Playing in the Big Leagues (Part 2: Subsets and Beyond)

The days are really starting to blend together. Consider how I opened my blog post with Part 1 of a 2019 Topps Big League blaster:

"It's a sunny but cold day in Colorado, following a few days of snow. And since it's too cold to be able to do much bird photography (another one of my many hobbies), this makes it a good day to look at a blaster of 2019 Topps Big League."

All that remains pretty much true today, same as it was this time last week. We're a few days removed from the last measurable snow, and I did manage to spot a few birds today (including a raven), but one day is pretty much indistinguishable from any other, and they're still getting shorter. At least the insert cards we'll see in Part 2 offer a little bit of novelty, something that's in short supply these days.

2019 Topps Big League #346 Charlie Blackmon / Christian Yelich / Matt Carpenter SK

Even the 2019 Stat Kings subset looks pretty much like it did in 2018. Once again, Charlie Blackmon led the NL in runs scored, though his cast of supporting characters is different. Charlie got top billing again with an even scragglier-looking beard than he had the previous year, flanked by 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich, who made a cameo on Trevor Story's base card. Elsewhere in the NL Central, Matt Carpenter rounds out the trio.

2019 Topps Big League #350 Freddie Freeman / Anthony Rendon / Nick Markakis SK

Nolan Arenado led the NL in doubles during the 2017 season, but didn't even crack the top three in 2018. That honor went to Freddie Freeman, who won both the 2020 NL MVP award and the NL Hank Aaron Award, which is given to the top offensive player in each league. He's only the second Brave to win the award, after Andruw Jones. He's joined on this three-player card by Anthony Rendon, who actually tied Freeman's 44, followed by fellow Brave Nick Markakis, who was up to bat during one of the funniest (slightly NSFW) broadcasting moments in Red Sox history.

Interestingly, Anthony Rendon had every right to be the featured player here. I guess he just lost out alphabetically. But he hit an identical 44 doubles in 2019, and managed to tie once again for the NL lead, deadlocking with Corey Seager. I didn't pull the NL Doubles leaders card in 2020 Big League, but it appears that Rendon was listed first that time. We'll eventually see some 2020 Big League, but that's for another day.

2019 Topps Big League Wall Climbers #WC-9 Mookie Betts

I don't remember exactly how many packs were in this blaster. Probably nine or ten. But it was enough to encounter plenty of inserts, such as this Mookie Betts card from the 10-card Wall Climbers set. He was Yelich's MVP counterpart in 2018 over on the AL side, and has racked up five consecutive Gold Gloves by now. Of the many Mookie Betts highlights that belong in this set, Topps chose July 21st, 2018, as noted on the card back. Careful observers will note that the play in question took place in Detroit's Comerica Park, while the photo on this card is clearly in Fenway Park.

In any case, the wall in this part of Fenway isn't particularly high, certainly not high enough to have to "climb". But now that he's a Dodger, he still needs to put those acrobatic skills to the test in Dodger Stadium and elsewhere in the National League. Perhaps you saw him during the NLCS.

2019 Topps Big League Blast Off #BO-10 Giancarlo Stanton

Of course, robbing home runs wouldn't be such an amazing highlight if it happened often. Usually they sail far, far over the wall, especially when they come off the bat of a slugger like Giancarlo Stanton. That leads to his appearance in Blast Off!, fifteen cards showing some of the best power hitters in the game. Joey Gallo is indeed featured in this set, the player who at various points in his career has had more home runs than singles. As of the end of 2020, his singles count is ahead by two.

Stanton is the main event on this card, though, complete with a rocket launch theme. The card back tells us that the longest one of Stanton's 38 homers in 2018 went a whopping 458 feet, and it was the first one he ever hit wearing the Yankee pinstripes. At home, that is.

Back when he was a Marlin, one of his shots to straightaway center featured the single most perfect crack of the bat I've ever heard. Bonus Marlins Home Run Sculpture if you click on that one.

2019 Topps Big League Players Weekend Nicknames #PW2 Jose Altuve

Topps got some good photos on Players Weekend in 2018. We saw Edwin Diaz, aka Sugar, wearing his Players Weekend jersey in Part 1, and they used this photo of Jose Altuvé from the same weekend for a 30-card insert set. The diminutive Astros second baseman is simply known as "Tuve". I saw him play in person once, and the main thing I remember is that he got picked off of first base.

Speaking of the Astros, Family Guy gave us a particularly hilarious take on the team's cheating scandal in a recent episode.

All these Big League insert sets are generally pretty plain. No flashy banners, no foil, not even many bright colors. It's sort of a flat look, like iOS 7 when they got rid of all the shading. I do like the little motion lines they put near the Big League logo and the bat in the lower right. 1982 Donruss could only dream of such things.

2019 Topps Big League Blaster Box Cards #B3 Mike Trout

As in the 2018 set, Topps turned the blaster box itself into a card. Unfortunately, I think I did an even worse job cutting this one out than the Bryce Harper card I tried the year before. I might invest in a paper cutter if they keep doing this sort of thing. It's basically the same as a normal base card, other than a dark brown border and actual cardboard rather than paper stock. Trout is one of four possible options, and it's clear to see which one you'll get when you buy the blaster itself.

I didn't pull Trout's normal base card, but I'm assuming the card back is basically identical, other than the card number. On it, Topps recognizes Trout's talent and how his name alone singularly identifies him as the best player in baseball. With rare exceptions, he's been either #1 or #2 in AL MVP voting his whole career. 2020 was an off year for him, as he only finished fifth.

