The Trading Post #134: Blog Reader TSHenson

What's the first thing you think of when you see a card from 1998 Circa Thunder? The first time I did, I called it the "Dr. Who wormhole". That's still accurate, but have a look at this Mike Lansing card and let me know what comes to mind.

1998 Circa Thunder #128 Mike Lansing

For me, after that always-welcome green color, is AC/DC's Thunderstruck, the epitome of a stadium rock anthem. It's played at sporting events across the land, and even appeared in the soundtrack of the latest Deadpool movie.

Am I off base here? I may not do music tie-ins as well as Night Owl or Off Hiatus Baseball Cards, but I really think this one fits. You can practically hear the guitar just from that yellow scribble in the upper left.

Mike Lansing, a Wyoming native and former Rockies second baseman, has the minor-league park in Casper named after him. He also got a card in 1998 Circa Thunder, one of the earlier cards to feature Lansing in his new Rockies uniform. Circa used his quote from The Denver Post on the card back, where he says, "I don't walk much. My attitude is, I've got a bat in my hand and I'm going to use it." He retired with 299 walks to his name.

At first, I was wondering why The Denver Post was interviewing him in mid-November 1997, but upon further investigation, that quote was from a day after he was traded to the Rockies from the Expos. That trade, by the way, was how Jake Westbrook left the Rockies organization, then just a Single-A pitching prospect.

1996 Emotion-XL #173 Ellis Burks

These cards arrived many months ago from blog reader TSHenson, who I have seen commenting on blogs throughout the cardsphere. He doesn't have a blog of his own that I know of, but I swapped some Indians in exchange for this stack of Rockies. And I'm glad we did, because it's not often I get a look at rare Skybox sets like these.

Every 1996 Emotion-XL card in my collection so far had a green border, like you see here. Julie at A Cracked Bat sent me a few a long time ago, but this is the first one I've seen with the maroon border. As in the set's inaugural 1995 release, which was masterfully recapped by The Angels In Order, the 1996 cards include a somewhat relevant word on the card front. Ellis Burks got "Mile-High". Technically, that relates more to geology, but John Denver and a whole lot of Colorado natives like myself can certainly understand how that would be an emotion.

1997 Topps Chrome #139 Vinny Castilla

Most of these cards seemed to pair up pretty well, like those two Skybox cards above. The next two are from the perennial shiny favorite, Topps Chrome. It was still a burgeoning brand in 1997, but Vinny Castilla had established himself as a bona fide member of the Blake Street Bombers, joining Ellis Burks on that squad. He was remarkably consistent in the mid-'90s, hitting precisely 40 home runs and 113 RBI with a .304 average in two consecutive years. Not quite Khris Davis levels of consistency, but impressive nonetheless.

The card back tells us that Castilla was the fourth Rockie to reach the 100-RBI threshold in 1996. The Rockies were the first team with that many players to do so since 1929, when both the Athletics and Cubs did. And, small world, the 1929 Cubs were in the news today, as they were the only team in Postseason history to give up 10 runs in an inning until the Braves took the field today against the Cardinals. The Redbirds chased Mike Foltynewicz after just 0.1 IP, then continued to lay it on Atlanta's hapless bullpen to advance to the NLCS.

It just blows my mind a little bit, being able to tie two statistics together like that after having this stack of cards awaiting a write-up for nearly all of 2019.

2003 Topps Chrome Traded #T265 Clint Barmes FY (RC)

By 2003, my favorite set of the colored-border Topps years, Topps Chrome was established enough and enticing enough to get me back into the Hobby after many years away. I know just where the gold serial number would go on the card back if this was a more rare variety.

Clint Barmes, the longtime Rockies shortstop, made both his MLB and baseball card debut in 2003. I wasn't following the hobby closely enough to know whether the "1st Year Card" logo in the lower right was used elsewhere in the industry or just by Topps, but either way, it didn't last long. Barmes was a well-known figure in Denver for a few years, but he is perhaps best known for injuring his collarbone while carrying a package of frozen deer meat up to his apartment, a gift from Todd Helton.

You can't make this stuff up.

2004 Fleer Tradition #480 Javier Lopez / Garrett Atkins / Clint Barmes (SP)

Fleer recognized his talent in the following year's Tradition set, including two other prospects, all of whom would go on to play in the Major Leagues, most for quite a few years. Javier Lopez, the pitcher on the left, ended up spending most of his career with the Giants. His Prospect photo came full circle, as that shot of a much younger Lopez was clearly taken in what was then known as SBC Park.

There's not much on the card back, but well done, Fleer, for picking a prospects card so accurately.

2004 Fleer Tradition #100 Chris Stynes

The base cards from 2004 Tradition had a rather different look when compared to the Top Prospects subset. There's much more purple to be found on this Rockies card. And even after all these years, former Rockies are still making their debuts on Infield Fly Rule. Chris Stynes, briefly the Rockies third baseman, only played in Denver for a year. He moved on to Pittsburgh for his final season in 2004, but not before getting a year's worth of cards to add to my team sets.

I don't remember much about him, not even this batting stance.

1993 Triple Play #257 Charlie Hayes

I do, on the other hand, remember Charlie Hayes. The Yankees left him unprotected in the expansion draft, and the Rockies snapped him up with the third overall pick. The franchise was awarded in the summer of 1991, but the team didn't really start to come together until November 17th, 1992.

