The Trading Post #169: More From Roger

Roger knows he has an outlet for cards now. I visited my girlfriend one evening recently and she gave me a small stack of four cards that he set aside for me, pretty much out of the blue. Unlike the first cards I got from him, these were from about ten years into the history of the Rockies. The turn of the millennium, as we don't often call it. 

In any case, I wasn't doing much collecting circa 2000-2002, and it's unusual to run across cards from this comparative lull in the hobby. Pinnacle was a thing of the past, and it wasn't looking too good for the remaining survivors. The Rockies didn't have an especially memorable team during that time either, and 2000 was one of just two non-pandemic seasons in the team's history that I didn't attend a game in person.

2001 Topps Chrome Traded #T15 Andrés Galarraga

Andrés Galarraga had long since moved on from the Rockies by the time 2001 rolled around. Topps was deep in their period of experimenting with colored borders, and this 2001 Chrome example from the Traded set actually looks pretty good when given the shiny treatment. I didn't love the mustard-yellow 2002 borders, but this emerald green from 2001 was really nice. It does suffer from that annoying curl that has plagued Topps Chrome for decades, but it looks so good otherwise.

This card from the Traded set actually documents The Big Cat moving from Atlanta to the San Francisco Giants. 1997 was his last season with the Rockies, at which point Todd Helton took over at first base. Galarraga missed the 1999 season while battling lymphoma, but made it back to the Bigs for a few more seasons. Following this stint with the Giants, he returned to his original team, the Expos. Then it was back to San Francisco, then another battle with that insidious foe cancer, then a final appearance in the Majors with the Angels at the end of 2004.

He finished with 399 career home runs, falling just a hair short of 400 (and maybe a chance at lots more if not for his health issues). He was my favorite player as I grew into being a Rockies fan, and he's the guy whose batting stance I liked to emulate while playing little league.

2003 Donruss Champions #93 Juan Uribe

Prior to this, I had a grand total of six cards in my collection from 2003 Donruss Champions, so I certainly can't call myself an expert. In looking at the checklist, each team was grouped together by card number. The Rockies were #90-96, a mere seven cards. Coincidentally, seven matches the number of triples Juan Uribe hit in 2002 as the Rockies shortstop, somehow a decline from the eleven he put up in less than half a season during his rookie year of 2001. Baseball-Reference and the card back are in agreement on that number, which happened to be a tie for the NL lead in 2001.

The design of this set is a little cramped, taken up mostly by the giant National League logo, the shiny Donruss Champions logo, and the banner-like superlative that occupies the remaining space on the left-hand side. When you visit Coors Field, you'll find lots of banners like that suspended from the rafters over the concourse, documenting Silver Sluggers, lots of batting titles, a Rookie of the Year award, and so on. They didn't get quite as specific as Donruss Champions did, but the team does have at least a little bit of hardware to show for a quarter-century or so as part of Major League Baseball.

2002 Fleer Tradition Update #U46 René Reyes SP (RC)

I guess I was watching the Rockies with some regularity in the early 2000s, because I do remember the name René Reyes. His Major League career spanned part of two seasons with the Rockies for a total -0.6 bWAR. Nothing great, and he only slugged one triple, or "trifecta" as that Donruss card called it. But his Minor League career was promising enough to be included in this retro-themed Fleer Tradition set with "PROSPECT" billing.

Further investigation of his Baseball-Reference page reveals the only negative value I can recall seeing for OPS+. That's a ballpark-adjusted metric, where the average is normalized to 100. Barry Bonds was +263 in 2004. Reyes was -2. 

So, short print or not, you can see why his career didn't last.

2000 Bowman's Best Year by Year #YY8 Juan González / Larry Walker

The final card today is definitely new to my mental collecting encylopedia, and thus to my 2000 binder. I don't run across many inserts from this era, but here's one anyway from 2000 Bowman's Best. It's a two-player card featuring both Larry Walker and Juan González, who each made their debut in 1989. They're the subject of that year in the Year By Year insert set, which looks at players who debuted in the same season and followed a similar career arc. 

González and Walker, for example, both hailed from outside the USA. Their careers peaked in the mid-1990s, each winning MVP honors around that time. González won the AL award in 1996 and 1998, and we're told that Walker captured his first in 1997. That ended up being a bit optimistic on the part of Topps, as Walker only had the one MVP to his name, which remains the only MVP award in Rockies history.

The card itself is a refractor, slightly textured, and I'm pretty sure it's acetate, although there are no transparent elements to confirm that.

Thanks again to Roger for the collectibles (he also gave me an old Rockies Magazine that was fun to flip through), and these will have a good home in my collection!

The Trading Post #154: Topps Cards That Never Were (Part 1: Older Rockies)

For nearly a year, I've had a stack of cards on my shelf from Topps Cards That Never Were. Jeremy offered a card from my Eight Men Out list along with some assorted Rockies, and upon receiving them, I immediately knew that what he ended up sending would take several posts to properly cover. There was so much here, and I hope you'll enjoy this journey as much as I did. My current plan is to divide this up into four posts, but who knows, it might require five.

To start things off, we'll look at some Rockies from earlier in the franchise's history, split roughly around the time of their only World Series appearance in 2007.

1996 Select Team Nucleus #4 Dante Bichette / Andres Galarraga / Larry Walker

A three-player acetate insert card from a Pinnacle insert set is as good a place to start as any. The important thing is to start. We all know the mid-'90s were weird, and mid-'90s inserts were even weirder. I have never even heard of this sciency-sounding Team Nucleus insert set, let alone seen one. It's 28 cards in total, one for each team. I imagine there's a Griffey from this set worth as much as a used car.

Each card depicts three of the team's top players, in this case Bichette, Walker, and Galarraga, as noted on the back. Well, actually, it's noted on the back in reverse order, since it's a mirror image on that side. 