He's so good, in fact, that all you really have to do is follow which legendary Hall of Famers he passed in WAR in any given month and simply tweet "Mike Trout". That is acceptable as a complete tweet. You may have even arrived at this post from just such a tweet.

2019 Topps Big League Star Caricature Reproductions #SCR-CA Chris Archer

Star Caricature Reproductions is the last insert set I found in this blaster. I'm only missing an example of Ballpark Oddities, a small and intriguing-sounding set. This is a set I've seen before, as Trevor sent over Charlie Blackmon's card in a PWE last year. The artwork on Blackmon's card always struck me as a little strange, and I think Chris Archer's card is a little more like what I expect. The design has the same dotted line border as the Nicknames set, but they replaced the ball and bat with a pennant and a slightly modified Big League logo. It's sort of like a little Easter egg hunt, finding where the crossed bats logo pops up on a design.

Chris Archer has spent some time as a Pirate, but he missed the entire 2020 season for reasons beyond the pandemic. There's talk that he'll end back up with the Tampa Bay Rays, and judging by how far they went in the 2020 Postseason, that looks like the place to be right now.

2019 Topps Big League Blue #150 Albert Pujols

Time for a few parallels before we wrap things up. It's back to the base card design, and this Albert Pujols card is given a nice shade of blue on the border, a color found only in these blaster boxes. The photo is obviously a ceremony of some kind, and it happens to be from June 2nd, 2018, the day that the Angels honored Pujols's accomplishment of reaching the 3,000-hit milestone. Pujols threw out the first pitch to Adrián Beltré, another member of the exclusive club, and that's what's pictured here. 

As you can see on the left side of the card, he was presented with a special portrait for the occasion, and to my eye, it would not look out of place as a Star Caricature Reproduction card. Even the card back mentions this major accomplishment, which is essentially a lock for gaining entry to the Hall of Fame. Of these few players, only Pete Rose, Alex Rodriguez, and Rafael Palmeiro haven't punched their ticket for Cooperstown, and they all have special circumstances keeping them out. Among recently-retired and still-active players, I have no doubt that Ichiro, Pujols and Beltré will make it in once the requisite five years after retirement have passed. 

As for potential upcoming members to the 3,000 hit club, Miguel Cabrera might make it; he has 134 to go. Beyond that, it might be a while before we see anyone else get to 3,000 hits. Robinson Canó is relatively close, but he's been suspended for the entire 2021 season. And after him, Nick Markakis is the next active player on the list, but he's not even at 2,400. It's not an easy thing to do.

2019 Topps Big League Blue #327 Cody Bellinger

An hour's drive up The 5 and you'll come to Southern California's latest World Series Champions. The Angels held that title for nearly two decades until the Dodgers finally put all the right pieces in place. A lot of those pieces are happily celebrating in this photo, surrounded by another Blue border. The border color works great on a Dodgers card. The main event here is 2017 NL Rookie of the Year Cody Bellinger, who clearly just did something excellent, and we can also see Max Muncy in the background, wearing #13.

2019 Topps Big League Gold #183 Victor Robles

Our final card is of the Gold variety, a one-per-pack parallel that can be found even outside blaster boxes. The border color isn't tremendously different from the light brown found on normal base cards, but I guess it's about as close to "Gold" as it can get at this price point.

Victor Robles has been with the Washington Nationals since his rookie debut in 2017. He earned a World Series ring in 2019, and is shown here wearing the team's special 4th of July jersey. Notice the curly W/quasi-Walgreens logo has a stars-and-stripes motif. I'm guessing he's celebrating hitting a triple, judging from his position on the diamond. That was before they implemented Baby Shark celebrations, with increasing degrees of intensity for hitting a single, double, or triple.

Alternately, "The fish I caught was thiiiiis big!", which I totally would have submitted to Beckett's funny captions column when I was a kid.

Topps Big League just puts you in that frame of mind.

The Trading Post #133: Chavez Ravining

Relatively speaking, Alex Markle at Chavez Ravining and I have been trading a lot this year. There have only been a small handful of swaps, but compared to my general level of activity in the hobby and in the Cardsphere this year, it's been a furious pace.

Luck smiled upon me earlier this year, and I won a contest on his blog. We'll get to that later on, but Alex also happens to know that I like green cards. I like green in general, and my next iPhone purchase is likely to be in that color. And what better team to lead off with than that most green of teams, the Oakland Athletics?

2019 Topps '84 Topps Silver Pack Chrome #T84-22 Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson played for a ton of teams during his long career, but mostly with Oakland. The inset photo of Rickey on this shiny 1984 design looks like about the right vintage to match the design, but the main photo is that famous 1991 shot of Henderson, when he broke the all-time stolen base record by swiping third and triumphantly lifting it towards the sky.

That photo graced numerous cards throughout the hobby in 1992. I hadn't seen it for a while, so thanks to Topps for digging it out of the archives for another one of their Silver Pack releases. Anyone who has run across a Silver Pack card before will recognize the background refractor pattern.

It doesn't stand out, but sharp-eyed readers will notice a small "35th Anniversary" seal in the upper right. Yes, 2019 marks the 35th anniversary of the 1984 set, which also happens to be my birth year. Along with nearly everyone else my age, it took until 1987 for me to discover card collecting, but Topps missed no opportunity to commemorate an anniversary, and they also mentioned Don Mattingly's rookie card from that set.

2012 Topps Triple Threads Unity Relics Emerald #TTUR-58 Matt Kemp /18 (MEM)

It's fine to call something "green" when it's a normal thing like a Silver Pack card or an iPhone. But when you get into the rarefied air of Triple Threads, throw in a relic, and stamp an /18 serial number, suddenly you find yourself using the term "Emerald".