I always enjoy seeing the pre-inaugural year Rockies logo, and the kid-friendly 1993 Triple Play set is one of the best sets out there in which to find it. You also run into longtime Rockies fans at Coors Field sporting apparel with this logo, though nothing in my wardrobe contains it. For now, the only way I could wear this retro logo to the ballpark is if I pinned one of these Triple Play cards to my shirt.

2018 Topps Big League Gold #305 Charlie Blackmon / Dee Gordon / Ender Inciarte

Topps Big League is the closest spiritual continuation of Triple Play on the market today, perhaps even more so than Bunt, which could never really distance itself from the mobile app of the same name. I haven't opened much of it, but it's made its way into a few trades.

Unlike the usual white-bordered cards, this is the Gold parallel. There is no serial number on this, which is actually somewhat refreshing. Charlie Blackmon led the Majors in hits in 2017, with 213, including a team-record 68 multi-hit games. Dee Gordon, now with the Mariners, and Ender Inciarte rounded out the top three. Inciarte and Gordon both had 201 that year, so the little "3" next to Inciarte's name isn't accurate.

Just a little nitpick, because all of these players truly are Stat Kings. And Dee Gordon would surely be on the Stolen Base version of this subset card, if one exists.

2018 Topps Update #US61 Mike Tauchman (RC)

The Rockies obviously did not make the postseason this year, although they managed to avoid last place by a game. Part of the reason is that a few ex-Rockies are now playing for the Yankees, including DJ LeMahieu, Adam Ottavino, and this gentleman who isn't on their postseason roster, Mike Tauchman. He's been a surprising talent for the Yankees, and even hit his first big-league home run with them earlier this year. I bet the Rockies wish they could have kept at least one of those guys around for 2019.

2018 Topps Update #US53 Seung Hwan Oh

Seung Hwan Oh joined the Rockies via trade in 2018, and one year to the day later, the Rockies released him. The team is perennially on the lookout for relief pitchers, and they know it is job #1 this offseason. I was impressed with DJ Johnson's performance in the final game of the regular season, other than a wild pitch that still went the Rockies way, thanks to a baserunning error by Ben Gamel of the Brewers. But they'll need much more than that if they want to improve on one game above last place.

Perhaps next year's Topps Update series will give us a look at the new Rockies bullpen.

2018 Topps MLB Awards #MLBA-19 DJ LeMahieu

Speaking of DJ LeMahieu, who had to leave Coors Field to break the 100-RBI mark in a season, Topps gave him an MLB Awards card for his second Gold Glove, which he earned in 2017. He got a third in 2018 and could very well start racking them up on the AL side of things. He joined his then-teammate Nolan Arenado in this insert set, who is still a wizard in the field. DJ didn't have quite as many "Good Fielding Plays" as Nolan, but 50 is still a award-winning number.

2018 Topps Salute #TS-10 Charlie Blackmon

The All-Purpose Topps Salute insert set picked a Jackie Robinson Day theme for Charlie Blackmon's card. Just like on Jackie Robinson Day 2015, the Rockies were visiting San Francisco in 2017 as well. They found themselves on the winning side of the scoreboard in 2017, thanks to Charlie Blackmon's two-run single, an important enough event to earn him this insert card. Sure enough, the #42 that's worn league-wide every April 15th graces Blackmon's uniform, in place of the usual #19.

2018 Donruss #236 Nolan Arenado RETRO

Closing our post today is a retro 2018 Donruss card modeled after the 1984 Donruss set. It's a pretty accurate reproduction of the 1984 design, except for the team name in the yellow wave area. In fact, I'd go so far as to say Panini did a better job reproducing this set design than Topps often does with Archives.

I'm guessing those are Diamondbacks in the background, so there's no real hope of finding a date for this card. The card back describes Nolan Arenado's game-winning heroics on Sept. 11th, 2017 against Arizona, although that one was played in Phoenix. Just for a split second, I thought this photo might have matched the paragraph on the card back. It was a preview of the 2017 Wild Card Game, which unfortunately had a different outcome.

One odd thing about the card back is that the statistics are presented as his "Professional Batting Totals". However, what we do have are simply Arenado's Major League stats. None of the totals include any minor league play, leading me to believe that Panini can't even say "Major League", let alone an actual team name. One other change from the '84 design is that the card back is printed in black, unlike the light green of the original.

I appreciate all my readers, including those that choose not to dive into the world of blogging. Thanks to TSHenson for these great cards, including sets I rarely see!

The Pinnacle of Affordable Group Breaks (Part 1: Rockies)

They might not be a chance to add the latest and greatest to your collection, but any time Colbey at Cardboard Collections runs one of his affordable group breaks, you know they're an opportunity to take a walk down memory lane for just a few dollars. In late January, he decided to order up some 1995 Pinnacle products, and I bought the usual two-team slot. As usual, part one includes the Rockies, who are on a three-game winning streak, and the randomizer decreed this time that part two will consist of Philadelphia Phillies.

1995 Sportflix #9 Charlie Hayes

Pinnacle Brands put out quite a few products in 1995, including the penultimate year of the lenticular Sportflix set. This set has quite a bit going on. Not only are there two photos of third baseman Charlie Hayes to be found when you tilt the card, but also his last name appears to rush out at you on the right side. Even more than that, the logo on the right side alternates between the Sportflix '95 logo and the Rockies team logo.