Something about this bothers me though. The one in the middle, Walker, well, that doesn't really look like Larry Walker to me. I could be wrong, and the wraparound sunglasses make it hard to be sure, but that looks a little more like Vinny Castilla, if I had to guess. Walker didn't usually go clean-shaven, and his hair color is lighter than this. On the other hand, the crease above his chin might mean it's Walker after all, but it's the least Larry Walker-looking photo of Larry Walker I can remember.

Either way, they were the core of the Blake Street Bombers circa 1995, but this might be an error card that's been hiding in plain sight all these years.

1998 Topps Tek Pattern 54 #34 Larry Walker

Here's another acetate card, and this one unambiguously shows Walker. Maybe it's just how the last photo was lit, but his goatee, which he usually wears, is pretty light-colored. 

Topps Tek was the acetate king of the late-'90s, and this is its inaugural 1998 set. Good old Pattern #54, for you Topps Tek experts. There are all sorts of rainbow reflective bits, applied quite inconsistently on the card front. Flip it over and you'll find the expected mirror image, along with a close-up and the card number telling collectors what this fractured set was up to.

Also on the back, we get a few of Walker's upcoming milestones. Topps projected the 1999 season would see him pass 200 stolen bases, and that the 2001 season would get him to 300 homers and 1,000 RBIs. Topps hit the home run and RBI milestones right on the money, but it took him a couple more years to cross 200 SBs, making 2001 a milestone-heavy season for the Hall-of-Fame lefty, a year that also marked his final All-Star appearance.

1996 Emotion-XL #175 Andres Galarraga

We've seen 1996 Emotion-XL (simply renamed to E-X in later years) twice on this blog, once with the Confident Jason Bates, and again with Mile High Ellis Burks. This time it's the Big Cat Andres Galarraga.

I was about to say that Big Cat is not an emotion, but did you see that profanity-laced video yesterday of the trail runner in Utah who spent six minutes backing away from a mountain lion? I was out for a hike myself yesterday and didn't see anything on the trail bigger than a squirrel. It would be an amazing photographic opportunity to run across something more, uh, predatory, but I'd prefer not to have an encounter like that four miles deep on a US Forest Service trail. It's a very real possibility, though.

I'll just let 1996 Emotion-XL take care of the Big Cat emotion.

1997 Score Reserve Collection #332 Bruce Ruffin

Back to the realm of the baseball diamond, we're going to shift away from the Blake Street Bombers and into some of the less-famous pitchers that spent some time in Denver. Bruce Ruffin goes all the way back to the inaugural 1993 season. The ex-Phillie began his time in Denver as a starter, but was later shifted to the bullpen and took over as closer. 1997 was his final season, but he never got a true sunset card in 1998. This is as close as he got.

Clearly, this is a parallel, as the original 1997 Score cards didn't contain this gold seal. Beckett calls it the Reserve Collection, but the seal itself has a monogram representing "Hobby Reserve by Score". Longtime readers might recall the Series 1 version of this parallel, known as Premium Stock. The Reserve Collection is just the Series 2 iteration, which has thinner card stock, a white border, and a different gold seal. It's reminiscent of what Donruss did with the 1991 base set: Series 1 borders were blue, while Series 2 was green.

And we all love 1991 Donruss, don't we?

1995 SP #15 Juan Acevedo (RC) FOIL

One would think that you're more likely to find a base card before a parallel enters your collection. But with '90s cards, or really ever since the '90s, any one of the many varieties might come your way before you find the most common variety. In this case, just the opposite happened, as I got the Silver parallel of this die-cut Juan Acevedo card from Big Shep before this base version arrived.

Last time, I mentioned that the card back contains a photo of Acevedo bunting. Unexpectedly, we didn't get to see any of that for real in 2020, so I'll flip this one over on the scanner for you.

1995 SP #15 Juan Acevedo (RC) FOIL (Reverse)

I'm pretty sure he's wearing the Big Cat's helmet in this photo, #14. This elicits a lot of Emotions, pardon the obvious pun.

2003 Topps Total Award Winners #AW13 Mike Hampton

We'll keep things shiny with 2003 Topps Total. That's not hard to do, really. But we'll have another pitcher hitting, which is pretty hard to do. It just so happens that Mike Hampton won a Silver Slugger in 2002, earning him this (slightly miscut) light green insert card. It's a good follow up to his 2002 Topps Total base card, which showed him bunting.

And before you shout "COORS!" at me, please flip this card over and know that Mike Hampton won the Silver Slugger award as a pitcher four years running, with three different teams. He'd follow that up with a fifth in 2003 as an Atlanta Brave, keeping that streak going for as long as the Dodgers had their Rookie of the Year streak in the mid-'90s.

No Rockie has ever won a Cy Young award, which is represented by the white outline at the top of the column of icons on the right, but the Silver Slugger award has been won by a Rockie three times. As you see here, it was won twice by Hampton, and once by Germán Márquez in 2018.

If and when the National League adopts the designated hitter, cards like this will likely be a thing of the past.

2001 Bowman's Best #79 Mike Hampton

I'm seeing a lot of Bowman's Best these days, but those have been from recent years. This is from 2001, much closer to the brand's inception. We're staying with Mike Hampton for one more card, this time showing him pitching. As good as he was at the plate, pitchers are at home on the mound. This textured card isn't quite as shiny as you'd think, given all that gold on the left. But it has the usual rainbow background you'd expect of a premium brand like this.

What makes Hampton worthy of inclusion in the Best set, according to the card back? Well, this was only a few years removed from the 1998 home run chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Thus far in his career, Hampton had held both those players to a combined 10-for-63 (.159), surrendering just one home run each to the famed sluggers. Topps also threw in the 0-for-14 Mickey Morandini, one of the random players that shows up here surprisingly often.

2003 Fleer Double Header #112 Jason Jennings

The last of today's pitching rotation is Jason Jennings. As long as we're talking about awards, he's the only Rockie to win Rookie of the Year. He also has the only mini of this post, coming in at 2 1/4" x 3" on 2003 Fleer Double Header. Unlike the short-printed Flip Cards, this is just a flat piece of cardboard with nothing to unfold.

