Ceremonial First Penguin

We're slightly closer to Opening Day than we are to Game 7 of the 2025 World Series. Baseball will soon return, and this year we have the World Baseball Classic to whet our appetites.

In the meantime, the hot stove season has been heating up again, with most of the remaining big free agents completing their upcoming deals. It hit the wire today that the Mets landed Bo Bichette, yesterday the Dodgers signed yet another superstar in Kyle Tucker, and Alex Bregman will be headed to the Windy City.

Bregman will be crosstown rivals with a particular feathered friend who threw the ceremonial first pitch at a White Sox game last season, as documented on a Topps Now card.

2025 Topps Now #276 Pepe the Penguin /3720

Pepe, a Humboldt Penguin who resides at the nearby Brookfield Zoo, popped over to Rate Field on Chicago's South Side last spring for World Ocean Day, documented in this adorable video. 

3,720 of my fellow flightless bird lovers picked up the Topps Now card documenting the occasion in honor of World Ocean Day, although I believe I bought this one on the secondary market rather than directly from Topps.

That's my second Topps Now card with a bird on it. Only about 11,000 more species to go.

Whether its cards or birds, I'll always be a collector at heart. I couldn't even begin to guess how many cards are in my collection, but I have seen 257 unique bird species since I picked this hobby up during the early days of the pandemic.

We don't count zoo animals.

2025 Topps Now #497 Brenton Doyle /389

I visit the zoo on occasion, but you're more likely to find me at the science museum, which is where I was when the Rockies staged their amazing 17-16 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in early August last year. I was so fired up by that win that it inspired me to write a whole post about it, so naturally I picked up the Topps Now card highlighting the game's biggest hero, Brenton Doyle. 

This one had a much smaller print run at just 389, but it gives us a great look at the second release of the City Connect uniforms the Rockies now wear. Personally, I preferred their license-plate themed green and white alternates. The new alternates are a mix of blue, purple, pink, and orange. They're meant to generally represent the outdoors of Colorado, especially the eye-popping sunsets we get a great view of at Coors Field, but I have heard several fans critique them as looking like a 1990s Taco Bell uniform.

In any case, a win is a win, albeit one of only 43 the team put together last year. In response, the Rockies have finally decided to make some (potentially) meaningful changes to the front office, hiring Paul DePodesta to run the show at 20th and Blake. You might remember Jonah Hill playing him in the Moneyball movie.

We'll see what happens, but fans are cautiously optimistic that this season might be the sign of better things to come. We're still a long way off from guys like Schwarber or Bregman signing here, but they've made a couple interesting free-agent pickups thus far. Willi Castro just signed a 2-year deal with the team, who should be a helpful utility player. He'll join Michael Lorenzen, who the Rockies formally inked yesterday, a veteran pitcher who is eager to meet the challenge and has some possible two-way potential. They call the new pitcher/DH regulations the Ohtani Rule, but the rule is available for any team to try.

2017 Topps Update #US28 Drew Robinson (RC)

Today is a quick three-card post, concluding with one of my Eight Men Out cards. It's from the 2017 Topps Update set, which is getting a bit far back in years already. Drew Robinson, pictured here on his rookie card, played a handful of games for the Texas Rangers and then later as a Cardinal. His career bWAR is -0.4, so you may not have much memory of him as a player. 

He is more well-known for an off-the-field reason, in that he survived a suicide attempt in April 2020. Since then, as part of his recovery, he has become an advocate for mental health, even serving in that capacity for the San Francisco Giants front office.

Sadly, he lost an eye and experienced other injuries on that day in 2020, but he did mount a comeback in the minors for the Sacramento River Cats in 2021, before deciding to retire. It's an inspirational story, a reminder that mental health is a priority for all of us, even for those living the Major League dream. His story isn't over, and as the saying goes, "where there is life, there is hope."

There's more to this set than Aaron Judge's rookie card.

Take care of yourselves.

Roger That

You only have to win by one.

