The Trading Post #141: A Cracked Bat

As I was scrolling through my blog feed this morning, I saw a few posts about one of my most frequent trading partners, Julie from A Cracked Bat, including a post on her own blog from yesterday. That inspired me to put this post together, covering some cards she sent as part of her generous Pick Pockets page. There are still a few items left there, so head over and make some selections before it's all picked over (pun intended).

2019 Stadium Club #252 Dee Gordon

Starting things off is Dee Gordon of the Seattle Mariners on his 2019 Stadium Club base card. Last time Julie sent a shipment, she included another Dee Gordon card from Stadium Club, back from his time on the Marlins. This time, he's on the most geographically isolated team in the Majors, and is giving us one of the greatest displays of athleticism ever captured on a baseball card. At first glance, you might think the speedy center fielder is diving for a ball here, but this is actually his follow-through on a throw back to the infield (or maybe across three or four parking lots) in which he's using every ounce of effort he can muster. In all two seasons of my little league career, I never inverted myself in this fashion to complete an outfield assist, but somehow Gordon makes it possible, with video evidence to prove it.

Not only that, but Gordon is even sporting a throwback Mariners uniform.

His outfield assists are something to behold, but since he arrived in Seattle, his once-stratospheric stolen base count has dropped significantly, which also means that his string of five straight seasons of at least 30 SBs mentioned on the card back came to an end in 2019.

2019 Stadium Club #185 Jose Canseco

Here's another from 2019 Stadium Club, a well-composed shot of Jose Canseco heading down the tunnel into a well-lit atmosphere, perhaps to fulfill some sort of destiny. If they ever make a Jose Canseco biopic, this would make a great closing shot.

I'm all about tiny details. So here's the tiny detail I'm noticing on this card. There's no MLB logo on the back of Canseco's cap.

When I was a kid, the holy grail of sports apparel at the top of my list, even more than a Starter jacket, was a fitted hat. I had plenty of hats at that age, but they all had the snap-back adjustable plastic strap that I eventually outgrew. Former Rockies bullpen coach Darren Holmes even signed one of them. But it didn't make sense to get me a fitted hat when I was growing like a weed, so it wasn't until I reached adulthood that I got one of the official New Era hats, size 7 1/2.

My dad often wore a Yankees hat, and I remember the little MLB logo on the back at the seam. We all know that logo from any non-action photo you've ever seen of Ken Griffey, Jr. wearing his cap backwards. And come to think of it, it wouldn't surprise me at all if MLB added that logo in direct response to Griffey's then-unique style. Griffey's rookie year was in 1989, and Canseco's best years were just slightly before that. This photo might even be from the '89 World Series itself. But it shows a time before the cool kids wanted to be like Griffey.

2019 Topps Archives #212 Robin Roberts

And way, way before that, Robin Roberts was a Philadelphia Phillie. Topps chose him for their 2019 Archives set and put him on the 1993 Topps design. 1993 Topps is one of those designs I know quite well, and this reproduction isn't quite perfect. The typeface is a little different, and more noticeably, the Phillies team name should be in red, not blue. But overall, it's a pretty nice card.

I don't want to turn this into a "here are all the barely-noticeable ways the reproduction isn't exactly accurate" post, but I will point out that Topps wasn't able to squeeze in Roberts's complete career record on the vertically-oriented card back. His career began in 1948, and these stats only go back to 1954. That's a shame, because some of his career-highs happened in the early '50s. 198 strikeouts and 28 wins in 1952, for example, and a whopping 346.2 innings pitched in 1953. Over half his All-Star appearances occurred in that part of the decade, too.

For comparison, 2019's IP leader was Justin Verlander, with 223. I don't know, I just think if you're going to create all these Archives cards, it makes sense to include full statistics, because they can give collectors a great insight into how the game has changed over the decades. Just because Baseball-Reference exists doesn't mean I don't want full stats on my card backs.

I guess I'll have to find my real 1959 Roberts card to see those prior years.

1992 Pinnacle Team 2000 #37 Jim Thome

Following a retro 1993 card, here's an actual card from that era, a 1992 Jim Thome insert from the Pinnacle brand. It's from the same Team 2000 set as a Larry Walker card I found at an LCS last year, and Hall-of-Famer-elect Walker will soon be joining Thome in Cooperstown.