Despite his 2002 accolade, either this set was developed before his Rookie of the Year award was announced, or Fleer just didn't think it was worth mentioning. The paragraph on the back goes as late as August 2002, mentioning his one-hit quality start on August 1st. I know Fleer knows about it, because they gave him a subset card in 2003 Fleer Tradition. At least both cards show the 10th Anniversary team patch.

This is a weird set. It's slightly smaller than a 1975 Topps Mini, and whatever they're doing to the background of the photo looks very artificial. No lens will blur the background like that. I do like the cute little team cap in the lower right, though. It was definitely inspired by the key design element in 1981 Topps.

2002 Absolute Memorabilia Team Tandems #TT-11 Todd Helton / Larry Walker

Let's return to the standard size, shall we? Here's a shiny two-player insert set featuring Todd Helton and Larry Walker, printed by what was then the Donruss-Playoff company. It's the real Larry Walker, for sure, the only star player to bridge the team from the Blake Street Bombers era well into the Helton years.

This design element with a baseball surrounded by three circles would really be perfect for that Team Nucleus card, but this time it's Team Tandems. The card number begins with "TT", not to be confused with Tools of the Trade, another 2002 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia insert set which used the same prefix. 

I wasn't really collecting at this time, so I missed the drama that led to Donruss being purchased by Pinnacle in 1996, followed shortly thereafter by Pinnacle's bankruptcy in 1998. After that, Donruss became affiliated with the Playoff brand, leading to sets like this with "Playoff Corporation" in the fine print. Later on that of course led to Panini.

I've always thought of Panini simply as a continuation of Donruss, so it's weird to see them release what I think of as Pinnacle brands too, like Score. They've just snapped it all up, other than Upper Deck which ended up with Fleer, who is still doing its thing with the NHL. It's not unlike what happens with the phone companies, which you can get a feel for when I write about Pac Bell Park / SBC Park / AT&T Park.

You'd think Topps would acquire some of these brands once in a while. I mean, that's what Bowman is. It just happened so much longer ago.

2002 Donruss Originals #202 Larry Walker 84

Larry Walker appeared in a nearly-identical pose on this 2002 Donruss Originals card. That's how the greats do it, consistency. Just watch that 60-second Mike Trout montage of his 300 home runs.

The fine print on this card has "Donruss Trading Card Co.", despite being from the same year as that Playoff set. Were Donruss and Playoff two separate but simultaneous brands for a while? Was it sort of a sub-brand like Fleer did with Skybox? I'm not sure, but after reading up on all this, suddenly it makes a lot more sense as to why there's no Donruss section in my 1999 or 2000 binders.

Can we really blame the 1990s for being such a crazy time to collect? The ownership of most of these companies was in total upheaval. Don't forget Pacific either.

Anyway, once Donruss was back on shelves, they released this Originals set. It's sort of an equivalent to Topps Archives, where they dipped into their past designs to use with then-current players. They used four designs for the only year of the Originals brand, 1982, 1984, 1986, and 1988. Clearly, what you see here is the 1984 design. At first, I thought there was a weird printing error underneath the Donruss logo, but after looking past the curves, I realized it was actually Walker's left foot, and those are the Adidas stripes.

2004 SkyBox LE #70 Larry Walker

It's been a lot of Larry Walker in this post (depending on who's really on that Team Nucleus card), but one more did catch my eye. It's another die-cut, and it's the first card from 2004 Skybox LE to enter my collection. LE, which clearly stands for Limited Edition, adds a few thin border lines, uses selective color to make the primary subject pop out of the background, and even gives us the player's uniform number on the left.

On the card back, which leaves a lot of empty space as Fleer did on many of their sets at the time, we're given a single line of statistics with Walker's career totals, and a short paragraph. In it, we're told that "Larry Walker is the name you'll see most often in the Rockies record book." Todd Helton has since taken over many of the offensive categories, especially the ones that are simply counting stats, but Walker is still in first place in quite a few average-based and Sabermetric categories like OPS+. He remains the career leader in batting average, hit by pitches, on-base percentage, and others. This card gives us his 2003 OBP of .422, which was actually a few points lower than the .426 he racked up during his entire Rockies career.

2005 Upper Deck ESPN Web Gems #WG-22 Todd Helton

Upper Deck joined forces with ESPN in 2005 to make a small 90-card set, complete with ESPN-themed insert sets. There was an ESPY insert set, a SportsCentury insert set (sort of a precursor to 30 for 30), this Web Gems insert set, and a few others. It's also brand-new to my collection.

I don't watch ESPN regularly enough to know whether they ever utter "Web Gems" on-air anymore, but it used to be their name for the segment showing each day's best defensive plays. Hunter Renfroe of the Rays would be on it at least twice tonight in ALCS Game 3. If they don't use it anymore, they should. In a game where the three true outcomes are becoming increasingly common, I'd watch a Web Gems video every day, especially since I know Nolan Arenado will be on it every day.

Everyone knows that Nolan Arenado is the best defender to ever play for the Rockies (he's already the career leader in defensive WAR), but Todd Helton was pretty good too. Helton had his share of Web Gems, and you don't win three Gold Gloves without plenty of them. He had a career .996 fielding percentage, good for eighth all-time among first basemen.

2002 Upper Deck Ovation #129 Jay Payton

If you thought that Bowman's Best card contained a lot of texture, just wait until you see 2002 Upper Deck Ovation. The entire team logo is raised, and it takes up about half the card. Of course, since this is Upper Deck, there's lots of copper foil. 

I haven't shown this set on the blog since the early days of Infield Fly Rule, and that was before I changed my scanner settings to make the images look a little more realistic. I think the copper comes across a little better this way.

That was so long ago, I wouldn't have thought anything of it if I saw Jay Payton wearing #27 back then. That's Trevor Story's number now, and one of the easy ones to get in the stadium trivia games.