These never come across that well in scans, but I don't really expect them to. What you can see anyway is Charlie Hayes' special face guard, which was such a curiosity that it appeared all over his 1995 cards. It pre-dated the C-flap by over twenty years.

There aren't too many stats on the back, but Pinnacle did highlight a few career totals in the Triple Crown categories. Seeing a .267 average isn't too jarring, but above that are his 367 career RBIs, an oddly huge and in-progress number that isn't usually featured on a card, which tend to focus on single-season accomplishments. He finished his career in 2001 with 740 RBIs and a surprisingly consistent .262 average.

1995 Sportflix #10 David Nied

So many pitcher cards show them mid-delivery, with their elbows, arms, and faces contorted into frightful positions. The ghostly half of this lenticular card is no different, but the alternate image shows a rarely-seen shot of this Rockies ace calling a popup. Pitchers seem to do this less often these days, but it's still surprisingly rare to see on a baseball card of any era.

On the back, Pinnacle kept the same theme of including full career statistics through 1995. There's also a small mention of Nied's "first full Major League season" in 1994, blatantly disregarding the strike that shortened both the '94 and '95 seasons. The career stats selected for these card backs mirror the Pitching Triple Crown, the lesser-known cousin of position player greatness. Those stats are wins, strikeouts, and ERA. It's a bit more common for pitchers to lead all three categories than batters to hit for average and power, but it's still quite rare. It hasn't been done since 2011, when both Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw pulled it off.

Anyway, looking at the back of Nied's card shows what would pass for a fairly decent single-season performance: a 17-6 record, 139 Ks, and an alarmingly high but Rockies-esque 4.58 ERA. Unfortunately, those are his stats from 1992-1994, and while his win-loss record looks quite impressive, Pinnacle made a significant error. His career record to that point was actually 17-16, meaning they dropped a full ten losses from his career count. When you feature a number that prominently, you really should get it right.

Sadly for David Nied, he'd never win another game, wrapping up his career in 1996 with a 17-18 record.

1995 Score Summit #45 Larry Walker

The next set is one you've seen a lot of around here, 1995 Score Summit. It's arrived in a few trades and even a Nachos Grande group break. I don't believe I've shown the Larry Walker card from this year, though. These cards always surprise me in how thick they are, and the photo reproduction is really quite sharp. The gold medallion team logo is a bit hard to discern, but it catches the light well enough.

1995 Score Summit Nth Degree #105 Dante Bichette

The primary hit I got in this break was Dante Bichette's Nth Degree parallel, which is one of the most sparkly parallels out there. It's not new to my collection, arriving once upon a time from everyone's favorite French trader, to whom I send my condolences for the destruction suffered by the Notre Dame cathedral this week.

I've shown the card before, but wanted to give my scanner another shot at it to have it turn out less blue than before. Success.

1995 Zenith #20 Dante Bichette

Unlike Summit, 1995 Zenith is a rarity in my collection, occupying only two 9-pocket page slots in my vast collection. Dante Bichette got a card in this set too, and given the small size of all three of these sets (200 cards or less), there is quite a bit of player repetition. They might all even be from the same photo shoot, as Dante is shown in a black spring training jersey with an away uniform on both his Summit and Zenith cards. Summit and Zenith pretty much mean the same thing anyway, as does Pinnacle. The set names in 1995 probably came from a thesaurus. There was no Acme, but that would have worked as well.

Gold foil was the name of the game in 1995, even hitting Topps flagship base cards for the first time. Pinnacle used the normal shade of gold for the various foil elements in this set, but I quite like the shade they used for the brick pyramid element in the background. It's a lot darker of a shade, more like honey, which manages to stand out among all the other gold sets of the era.

1995 Zenith #129 Juan Acevedo (RC)

The Rookie subset in Zenith didn't use the same shade, giving us lots more gold to look at, as well as a duplicated image as a backdrop for the main photo. The card back gives us a nice write-up of Juan Acevedo's prospects on a baseball stadium-themed design, complete with an artificial shadow of the player's head being cast over the outfield. There's even a cute scoreboard with his statistics.

1995 Zenith #129 Juan Acevedo (RC) (Reverse)

It's more cartoony than 1993 Fleer Ultra, which had a similar theme, but Bichette's main set card makes great use of this layout, showing his spray chart to the various fields against both lefties and righties. Bichette managed one opposite-field home run in 1994, long before the phrase "oppo taco" came into use.

1995 Zenith #NNO Chase Programs Checklist

Colbey even included one of the checklists for 1995 Zenith, showing the full breakdown of the three insert sets. Looking over these names reminds you of a few you haven't heard in a while, like Carlos Baerga and Raul Mondesi. Plenty of others are now in the Hall of Fame.

One of the three sets is "Rookie Roll Call". As usual with a set like that, it's peppered with now-legends like Derek Jeter and Chipper Jones, a few minor stars of the day like Todd Hollandsworth and LaTroy Hawkins, plus a few prospects that didn't especially pan out, such as Benji Gil and Bill Pulsipher. Only one Rockie made it into any of these insert sets, and that was Larry Walker.

Given these small set sizes, it looks like I did pretty well as far as pulling full team sets. Summit was pretty far along already, but Zenith is going to need a few more pockets in the 1995 binder.