Speaking of anniversaries, Dodger Stadium opened in 1962, and in 2012, the Dodgers wore a commemorative patch to mark the 50th anniversary. It's rather blurry, but we can see that on Matt Kemp's right sleeve. Of course, the main event is that Dodger Blue relic, outlined in a nearly-accurate home plate shape. Above that, we see that Kemp earned an NL Player of the Week award in mid-April 2012, his third straight time winning that award, dating back to September 2011.

Now, the Rockies often play the Dodgers around the ends and beginnings of seasons. Of course, they're divisional, so they're kind of always playing the Dodgers, including this very weekend. But I checked the game logs, and the Rockies didn't suffer this particular flurry of offense by Matt Kemp. The Padres were not so lucky, though.

2019 Bowman Prospects Camo #BP-143 Brendan Rodgers

While we're still on the topic of green, I will point out that the green-backed 1991 Bowman set is one of very, very few Bowman sets I can correctly pick out out at a glance, and 1989 is only on that list because of its universally-hated non-standard size. Despite the frequent complaint of unmemorable designs, the brand is still going strong in 2019, colored parallels and all. This one of young Rockie Brendan Rodgers is the Camo parallel, the only colored border in the 2019 Bowman Prospects set that doesn't involve a serial number.

The middle infielder got his first look at the big leagues this year, but only appeared in 25 games before needing season-ending shoulder surgery. He has yet to hit his first big-league home run, but did smash a couple extra-base hits before adding his lot to the disappointing season the Rockies had.

On the card back, the "Up Close" section keeps the spirit of Studio alive, telling us that Rodgers is a video game streamer and has a bulldog named Pudge.

2019 Bowman Prospects #BP-145 Roberto Ramos

Roberto Ramos, appearing on the standard-issue Bowman border, has yet to debut in the MLB. Under the old roster rules, we'd probably have seen him in a September call-up by now, but that will have to wait. He hit 30 home runs and hit .309 in Triple-A this year, so it's surely only a matter of time.

I had a pretty good handle on the Rockies' farm system for a while, but they called most of them up this year, leaving behind players I haven't heard of such as Roberto Ramos. He will have to change that uniform number when he makes it, as it's currently worn by starting pitcher Chi Chi Gonzalez, who recently earned his first win since 2015.

2019 Bowman #22 Nolan Arenado

Nolan Arenado cards keep showing up around here, and that's fine with me. He remains my favorite active player, and even if the Rockies are getting blown out, you can count on him for a great defensive play or two anytime he's in the field. He's no slouch at the plate, either. The layer of dirt on his uniform is just a small piece of evidence about what a great player he is. If he keeps it up, he'll be in the company of some truly legendary players.

Which brings us to the main attraction, our contest winnings.

2016 Topps MLB Debut Medallion #MDM-CR Cal Ripken Jr.

And what a beautiful card it is. I've seen manufactured patches from time to time, and even sold one to my favorite dealer at a card show, but these medallions are pretty cool. It's about as thick as cards come, and it features one of my favorite retired stars, Cal Ripken, Jr.

Every Hall-of-Famer, even the Ironman with 2,632 consecutive games played, had to debut sometime. For Ripken, that day was August 10th, 1981. Incidentally, that's not when The Streak began. He wouldn't become an everyday starter until May of 1982, finally deciding to end the streak on his own terms in September, 1998.

When I started sixth grade, one of our regular weekly projects was to cut a current event out of the newspaper and bring it in to class. I was just getting my bearings in middle school, but I clearly remember three or four of my classmates presenting stories of Cal Ripken, Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig's record of consecutive games played. It was in early September, 1995, and I was glad to see that at least a few new kids I shared a classroom with were interested in baseball. I also remember my teacher correcting everyone's pronunciation of Mike Deveraux's surname, which is not "Dever-ox".

Thank you, Alex, for running this contest and giving me a trip down memory lane with one of my favorite all-time players!

A Work Trade

While the Rockies have been mired in their textbook July slump (though they have managed to put together a two-game win streak), the big news for fans is the recently-announced retirement of Troy Tulowitzki. After 13 seasons, many of them injury-shortened, the All-Star shortstop has decided to step away from playing the game of baseball. After many great years as a Rockie, he spent some time in Toronto, and finally got to live his dream of playing in the Bronx, occupying the same spot in Yankee Stadium as his idol Derek Jeter.

2019 Topps Historic Through-Lines #HTL-22 Derek Jeter / Jackie Robinson

Speaking of Derek Jeter, a card of his came my way this week in unexpected fashion. A coworker whose last day was Thursday mentioned last week that he was starting to get into baseball cards. He knew I was the guy to ask, and after mentioning that he had spent around $150 on some current product after unearthing his 35,000-card childhood collection, I told him I'd be happy to pull some cards out of my duplicates box.

On Monday morning, I had a small box with a few hundred cards for him in my cubicle, ready to drop them off free and clear. But he made a trade out of it, offering up four cards from 2019 Topps Series 2 (presumably left over from his $150 spend), including the Historic Through-Lines insert card you see above. It was most welcome and entirely unnecessary, as I was just excited to be in the vicinity of a fellow collector. But offloading a bunch of duplicates in return for some Hall of Famers that I wouldn't find in the factory set worked just fine for me, especially when they came in four perfectly perfect penny sleeves, the mark of a new collector who just dropped some dough on supplies.

