking in with the MLB Ballpark app for years now, and I was lucky enough to be one of just ten fans to win. I got a notification and an email, and all I had to do was stop by a kiosk on the first level, which I combined with a beer and snack run my friend and I made. My Michigander buddy got a Tornadough pretzel, and I went back to my seat with a hat, t-shirt, water bottle, and limited-edition Nolan Arenado bobblehead, which now resides on my cubicle shelf at work. It contained no cards, but Bo more than made up for that.

By the way, after this year's round of interleague games, I'm down to only five teams I've never seen before. I wonder who I'll be able to see next year.

2001 Bowman Heritage #67 Larry Walker

In sharp contrast to the shininess of Gold Label (though with the same card number), Bowman went with a black-and-white scheme for their inaugural Heritage set. Patterned after 1948 Bowman, there's no name, team, logo, position, or anything. Just a rather striking white-bordered portrait and a little Bowman logo off in the corner. Like your typical Heritage card, it's printed on cardboard, making it just about as thick as Walker's Gold Label card from the same year, if a bit more flexible. The vertical back of the card discusses his usual accolades of batting titles, Gold Gloves, All-Star selections, etc.... But the card also mentions his childhood in Canada, where he played youth hockey with Cam Neely, the former Canuck who is now the president of the Boston Bruins.

2005 Topps Turkey Red #19 Jeff Francis

After a few years of Heritage, Topps decided to go even further with retro cards, designing a set based on the 1911 Turkey Red set, one that predated Topps itself by decades. Turkey Red as a Topps product waffled between being a main set and an insert set for several years, and they seemed to be everywhere around 2010. There's an interesting texture on the front, which I can best describe as an old book cover, maybe even what you might call pebbled. Think of UD Masterpiece, but more of a random pattern.

Like Larry Walker, Jeff Francis is also Canadian, even hailing from the same province of British Columbia. Of course, the back mentions hockey, telling us that the baby-faced Francis was nicknamed "Boomer", after old-time hockey player Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion.

Hockey's a big deal in Canada.

2002 Topps 206 #231 Ben Petrick

Preceding the revival of Turkey Red was Topps' take on the famed T206 set, when Topps realized they really had something on their hands with this retro thing. It looks more or less like the 1909-1911 originals, except for being cut in a standard 2.5" x 3.5" size. This is also when Topps started going a bit crazy with back variations, but this one is just the regular variety. By this point in his career, as the card states, Petrick had homered in six ballparks. That most of those came in a particular pre-humidor park in Denver shouldn't be terribly surprising.

2002 Topps Ten #26 Juan Pierre 3B

Who has heard of Topps Ten before? I sure hadn't. In fact, I thought this was just an insert card from 2002 Topps, which I'm rather unfamiliar with to begin with, but apparently this 200 card set was a one-year wonder released in retail channels. Judging by the checklist, it appears as though Topps decided to make a full set out of what we see today as league leader cards. The top ten performers in each statistical category (hits, slugging percentage, ERA, wins, and so forth) were each given a card. Get it? Topps Ten?

Anyway, finding speed demon Juan Pierre near the top of the triples list is rather expected. He played less than two and a half seasons as a Rockie, but still is among the top-20 Rockies in that category. In fact, he'd go on to tie for the National League lead with a dozen in 2004 as a Marlin, fresh off a World Series win.

Charlie Blackmon is literally running away with that statistic in 2017, with 14 so far and still a few weeks left to play. Nicholas Castellanos, of all players, is in second place across the Majors, with 10.

1997 Topps Stars #69 Ellis Burks

It's interesting seeing the first year of all these brands that I've become so familiar with. Many of them have staying power and went through a few iterations, but somehow the inaugural years seem to be a bit tougher to find. Maybe collectors are more inclined to hang on to them, or maybe the manufacturer goes easy on the print run until they have proof of concept—1993 Finest Refractors, anyone?

Topps Stars lives up to its name on this Ellis Burks card, as I count 95 between the front and the back. Many are partially obscured, but Topps really wanted to make sure you knew what this was about. The back is more focused on actual All-Star performances than subsequent years of this brand, telling us all about Burks' selection in 1990 that he missed due to injury, his late-inning triple in the NL's 1996 shutout of the AL, and even his balloting positions in 1996 and 1997.