2001 Topps Gold #266 Terry Shumpert /2001

Concluding Part 1 but still early in this journey through Jeremy's trade is Terry Shumpert, who spent five seasons as a Rockie. He began his career with five seasons as a Royal, and I still think of him that way because of how many Terry Shumpert Royals cards I saw in my early days of collecting. Look it up though. He played more career games with the Rockies.

This is a parallel from 2001 Topps, back when Topps Gold really meant it. Granted, the Topps logo, the nameplate, and a thin part of the border would have been gold anyway, but making the whole border gold really adds a lot. Of course, it doesn't scan that well. On the back, the serial number is giant and gold, #1553 out of 2001. I've long lamented that Topps changed the Topps Gold serial numbers to black many years ago, and you'll see some examples of that in Part 2.

2001 Topps Gold #266 Terry Shumpert /2001 (Reverse)

That's how a serial number should look on a Topps Gold card.

The end.

The Trading Post #151: Dime Boxes

Nick at Dime Boxes is back with another great batch of cards from his Free Card Friday series. These arrived long before the 2020 MLB season started, and here we are on the final day of the regular season. Despite all that's happened in the past year, the Rockies finished one game above last place for the second straight season. Unless they find a way to squeak into a Wild Card spot, they frequently finish in fourth place, slightly above whichever hapless NL West team happened to have a worse year.

No matter where they finish, a trip to Coors Field is always a great way to spend a few hours. Obviously that didn't happen this year, but in nearly every season since 1993 with just a couple exceptions, I've managed to make it to a game.

2017 Topps Opening Day Incredible Eats #IE-8 Foot-long Hot Dog

I have some favorite spots for food inside the ballpark, especially up in the Rooftop section, but you can get one of these foot-long hot dogs in plenty of places. When I first saw the Incredible Eats insert set in 2017 Topps Opening Day, I remarked how one of these "really sounds good right about now". As the 2020 season wraps up nearly a year after my last trip to the ballpark, my mouth is literally watering at the idea.

I'm not really a fan of yellow mustard, the buns lack a certain structural integrity, and I prefer a brat to a hot dog, but let's be honest here. I could have taken this picture. I prefer to sit on the third base side, I usually splurge for the peppers and onions (though I skip the relish), and once in a while I even end up sitting about this close to the Visitors' dugout. 

As the card tells us, this is what's known as a Rockie Dog, "topped with fresh grilled peppers, onions, and sauerkraut." Pair it with one of the many craft beers available throughout Coors Field and you have a proper ballpark snack.

Extra credit to Topps for opening the paragraph on the back with "Frankly". This is why I love Opening Day inserts.

2016 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini #44 Miguel Castro

While you're enjoying your Rockie Dog, how about some actual baseball? Former Rockie Miguel Castro makes his Infield Fly Rule debut with this Allen & Ginter mini. These are always tiny, and the horizontal orientation makes it look even tinier. Still, it's a better layout than the full-size card, which crops out his glove and forearm, leading to a cramped look. Despite how small this is, the aspect ratio gives it an expansive canvas, relatively speaking.

2019 Topps Walmart Holiday #HW165 Nolan Arenado

With this Nolan Arenado card, Nick has helped build out my 2019 Holiday parallel collection, started by Rod. Overall, it has a similar look to David Dahl's card, but the holly and ivy stencil becomes quite a noticeable design element in the horizontal orientation when it has so much room to expand. I mean, that's what ivy does. It's a vine.

This is a Coors Field card showing one of the all-time Rockie greats, but despite his contract, rumors continue to swirl that Arenado may have played his last game in a Rockies uniform. That would be a shame, as he's become one of my favorite players ever in just a handful of years. He didn't put up career numbers in 2020, but I definitely hope that this isn't the last we'll see of him in a purple jersey.

2019 Bowman's Best #5 Nolan Arenado

Rotate 90 degrees. Enhance.

Applying a little TV show cliché takes us back to the usual vertical orientation and shines things up significantly. As he did last time, Nick sent a Bowman's Best card of Nolan Arenado, this time from the 2019 set. It shows Nolan in his natural element, about to fire a baseball off to first base to throw out a runner. It's unknown how amazing this particular play was prior to the ball being in his right hand, but odds are it was a great one.

There's a faint checkbox pattern in the lower left area of the photo, transitioning to raster dots in the upper right. There's a slight curl to this card, common for shiny Topps products. Despite a slightly busy design with angles reminiscent of 2020 Topps, the photo itself is as sharp as can be.

I doubt that many Bowman's Best collectors flip the card over, but if they do, they'll find out about Arenado's "Best 2019 Game", May 25th against the Orioles. I was at this game with a good friend of mine, and even though Nolan batted in five runs on his way to an NL Player of the Week award, I can report that this particular game ended up in the L column for the Rockies. I don't remember every detail of this game, but I remember getting beers with my friend at a nearby sports bar and feeling a sense of relief that it was finally spring.

Things were extremely different one year later.

2019 Topps Chrome Update #90 Trevor Story AS

Not long after Arenado's best game of 2019, the All-Star Game happened in Cleveland. Arenado was a starter, and Trevor Story played a few innings as a reserve and got an at-bat. 

You've seen this photo before. This is a shinier version of a yellow bordered parallel I received from The Lost Collector as part of 2019 Update. The extra shine and the usual silver border made it a little easier for me to notice the tiny MasterCard logo on the dugout roof.

We'll see if the 2021 All-Star Game happens, with or without fans. It's scheduled to take place in Atlanta, and they just announced the logo a few days ago.

Speaking of Update, is there going to be a 2020 Topps Update set? What are they going to do since they can't cram it full of All-Star Game cards this year?

2018 Topps Chrome Sepia Refractors #128 Sandy Alcantara

We'll wrap up the shiny section with the one actual card I claimed from Free Card Friday. The rest of these were just things Nick knew I would like. This is a Sepia Refractor from 2018 Chrome. I like shiny, always. Even better, Nick and I were both happy that I took a Marlin off his hands.