Troy Tulowitzki may not have been a legendary player of the same caliber as Jeter and Jackie Robinson, but his career will definitely remain a question mark of what might have been. He finished with 225 career home runs, five All-Star appearances, two Gold Gloves, and a .290 average.

2019 Topps Historic Through-Lines #HTL-44 Corey Seager / Pee Wee Reese

Continuing the shortstop theme is another card from Historic Through-Lines, this one featuring Pee Wee Reese, who shared the middle infield with Jackie Robinson, and Corey Seager, the 2016 NL Rookie of the Year. Reese is pictured as a Brooklyn Dodger, which is where he spent the vast majority of his career, but he did make the trip out West in 1958 to play his final season in Los Angeles. Seager is chipping away at Reese's record mark of home runs by a Dodger shortstop, and in today's game, he's likely to break that sooner rather than later.

Design-wise, I'm not thrilled by this set, which feels awkwardly named and not the best execution of a two-player card. 2011's Diamond Duos came to mind first, although there are some intriguing pairings in Historic Through-Lines, like Ichiro with Shohei Ohtani, Bob Feller with Corey Kluber, and Christy Mathewson with Max Scherzer.

2011 Topps Diamond Duos #DD-GT Carlos González / Troy Tulowitzki

Here's an example from Diamond Duos, which I received via trade from Texas Rangers Cards long ago. Look how much energy this card has! Judging by the helmet rack in the dugout behind both players, these photos were probably from the same game. There's even a Todd Helton cameo in the on-deck circle behind Tulo. Sadly, the card back is an accurate microcosm of Tulo's career, which tells us that Carlos González emerged as a "top run producer" in 2010 while Tulowitzki was sidelined with a broken wrist. Troy did return later that season to hit 15 home runs in the month of September alone, though it was not enough to secure a playoff spot that year.

Interestingly, Tulowitzki's career batting average when this card was released was .290, and while it did trail off later in his career, it shows what a determined competitor he is, keeping consistent stats as best he could while dealing with frequent injuries.

I enjoyed the privilege of seeing both Tulo's and CarGo's returns to Coors Field with visiting clubs, and was proud to give them each a standing ovation for their long careers in Colorado. In fact, González's game was the same game as Ian Desmond's moonshot, which was documented on my first Topps Now card of the year.

2019 Topps #647 Kyle Freeland

My coworker threw in a couple base cards in addition to the inserts, two with lots of glorious Rockies purple. Kyle Freeland led things off, the "breakout star" pitcher who put together a 17-7 season last year, but hasn't done any better than 2-8 so far in 2019, which included some time in the Minors to figure things out. It's been a frustrating year to be a Rockies fan, especially given their playoff-caliber greatness the past two seasons.

It's almost August, and this is the first appearance of the 2019 Topps Base design on this blog. I'm not super proud of that. Even worse, the Bowman-esque 2020 design was just released this week, so I am way behind the curve here.

The two big design elements that jump out at me are the reverse hockey sticks that emulate 1982 Topps, and the pattern of small dots on the edges, which always remind me of a 2013 Topps insert set called Chasing the Dream. I'm sure those dots have been used in a bunch of sets, but that's the one I think of.

2019 Topps #499 Daniel Murphy

The final card depicts Daniel Murphy, the veteran who is covering first base this year. Earlier in the season, I wasn't quite sure what to think of him. He's a good player, but he's just sort of, goofy. Even this photograph looks a bit goofy to me.  He mixes up his facial hair style quite frequently, always seems to have a smile on his face, nearly got steamrolled during a between-innings mascot race, and belly flopped to touch home plate.

Mets and Nats fans, was he always like this? Because I'm definitely warming up to him.

One final thing I'll mention as part of the July round up was the game I attended in San Diego. I had a Southwest flight credit to use, so I figured I'd venture to another Major League town and visit a new stadium. I was there on July 13th, and saw the Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres in 10 innings.

I did a few laps of Petco Park before the game to check out the dining options, which did not disappoint. There was also plenty of craft beer to enjoy. What surprised me were all the little nooks and crannies on the main concourse. It's not a level walkway that simply encircles the field like at Coors Field. There are a few spots that bend and twist, a couple shortcuts, and some hidden spots, especially in left field between the bullpens and the Western Metal Supply Co. building down the line. My seat on the third base side offered great views of downtown San Diego and the glide path of the airport.

View this post on Instagram

#walletcard at Petco Park, home of the Padres! Already lots of scoring and it's still the first inning. #NLWest #baseball #sandiego #mlb

A post shared by AdamK (@adamk0310) on Jul 13, 2019 at 6:03pm PDT

And yes, I did snap a #WalletCard photo op. Fernando Tatis, Jr. was at the plate, and Manny Machado hit two home runs that game, just like I saw him do the last time I was at Coors Field in mid-June.

Three parks down, twenty-seven to go.

The Trading Post #123: All Trade Bait, All The Time

It's curious that I seem to do a lot more blogging in the winter months than when baseball season is actually going on. There is a lot to talk about with games every day, but I think baseball itself keeps my interest in the summer. It's during the offseason when I turn to these little cardboard rectangles to keep me going. That, and I like spending more of my free time outdoors when the weather is nice.

We all know Rogers Hornsby's famous quote about what he does during the offseason: "I stare out the window and wait for spring." Well, cards are as good a window as anything.

My notes say this trade package from All Trade Bait, All The Time arrived around the 4th of July. So this is a long overdue post. And there are plenty more overdue posts to come.