Not sure if I'd pick a photograph of a pretty bad swinging strike, assuming this wasn't fouled back off the plate. Perhaps an even 100 stars on this card would have distracted me from where the ball is in this picture, but you know what they teach you in Little League.

Never take your eye off the ball.

2016 Stadium Club #242 Collin McHugh

Bo was kind enough to throw in a couple cards from 2016 Stadium Club, a set that I'd love to one day complete (really any of the recent Stadium Club sets), even tossing in another team! The Astros are doing quite well this year, leading the AL West by a healthy margin and are basically a lock to win their division this year. Collin McHugh didn't have a huge role to play in that, as he missed the first half with elbow problems. He's gone 2-2 this year, but left his last start early due to a rather painful-sounding torn fingernail.

I actually had no idea about this, but he's the guy the Rockies got for trading Eric Young, Jr. to the Mets back in 2013. About a month after that, Young was involved in a rather serious collision with Tim Hudson at first base. Meanwhile, McHugh would continue to put up some astronomically high ERA numbers until the Astros claimed him in the 2013 offseason. After that, it was off to the races, as he matched Jake Arrieta in Wins between August 2014 and when this card was printed.

You might notice the "MH" patch on McHugh's jersey. That's for longtime Astros broadcaster Milo Hamilton, who passed away in September 2015, just before the Astros found a bit of success in the postseason. They shut out the Yankees in the AL Wild Card game, and lost a 5-game ALDS to the eventual World Series Champions, the Kansas City Royals.

2016 was a down year, but we'll get to see the Astros make another run this year, and they'll be playing for a battered and decimated city of Houston, following the events of Hurricane Harvey.

1997 Stadium Club #187 Todd Helton 2000 SP

Todd Helton is shown on this confusingly-named 1997 Stadium Club card wearing uniform number 11, with faint "TSC 2000" lettering going up the right side. The bottom has a layout similar to Larry Walker's Gold Label card, but this one makes me do a double take for a few reasons.

The back talks about his performance in high school, college, and Double-A, so this is clearly from way before Helton made his mark on the Big Leagues. I guess it took a while for him to settle in to uniform #17. I've seen a few cards from this short-printed subset, and the TSC 2000 always threw me off. Granted, everyone was getting pretty excited for the new millennium back then, including in branding and marketing. Who remembers Gateway 2000, for example?

At least he's batting lefty.

2010 Bowman Draft Prospects #BDPP24 Chad Bettis

There was quite a bit of Bowman in this trade package, but one that stood out is this early card of Chad Bettis, who just picked up his first win of the season against the reeling Dodgers, a team that is 1-14 in their last 15 games, including their current 9-game slide. They probably have enough of a cushion to still win the division, but this is not the time to be cooling off, especially because teams like the Indians and more importantly the Diamondbacks have been doing the exact opposite lately. The Indians have won 17 in a row, the longest streak in the Majors since the A's 20-game Moneyball run in 2002.

According to this card, Bettis is a baseball card collector, like his now-teammate Pat Neshek. He pitched well tonight, and returning to the hill after his much-discussed battle with cancer, he's performing admirably. On the postgame show interview with Nolan Arenado, the interviewer asked about the letters "RTTW" that are written on Bettis' glove—Run Through The Wall. After being swept by the Diamondbacks at home, the Rockies have the chance to do the same to the Dodgers tomorrow. In L.A., no less. That's certainly the level of grit you need to succeed in this sport, and the Rockies have shown it more than once this season, including dusting themselves off after a 3-game stretch back in April in which they were massively outscored by the Nationals. A "buzzsaw", as one of the TV guys put it. It will be an interesting few weeks as we see how all the tight Wild Card races play out.

Anyway, Bowman was still printing facsimile signatures in 2010, and Bettis' reminds me a bit of Chris Reed's signature, who signed a few for the custom Munnatawket Mini cards that made the Cardsphere rounds a couple years ago. I haven't seen anyone write about those in ages, but I still have a handful in my collection.

1988 Topps UK Minis #67 Mike Schmidt

Speaking of minis, Bo included several from Topps and others, some of which you'll see in part 2. Topps hadn't gone crazy with the stars yet, as there are only 12 front and back. I originally assumed this was a insert in 1988 Topps packs, but apparently Topps released a whole set for the UK market, advertised as "American Baseball" cards. That would explain the rather rudimentary "Talkin' Baseball" feature on the card backs. Mike Schmidt's card, the third card #67 in this post, discusses the Squeeze Play, which is admittedly an advanced maneuver, but the card directs you to card #29 to learn about the Bunt, and card #45 to see the definition of a Runner.