I probably didn't have any of these cards when I was a kid, but it's quickly becoming one of my favorite insert sets of the era. I now have three cards from it, and along with John Smoltz, all three are Hall-of-Famers.

77 cards to go to complete this one. A young Jim Thome is card number #37 of 80, one of the few elements on the card back that doesn't use gold foil. Pinnacle correctly picked Thome to be a superstar, but they had him projected as the Indians third baseman for years to come. He did play the hot corner through 1996, but shifted over to first base in 1997 to make room for Matt Williams.

2000 Topps Hands of Gold #HG6 Omar Vizquel

Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel spent quite a few years together in the same infield, sometimes even on the left side during Thome's early years. Thome was more of a power hitter, smashing over 600 home runs by the time his career was over, but Vizquel was the defensive star, racking up eleven gold gloves.

Vizquel was about halfway through his career when this die-cut card was printed (and cut), and the card back says he has the highest career fielding percentage in history. That held true for the rest of his career, and his .9847 mark as a shortstop has never been beaten, and certainly not over nearly a quarter-century of playing time. Troy Tulowitzki came close, but with nearly a decade less service time. We'll see him later on in this post.

The card back lists Vizquel's six consecutive Gold Gloves from 1993-98, and he'd add on three more to that streak through 2001. He won two more in 2005 and 2006 for a total of eleven, and that isn't even the most in this small seven-card insert set. He has many of his contemporaries in this set beat, but not Iván Rodríguez's thirteen nor Greg Maddux's eighteen.

In case you're wondering about the patch Vizquel is wearing, I believe it's the "AL Central Champs" patch the Indians wore in 1999, documenting their first-place finish in their division the previous year. They made it as far as Game 6 of the ALCS before succumbing to the buzzsaw that was the late-'90s New York Yankees.

Anyway, I found Tony Gwynn's card from this insert set at that very same LCS last year, and it's a pleasing coincidence to have Team 2000 and Hands of Gold back-to-back in a post from an entirely different source.

2000 Crown Royale #107 Doug Glanville

Pacific gives us more die-cut fun from the turn of the millennium. I've run across the base gold variety before, but this and most of the other 2000 Crown Royale in my collection is of the red variety. Few besides Pacific were using red foil on anything, let alone a die-cut with a design like this.

Doug Glanville, now a sportscaster, put together a nine-season career, mostly as a center fielder. The card back tells us that 1999 was his best statistical year in many categories, and even had a five-hit extra-innings game against the then-NL Astros on September 15th, 1999. That was toward the very end of the Astrodome's life as an MLB stadium, and Glanville's performance that night helped end a 12-game winning streak the Astros had been on.

2019 Panini Prizm Illumination #I-5 Charlie Blackmon

Our first Rockie of the post is Charlie Blackmon on a colorful and kaleidoscopic Panini card. This is a 12-card insert set from Prizm, and while I know very little about Prizm, I know it's shiny. The same photo is used on both sides, but between Blackmon's arm position and wizardly beard, you almost don't notice that this is an unlicensed photo.

Almost.

This is my first time seeing this insert set, and I don't know about you, but I can't read this set's name without thinking of the Minions doing a movie production logo intro.

The card back tells us where Panini was going with this theme, in that "The scoreboard in Denver is always well lit thanks in large part to Blackmon." It's true, and especially so after the Rockies invested in a new mountain-shaped scoreboard for the 2018 season.

2019 Topps Rainbow Foil #460 Trevor Story

During these strange times, along with Blackmon's beard and Arenado's defensive prowess, I am definitely missing watching Trevor Story hit monster home runs at Coors Field. This photo from 2019 Topps may be just such a card. It's actually the rainbow foil parallel, or at least that's the most likely candidate in the truly insane list of parallels Topps makes for even the simplest base cards now. Regardless, it looks pretty good in this sunlit room I'm writing in.

This card also gives us a really clear look at the Rockies 25th Anniversary patch from 2018, which we've seen before. I assume they have a Coors Field 25th Anniversary patch ready to go for the 2020 season, should it actually happen. If there is a season without fans, I wonder how much media coverage and photography will be allowed. 2021 cards might be very strange and might have to repurpose a lot of old photographs, just like they used to do in the early days of the hobby.