 

Despite slogging through what has been a disastrous 2025 season, the Colorado Rockies scratched out an all-time great win last night, topping the Pittsburgh Pirates 17-16. It was a classic Coors Field game, reminiscent of the pre-humidor days, and not for nothing, gave the Rockies a winning record since the All-Star break.

 

A 17-16 win is a team effort no matter how you slice it, but the big hero at 20th and Blake was center fielder Brenton Doyle. 

 

Colorado started the 9th inning down by 4, which was heroic by itself, as the game started 9-0 before the Rockies even came up to bat. I had been keeping an eye on the increasingly wild score throughout the evening, and finally turned the game on in the 8th inning just as rookie Yanquiel Fernández hit his first-ever big league homer, as a pinch-hitter, no less, to make it 16-12.

 

As the Pirates just traded their primary closer David Bednar (who played a role in the Yankees' similar implosion against the Marlins last night), reliever Dennis Santana came in to close out the game, and his stats looked great on the surface. Even with a bit of Blake Street Magic hanging in the air, I had thought the hole the Rockies dug in the first inning would be too much to overcome. But after a home run here, a full-count triple there, and an RBI single to set the stage, just like that the winning run came up to the plate in Brenton Doyle. The Rockies were seeing Santana's pitches well, and it was one of those situations where, as the saying goes, "the man in the on-deck circle is in scoring position."

 

2025 Topps #44 Brenton Doyle

At that point I turned to my wife and said, "well, home run wins it!" Sure enough, with a runner on and one out, Doyle clubbed an 0-1 pitch over the left-center wall to complete one of the most epic comebacks in baseball history. And by the way, all this led to pitcher Dugan Darnell getting the lucky win in his MLB debut.

 

It was a wild night in baseball across the league. Five of the fifteen games ended with a walk-off, and the win probability charts in three games warranted a "WHEEEE!" on BlueSky from everyone's favorite baseball fan, Sarah Langs.

 

Baseball is the best!

 

That card, by the way, our first look at 2025 Topps here on the blog, was given to me for my birthday by family friend Roger, who has become a significant source of cards these past few years. It was part of a complete Rockies team set from 2025 Topps Series 1.

 

1998 Sports Illustrated Then and Now #61 Dante Bichette

We'll come back to more Series 1, but before that, it's worth repeating just how memorable last night's game was. Fans are already placing it among the top five Rockies games ever. Indeed, there have been some greats at Coors Field over the years, such as an early summer game in 1996 where the Rockies beat the Dodgers 16-15 which I've written about several times, a July 4th game in 2008 where the Rockies beat the Marlins 18-17 (which is being highlighted on today's broadcast as I write this), and of course their tiebreaker game against the Padres in 2007. And right from the jump, Coors Field has been known for wild slugfests.

 

Dante Bichette was on site to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for a game in April this year, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the opening of Coors Field. And he would know all about it, as he famously hit a 14th-inning walk-off shot to seal the deal against the Mets on Opening Day in 1995, the very first game to take place at Denver's shiny new ballpark in LoDo.

 

He's on the road in this photo from 1998 Sports Illustrated Then & Now, a set that pops up around here from time to time. It's a simple, full-bleed set printed on thick card stock, one of Fleer's many late-'90s products. This one is also from Roger, as are all the cards in this entire post.

 

It's nice to have card buddies.

 

2025 Topps #343 Ezequiel Tovar

Shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, who won a Gold Glove last year along with Doyle, got in on the fun last night, too. While he represented the lone out in the bottom of the 9th, he tied an MLB record by hitting four doubles throughout the game. Topps captured him here with a great horizontal action shot of him sliding into home plate, which is actually a nice bit of variety compared to many of the other photos found in the Series 1 Rockies team set, as we'll soon see.

 

2025 Topps #311 Charlie Blackmon

A Rockies fan is a strange thing to be right now. Their record is abysmal. The Kris Bryant signing was an unmitigated disaster. And as the season began, it was mentioned that this was the first Opening Day in team history without at least one of Andrés Galarraga, Todd Helton, or Charlie Blackmon on the roster. Without one of them, and with Ryan McMahon just being traded to the Yankees, there aren't a lot of big names to draw in the fans.