There's no indication of where these were printed, but I'd guess they came from the same Ireland facility that produced the Topps Traded and Tiffany sets back then. If nothing else, they're a great example of the fact that there is always more to learn about this hobby.

2010 Topps Pro Debut #104 Jordan Pacheco

There were even a handful of Minor League cards, such as this 2010 Asheville Tourists card of Jordan Pacheco. He had a solid rookie season in 2012, but gradually faded, ended up playing for the Diamondbacks and Reds for a spell, and is now playing in an independent league for the Long Island Ducks. I glanced at their roster, and recognized a few other former Major Leaguers, such as Alfredo Simon and David Aardsma.

The 2010 design with its huge logos is easily recognizable whether it's a Major or Minor league card. The team logo might not be familiar, but as someone who has followed the Rockies for years, Pacheco is a pretty recognizable name, despite his mostly uneventful career in Denver.

2001 Finest #61 Todd Helton

We'll end where we began, with a shiny card from 2001. Did anyone ever call this one the Doppler effect set? Because that's what it should be called. Perhaps it's not as strongly themed as the 2003 hexagon set (which I was just reminded of by a hexagon-heavy transition graphic on MLB Network), but still fits right in as a Topps Finest card. The purple even comes across better than on the Gold Label design, where it's a bit too dark to really tell what's going on. At least, it does in person. The scanner has a mind of its own tonight.

A pre-goatee Helton had just put up what would be the best season of his career. In the year 2000, he won the batting title, and led the league in hits, slugging percentage, RBIs, and of course doubles. As this card points out, he was only 8 home runs short of winning the Triple Crown. Sammy Sosa was still doing his thing at the turn of the millennium, but Helton fell short of a few others, including Bonds, Bagwell, Vlad, Gary Sheffield, and even Richard Hidalgo.

Just a few more dingers in 2000 would probably have made Helton's Hall of Fame case a lot stronger than it is. I guess we'll have to see what 2019 brings, but sooner or later, a Rockie really should be in Cooperstown.

This would have been a great trade on its own, but don't forget that there's a part 2 to all this, meaning we won't linger long on the 100th trade post milestone.

The Trading Post #41: Baseball Cards Come To Life!

Bo from Baseball Cards Come To Life! "loves big trades".

1993 Leaf #120 Checklist

All the way back in April (before the Rockies drifted down the NL West standings and Tulo was still wearing the purple pinstripes), Bo and I swapped medium-sized flat rate boxes full of baseball cards. The box I sent him wasn't quite as full, but after I unpacked what Bo mailed, the cards took up two entire rows of a 5,000-count box.

So I didn't quite know how to tackle this one.

I thought about splitting up this post into Topps and Non-Topps as I've done before, but there was significantly more UD, Pinnacle, Leaf, etc... than Topps, so it wouldn't have been balanced. Instead, much like getting a heavy parcel full of cardboard, I'm just going to give this to you in one giant, heaping spoonful.

Sharp-eyed readers will notice the late Ken Caminiti in that checklist card above, and given that he was part of the monster 12-player trade between the Astros and Padres in 1994, I figured any one of those players on a checklist card would be a perfect metaphor for this trade.

It's an interesting photo, because if one didn't know the rules of baseball, one might think that Caminiti were lunging for that ball as though the championship depended on it. Unlike most team sports that feature a constant battle for the ball, when you think about it, the fact that the offense pretty much wants the ball as far away from any human (especially baserunners) as possible once it leaves the bat is quite unusual.

Of course, that card is from the well-loved 1993 Leaf set, which Bo sent over in pretty darn close to complete form. I needed around 20 cards from series 2; I probably have that half complete now.

1993 Stadium Club #458 Alex Cole

1993 Stadium Club wasn't quite as complete, but I still received at least 400 cards from it, and all in numerical order, a huge help! Of course, 1993 was the first year Rockies and Marlins started making regular appearances on cardboard, and Alex Cole, with his trademark goggles, was an easy player to spot on the field. For the same reason, so was Chris Sabo on the Reds, a player that was mentioned during the Rockies' broadcast last week.