The Trading Post #113: A Cracked Bat (Part 2: Not Topps)

A lot has happened in the week since I posted part 1 of a recent trade with A Cracked Bat. Four players were elected to the Hall of Fame. By now you likely know that Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman built up enough support to make it, and Chipper Jones and Jim Thome only needed a single year on the ballot. Not much has been happening in the free agent market, but the Milwaukee Brewers massively upgraded their outfield in one day, adding Christian Yelich via trade, and Lorenzo Cain via free agency.

As a Rockies fan, that concerns me. The Brewers only finished a game behind the Rockies for the second wild card spot, and with the Giants adding Andrew McCutchen, the NL West is shaping up to be a tough, tough division. At least the six games against the Marlins should be a cakewalk.

All this happened with a small pile of fifteen non-Topps cards sitting on my side table, just waiting for their time to shine on Infield Fly Rule. First up, a trio of Studio cards.

1993 Studio Superstars on Canvas #9 Andres Galarraga

1993 Studio is fairly well-represented in my collection, and I've been enjoying the regular series featuring the card backs that Bo at Baseball Cards Come to Life! has been running for a while. There were a handful of small insert sets that year, including this 10-card Superstars on Canvas set. Andres Galarraga, soon to be the face of the then-expansion Rockies made it in, along with several Hall of Fame-worthy players.

This design seems to be going for a sort of Diamond Kings / UD Masterpieces painted look, complete with an easel. It works pretty well until you get to the edge and you can clearly see the painted effect suddenly transition to the source photograph. Maybe they're trying to suggest that the subject was sitting behind the canvas, but it's painfully obvious that there was no painting going on here.

The card back tells us that The Big Cat, who has been showing up a lot around here lately, was set on proving that he still had lots of talent, and his low production in recent years was just due to injury.

I'd say he certainly did that.

1994 Studio #179 Charlie Hayes

Instead of a background consisting of a close-up of the player's jersey, which is what the 1993 Studio set had, they zoomed out in 1994 and gave us a peek inside clubhouses all around the Major Leagues. This must be the clubhouse at Mile High Stadium, since Coors Field was still under construction. It's one of the best ways to get the player's last name and uniform number on a card. The card back is what you'd expect for Studio, offering us all sorts of fun facts about the player's personal life. Charlie Hayes enjoys fishing, his favorite food is chicken, and his favorite player as a kid was Willie Mays.

The Willie Mays Hayes joke practically writes itself. But it's a great card, and all those pinstripes foreshadow that final putout he made in the 1996 World Series as a Yankee.

2002 Studio Stars #SS-20 Todd Helton

Studio really liked this concept of blending a credit card and a baseball card. This is the third different set they've done that approximates something you'd find in your wallet. The stat line numbers are slightly more raised on this insert card than the 1995 base set, and the corners a bit more rounded than the 1995 Studio Gold parallels. It is a clever idea, but perhaps Studio played it out a bit too much.

Take a look at these stats from the "perennial Triple Crown threat". .336 average, 49 homers, 146 RBIs. That's a solid season. It wasn't quite as good as his 2000 season, but it was during his streak of five straight All Star appearances, and the back has plenty to say about his stellar defensive skills. I hope Hall of Fame voters take that into account next year when Helton appears on the ballot. Outstanding defense in a hitter-friendly park should be given that much more weight, especially when "Coors!" is an automatic demerit in the eyes of many BBWAA voters, regardless of whether you're a hitter or a pitcher.

1996 Summit Ballparks #3 Dante Bichette /8000

Our next trio is of horizontal cards, led off by a Godzilla-sized Dante Bichette inside Coors Field. This 1996 card shows the ballpark in its infancy, probably in the 1995 season during a sunny, cloudless day game. There's far too little detail in the left field scoreboard for me to date this card, even with a magnifying glass, only that the line score tells us that three innings are complete, and the Rockies are in the field, making this the top of the 4th.

That scoreboard, by the way, is undergoing extensive renovations in preparation for the 2018 season, showing just how much the stadium has changed in two decades. There's a whole lot more plant life past the center field wall now, and the upper portion of the right field stands were removed in 2014 to make way for The Rooftop.

But what I especially noticed are the old advertising banners, many for companies that no longer exist. Above the bullpens in right-center, you can see ads for Hugh M. Woods, a defunct Denver-area chain of hardware stores, and USWest Cellular, a mobile subsidiary of the local Baby Bell which ended up as part of Verizon Wireless. I think. The lineage of phone companies in the post-AT&T breakup era is one of the most complex family trees you can find.

Surrounding the main scoreboard in left field are ads for Bank One, now part of Chase; the Rocky Mountain News, a tabloid-formatted newspaper that didn't survive the last financial crisis; King Soopers, which is now the local flavor of Kroger; and a few Chrysler brands that are no longer rolling off showroom floors, like Eagle and Plymouth. Immediately flanking the scoreboard are vertical banners for Coca-Cola and Coors. I'm not sure where those will go post-renovation, but those two brands remained in those slots ever since the stadium opened.

Oh, by the way, this Pinnacle Summit card is serial numbered to 8,000 when you flip it over, and there's also a home/away split of Bichette's 1995 stats. He had way more home runs at Coors (31 vs. 9), but an equal number of doubles (19) home and away.