2019 Diamond Kings Artist Proof Blue #53 Kyle Freeland

Speaking of Coors Field, I ran across a stat the other day that there's only one pitcher who has more than five starts at Coors Field while keeping his ERA there under 3.00. That pitcher is Adam Wainwright.

I bring this up because the back of this 2019 Diamond Kings card says that Kyle Freeland was just the second Rockies pitcher, after Ubaldo Jimenez in 2010, to make at least 30 starts and post an ERA under 3.00. Of course, many of those great starts were on the road. Even Ubaldo's no-hitter in 2010 happened in Atlanta. But it's really a sign of excellence for any pitcher associated with the Rockies.

This is an Artist Proof parallel, and even though I'm not a Diamond Kings expert, I'm assuming this is the Blue version of that parallel. Again, Panini is relying on the player's arm position to distract you from the fact that they still do not have an MLB license.

Freeland's card is the last of the nine I picked from Julie's Pick Pockets page, but she didn't stop there. She found three more higher-end Rockies cards to include, and they all have serial numbers!

2012 Topps Museum Collection Blue #28 Carlos González /99

I have no idea where she gets them all, but it seems like every time she sends me something, there's invariably something from an ultra-expensive set like Triple Threads or something. This time was no different, as she found this Museum Collection parallel of Carlos González from the 2012 set. This is the Blue parallel, numbered to /99. On "base cards", such as they are in Museum Collection, the area behind the team logo and "National League" is a dark gray. This elegant blue color signifies it as the second-rarest parallel in the set, other than the 1-of-1 Red parallel.

I'm sure most Museum Collection buyers aren't reading the card backs, but this mentions that CarGo was involved in trades for a couple stars before finding a more permanent home. He was originally part of the Diamondbacks organization, but went to Oakland as part of a trade for Dan Haren. Less than a year later, the Rockies picked him and a couple others up in exchange for Matt Holliday, and the rest is history.

Three Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers, a batting title, and ten seasons later, and he earned a heartfelt cheer from the home crowd upon his return to Denver as a Cub last June. I was there that day, and have had the good fortune to see both Troy Tulowitzki and CarGo play their first games back in Denver after they wound up on another team.

2013 Topps Triple Threads Sapphire #97 Carlos González /25

A year later, CarGo appeared in Topps Triple Threads. If you know the set, you'll know the base cards have silver foil. Clearly, this is a parallel, but no, it's not blue. That's far too pedestrian for a set like this. No, this is Sapphire. And it's numbered to just 25 copies. It does looks like there's a little printing dot on the photo, but this is a beautiful card. Even the back has a nice sky blue background, and it mentions his "fluid, picturesque swing".

I always loved González's swing. If you have a moment to spare, take a look at this walk-off, cycle-completing home run from 2010, which is one of the classic games that the Rockies TV network has been playing to keep fans entertained.

2007 Topps Co-Signers Silver Gold #102 Troy Tulowitzki /100 (AU)

Troy Tulowitzki was on deck when that happened, and here he is on our final card of the day, a sticker autograph from Topps Co-Signers. I have a few base cards from this set, and even one with a pair of facsimile signatures that came from Wes, but this is my first actual autograph from a set that sounds like it should be all about autographs. Julie pointed out in her note that this isn't in perfect shape since there are some noticeable creases on the back, but she said she only paid $2 for it! Sounds like a bargain to me!

When checking Beckett, I assumed this was the Gold parallel, which has a print run of 200. On that slightly damaged card back, this one clearly has a /100 print run, so it's not the Gold. I scrolled down a bit further until I ran across something called the Silver Gold parallel, which does indeed have a print run of /100. Even for parallel-happy Topps, that's stretching it.

There's one other thing I'll point out, inspired by one of Nick's posts last week about unfamiliar uniform numbers. Tulo is wearing #63 on this card. Fans who follow him know that he always admired Derek Jeter, which is why he wore #2 throughout his career (until he joined the Yankees, of course). He wore #12 as a Yankee in his final five games.

Interestingly, this isn't even the first card in my collection with Tulowitzki wearing an unfamiliar number. In a 2015 Topps insert set, he's shown wearing #14, which was his official uniform number for his rookie call-up at the end of 2006.

Thanks, as always, to Julie for this awesome selection of cards. I definitely got more than I bargained for (which is to say, more than I picked for free), and she's one of my favorite people in this whole community. If you don't have a trading relationship with her, start one!