1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #436 Henry Rodriguez

Most of this package consisted of shiny Dodgers. I can't say I'm the biggest fan of the Dodgers, but shiny cards are shiny cards. Leading off are a couple 1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond cards. Outfielder Henry Rodriguez is doing his very best Ken Griffey, Jr. against a very dark background. It has to be one of the darkest cards in the whole set. The horizontal orientation makes the most of the design in the main area, but it causes the inset version of the same photo in the lower left to look that much more squished.

The foil on these isn't just silver; it looks a little like the 2014 Stadium Club Rainbow Foil cards. Slightly less sparkly, slightly more noticeable. The back is unchanged, and has another posed shot of Rodriguez decked out in Dodger blue warm-up gear. UD was going for a Studio look with this card.

1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #266 Cory Snyder

Cory Snyder's card, on the other hand, is more traditional-looking. Instead of being squished, the inset photo is comically elongated. An astrophysicist might say it is "spaghettified", the colorful term used to describe what happens if you fall into a black hole.

The lanky outfielder is shown standing on a base, flanked by the Cardinals' Luis Alicea on his left, and an unidentified Cardinal on his right, possibly first baseman Gregg Jefferies, who is sharing an intimate moment with Snyder's right leg.

It's pretty difficult to make out on this card, but we can just barely see the memorial patches that the Dodgers wore in the '93 season. On his right sleeve is a patch remembering both Don Drysdale and Roy Campanella, who both died in midsummer 1993. And on his left sleeve is a black patch of #52 for Tim Crews, a teammate who died in the same preseason boating accident that took Steve Olin's life. 1993 was a dark year for the Dodgers organization.

2011 Topps Lineage Diamond Anniversary Refractors #59 Duke Snider

Both Campanella and Drysdale were teammates of Duke Snider back in Brooklyn. This shiny card from 2011 Topps Lineage, one of my favorite sets with retired players, shows Snider taking some swings in the cage, long before batting helmets and batting gloves. This shininess came from Topps' Diamond Anniversary, which was already eight years ago. Not sure if they'll do anything for their 70th, but the 75th is traditionally diamonds again. Buckle up for 2026.

The card back doesn't have any photos or stat lines, just a bold color and a quick paragraph. Snider's mentions his membership in the Hall of Fame, in the context of the superstar New York outfielders that were his contemporaries, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, both of whom made it to the Hall before Snider.

2012 Topps Gold Sparkle #253 Tim Federowicz

Topps expanded the shiny color palette a bit in 2012, offering this Gold Sparkle parallel. Upon close examination, the Topps logo and the two foil lines surrounding the "surfboard" are a slightly lighter shade of gold than the rest of the card. Nothing is different about the RC logo, the first of journeyman catcher Tim Federowicz' career. The card back tells us that he and then-prospect Ryan Lavarnway progressed through the Red Sox farm system together. I can't say I know too much about either of those guys.

Federowicz and Matt Kemp were traded to the Padres shortly after the 2014 Winter Meetings, and the Dodgers got longtime catcher Yasmani Grandal as part of that trade. Grandal just signed a one-year deal with the Brewers, opening up the catcher slot in LA for Russell Martin to return. It seems that Federowicz will keep bouncing around the league as a third-stringer.

2015 Topps Update Chrome #US280 Mike Bolsinger

I only have about four cards from 2015 Topps Update Chrome, but I have a desire to someday complete it. It's come to me via trade a few times, and I'm still on the lookout for more. It's really one of the sparkliest of sparkly sets that Topps has ever done. It actually works pretty darn well with the 2015 design, especially with those rows of tiny dots at the bottom. The "Future Stars" wording at the top does fade into the design a bit. But that's OK, because Mike Bolsinger hasn't quite developed into a star. I think he was on my fantasy team briefly, but he hasn't played in the Majors since 2017. Right now he's overseas playing in Japan.

1997 Topps Awesome Impact #AI-6 Todd Hollandsworth

Our next shiny card delves back much further into the Topps vault, all the way back to 1997. Maybe it was printed in advance of the annual awards, but this card doesn't say a darn thing about Todd Hollandsworth winning NL Rookie of the Year in 1996, capping off a run of five straight Dodgers to win that award.

What we're seeing here is an insert card from 1997 Topps Awesome Impact. There are all sorts of shapes visible in the background, and a larger-than-usual Topps logo. He's even wearing Cory Snyder's #28 from a few cards back. There was another Dodgers commemorative patch for '96, which Hollandsworth has on his left sleeve. It marked the 35th season the Dodgers played in Dodger Stadium, beginning in 1962. They played in the LA Memorial Coliseum for several years after leaving Brooklyn, which hosted an NFL playoff game just yesterday, where the LA Rams beat the Dallas Cowboys.

That blows my mind a little bit. I'm turning 35 this year, and it doesn't really seem like that much time. In my mind, the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn was ancient history, but 1996, the 35th year of Dodger Stadium, feels very recent. It's also surprising when you look at the context of this set, which featured top young stars like Scott Rolen, Derek Jeter, Andruw Jones, Billy Wagner, Chipper Jones, Mariano Rivera, and more. The checklist looks more like this year's Hall of Fame ballot than a list of up and comers.

That's the Awesome Impact for me right now, realizing how long ago the mid-'90s were. Even Todd Hollandsworth's time as a Rockie is coming up on two decades ago.

1999 Black Diamond Triple #42 Chan Ho Park /1500

Let's bump it up a couple years to 1999, an even twenty years ago. Upper Deck debuted their Black Diamond set that year, which came in a few parallel varieties. If you can look past the bright gold color, you'll spot three diamonds in the upper left, signifying this is a "Triple Diamond". Base cards just have a single black diamond in that area, and I would assume a similar pattern for the Double and Quadruple varieties.