I first pulled a Sandy Alcantara card in my 2018 Stadium Club Hanukkah blaster, and haven't heard much about him since. I assume Miami will keep him on the postseason roster, as the Marlins were able to snag a playoff spot despite their early challenges with COVID-19.

I didn't know this at the time, but curiously, I have another Marlin from this set. Chavez Ravining sent me Starlin Castro's Sepia Refractor back in #130, and yes, these are the only two Sepia Refractors I have. It would be one thing if I had two Rockies from one particular flavor of the many Chrome parallels. That happens all the time, for obvious reasons. But two Marlins with the same Refractor color and no one else? That's pretty weird. 

Law of large numbers, I guess. Something like that was bound to happen in a collection of this size eventually.

2019 Topps Update 150 Years of Baseball #150-60 Chad Bettis

Returning to a normal level of glossy card stock, here's a parallel from a huge 100-card insert set from 2019 Topps Update, similar to an even larger 150-card insert set from 2019 Topps base. Both the Base and Update versions of 150 Years of Baseball are chock-full of Hall of Famers, but recently-retired Chad Bettis got a card right in the middle of the checklist. The card talks about his brave recovery from cancer during the 2017 season. He had his initial treatment during the 2016-17 offseason, but had to undergo chemotherapy as Spring Training started in 2017. He battled back and returned later in 2017, helping the Rockies get a Wild Card spot for their first playoff appearance since 2009.

Quite a few players lately have had to deal with this horrible disease, including Carlos Carrasco, Trey Mancini, Anthony Rizzo, and Jon Lester. I'm glad to see them all still with us.

If you're interested, The Athletic ran a story about Bettis's battle with cancer that's worth reading. The Athletic is paywalled, but I can share a 30-day pass with up to five of you. Feel free to leave a comment if you'd like one.

2019 Topps Gallery #125 Garrett Hampson (RC)

It wasn't long ago when I'd have to dig into Bowman Draft to find a card of Garrett Hampson. But he's become a real bright spot in the Rockies lineup, earning him a place in Topps Gallery. He's a versatile player, fun to watch, is up to bat as I write this paragraph, and is one of the fastest guys on the whole team. The card back confirms that versatility, telling us he started at four positions in the first half of 2019. Also, that back in his Minor League days, he led his Low-A league in stolen bases and triples, so we've always known about that speed.

The artwork here was done by a different artist than Kyle Freeland's card, this one by Kevin Graham. It shares the same elegant design with the rest of the 2019 Gallery set, and this one is really growing on me.

2020 Bowman Prospects #BP-137 Ryan Rolison

Speaking of Bowman, I'll file this card away for future years when Ryan Rolison may or may not make it to the Majors. I'm sure the complete lack of Minor League games this year didn't do any favors for his development. 

This is another Bowman design in a long line of Bowman designs I'll never remember, but it seems like a much simpler design than what Topps has been giving us the past few years. I wouldn't mind seeing Topps base sets heading back in this general direction.

1995 Stadium Club #313 Andres Galarraga BES

Our final card finds us much earlier in Rockies history, all the way back to Mile High Stadium. 1995 Stadium Club is a perpetual gold mine, and this Best Seat in the House subset lives up to the Stadium Club name. Twenty teams got a card like this, showing the optimal view of the best sights on the field. Here, Topps picked a spot low on the third-base side, perfect for viewing Andres Galarraga take a pickoff throw as Lenny Harris of the Reds scoots back to first.

On the back, there's a small map of the stadium with a yellow arrow pointing to their selected spot, and a few key stats about the ballpark. Topps lists each park's capacity, playing surface, dimensions, and wall height. There were a lot more fields with artificial turf back then, making the playing surface a relevant data point.

Topps was fairly specific about when this photo was taken. Not quite to 1997 Upper Deck levels, but enough to pinpoint this to May 1994. Odds are this is from May 26th, 1994, as Harris, #28 on the Reds, spent a lot of time on first base that day. The Rockies were right to be worried, as he stole two bases that series. There is a chance it's from May 24th, but Harris was just a pinch hitter that day, making it to first only once.

I never sat in that part of Mile High Stadium, usually finding myself way up in the nosebleeds in right field foul territory. But I would have loved to sit in a seat like this at the age of ten. And compare this card to the similar view in the Opening Day hot dog card at the top. As far as Topps and I are concerned, the best seat in the house is pretty much in the same spot whether you're at Mile High or Coors.

Just as long as I have snacks.

Hall Bound

For the first time ever, a Rockie is headed to Cooperstown. In his final year on the ballot, Larry Walker earned 76.6% of the vote, just squeaking past the 75% threshold.

I watched the announcement live, and must admit that my heart skipped a beat when his name came up. For too long my hometown team has been denied a presence in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and I can't wait to finally make a trip there and see a Rockies cap on a plaque.

I certainly can't think of a better reason for a one-card post than a Hall of Fame election. But which card to use? He's had some great ones over the years. As I was making my selection, I thought something from 1997 would be most appropriate. That was his MVP year, which remains the only time a Rockie has won the award. Night Owl's recent “Best MVP-year cards” post omitted Walker's 1997 Topps card, as he came out on the wrong end of a split hair, to paraphrase.

As one of the few Rockies fans in this community, I'm glad I have the chance to put a candidate forward for that list. Here's what I came up with:

1997 Bowman International Best #BBI7 Larry Walker

This one checks all my usual boxes. Rockies card. Shiny card. Topps card, the brand that leads off every one of my annual binders. Granted, Bowman falls toward the back of the pack in the Topps section, mainly because I've never been able to keep the designs straight, and because the numbering system is far too counterintiutive.

Bowman's Best, on the other hand, gave us designs that I consistently enjoyed and can recall from memory better than the base Bowman sets. And in 1997, both the base and Best sets included the inaugural version of International parallels, where the card background was modified in some way to match the player's country of origin. The 1999 set channeled the card backs from 1993 Leaf by including photographs of local landmarks. But in 1997, International cards simply had the flag of the player's home country. I have the normal version of this card, but because Walker is just the second-ever Canadian to reach the Hall of Fame, after Fergie Jenkins, choosing the parallel containing the flag seemed especially appropriate.