The Trading Post #129: A Cracked Bat

Spring is moving along, and that means that I have less time for blogging, as is often the case during baseball season. Since we last checked in, I saw another game at Coors Field, nearly witnessing Madison Bumgarner pitch an immaculate inning before Trevor Story flied out to left. Last week, I took a road trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park, and while I'm nursing a nasty sunburn, it was a nice visit and quite a sight to see.

With the Armed Forces weekend series wrapping up, which makes every catcher look like they're playing for the Pirates, let's look at a small batch of cards sent by that most prolific of traders, Julie from A Cracked Bat.

2001 Topps Archives Reserve #20 Dom DiMaggio '52

There are a ton of reprint sets out there, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are reprints of reprints to be found, but of all the sets out there, 2001 Topps Archives Reserve (and its 2002 follow-up) is my all-time favorite. It's one of the few that brought me back into the hobby at an early-2000s card show, along with 2003 Topps Chrome. It does suffer from the curl that's common with this type of finish, but how often do you find a card of the youngest DiMaggio brother?

He played center field, just like his other two brothers, and while he never got an entire set all to himself like big brother Joe, he did have an equally awesome nickname, "The Little Professor". Shown in the 1952 set, Dom never quite reached the lofty career heights that Joe did. He did, however, put together an impressive hitting streak of his own, 34 games in 1949, which remains the Boston Red Sox team record. Jackie Bradley, Jr. challenged it a few years ago, but came up a few games short when the Rockies came to town.

It's an interesting rivalry those two teams have. The 2007 World Series is the most important aspect of it, but there are a few other moments, like that hitting streak coming to an end. Just last week, the teams split a two-game set in which both games went to extras. And in 2013, Todd Helton played his final home game against the Red Sox. There are a lot of important moments between two interleague teams that obviously don't play each other very often.

2002 Topps Archives Reserve #42 Roy Campanella '53

Moving forward a year in both the Archives Reserve set and the Topps base design set (to 1953), we come to Roy Campanella. The Hall-of-Fame catcher had just earned his second of three MVP awards in '53, and his third and final one came in 1955, along with his only World Series ring. He was an All-Star in every season besides his first and last.

Speaking of 1955, I'm reminded of the classic film Back to the Future, in which Marty McFly returns to November 5th, 1955. That was just over a month after the Brooklyn Dodgers finally won the World Series, but no mention of that is made in the movie. Granted, the fictional city of Hill Valley is way out in California, several years before MLB expanded to the West Coast. But with the whole sports almanac thing in Back to the Future II, and Doc Brown's excitement at the prospect of seeing "who wins the next twenty-five World Series", I feel like the first movie in the trilogy missed an opportunity to mention a pretty important year for a storied franchise.

1996 Metal Universe #86 Joe Girardi

Most cards in this stack formed into surprisingly well-related doublets. This group is courtesy of Skybox Metal Universe, the etched foil set that got off to a very weird start in 1996. Julie has sent cards from this set before, including one where Vinny Castilla shared a card with a giant stinging insect. This one appears to show Joe Girardi cartoonishly bursting through a stone wall.

And somehow, we just accept this.

If you look closely, which I didn't, you'll notice that this is actually a New York Yankees card, despite showing Joe in home Rockies gear. That honestly escaped my attention until I flipped the card over and noticed a Yankees logo.

2000 Metal Emerald #245 Juan Sosa PROS

Metal dialed it down by its final year of 2000, even dropping the "Universe" from its official name. The final 50 cards of the set consisted of Prospects (note the logo in the lower right), and appearing in that set was Juan Sosa. Sosa appeared in eleven Major League games for the Rockies in 1999, plus two more for the Diamondbacks in 2001. His career at the plate consisted of two hits in ten at-bats, and that was all she wrote.

I'm learning a lot about these cards by flipping them over. Next to the card number is a captial letter E inside a black circle, signifying that this is an Emerald parallel. I didn't really think this was anything unusual at first. The green of the outfield grass is a pretty similar shade to the green at the top of the card, so I just thought it was part of the normal design. But the more I look at it, it does have a little extra of that color I love.