2002 Ultra #133 Larry Walker

Away from their familiar home, Larry Walker is sliding into home with his right leg dangerously up, possibly in AT&T Park, or SBC Park, or Pac Bell Park (see earlier comment about telecom mergers). There's a tiny bit of damage on the front from this card sticking to the one above it, but mostly it blends in with the chunks of dirt that Walker is kicking up with his slide. He'll give the umpire and his trusty hand broom something to do between at bats.

2002 Fleer Ultra shows up from time to time around here. The banner they used that year seems pretty distinctive, and it was a worthy competitor to Stadium Club. Walker still has a decent amount of support on the Hall of Fame ballot, so we'll see if either he or Helton (or both—I can dream) become the first Rockie to enter Cooperstown.

2005 Donruss Champions #320 Juan Uribe

We're all used to baseball card photos being a year behind. The upcoming 2018 Topps set will have photos from 2017 all over the place. But I don't get why Donruss pictured a much thinner Juan Uribe as a Rockie in their 2005 Champions set when he played an entire year with the White Sox in 2004. The back of the card has only that 2004 stat line, in addition to his career totals. Most of the card back talks about his time as a Rockie, such as his 11 triples in his rookie 2001 season.

In looking at the surprisingly large number of cards I have from this set, I guess what this set was all about was occasionally showing players pictured with past teams, matching a highlight of their careers. There's a card of Larry Walker as an Expo, Nolan Ryan as an Astro, and more. It's just an odd, or at least an unconventional thing to do with current players. And this isn't even Uribe's only card as a Rockie in this set. He hit almost as many homers in 2004 with the White Sox as he did during his entire three-season tenure as a Rockie.

The other odd thing about this set is the large blank space on the right. Obviously, it's a perfect spot for a relic, but it leaves the base cards looking empty. I want to like this set, I really do. The color coding is beautiful and the gold foil on black looks great. But it has a few too many shortcomings to really stand out as a classic.

1996 Fleer #372 Kevin Ritz

We always like pitchers bunting, right? Clearly this is just batting practice, but if there's one thing an NL pitcher may be called upon to do, it's bunt. If the National League adopts the DH, then cards like this won't exist anymore. And that would be a shame. It's already bad enough that Fleer is no longer, and matte cards are certainly a tough thing to unearth.

Matte finishes supposedly work great for on-card autographs, which is appropriate, because Kevin Ritz actually signed a few things for my sister and I before a game at Coors Field once. I didn't have any cards on me at the time, but he did sign my hat, which has since been lost to the ages, as well as a small sheet of paper for my sister which came from a memo pad that my always-prepared dad had at the ready.

Ask him about the emergency blanket story.

1994 Triple Play #226 Darren Holmes

I don't think I've seen 1994 Triple Play since the Antique Mall Mystery Pack series from a few years ago. The set holds up well, and it remains a favorite design of mine. The color coding is great, and I still like that the block letters at the bottom are part of a transparent layer. Not transparent in the sense of an acetate card, but transparent to the photograph beneath it, giving it a 3D look.

The back tells us that Darren Holmes earned the first-ever save in Rockies history, a tidbit I had not been aware of. Even a quarter-century-old card still has secrets to share. That save came on April 23rd, 1993 against their perpetually-rebuilding expansion brethren, the Marlins.

Like Kevin Ritz, Darren Holmes signed a few pieces of memorabilia for me and my sister in the 1994 offseason at Mervyn's, another department store mall anchor that is no longer. In fact, Northglenn Mall is no longer, and the big box stores that now occupy that lot are struggling too.

Anyway, my sister and I each got an 8x10 signed, and I brought along a couple cards and a ball, which are still in my collection. Sadly, the ball has faded quite severely, and the two cards—1994 Topps and 1993 Team Stadium Club—have pretty fuzzy corners from when I got bored standing in line and started spinning them between two fingers. After the lines died down and my parents completed their shopping, he signed my hat, too. He's still part of the Rockies organization as the bullpen coach.

1994 Leaf Limited #103 Joe Girardi

This trio of cards is concluded by Joe Girardi, who signed a shiny 1994 Leaf Limited card just like this one for me at the Rockies Dugout Store in Boulder (which is also not there anymore), and I'm pretty sure that was on August 5th, 1995. I'm confident of that date because I very clearly remember congratulating him for hitting a home run the previous night, and if memory serves it was to straightaway center. The only home run he hit on a Friday at Coors Field in 1995 was on August 4th, and this autograph session definitely happened on a Saturday. Darren Holmes got the save that Friday night, by the way, in a 14-12 slugfest that Coors Field was rapidly becoming known for.

Eric Young was also at that autograph signing, and both he and Girardi signed 5x7 color photos for my sister and me, along with the fanciest and shiniest Joe Girardi card I could possibly locate in my collection. Dinger was entertaining the crowd in line, who signed a pair of oddball cards for us. That's how I'm sure it was 1995, because those Dinger cards have the Coors Field inaugural logo on them. I also remember standing front and center as Girardi came out of the building to do a quick radio interview with Mark Knudson, a former MLB pitcher, Denver native, and sports analyst for 850 KOA at the time.

I miss those days when everything seemed like a very big deal and stand out as distinct events. The days seem to run together a lot more when you're an adult. I've always had a pretty good memory (as you can see), but when I was just eleven, the gray matter hadn't been filled up nearly as much.