It doesn't really jump out at you, but there is a large black serial number on the back, #675 out of 1,500. It's a nice card of the first Korean player in the Majors.

1999 Flair Showcase Row 1 #15 Kevin Brown /1500

Our final Dodgers card of this post carries an equal degree of scarcity, this time printed in gold right on the front. From what I can tell about this fractured set, The Row 1 Showpiece cards appear to be the scarcest, uh, cycle(?), other than the traditional parallels.

At the time, Kevin Brown's mark of 46 postseason strikeouts in 1998 was an all-time record, according to the card back. It's been eclipsed a few times since then, most notably by Curt Schilling in 2001. What's even more interesting about this card is that it compares Brown's stats through 1998 with Don Drysdale's through 1963. They had surprisingly similar statistics in their careers, though Brown pitched into his 40s and Drysdale hung up his spikes at just 32. He retired young, just like Sandy Koufax. One wonders what would have happened if guys like Drysdale and Koufax got the benefit of modern surgical techniques.

2000 Metal Talent Show #TS15 Ben Petrick

That does it for the division rivals, but my fellow trader was nice enough to throw a couple Rockies in the stack. This is one of the more tame-looking cards from Skybox Metal, the final one from the Talent Show insert checklist. The players in it are about what you'd expect for a prospect-heavy collection, a few guys you've never heard of, others that had some playing time like Erubiel Durazo and Ben Petrick, plus some bigger stars like Alfonso Soriano and A.J. Burnett.

The Cardsphere has a healthy appreciation for Ben Petrick, and it's surprising how often I see his cards. Not a ton of other Rockies from this era show up in my mailbox so consistently besides the obvious ones like Larry Walker and Todd Helton.

2018 Topps Heritage #348 German Marquez

Back to current times, this year's Topps Heritage gave us the 1969 design. Night Owl just got a ton of these, a surprising number of which depicted players without hats. German Marquez, one of my frequent Topps Now subjects, does indeed have a hat, as well as a giant Topps All-Star Rookie trophy. He's not actually an All-Star yet, but there's the trophy nonetheless. It's a pretty basic design, and the Rockies existence translates well to the retro design.

The card back uses some archaic terms, sort of like that Don Newcombe card I got from Night Owl. We're told that Marquez "emerged as a reliable moundsman in 2017". Spellcheck does not recognize that word, nor have I ever heard anyone refer to a pitcher that way. But by leading the Rockies in strikeouts, clearly his "slants" are solid.

We're less than three months away from the baseball season, and I can't wait to see this moundsman challenge his own record for whiffs in 2019.

The Trading Post #122: Night Owl Cards

As 2018 draws to a close, along with the NFL regular season, it's a good time to continue to chip away at my perpetually-growing backlog of cards. It's been an extremely busy time of year, as I'm sure is true for most of you. Hanukkah and Christmas have come and gone, the quarterly chaos at work is wrapping up, and I attended my first-ever NFL game a couple weeks ago, watching the Denver Broncos lose by a single point to the Cleveland Browns. The NFL puts on a good show, but it was pretty chilly at that night game, and I still prefer baseball.

My next few posts will probably be of the one-or-two card variety. They're quick to write, and the thanks owed to the senders of these cards is no less diminished.

Night Owl Cards has been at this little hobby-within-a-hobby for over a decade, and he ran a very generous giveaway contest a couple months ago. Somehow I managed to get an entry in early, which was sheer luck. Often, I don't have a chance to keep up with the community other than once a week, and sometimes, once every two weeks. I just happened to see that post at the right time to get an entry, and the randomizer was extra-kind to me, putting me 4th on the list of over 30 entrants.

So after a couple short prints of legendary Hall of Famers went first, the vintage started going next. A 1933 Goudey card was snapped up one pick ahead of me, which would have instantly become the oldest card in my collection by far. But there were still great prizes left on the table, and I selected an early Bowman card with that 4th pick.

1954 Bowman #154 Don Newcombe

That's how great this community is. One of the top bloggers in our midst hit an impressive milestone, so he decided to give back to his readers with great cards like this. I have a few 1955 Bowman cards, but none from 1954 until now.

Don Newcombe, the 1949 NL Rookie of the Year, was a star pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and had his best year in 1956. Following the Dodgers finally winning the World Series in '55, 1956 saw Newcombe win the NL MVP award and the inaugural Cy Young Award. Back in those days, the Cy Young Award was given league-wide, and it wasn't until 1967 that the award was split, one for each league. The AL needed to have a chance to win the award, since most of the early ones were won by the NL, and especially by the Dodgers.

Newcombe is at the beginning of a very short list of players who have won both the MVP and Cy Young in the same season, a list that contains all-time greats like Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Justin Verlander, and Clayton Kershaw. Verlander, by the way, is only the second player in history besides Newcombe to have Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP awards to his name.

I'd venture to say he's much more worthy of being in the Hall of Fame than Harold Baines.

Card designs don't get a whole lot simpler than this. A facsimile signature backed by a bold color, and a color painting of the player. It's a small set, just 224 cards, and there are some variations to chase if that's your thing. Real variations, not those artificial gimmicks they produce today.

Flip the card over and you'll get a reminder of just how old this card is. The language is just a touch archaic, referring to fans as "Brooklyn rooters", and Newcombe's hard-to-hit pitches as "slants". It also mentions his military service, as he served in Korea during the 1952 and 1953 seasons.