2018 Topps Chrome Update #HMT95 Trevor Story

Trevor Story has had a much more successful career at shortstop than Juan Sosa. It's been so successful, in fact, that he earned his first All-Star selection last season. This photo is from that exact game in Washington, D.C. I'm not sure which play, as Story fielded a pair of grounders in the top of the 9th. More importantly, although it was insufficient for the NL to get a win, Story hit a game-tying home run in the 7th inning.

Topps Update loves to give us All-Star Game cards, and they even included the game logo going down the waterslide on this chrome card. Unlike Metal Universe, I think I have a pretty good handle on Topps base and Topps Update, but I can't come up with anything that fits the "HMT" card number prefix. Any help?

2015 Topps Update Chrome #US170 Mike Foltynewicz (RC)

As sparkly as they are, there are far too few cards from 2015 Topps Update Chrome in my collection. I'll jump at any chance to find more, especially on the 2015 design that has been holding up pretty well.

Mike Foltynewicz was just a rookie back then, breaking into the league with the Braves after a trade with the Astros for Evan Gattis. He's established himself as a star pitcher, even joining Trevor Story on 2018's NL All-Star team, but he's gotten off to a rough start in an injury-delayed 2019, putting up an 0-3 record so far.

That does it for the Topps Chrome pair, so let's move on to...Stadium Club!

2016 Stadium Club ISOmetrics Gold #I-20 Dee Gordon

Specifically, one of the ISOmetrics inserts from 2016, my second. The insert set has some elements of 1995 Fleer, mainly thanks to the assorted statistics displayed on the card front. 58 stolen bases definitely stands out in this era of the game. There are a few names scattered among the league leaders the past few seasons, but Dee Gordon, José Altuve, and Whit Merrifield are some of the last to keep this once-crucial stat alive. Even Gordon is cultivating his power stroke, having hit three homers partway through May. He's never hit more than four in a season, and the only one he hit in 2016, the year of this card, was an emotionally-charged shot in the Marlins' first game back after José Fernández' untimely death.

1994 Stadium Club Dugout Dirt #12 Darren Daulton

Moving back to Stadium Club's first generation, Darren Daulton has shown up in two consecutive posts. This looks like a tight play at the plate with a Tim Wallach cameo, taken at some point during the 1994 season.

That brownish patch on both players' right sleeves marked the 125th anniversary of professional baseball. Technically, MLB hasn't existed quite that long, but 1869 is recognized as the first year of the Cincinnati Red Stockings. Daulton's and Wallach's playing days don't seem like they were 25 years ago, but it's true. Players across the league in 2019 are wearing "MLB 150" patches in just the same spot.

There were gold foil parallels in 1994 Stadium Club, but this is actually another insert, from the 12-card Dugout Dirt set. There's a rather frightening caricature of Daulton in "Daulton's Gym" on the card back, complete with a little heart tattoo on his massive bicep containing a couple of his stats.

I like the front better.

1994 Ultra Award Winners #10 Kirt Manwaring

Our final grouping consists of Giants catcher Kirt Manwaring. First up is another 1994 insert, this one from Fleer Ultra's very yellow Award Winners set. It's not the same shade of yellow as 1991 Fleer, but to my eye, it's unmistakably Fleer. There are actually quite a few Giants in this 25-card insert set, no doubt due to their 103-win season in 1993, just one short of the Braves' 104. Manwaring won a Gold Glove in 1993 for his stellar .998 fielding percentage, and he threw out 42.3% of base-stealers, something we used to track more carefully back when players actually stole bases.

1992 Leaf Black Gold #208 Kirt Manwaring

Manwaring concluded his career as a Rockie, but when I first got into collecting, he was a Giant. The hobby was certainly going in the direction of gold parallels in 1992, and Leaf wasn't about to be left out. Their Black Gold parallels, not to be confused with the Topps inserts of the same name, included a striking black border with a very appropriate amount of gold foil, and also used a gold background on the card back instead of the usual grayish-silver. There's even a Leaf watermark which also appears on normal cards.

It's taken me quite a while to notice, but the little baseball in the lower right corner of '92 Leaf looks a lot like the baseball and its related motion lines in the Rockies team logo. I noticed that shortly after noticing that Manwaring isn't wearing batting gloves in this shot.