We strongly associate this red maple leaf on a white background with our neighbors to the north, but it's really a relatively recent creation. Prior to 1965, the Canadian flag included the Union Jack with a red field, as well as a coat of arms. Quite a Canadian form of rebellion against the British Empire, if you ask me. No wars, no riots, just a polite, "we'd like a new flag, please."

Anyway, on the card back, underneath a United Nations-esque banner of various flags, there's a small paragraph featuring Walker's best season, for which they selected 1995. He hit 36 home runs and had 101 RBI, stole 16 bases, and slugged .607. He also led the NL in outfield assists, and his arm was truly something to behold. Just ask Metal Universe. Those 36 homers were also a record for a Canadian-born player.

Of course, he'd break his own record just a couple years later. Bowman couldn't have known it yet, but 1997 was undoubtedly his best year. As I mentioned before, he won the NL MVP, and led the Majors in home runs, on-base percentage, total bases, and slugging percentage. He was second in batting average behind the great Tony Gwynn, and third in RBI behind Jeff Bagwell and Andres Galarraga, his own teammate who took the league lead.

Like his shirt said, he ain't no ordinary sponge.

As amazing as that season was, if he had managed to eke out just a dozen or so more hits, he might have won the Triple Crown, which would have completely changed the conversation about his Hall of Fame candidacy.

Congratulations are of course in order for Derek Jeter as well, a nearly unanimous inductee and one of the many greats to wear the Yankee pinstripes. Ted Simmons and Marvin Miller will join them, thanks to the Veterans Committee.

I doubt I'll be able to witness Walker's induction speech in late July, but I do plan on seeing the Rockies retire his uniform number 33 prior to the game on April 19th. Todd Helton blazed that trail in Rockies history, and here's hoping he'll also get the call before too long.

The Trading Post #112: A Cracked Bat (Part 1: Topps)

I haven't run a pivot table on my Trading Post page to know for sure, but it sure seems like Julie of A Cracked Bat is my most frequent trading partner. The sheer number of cards she's sent me over the years is staggering, and that's not even mentioning the quality! Another one came my way late last year, and there were so many interesting cards that I had to give it my two-part Topps / Not Topps treatment. There were some familiar themes, but also quite a few cards that were new to my eyes.

1996 Topps Laser #106 Andres Galarraga

I don't think I've ever been as wowed by my first look at a single set than I was with Topps Laser. I've seen some of these before, first when they popped up in a medium flat-rate box I bought on eBay. It's a shame this set only lasted one year, because it took the idea of a die-cut to a whole new level. Yes, that design you see on the right really is laser-cut, and opens up a whole new world of design possibilities. It looks particularly striking when you hold it up to the light, especially against a snowy background.

It's rather fragile, and tends to catch the top of a 9-pocket page in numerous places all the way down. But it's worth it. You can even see how the edges are slightly charred in the cut area compared to the usual white paperboard of the rest of the card. Topps kept the light theme going on the back with a pair of "Spotlight Stats", mentioning that The Big Cat hit three homers in three consecutive innings on June 25th, 1995, and that he had a .321 career average as a Rockie, the best the team had seen to that point.

2017 Topps '87 Topps #87-196 Jeff Hoffman

I was only three years old in 1987, but I have to wonder if I was as much in awe when I opened my first pack of 1987 Topps. I was too young to remember, but those cards, and later some 1990 Fleer, occupied a prime spot in my desk drawer before I really started getting into the hobby and graduated to shoeboxes and binders. That early exposure to 1987 Topps is partially why I keep showing these 30th anniversary inserts. The silver seal and RC logo update the design into a more modern look, as does the Rockies logo itself, but it's still easily recognizable at a glance.

2017 Topps '87 Topps Silver Pack Chrome #87-NA Nolan Arenado

This one is still clearly the 1987 design, but it's shiny, glossy, and has a patterned background that wouldn't be out of place on Topps Tek. I had to do some research to figure out what this is, as the congratulatory note on the back doesn't give me any clues other than promoting the "2017 Topps Baseball Hobby Continuity Program".

Whatever that is.

Apparently, this is a 100-card Hobby-only flavor of the classic set. I haven't bought a hobby box of a current product in ages, so its good that I can rely on trading partners to discover things like this. And it's about the sharpest-ever photograph to appear on the 1987 design. I'm not sure if they all have the same pattern, but to me, it looks like a bunch of Chase logos stacked diagonally atop one another.

I can enjoy it for what it is; my only gripe is that the background obscures Coors Field behind Nolan Arenado, a five-time Gold Glove winner.

2015 Topps Tribute #36 Carlos Gonzalez

I have no idea where Julie gets all these high-end cards from Tribute and Museum Collection and such. But they find their way to me, and I get to see how Topps has arranged their gilded gold foil sets year after year. I can't quite tell what the subtle circular design is in the background, and there are some diamonds back there too behind still-a-free-agent CarGo. I know that no one buys these sets for the design; they go for the hits, but that's where my attention goes. And this is apparently not a hit according to the original buyer.

2014 Topps Triple Threads Gold #98 Troy Tulowitzki /99

This one is more of a hit, getting a /99 serial number. This excessively alliterative Troy Tulowitzki Topps Triple Threads card is a gold parallel, one of the rarer varieties of the many colored borders found in this set. It will go nicely with a relic from this exact set that Julie found for me in our previous trade.

Despite its thickness and rarity, I'm pretty sure that this is a zoomed-out version of Tulo's base card photo from 2014. For the kind of dough they charge for this set, I'd like to at least see a different photo. It is still nice to see the Rockies' 20th Anniversary patch again, which they wore in 2013. Their 25th Anniversary patch is ready to go for the upcoming season, showing that time continues to fly.