2006 Upper Deck Future Stars #23 Todd Helton

I never met Todd Helton, and thus concludes the in-person autograph portion of this post. This Upper Deck card, unsurprisingly, caught my eye because of the turquoise color, which would look great on a Marlins card. The short set of 2006 UD Future Stars is more or less a misnomer, as many players in it were nearing retirement, or at least past their years of peak production, like Helton. Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens can be found in this set, who had both hit their 40s. Most of the Future Stars were found in the short-printed Clear Path To Greatness subset. Like any prospect set, there are some nobodies, many players who had regular playing time, and a couple superstars like Justin Verlander and Adam Wainwright.

UD just doesn't want you to forget that this is about stars, because there are at least a dozen that I can count on the front, and another five on the back.

1998 Leaf Rookies & Stars #112 Ellis Burks

Maybe UD had to call it that because Leaf already made a more accurately-named set called Rookies & Stars several years before. Most of the major players you remember from the late 1990s are in this set, such as Ellis Burks with a same-year Coors Field photo. Note the 1998 All-Star Game patch on his right sleeve, just like we saw Vinny Castilla wear in the previous post. Also found in the Rookies portion (way up in the short prints) are names like Todd Helton, Mike Lowell, Aramis Ramirez, Troy Glaus, and A.J. Hinch, who managed the Astros to their first World Series championship last year.

1995 Collector's Choice SE Silver Signature #209 Dante Bichette

The Alice in Wonderland magic potion seems to have worn off of Dante Bichette by now, and here he is in Wrigley Field yet again. This time, Upper Deck snagged him fielding a base hit in the Friendly Confines, and applied the Silver Signature parallel treatment to the card in the late-1994 Collector's Choice SE set. The strike, which was still in effect when this set was released, is mentioned on the card, but Upper Deck commends Bichette on exceeding his 1993 totals for home runs, RBIs, and stolen bases despite having six fewer weeks to work with.

I pulled quite a few of these Silver Signature parallels when I collected this set, and the blue foil found on base cards still makes it stand out. I never ran across a Gold Signature until recently, long after the strike and the baseball card bubble were distant memories.

1996 Collector's Choice Crash the Game Exchange #CR15 Vinny Castilla

I've blogged about You Crash The Game redemption cards from 1996 Collector's Choice cards before. Fuji sent me Larry Walker's card from that set, a card that was never made eligible for redemption due to an injury. In fact, only three players in the whole set, Walker, Joe Carter, and Tim Salmon, failed to make good on any of their three possible You Crash The Game cards. I'm not sure in which series Vinny Castilla was on the hot seat, but at least one of his forty (!) 1996 home runs made the above card a reality.

It's a bit flimsy, but this two-layer card (which scans much more vividly than it really looks) shows the smiling third baseman in a transparent red plastic, thicker than cellophane but thinner than the typical acetate card. There's a design element in each of the four corners and the back has the mirror image and his 1995 stats.

And oh yeah, it's a woodgrain set!

2013 Panini America's Pastime #222 Rafael Ortega (RC) /125

Much, much thicker is Rafael Ortega's card found in 2013 Panini America's Pastime. I must admit that I'd never heard of this set before, but apparently I do have another Rafael Ortega card in my collection. This is one of those super-premium sets where even the base cards are serial numbered, in this case to just 125 copies.

The Venezuelan oufielder had just a two-game callup in 2012 as a Rockie, but did play in 66 games with the Angels in 2016. Interestingly, he signed a free agent deal with the Marlins organization last month, and seeing as how Miami has shipped Stanton, Ozuna, and now Yelich off to greener pastures, Ortega might actually get to see a fair bit of playing time in the decimated Marlins outfield.

1992 Donruss Bonus Cards #BC7 Colorado Rockies

Wrapping things up is possibly the first-ever Rockies card in existence, a 1992 Donruss Bonus Card detailing the founding of the franchise, the plans for where they'd play their first couple seasons (Coors Field was already named on this card), and their ownership group, which experienced some drama shortly before the season opened. Of course, the Marlins had an equivalent card, and both reside in the collection. The only other candidate I know of for oldest Rockies card is Ryan Turner's in 1992 Upper Deck.

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that this isn't quite the Rockies logo they've been seeing for 25 years. The actual logo changed the colors in the "Colorado" arch at the top, and the baseball and its related motion lines grew a bit. The team never took the field with this logo, but it can be found on very early memorabilia, and a few 1993 baseball cards.

This was a real walk down memory lane, from defunct Denver-area businesses to Blake Street Bombers, right down to the team's original logo and the Hobby's first exposure to a team that's about to begin their 25th season. Thanks to Julie for making her blog appear so frequently in my trade posts!

Two Men In

Another holiday celebration, another card from my Eight Men Out list. Actually, two cards. I had barely placed the Tony Gwynn insert card my mom gave me for Hanukkah into my overflowing 1995 binder before Christmas rolled around. Yes, I grew up in a multi-religion household, so two December festivities were on the calendar. And if that means that three-eighths of my Eight Men Out list were delivered by the Hanukkah Fairy and Santa Claus (both played by my mom), then I'll take it.

2001 Upper Deck Victory #540 Jeff Cirillo

One of these days I'll properly take stock of how well my Coors Field frankenset is coming along, but this one will be a perfect candidate for slot #540. UD Victory was halfway through its five-year lifespan in 2001, depicting Jeff Cirillo in 2000, his first season as the Rockies' third baseman.