1996 Topps Laser #115 Kevin Brown

That does it for the pairs, but there's one last card all on its own, perhaps just the way Kevin Brown would like it. Julie has sent Topps Laser before, and this set always impresses me. There are a few designs to be found in the set, and this flaming baseball is reserved for some of the game's best pitchers. 1996 ended up being one of Brown's better years, as he finished second in Cy Young Award voting, made the All-Star team, and went 17-11. He also led the league in hit batsmen, which doesn't terribly surprise me given his volatile reputation.

I always expect these laser-cut cards to be more fragile than they are, which is a welcome surprise. I also enjoy running across the Marlins' original turquoise color, which is ever so slightly present in their redesigned logo.

Thanks, as always, to Julie for these five happy pairs of cards and Kevin Brown.

OD-8

I'm really not the type to go out and bust packs of products right when they hit the shelves. I usually buy the Topps factory set in July or so (or wait until Christmas), and I pretty much entirely ignore Update and Bowman at retail. For things like Heritage, A&G, Gypsy Queen, Archives, etc... I'll wait until they start showing up via trades. And I won't touch ultra-expensive stuff like Finest, Triple Threads, or Museum Collection until I see them at card shows in half-off toploaders. Even for sets I really like, such as Stadium Club or Chrome, I might just buy a pack or two at the store. Sometimes Topps Series 1 when it's been a long winter and I'm itching for some baseball.

But the one thing I do get pretty near its release date is Topps Opening Day. By then, most of spring training has elapsed, and even a few players are preparing to start the year on the disabled list. My fantasy baseball draft is usually just days away. Add in the low $10 price at Target, and you've got yourself a sale!

2016 Topps Opening Day Superstar Celebrations #SC-20 Justin Bour

That also means that the Cardsphere has usually moved on by the time I get around to writing about something. It's rare that I lend my voice to the new release cycle, which also means it's pretty rare for me to be pulling the same cards as everyone else at the same time. But with a release date about ten days ago, it keeps popping up in the cardsphere, often with some of the same cards in this post.

Part of what keeps me coming back to Opening Day are the inserts. The Justin Bour Superstar Celebrations insert card was actually right behind Bour's base card in one of the middle packs, which I featured in my previous post. Didn't really know much about him before, but I won't forget his name now! And I doubt he'll forget getting doused in Gatorade by fellow Marlin Dee Gordon, who will make another appearance in this post.

2016 Topps Opening Day Superstar Celebrations #SC-8 Justin Bour

Bryant must have done something extra special to drive the Cubs to empty two Gatorade containers on him. You'd think these guys were multi-millionaires or something. That's gotta be, like, fifty bucks worth of Gatorade in there. And whatever's coming out of the clear one looks a lot more like a small iceberg than just some chilled liquid.

Even though Topps is fully paid up with MLB (and Getty Images, I'd assume), they still refer to the Gatorade shower as a "sports drink bath". Careful not to use trademarks! And Topps breaks the "no foil" rule on these insert cards by adding it to the Topps logo.

I could go on, but between these two and Johnny Giavotella, I'll stop depicting all that Gatorade carnage.

2016 Topps Opening Day Alternate Reality #AR-6 Kris Bryant

This is a new insert set called Alternate Reality, showing players in their secondary uniforms. Kris Bryant, the darling of baseball card prospectors everywhere, is showing off lots of Cubbie Blue right down to his elbow guard and batting gloves. Other bloggers have suggested that this would be a great set to examine some actual alternate histories, like if Jackie Robinson was called out at the plate in 1955, just like Yogi Berra insisted all those years. Or if Jose Tabata didn't stick his elbow out while facing Max Scherzer last year. Or if the Rangers got Just One More Strike back in 2011. Or any number of blown calls that have affected games and records over the years.

What might be more entertaining is if they show players who suit up in the wrong uniform. Not sure how often that happens, but Junior Lake did that once in a road game a few years back. With all the alternates and throwbacks they use these days, it's bound to happen once in a while.

That's two Kris Bryant inserts, in addition to his base card. This has been a great blaster so far.

2016 Topps Opening Day Foil #OD-1 Mike Trout

And for one of the foil parallels, I pulled Mr. Card #1 himself, Mike Trout. This, of course, is from when Trout scaled the center field wall to rob Jesus Montero of a 3-run home run. Between this and the Bat Flip card, Topps picked some great photos from last season! Like Opening Day parallels in years past, this one lists the actual date that (most) games begin—there are a few games on April 3rd.