1999 Bowman Late Bloomers #LB4 Vinny Castilla

Topps decided in 1999 that they had enough of Metal Universe having the wild shiny silver background market all to themselves. When 1999 Bowman needed a 10-card insert set, they cranked the trippy background dial up to 11. I had a Santana CD that looked like this, but redder. And speaking of commemorative patches, Castilla's uniform has the 1998 All-Star Game patch, which was held at Coors Field. Castilla finished third in that year's Home Run Derby, and came in as a reserve in the game itself. He replaced soon-to-be Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, but went 0-2.

The set looks at players that took a little extra time to reach their prime form following their entry into the Majors. Trevor Hoffman needed eight seasons to reach his first All-Star Game (coincidentally, in 1998). Jim Thome took a while to develop, too. There are a lot of Hall of Famers in this small set, and hopefully Larry Walker will count himself among that group soon. I'm not so sure about some of the others, though. Mike Piazza and Andy Pettitte did pretty well right from the start. Jose Bautista and R.A. Dickey would be great candidates if Bowman brought back this set.

The card back for Vinny Castilla gives us a look at the 1987 draft, the year he first played in the Mexican League. Some of the players drafted that year were Ken Griffey, Jr., Jack McDowell, Todd Hundley, and Steve Finley.

2002 Topps Total Production #TP6 Todd Helton

Topps toned it down a bit, maybe to 7, when they made a similar insert set in 2002 Topps Total. Still just ten cards, again with lots of Hall of Famers, and a few more that should be. The card back describes one of the more interesting occurrences in an at bat, when batters foul off a series of consecutive pitches. Helton spoiled 11 straight pitches in a marathon 16-pitch at bat once, showing "extraordinary bat control for a power hitter", as Topps put it. Brett Gardner did something similar in the ALDS this year for the Yankees. It's one of the best examples of how a ballgame can suddenly turn into a chess match.

2017 Topps Chrome #27 Ian Desmond

This is just the second time Ian Desmond has appeared on this blog, and it's the first time for 2017 Topps Chrome. The curl this year is pretty minimal, which is always appreciated. Topps kept the traditional Chrome logo in the upper corner, and also included the Chrome word in the lower area of the banner, which is usually quite blank. The back tells us too, right below the card number.

2017 Topps Chrome Refractors #92 Trevor Story

There are refractors, of course, and in addition to the rainbow finish and helpful label on the back that tells us it's a refractor (thanks, Topps!), there's a pair of sort of spotlight shapes emanating from the catcher's area. I thought that made it some special variety (spotlight refractors?) but apparently that's there to give Topps an area to color when making colored parallels. Tough to do that without a border, I suppose. But it seems a bit pointless, sort of like building a tall building just to put a red light on top, as my dad used to say.

In addition to that welcome refractor label on the back, Topps tells us about Trevor Story's amazing rookie year, where he tied George Scott's record of hitting his first 10 home runs in just 21 games. "He's going to get called up to the next league!" as Drew Goodman, the TV play-by-play announcer put it during their home opener.

2014 Finest Sterling Refractors #TS-CG Carlos Gonzalez

More to come on Trevor Story shortly, but first, another one of Carlos Gonzalez. There is a Bowman Sterling, but most of us probably associate the Sterling name with Topps Finest. CarGo is one of 25 players to be found in this insert set, which is modeled after one of the themes found in the fractured 1996 Finest set. Luckily it's just an insert set this time around, as Topps mercifully abandoned the fractured set idea long ago.

It's a little different, more rounded perhaps, but the background pattern reminds me of that Arenado hobby card from earlier.

2017 Bowman Platinum #24 Trevor Story

As promised, back to Trevor Story. Julie's been doing a great job of keeping me informed of the state of Bowman Platinum (note to self: not Limited, not Premium). This is my first card from the 2017 iteration, even though I seem to recall this was pretty widely available in big-box stores as opposed to just hobby shops.

Bowman made this one pretty colorful and added a lot of angles and bold shapes in the background. It's a departure; usually the design tends to follow the font they use for that stylish "P". Lots of thin, curvy lines. This year, the background reminds me of Q*bert. The back recounts one of his successes in April 2016, and this time it wasn't even a home run. He hit a 9th-inning triple off of closer Brad Ziegler, leading the Rockies to a 5-2 road win on April 30th, 2016 over the Diamondbacks.

I'm always a fan of the Rockies beating the Diamondbacks.

2017 Topps Chrome Future Stars #FS-14 Trevor Story

We've had Future Stars cards for decades, but nothing quite like this. It's a cross between Opening Day Stars and a The More You Know commercial. It's extremely eye catching, and the color palette they use in the star has a real 1970s disco vibe. If 1972 Topps had insert cards, this would be a likely candidate.

I've collected enough Trevor Story cards by now to know that his 2017 releases can't say enough about his amazing start to the 2016 season. As this card tells us, he's the only player in MLB history to go yard (do we still say that?) in his first four big league games. I like having him on the team, and he'll be entering his third season in just over two months.

I guess I have to hand it to the Rockies for knowing what they were doing on the Tulowitzki trade. This is why I am a fan and not a front office guy.

2013 Bowman Chrome Cream of the Crop Mini Blue Wave Refractors #CC-CRO4 Jayson Aquino /250

I know next to nothing about Jayson Aquino other than what I just saw on Baseball Reference. He has bounced around various minor league organizations since 2010, but did progress to his MLB debut in 2016 for Baltimore. He started a couple games for them in 2017, so he's one of the few Bowman players to show up in the majors, albeit briefly so far.

There are a few other Rockies prospects listed on the back of this Blue Wave serial-numbered card with a way-too-long name, some who you may know from blog posts such as this one. David Dahl, Nolan Arenado, and Trevor Story are the #1-3 prospects, with the list being wrapped up by Kyle Parker, who was released by the organization in 2016.