This UD brand shows us a sliver of how Coors Field has changed over the years. The white circle on the outfield wall is where Jackie Robinson's retired number resided for many years, until it was moved onto the base of the right-center seating deck, just above the bullpens, joining Todd Helton's #17 and Keli McGregor's "KSM" initials. Another change, slightly more recent, was the raising of the outfield wall. The yellow line that turns downward past the out-of-town scoreboard is no longer, and the wall is now flush with where the upper yellow line is in this photo.

The changes don't stop there, though. If the camera were to pan dramatically upwards, you'd get to see The Rooftop deck, instead of a few thousand more green and purple seats. And finally, though I'm not sure when it happened, they're no longer using lower-case letters on the out-of-town scoreboard. I think. I only recall seeing capital letters there for the past several years, but I'm not 100% sure that I'm not just imagining this. I'll have to do further research this season.

I know that Opening Day is still almost three months away, but I'm so eager for baseball to return that I already have the 2018 schedule pinned up in my cubicle at work.

1997 Upper Deck #442 Charlie Hayes

The final out of the World Series is always a bittersweet moment. Well, sometimes it's just bitter. But when the champion is finally crowned, it begins a long, dark season without any baseball. In the words of the great Rogers Hornsby, it's the time when we "stare out the window and wait for spring." Or perhaps read a bit. But many of those final plays in the World Series are historic, or at least memorable. And I remember this one.

Former Rockie Charlie Hayes was a third baseman for the Yankees in 1996, sharing duties with Wade Boggs. Joe Girardi was behind the plate, long before he would don the pinstripes as manager. The Yankees were playing in their first World Series of my lifetime, facing the Atlanta Braves, the team that loved to give the Rockies nightmares. So you can guess who I was rooting for.

I had only been watching baseball on a regular basis for four seasons, but that was enough time for me to develop a pretty good memory of past plays. And the way that Charlie Hayes squeezed the final out of Game 6 in foul territory looked exactly, to my eyes, like the final home out of the Rockies 1993 season.

Despite my attendance at Mile High Stadium on September 26th, 1993, I don't recall the hit by pitch that I identified on Girardi's 1994 Upper Deck card. But I do remember that final out, and it was caught by Charlie Hayes in a shadowy foul territory. I don't think it was quite as near to the wall as shown on this 1997 Upper Deck card (complete with copper and specific date), but it certainly jogged my 12-year-old memory.

It would be many more years before I had my first Budweiser, but at 12 years old, I already had a wealth of firsthand baseball knowledge to draw on.

As always, thanks to my mom for continuing to cultivate my love of baseball.

The Trading Post #58: Mark Hoyle

Nowhere in the #SuperTraders rulebook does it say you have to write a blog. Mark Hoyle, easily the most active non-blogger in this community has the Red Sox slot, and he's obviously a regular at his local post office. This is the first time Mark and I have swapped cards, and he didn't waste any time getting to the good stuff.

2007 Topps Opening Day #33 Willy Taveras

2007 Opening Day was about as different as that brand ever got from Topps base. Of course, the Filmstrip Set had black borders that year, along with silver foil. This is at least the fourth time it's shown up on Infield Fly Rule, clearly indicating my preference for its design, though I did show a 2007 Topps Chrome once before.

2016 Opening Day has hit the shelves by now, and it's become a bit of a tradition for me to pick up a blaster at my local SuperTarget. Perhaps this week I'll have a few moments to pop over. Though I already know it's almost as similar to the base set as possible, meaning I'm more after those awesome insert cards that continue to hang on in Opening Day.

1999 Topps #52 Todd Helton

Unlike 2007 OD (might as well start calling it that, since "OD" is in the card numbers for 2016), 1999 Topps is a rare bird around here. It was a pretty small set, as Topps Base got pretty tiny in the years following the strike. It seems they'd whittle it down another 80 cards every year until a giant 790-card set returned in 2001 for their 50th Anniversary.

Anyway, this Helton card shows up in trade packages and dime boxes fairly frequently, and it's a great candidate for all the collectors with mini collections. A dugout shot, baseball equipment, a hatless player, the Topps Rookie Cup, a rain delay; this card has it all. Even an inverted wheelbarrow.

Seems to me he could take about three steps to his right and stay nice and dry, as pro ballplayers tend to get fancy shmancy luxuries like roofs on the dugouts. But then this card wouldn't be a hidden gem in a fairly underwhelming set.

1995 Upper Deck #176 Marvin Freeman

Another one you don't see too often around here is 1995 Upper Deck. Which is a shame, since it's awesome! Marvin Freeman signed with the Rockies at the end of the 1993 season, long before it was known that pitchers have a pretty rough time in the Mile High City. There was definitely a Wile E. Coyote effect in 1994, as he went an impressive 10-2 in the strike-shortened season. However, things didn't go as well the next two seasons, as the realities of pre-humidor Colorado baseball started to become clear. He owns the dubious distinction of committing the first-ever balk at Coors Field, and he was out of baseball by 1996.

1995 Upper Deck #172 Charlie Hayes

A few of Charlie Hayes' 1995 cards feature this odd contraption, mostly from Upper Deck. He is wearing his own batting helmet this time, but in the weeks leading up to the strike, Hayes was struck by a pitch that broke his jaw. He was out for several games before returning with this extra-protective face mask attached to his helmet. I can't blame the guy, as a pitch to the face is pretty much the scariest possible moment in baseball, perhaps second only to a pitcher getting a ball lined off his head.