But all indications suggest that this is supposed to have a serial number. The print run is claimed at 2016, but unlike in past years, the serial number is nowhere to be found, front or back. Beckett, Topps, and even the fine print on the pack wrapper say it should be there, but they must have dropped it for 2016. Come to think of it, I think Topps did the same thing in 2015. Which is fine; it's their product. But they ought to double check the sell sheets. At least they put the date back.

2016 Topps Opening Day Heavy Hitters #HH-12 Paul Goldschmidt

Moving on from that slight disappointment, here's another fresh insert set, Heavy Hitters. As you might imagine, this is filled with power hitters that can mash a baseball into the waiting glove of a fan in the cheap seats. Jose Bautista is in that 15-card set, as is Nolan Arenado. But I pulled this one of Paul Goldschmidt. While I'm far from a Diamondbacks fan, I'm pretty sure this is a Coors Field card, judging from the purple banner at the top of the dugout, and the purple-shirted spectator in the upper right, who is probably an usher. That banner helps me pick out plenty of cards shot in Denver, and the Diamondbacks and other NL West teams are prime candidates to end up on one.

2016 Topps Opening Day Striking Distance #SD-14 Mark Teixeira

Teixeira, whose surname is even harder to spell than LeMahieu, is just six homers shy of 400. He's easily within "Striking Distance" of that milestone, as yet one more novel insert set tells us. 400 is quite a mark, but as the back points out, he'd be up there with Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray, and Chipper Jones as the only switch hitters to eclipse that number. Ichiro's in the set too (twice, actually), though of course not for home runs. He's nearing 3,000 MLB hits (not even counting the thousand-plus he racked up in Japan), as well as 500 steals.

I really like the concept of this insert set; it helps focus your attention around the league as the season progresses and each of these players makes their run at the milestone. And with services like MLB.TV, it's as easy as ever (and $20 cheaper this year!) to keep an eye on them.

I didn't get paid to say that.

Even with all these new insert sets, there's still room for some of the old classics. The Gatorade-heavy Superstar Celebrations set is an Opening Day veteran, as is everyone's favorite.

2016 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-4 Wally the Green Monster

Mascots!

I didn't unearth Dinger this year (pun shamelessly intended), but I did get this very Muppet-like mascot of the Boston Red Sox. The Green Monster...get it? I can't quite tell if that orange stuff is supposed to be his hair or his eyebrows, but with the left field wall they have in Fenway (and visible on this card, no less), how could they have any other mascot than this?

One classic insert set I didn't pull anything from was Opening Day Stars, but Topps ditched the lenticular surface this year, which marks the end of an era. Even though they don't appear to move the same way that Sportflics cards do, they're still fun to run your fingernail across. I know that's not great for their condition, but I can't help it.

So far this has been a pretty awesome blaster. Lots of postgame celebrations, pretty darn good photography, inserts and parallels of some of the game's hottest young players, and that legendary bat flip.

How could I top all that?

Well, remember I mentioned Dee Gordon would be making another appearance?

2016 Topps Opening Day Printing Plates Black #OD-129 Dee Gordon /1

That, dear readers, is a printing plate.

Out of a $10 blaster of Opening Day.

Yes, I was pretty shocked. On average, I'd need to open over 3,000 of these 7-card blaster packs to pull one. I guess that one must have been the bonus pack.

I've had good luck with Opening Day before, including that David Wright autograph, but this is definitely above and beyond. It's only the second one I've ever found, and the first was in the already-scarce 2014 Topps Mini. My jaw definitely dropped. I'm sure supercollectors run across these all the time, but this sort of stuff doesn't find its way into my collection very often. Seeing one gives you a whole new appreciation for the detail and design work that goes into these, and it is pretty cool to know that every copy of Dee Gordon's card came from this.

Well, indirectly. They use offset printing, which is why the image isn't reversed. But still. I like it even more than a true 1/1. While it is a unique collectible itself, it's one that had a hand in creating all the rest of them. And even then, you still need three other colors to get the whole picture. It has to have some help from others to get the job done.

That may be a bit too sappy and philosophical for a hobby blog, but it's good to take a step back once in a while and look at the bigger picture to see all the interconnectedness in something as simple as a little rectangular baseball card.