1991 Stadium Club #81 Chuck Finley

There was plenty more Stadium Club to be found, like this great action shot of Chuck Finley from the inaugural 1991 set, when they touted their use of Kodak film in obtaining their images. The shallow depth of field focuses on Finley's delivery, but the downside is that I have no idea who's at the plate, making it difficult to date this card.

1994 Stadium Club #100 Joey Cora

Here's a bit of a different view of the common double play shot. Oakland catcher Terry Steinbach is trying to break up a double play, and you can even see the base bending underneath Joey Cora's nameplate. It's a crowded area around second base, as Ozzie Guillen is in on the action as well, just under a decade before he'd go on to manage the White Sox to a World Series win.

1998 Stadium Club #192 Dante Bichette

Of course, the Rockies are still in the hunt for their first-ever World Series win, but at least they've been there, something many other expansion teams are not lucky enough to claim.

Dante Bichette was one of the Blake Street Bombers, and here he's casually sitting around on a cart for his 1998 Stadium Club photo shoot. I always liked the embossed baseball stitching on the corner of this set, and I think this is the first year of the updated Stadium Club logo.

I am guessing that this was shot during spring training. You can see the letters "HI" on the front of the cart, probably the property of Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, Arizona. Up until recently, that's where the Rockies held their spring training games, and my sister and I even made it down for a game in 2008.

That's about it for Topps, but there's still lots more to come.

1992 Classic/Best #286 Andy Pettitte

Bo included a few oddballs among all these cards, like a few from the minor league Classic brand. Most of them were no-namers that never made it to The Show. A few did, like Joey Eischen and Mark Sweeney, but there were a couple of real superstars in there, like Jim Edmonds and Andy Pettitte.

I saw him pitch at Coors Field once, back in 2002. The Yankees beat the Rockies that day in a 20-10 slugfest. Pettitte came a long way between wearing a minor league uniform and pitching the Yankees to numerous World Series wins.

1995 Signature Rookies Tetrad #58 Todd Helton

Like another Denver sports superstar, Todd Helton went to the University of Tennessee. He was proficient in both baseball and football, even serving on the same football team as Peyton Manning. Surprisingly, Helton is listed on this oddball card as a pitcher. It's true; he was quite a proficient closer before making the switch over to first base.

In fact, he's not the only multi-sport player the Rockies have targeted in the draft. Russell Wilson, current quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks, was picked by the Rockies and even played in the minors for a year or two. He still shows up for spring training as a Texas Ranger, but at this point, he probably ought to stick to the NFL.

1993 Pinnacle #521 Darren Holmes

Darren Holmes was much more baseball-focused than Wilson, and he leads off a few Pinnacle cards, this one from 1993. This was one of the first Rockies cards, sneaking its way into Series 2 like most of the 1993 releases. The logo on the front is from the 1992 expansion draft, while the Rockies logo on the back is an old version that was tweaked just a bit before they began their first season.

During the 1994 strike, we had a little family outing to a mall-anchor department store to get Darren's autograph. He signed several items for me, most of which I still have. The baseball is a bit faded, but the cards and 8x10 photo are as sharp as ever.

1993 Select #77 Luis Sojo

You'd think with as much as I go on about green cards, you'd have seen some 1993 Select by now, but the set just never grew on me. Somehow the green isn't as vivid, maybe because of the two-tone design they use.

I like this picture of Luis Sojo. The Angels' second baseman probably looks like I did playing second base in little league, squinting his eyes and just hoping that the baseball gods would guide the ball into his glove. While I'm sure a few liners ended up over my head, the back of this card tells a different story.

1993 Select #77 Luis Sojo (Reverse)

That might be the best snow cone I've ever seen on a card.

1995 Pinnacle #208 Bo Jackson

How's that for a sunset card? Nevermind the guy's baseball career; that is an awesome awesome Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet!

By the time this 1995 card was printed, Bo Jackson had played his last game. He spent a year with the California Angels (before all that "of Anaheim" nonsense) as a Designated Hitter. The reverse only has his 1994 and career total stats, plus a rarely-seen line of "Career Highs"—the baseball card version of those little bars that stay elevated on a stereo equalizer.

It's a very 1990s card.