2001 Topps Fusion #156 Larry Walker BB

Back to a name you'll recognize, Larry Walker, who has gone this whole post without an appearance. What you may not recognize is this set, and it's not actually Bowman's Best. Rather, it's Topps Fusion, a set that exposed collectors to five of Topps' premium brands in one shot. I've shown one on this blog before from Topps Gold Label. I probably have enough of these cards to cover the whole range, but haven't closely checked, nor am I certain I don't have a few misfiled in the 2001 binder.

This has a bit more texture than I'm used to seeing in Bowman's best. The thin lines within the outline of the "B" (the ones the scanner didn't pick up) are horizontal and close together, almost like a lenticular card. And it has a rainbow finish rather than just chromium. I don't know Bowman that well, but I assume the "Best Bets" lettering at the bottom is modeled after a subset of some kind.

1998 Bowman's Best #4 Dante Bichette

This is more what I'm used to seeing from the Bowman's Best brand. Lots of large, shiny, gold areas and a full-length photograph. Replace the gold with some blue and you're not too far off from 2000 Finest. I'll be honest, usually I'm so mesmerized by the gold arcs that I don't look too closely at the back. And the statistics that Bowman gives us here are unusual and insightful. Rather than the usual rows of stats for at bats, average, and doubles, this card gives us a lot of ratios. At bats per extra base hit (AB/XBH), Games per RBI (G/RBI) and several more. Mathematically, the lower, the better. In 1995 through 1997, Dante Bichette walked exactly as often as he hit a home run. And that math checks out; he had 97 homers and walks from 1995 to 1997. It's an interesting early attempt at Sabermetrics, and if you're not in the habit of looking at card backs, I encourage you to look a bit more closely.

2017 Topps Gypsy Queen #252a Nolan Arenado

There have been so many shiny cards in this post that I felt I had to at least give lip service to regular old cardboard. I've seen a bit of this year's set, but I don't like it as much as the 2016 or especially the 2015 designs. And I'm not quite sure what's going on with this photo. It's clearly in Petco Park, judging by all those Padres uniforms in the stands and the banner on the wall. But there are other MLB logos to be found, such as the Dodgers, Red Sox, and a couple others I can't quite tell. It's possibly from the 2016 All Star Game, which would make sense as to why so many different fans were in the seats. Confusingly, even though the Padres are an NL team, they played as the away team in that year's Midsummer Classic, which could explain why Arenado is wearing his road uniform.

Or maybe I'm overthinking it. Arenado would wear his road uniform every single other time he plays in Petco Park, and maybe there were a lot of casual fans that day. Los Angeles isn't a terribly long drive for that Dodgers fan.

2013 Topps Update Gold #US15 DJ LeMahieu /2013

Back in the friendly setting of Coors Field, we see DJ LeMahieu casually flipping the ball to Tulowitzki for a force out. I'm guessing that's the third out, as DJ looks quite calm, and Tulo isn't preparing to leap over an incoming baserunner while carefully avoiding stepping on the sea turtle. Let's see if I'm right.

I don't have a ton to go on here, but the out of town scoreboard in right field at Coors Field is one of the best sources of information if you're trying to date a card. From what I can see, it looks like the A's beat the Astros in Houston, 4-3. Even though this is a 2013 card, it's from Update, which is one of the few sets where the year matches the photo. Furthermore, DJ has that same 20th Anniversary patch that Tulo had on his Triple Threads card, dating this to sometime in 2013.

There were two occasions that year when the Astros lost at home by a score of 4-3 to the A's, and they were both in the same series. I narrowed it down to either July 22nd or July 24th, and the Rockies were at home both days. Either is possible, but I could only find a 4-6 forceout at second base on the 24th. So my official guess is that this photo is from when the Rockies beat the Marlins 2-1 on Wednesday, July 24th, 2013. And if that's correct, then this nonchalant toss was the final out of the game, retiring none other than Giancarlo Stanton who had just drawn a walk.

2001 Topps Limited #117 Brian Bohanon /3085

I know that LeMahieu card is limited to 2,013 copies, but what I don't know is how limited this "Limited Edition" 2001 card is. Beckett says 3,085, BaseballCardPedia says 3,905, and Topps said there would be a maximum of 5,000 copies of the Limited Factory Set available that year. So all I can assume is that it's roughly 50-100% as plentiful as that Topps Gold card. But it's probably harder to find. If I paid extra for a wood-packaged factory set, I wouldn't break it up.

I see 2001 Topps so infrequently. I'm not that familiar with it, and it doesn't show up via trade very often. This might be the first time that I truly noticed that there's a photograph on the back behind the stats table, a faded and zoomed version of the front photo. It also has the special red and green logo Topps designed for their 50th Anniversary on the back, something I see far less often than their 40th Anniversary logo on the famed 1991 set.

I'll be in my late 60s when Topps hits the century mark. I hope we're both still around by then.

2017 Topps Salute #S95 Nolan Arenado

And the last card of the day is from 2017 Topps Salute, a huge insert set that didn't especially impress me the first time I saw it. Now that I know it has a bit more character, I'm warming up to it. This doesn't just show Arenado in his Mother's Day pink-accented uniform. The back mentions his mom, Millie, as well. And it also has a bit to say about Nolan Arenado's work ethic. We're told that once upon a time, Nolan didn't run out a routine grounder. Perhaps not a huge deal if it's just a one-time thing, but Topps says that Arenado called his mom to apologize after the blunder.

I assume it goes without saying that his teammates and coaches got an apology, too. And that little story further cements him as my favorite player in the Majors. That's how you get to the Major Leagues. That's how you get to the All-Star Game. That's how you get to the playoffs. That's how you win five consecutive Gold Gloves. You hold yourself accountable to the people around you. I see too little of that in my professional career and in society at large. And when I do see it, I can do little else but to appreciate it, try to emulate it, and try to surround myself with it.

Maybe that's why I tend to sit on the third base side when I visit Coors Field.

Julie, thank you, as always, for a wonderful batch of Topps cards, and there is more to come on the non-Topps side of things.