Like many of his contemporaries, Newcombe got his start in the Negro National League. He briefly played for the Newark Eagles, and then for the Class-B Nashua Dodgers, which was the first professional team to be racially integrated, a year before Jackie Robinson played in Brooklyn. As with night games, the slow pace of change in baseball took root in the Minor Leagues first.

As with most of the early-'50s cards, this one is just a tiny bit bigger than the dimensions we're used to today. It will probably go in the same 8-card page that's designed for this size, along with the handful of 1955 Bowman already in my collection.

Slowly but surely, my vintage collection is growing, and I have lots of my fellow bloggers to thank for that.

Congratulations to Night Owl on his first decade of blogging, and thanks for this vintage treasure!

Eight Clubby Nights: A Stadium Club Hanukkah (Night 8)

We've come to the end, the final night of Hanukkah. Technically, it still goes until sundown tomorrow, since the day changes at sundown in the Jewish calendar, rather than arbitrarily at midnight. But we'll be out of both candles and cards soon, and there are no empty branches left on our menorah. And my dreidel hand is a little fatigued.

Hanukkah will be late next year, so we have a bit more than a trip around the sun until we begin the ritual again. Did the final pack of 2018 Stadium Club top the pinnacle of night four? Read on to find out.

2018 Stadium Club #253 Aaron Nola

Aaron Nola is only 25, but he already has the makings of an ace. His 17-6 record for the Phillies in 2018 got him as high as #3 in Cy Young voting, and with all the NL East clubs besides the Marlins taking 2019 very seriously, we'll surely see some more stellar performances next year. His card is already mentioning him in the same sentence as Phillies stars like Curt Schilling. He'll surely face the Nationals' shiny new acquisition, Patrick Corbin, at some point in the coming seasons.

I'm still a little shaky on pitch grips, so I can't quite tell what Nola is about to deftly filing toward the plate. All I know is that I probably wouldn't be able to hit it.

2018 Stadium Club #143 Tim Locastro (RC)

It didn't take long for our first rookie to join the party, Tim Locastro, formerly of the Dodgers. Los Angeles dealt him to the Yankees the day before Thanksgiving in return for a minor leaguer. He had a single plate appearance in 2017, and spent most of 2018's September call-up as a pinch runner.

This photo is from a 2018 game, based on the 60th Anniversary patch on the right sleeve, which documents that it's been 60 years since the Dodgers left Brooklyn and broke hearts all over New York.

According to Baseball-Reference, Locastro has only worn #70 for the Dodgers, so whatever number Topps photoshopped him into isn't actually a real Dodgers uniform, unless this is a spring training shot. Also giving that away is his helmet with two ear flaps, something generally just reserved at the major league level for switch hitters, which Locastro is not. I wore helmets just like that in little league. We weren't rolling in enough dough to afford both left- and right-handed helmets, so we all wore the slightly goofy-looking double flap ones. A batting helmet with a single ear flap once seemed like the ultimate luxury.

2018 Stadium Club #214 Parker Bridwell (RC)

Our second rookie of the pack is Parker Bridwell, formerly of the Angels. He, too, is now a Yankee, as the Bronx Bombers selected him off waivers a couple weeks ago. They must see quite a bit of potential in him, but they surely weren't looking at his 2018 stats, which saw him give up 13 earned runs in 6.2 innings pitched. It was an injury-shortened year, obviously, so we'll see if he can turn things around when he dons the pinstripes.

At least Topps got the uniform number right. He might even get to keep it when he moves to New York, as 62 is one of the many integers that the Yankees still have in circulation.

2018 Stadium Club #39 Wil Myers

At this point in the offseason, when players aren't mashing baseballs out of stadiums across the country, talk turns to which team a player might be with next year. The Yankees have already been busy acquiring the rookies from this final pack. Wil Myers, like many of his fellow players, will be discussed at the upcoming Winter Meetings (that's actually a trademark), and many rumors pop up if you search his name. The Padres have already been active recently, acquiring Garrett Richards and Francisco Mejia, both names we've seen in this little Hanukkah celebration so far.

Underneath the lettering at the bottom of the card, we can see that Wil Myers, 2013's AL Rookie of the Year, is one of the few players who do not wear batting gloves. Tim Locastro isn't either, pointing to a small but growing trend. It may have the tiniest impact on the pace of play debate, because if you don't wear batting gloves, you can't constantly step out of the box to adjust them.

Like a batting helmet with a single ear flap, batting gloves for both hands were another once-unobtainable luxury, but I did have one for my left hand.

2018 Stadium Club #190 Ian Happ

The final card of this 40-card blaster is a good way to wrap things up. It shows Ian Happ soaring past first base, presumably after just hitting one out of Wrigley. This has the look of a walk-off shot, but nothing to that effect shows up in his career stats. He doesn't have a ton more experience than most rookies throughout this series, just two seasons. However, he's gotten regular playing time with the Cubbies and has been on their postseason roster in both years. If he's out there giving photographers this kind of opportunity, then he's sure to stick around for some time to come.

I have to admit, even though these have been some great cards, I am a little disappointed with my luck this time around. Our final three packs yielded fifteen straight base cards. I like the base cards from this set more than most others, but not to have that punctuated with something a little more unique is a slight letdown.

It turns out that night 4 was my favorite, and it included the only Rockie of the bunch. But thanks to Trevor's group break, I have plenty of the Rockies from this set, and I guess that's why we do group breaks. Once I get these into binders, I'll see that Photographer's Proof case hit nearby, and I'll remember that Stadium Club is actually pretty awesome.

Thanks for coming along this little adventure, and being open to indulging my little nightly Hanukkah lessons. I hope you all have an excellent holiday season, however you choose to celebrate it.