1995 Ultra #155 Mike Kingery

Mike Kingery was one of my mom's favorite players during the early years of the Rockies. He was an unassuming, yet capable, center fielder. Not a Jim Edmonds by any means, but he made plenty of clutch plays in the cavernous outfield of Coors Field.

This is a play at the plate, although not the usual dusty, sliding affair we're used to. That's definitely a Giants' catcher (probably Kirt Manwaring) unceremoniously tagging Kingery on the leg for an unfortunate Rockies' out.

Fleer went a little nuts with the foil here, using both gold and silver foil, different letter styles for the first and last name, plus the team logo for good measure. The photography still works well in spite of all that.

1998 Fleer Tradition #471 Scott Brosius

Honestly, Fleer got pretty darn good with the photography in the post-strike era, although the designs always felt like they were trying too hard. They broke with tradition in 1998 and 1999, calling their flagship set "Fleer Tradition". Again, the photography is sharp and action-packed, and we even get a cameo of Rafael Bournigal, an under-the-radar Major Leaguer you've probably never heard of. His offensive stats are mediocre, but he had a stellar career fielding percentage of .988.

1996 Donruss #78 David Segui

Besides that stack of 1993 Leaf, there wasn't much Donruss in this huge box. There were a few from the 1996 set, known in collector circles as "the loincloth set" for the rather obstructive placement of the square jumble containing the logo, city, team, position, brand, and uniform number. There was no room for the player's name in all that, so we find that in a color-coded ribbon toward the top.

Almost everyone was following Stadium Club's lead by now, offering a full-bleed design with some interesting photography. This on-deck photo must be from the always-windy Candlestick Park, based on that San Francisco ad on the stadium facade.

1995 Collector's Choice SE #246 Mike Stanley

I'll wrap up with a bit of Upper Deck. Here's a slightly more conventional play at the plate, with Yankees catcher Mike Stanley bracing for an impact with Tino Martinez. I thought this might have been Edgar, the other Martinez, the one who spent his whole career in Seattle, the one who has a left-field bar area named for him at Safeco Field, but no. It was the soon-to-be Yankee Tino.

1995 Collector's Choice #442 Curt Leskanic

Here's another spring training photo, similar in design to Stanley's card, but from a set entirely separate from the blue Special Edition cards.

Curtis Leskanic was a strange guy. He was a pitcher's pitcher, not quite Turk Wendell-level, but still plenty odd. He claimed that he put more juice on his fastball by shaving his right arm to cut down on wind resistance. And for all I know, that's his Social Security number on his name sticker. I hope he hasn't suffered a lifetime of identity theft due to this card. But Baseball Card Bust has a different theory.

1994 Upper Deck #399 Terry Mulholland

1994 Upper Deck was well-represented, and it'll fit nicely into an already-large collection I have of that set. But I don't think I had this card. The dugout shot makes it interesting, and I'm guessing that this was not taken on a day he started. He looks relaxed enough to know that he's not climbing the mound that day.

I remember him as a Philadelpha Phillie, partly because he was on that team at the height of the baseball card bubble, but also since he pitched in the 1993 World Series, the first I ever watched. He played for a lot of teams in his long career, though surprisingly never for the Rockies.

1996 Upper Deck #27 Gary DiSarcina

Here's a double play card, always a blogosphere favorite. While the action is great, and I have an appreciation for middle infielders, perhaps the best aspect of these is the cameo. You're sure to find a baserunner, and occasionally the other middle infielder (like in that Joey Cora card way up at the top). 2B Damion Easley is nowhere to be found here, but we do get a cameo of Chris Gomez, a Detroit Tiger at the time.

DiSarcina makes it look easy. I played second base in little league, and I could never pull this off.

2007 UD Masterpieces #8 Lou Gehrig

This has been a hugely long post, certainly my longest, so thanks for hanging in there. I know that 1990s overproduction cards aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I would have been beyond ecstatic to get a box like this in my elementary school days. Even all these years later, I'm still pretty stoked and humbled that I've found such a generous community of like-minded bloggers, and that 48 people are even subscribed to this thing.

This box included enough cards to tell a bit of a story, leading off with Ken Caminiti, and wrapping up with a humble and appreciative Lou Gehrig, from a set that was one of Upper Deck's literal masterpieces.

Thank you, Bo, for all these great cards, and thanks to each and every one of you who takes the time to read my blog.