Those two types of disturbing injuries seem to be happening with greater frequency, so it's good that the sport is at least giving players new options (especially pitchers) in protective headwear.

I got hit on the left elbow with a pitch in little league, and I chose to end my baseball career shortly after that. 11-year old kids tend not to have the best control. Of all the reasons why I never made the major leagues, being afraid of a pitched ball is definitely up there. I don't hold anything against Barry Bonds for all that armor he wore.

2015 Donruss #85 Justin Morneau

Mark is pretty well known for shipping vintage cards around, but since the Rockies don't really have any of those, the inaugural era will do just fine. However, there were a few recent cards, like Justin Morneau's from 2015 Donruss. In comparison to most of the cards so far, this one is just a bit thicker than I expected. I've seen the set before, but my fellow traders are still chipping away at the team set for me. Looking at the back, you could tell from orbit that it's a Donruss card. But the retro Donruss logo in the upper left makes it a bit more interesting than their overproduction sets.

And please allow me to belabor the point that it's not truly a logoless card, as Morneau wears Franklin batting gloves (just like I wore in little league), and a Majestic jersey.

1993 Pinnacle #238 David Nied

We'll turn back the clock a bit, all the way to the first Rockie picked in the expansion draft. The happy partly cloudy weather behind Nied accurately reflects the attitude around Denver when the Rockies first began play. Threatening storm clouds started appearing circa 1997, but in early 1993, Denver was thrilled that our time zone finally had a team!

The #1 overall expansion pick didn't develop into much, but according to Pinnacle, the Marlins had their eye on him too. Pinnacle also stressed the importance of "keeping the ball low" in Colorado, something we're still working on.

1995 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion #155 Mike Kingery

Sharp-eyed readers will recognize this card, or one just like it. The base card came over in a gigantic box from Bo, but Mark managed to find the Gold Medallion parallel, which has an embossed gold seal in the upper corner. These were a hot ticket in 1995! I remember pulling a Gold Medallion insert card of Manny Ramirez, and I still know exactly where it is.

1995 Fleer Ultra Second Year Standouts Gold Medallion #11 Manny Ramirez

Manny was just a hard-charging newbie at the time, long before he made his millions and decided to spend a large part of his career on all sorts of antics and hijinks. I have no idea whether that helped or hurt this card's one-time $8.00 Beckett Hi value, but they still go for $2 or $3 on eBay.

1994 Select #70 Joe Girardi

Finally, a bunting Joe Girardi appears on a premium card, or rather just "Joe GI" (GI Joe?) due to a problem with the gold foil. The middle section between the two photos should have the outline of his last name spelled in gold foil. There are no other signs of damage to the card, so I am guessing Pinnacle must have run into some production problems. I've never seen this happen on Score Select before, but then again I have a grand total of about five cards from this set, so I have no idea whether this is common.

It was a single team bag, but there were plenty of interesting cards in it, including a reason to pull out some buried treasure from my 1995 Ultra pages. And whether there's a blog on the other end of it or not, thanks, Mark!

Man Overboard

I went a little crazy on an online shopping spree at Dave & Adam's Card World recently.

The Haul

What you see there includes unopened 1995 Collector's Choice, a couple early Score factory sets, Topps Traded sets that are surprisingly uncommon in the usual channels, lots of Opening Day, and even some rarities like Goodwin and Topps Chrome.

I hadn't planned on getting this much, but surpassing that free-shipping threshold just became too big a temptation. I haven't even come close to opening everything yet. In fact, I've been rationing, as opening a pack of Opening Day is quite a fun (and calorie-free) alternative to cruising by the fridge again.

I have run across a couple of early highlights, like this card from one of Night Owl's favorite insert sets. It even made his "Awesome Night Cards" showcase.

2011 Topps Opening Day Stadium Lights #UL-2 Troy Tulowitzki

Coors Field Card! Though the details of the stadium are a little tough to discern, the relief surface of the card was a welcome surprise. The texture reminds me of the mid-90s Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion parallels, though these are clearly quite a bit more understated. The numbering leads one to believe that Topps was planning on calling this insert set "Under the Lights" but had a change of heart late in the production process.

Relevant to today's game, when the Rockies unsurprisingly lost to Adam Wainwright, here's the Cardinals' ace in full throwback gear.

2011 Topps Opening Day #151 Adam Wainwright

Sharp eyes might notice an error, not to mention a slightly odd-looking Photoshop job on the jersey lettering, as the star pitcher is listed as an outfielder on the bottom of this card. That's not surprising, as the foil-free treatment of 2011 Opening Day renders the position quite difficult to read.

Finally, longtime collectors might recall a few of Charlie Hayes' 1995 issues, which depict him wearing a football-like faceguard after he was hit in the face by a Salomon Torres pitch mid-season.

1995 Upper Deck Collector's Choice SE #207 Charlie Hayes

Given what happened to Giancarlo Stanton and Chase Headley yesterday, we might start seeing more protective masks like this in the not-too-distant future. I wish them both a speedy recovery from those scary hit by pitch plays.

The weather in Colorado has gotten quite wintry in recent days. Sorting through these packs and sets during the upcoming cold months will surely remind me of summer.