Eight Clubby Nights: A Stadium Club Hanukkah (Night 6)

It's usually around the sixth night of Hanukkah when someone remarks about the lit menorah, "It's getting bright!" Seven candles in close (but not too close) proximity will do that. On occasion, two wicks will bend toward each other and create one larger Hanukkah super-flame, but that rarely lasts for more than several seconds. Mostly it's just gotten to be a little bit routine. It's the same prayers each night, the candles all burn about the same length of time, and the dreidel can only land on one of four sides.

So it was with this pack, the sixth in our series, which neither contained anything earth shattering, nor anything particularly unexpected.

2018 Stadium Club #222 Domingo Santana

The first thing I noticed about Domingo Santana's card is that his Brewers uniform is actually in Spanish. The team name reads "Cerveceros", and is worn on the team's annual Latin American-themed Cerveceros Day. Assuming Topps didn't rush a print job out the door, this would have been from July 1st, 2017. And that means this photo is probably of Santana celebrating his two-run home run in the second inning, off of Marlins starter Tom Koehler. Santana hit an impressive 30 homers in 2017, just trailing Eric Thames who had a torrid April that year, and Travis Shaw, who was the first man to cross the plate when Santana went deep.

I even had the chance to see Domingo Santana not long ago, exactly two months ago, in fact. He pinch-hit in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the NLDS, a chilly afternoon Postseason game which I managed to snag some tickets for. Santana drew a walk facing Chris Rusin. He was stranded on the basepaths, but that didn't much matter, as the Rockies were unable to plate a run during that final game of their season.

2018 Stadium Club #285 Mike Piazza

Our third retired star of the blaster, and second Hall of Famer, is catcher Mike Piazza. He entered the Hall in 2016, the same year as Ken Griffey, Jr. Griffey, a first-ballot inductee, is the closest anyone has come to a unanimous selection, but Piazza needed four years on the ballot to get the call. This photo is closer to his 1993 Rookie of the Year season than to his retirement, specifically from 1997. The 50th Anniversary Jackie Robinson patch is a dead giveaway, and can be found all over late-1990s cards. It's rarely seen at this point in the hobby, though.

It's much harder to spot, but the 12-time All-Star appears to be inside the previous Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, which was torn down in 2005. The series of arches around the top of the stadium were its main distinctive feature, and we can just see one beyond Piazza's prodigious right forearm.

The ballparks in St. Louis do seem to be a frequent setting for Stadium Club cards. I know it isn't explicitly about stadium photography, but I do appreciate seeing the architecture in a set named Stadium Club, such as Target Field last night.

2018 Stadium Club #220 Walker Buehler (RC)

Walker Buehler, on the other hand, could be pitching anywhere. Well, maybe not one of the two remaining artificial turf fields, Tropicana Field and Rogers Centre, because that definitely looks like natural grass and a full-dirt infield. It might even be Coors Field, since two of the five road appearances Buehler made in 2017 were in Denver. This shot is definitely from 2017, which we can tell from his uniform #64, a number he only wore in his debut season.

Compared to some of the other players we've been seeing, it's a little unexpected to see the Rookie Card logo on Buehler's card. While a lot of those other guys are struggling to bat over .200, this young pitching phenom has already started four Postseason games for the Dodgers, including the marathon 18-inning Game 3 of the World Series, many hours before Nathan Eovaldi endured perhaps the least-deserved loss in Postseason history.

So far tonight, we've only seen the teams that made it to the 2018 NLCS, but that's about to change.

2018 Stadium Club #162 Brad Ziegler

Even though he's pictured as a Marlin, Brad Ziegler benefited from the Marlins fire sale, returning to the Arizona Diamondbacks in a July trade, the team he spent most of his career with. The submariner decided to call it a career just a couple months ago after eleven seasons. He saved over a hundred games in his career, and even played in the Postseason twice, though he totaled just a single inning pitched across three appearances. He closed out an inning for the Red Sox in the 2016 ALDS, but things didn't go well in the 2011 NLDS against the Brewers. He had two appearances that year, but somehow managed to record only 0.1 innings pitched. Game 1 went fine, but he was rocked for four earned runs in Game 2 without recording an out. That led to an astronomical ERA of 108.0, something his regular season stats massively improved upon.

The Postseason may go on for a month, but for the few players that ever get there, it can be over in a real hurry. Regardless, I do appreciate that Topps selected a photo of this pitcher's unorthodox delivery.

2018 Stadium Club #139 Garrett Cooper (RC)

The Marlins have to be getting somebody for all these trades, right? Well, Garrett Cooper is one of those somebodies. He was originally drafted by the Brewers, but he didn't come over in the Yelich trade. He played for the Yankees in 2017, but he didn't come over in the Stanton trade. According to Baseball Reference, which is where I get most of my information about this bevy of rookies, he was basically just traded for a minor leaguer and what is known as international bonus slot money. Signing amateur foreign players works a bit differently than collegiate or high school drafts, so the Yankees might as well have some money to get those guys, too.

This switched from being a Nationals-heavy blaster over to being heavy on the Marlins. Most players in this pack played for the Marlins, including Mike Piazza's 5-game layover in 1998. Even Domingo Santana was playing against the Marlins in the first card. Bryce Harper has yet to make an appearance to complement his early Nationals teammates, but maybe the insert cards will pick back up in the final two packs. This one, careful readers will note, consisted of five straight base cards, without even a parallel in the mix, let alone a variation.

Hanukkah is winding down, but it will get brighter still before the final candle burns itself out. Or before I run out of things to say about the Miami Marlins.