 

At least not on the home team. The Rockies email newsletter was all too happy to tell me that Rookie of the Year star Paul Skenes was pitching today for the Pirates, if I wanted to come by this weekend.

 

The ballpark is always my happy place, but it's tough times right now.

 

In any case, Blackmon retired at the end of last season after a 14-year career. Topps graciously gave him a "Sunset Card" in the 2025 set, showing him rounding second at Coors one last time, with the out-of-town scoreboard looming behind him in right. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that it's precisely the same shot and angle as Doyle's card that led off this post.

 

2025 Topps #256 Jake Cave

So is Jake Cave's card, as are three more cards in the Rockies team set.

 

I like the angle, and it makes it extremely easy to spot a Coors Field card for my perpetually-under-construction Frankenset, but let's have a little more variety, please!

 

Jake Cave was here just for 2024, mostly playing in right field. He is continuing his career in Korea as a member of the Doosan Bears. I thought I'd include him to illustrate the lack of photo variety, and because my wife liked him. 

2025 Topps #1 Shohei Ohtani

Roger had a gift for me on Opening Day as we met up for pre-game beers, and it was this Shohei Ohtani card, the Dodgers superstar who was honored with Card #1 in the 2025 set. He included it in a toploader, which was for the best because it was a freezing cold and snowy day. The Rockies and A's went to extras that game, but my wife and I watched the final inning from the warmth of the team apparel store.

 

This 2025 set looks pretty good in person. The border elements and logos are done up in foil, and I believe that's a first for a Topps flagship set other than some of the gold lettering they used in the 1990s and 2000s. The two colored stripes on the top and left are reminiscent of 1982 Topps, and I quite like the tiny baseball diamond in the lower right. Look carefully and you'll notice that there's a minuscule dot on the diamond, signifying the player's position.

 

2022 Bowman Draft #BD-136 Ryan Ritter

Roger threw in a Bowman card or two, including this one of Ryan Ritter, who has made a bit of a splash for the Rockies in his rookie year before landing on the IL in mid-July. The Bowman Briefing on the back has him as a "gap hitter with power potential", which sounds like a player tailor-made for the vast Coors Field.

 

In general, the team is going for youth. They traded McMahon and a couple relievers for a haul of prospects, and young guys like Ritter are showing promise. And the guy they called up to take McMahon's spot, the delightfully named Warming Bernabel, is making a name for himself quickly, as he already has more extra-base hits in his first seven career games than Trevor Story did.

 

Hope springs eternal.

 

As it must.

 

1999 Fleer Tradition #168 Hideo Nomo

But for all this talk of slugfests, extra-base hits, home runs, power to the gaps, double-digit runs, and generally just speaking the name Coors Field aloud, one must remember that one man managed to throw a no-hitter here. 

 

Hideo "The Tornado" Nomo took Major League Baseball by storm when he left Japan's NPB to pitch for the Dodgers, a spiritual predecessor to the great Ohtani. His unconventional windup was mesmerizing to watch, and somehow he found a way to silence Colorado's bats for nine straight innings. It's a feat that has yet to be repeated at 20th and Blake.

 

He was traded to the Mets by the time Fleer printed their 1999 Tradition set, and he began the journeyman phase of his career shortly thereafter, including three appearances for the Royals in 2008 for all you Immaculate Grid fans. His second and final no-hitter came with the Red Sox in 2001, which remains the only one thrown at Camden Yards in Baltimore. It's still considered a hitter-friendly park, but nothing like Coors.

 

Kyle Freeland came quite close to a no-hitter in 2017, so I don't want to go so far as to call it an unbreakable record. But of all the parks to do it in, Coors Field presents a unique challenge that even the resident ballclub hasn't truly figured out yet.

 

Thanks, Roger, and let's go Rockies!