The World's Champions (Part 1: Full-sized Baseball)

Along with Stadium Club and Heritage, Target has been keeping me well-supplied with blasters this year. Add to that list a blaster of 2021 Allen & Ginter that I got last month, plus the 2021 Factory Set that arrived a few days ago. I'm not really into Gypsy Queen or Fire, but Target has those for sale right now too.

Variety! Availability! I almost forgot such things existed.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter #4 Eddie Murray

Right off the bat, we can see the design for 2021 A&G is evolutionary. It's unmistakably Allen & Ginter, and it's clear there's a limitless variety of border styles Topps can produce for this brand without deviating from the overall look and feel.

The backs are even more familiar, with the same "spell everything out like you're writing a check" style, and a very slight difference to the frame around the card number at the top. It's right below the prominent "The World's Champions" banner that inspired the name for this post.

I found myself more interested in the players I pulled rather than the design, mainly because I found a ton of Hall-of-Famers. Neither Larry Walker nor Derek Jeter were among them (although they are in the checklist), but congratulations to them both for entering Cooperstown. The other members of the 2020 Hall of Fame class were Ted Simmons and Marvin Miller, although they're in very few recent sets.

I did find legendary switch-hitter Eddie Murray from his early days with the Baltimore Orioles. He was the 1977 AL Rookie of the Year, World Series Champion in 1983, and is the all-time career leader in sacrifice flies, with 128, just one ahead of his longtime teammate, Cal Ripken, Jr.

Baltimore abandoned the smiling bird logo you see on Murray's cap for a while, but it's back now as the team's official logo. The anatomically correct Oriole logo we knew for a few decades is gone, but it can still be spotted in the wild on occasion.

OK, that's actually an Orchard Oriole, not a Baltimore Oriole, but you get the idea. They're a rather rare sighting. Colorado is outside the range of the Northern Cardinal, but Blue Jays are quite common here, and they'll let you know it, loudly.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter #127 Frank Thomas

Frank Thomas briefly played for one of those bird teams, the Blue Jays, but he's mainly remembered as a member of the White Sox. That's the team he chose for his Hall of Fame plaque, but this photo is from earlier in his career. He looks generally younger than he does now during his broadcasting gig with Fox Sports, and I think it's from 2003. The Chicago White Sox hosted the All-Star game that year, and you can spot part of the commemorative patch on his right sleeve.

Unfortunately, Thomas didn't get to participate in the Midsummer Classic the year his team hosted it. He was voted into a string of consecutive All-Star games from 1993-1997, but no others. At his peak, he was amazing. Between '93 and '97, he won two consecutive MVPs, had those five All-Star appearances, won two Silver Sluggers, and had a 184 OPS+.

Oh, and one triple. It's right there in the box score. June 19th, 1994.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter #78 Barry Larkin

Joining these guys in Cooperstown is Barry Larkin, who spent his entire career with the Cincinnati Reds. An interesting fact I learned during this year's Hall of Fame induction ceremony is that other than pitchers, shortstops are the most well-represented position in Cooperstown. Derek Jeter is now on that list along with Larkin, Ripken, Yount, Ozzie Smith, and plenty of stars that were before my time.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter #348 Bob Feller (SP)

Moving a bit further down the checklist, we arrive at the short prints. All the card numbers above 300 fall into the short print category, annoyingly. Todd Helton is in the short print checklist this year, so I doubt I'll ever see that one. I'm pointing Bob Feller's card out mainly because it is a short print, not for any other particular reason. 

If Fanatics ends up letting Topps wither on the vine, the short print is certainly one aspect of card collecting that I would love to see vanish. I somewhat understand the desire to generate more buzz and desire by putting intriguing rookies into the short print section, but seriously, who is PC-ing Bob Feller in 2021? There is ample opportunity for collectors to chase limited edition cards elsewhere in the set, but for base cards, please just print them.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter #339 Nick Castellanos (SP)

And so that'll make it a 4-0 ballgame.

Also up in the short print section, we find Nick Castellanos with a nice bat barrel shot. A first-time All-Star in 2021, he's become a minor celebrity in baseball social media circles by virtue of swatting a perfectly-timed home run last year, interrupting an on-air apology that former broadcaster Thom Brennaman was trying to stammer out after uttering a homophobic slur. It has become quite the meme.

Perhaps invigorated by the accidental social media stardom, Castellanos has eclipsed his season-high in home runs with 29 so far, sometimes even making it a 4-0 ballgame.

This joke just never gets old. See also: Balk Rules (#18).

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter #44 Bryce Harper

Back to the land of long (?) prints, we find Bryce Harper, who is quietly having an excellent season. He isn't making the highlight reels anywhere near as often as the young stars like Tatis and Guerrero, but he has a league-best OPS and OPS+, 33 home runs, and is keeping the Phillies hot on the heels of the NL East-leading Braves. His stats this year aren't far off from his 2015 MVP season, and he is certainly in the running to win that award once again.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter #105 Daz Cameron (RC)

It was just a couple months ago that I learned Ke'Bryan Hayes is the son of Charlie Hayes. And of course we all know about the new family dynasties of Biggio, Bichette, Tatis, and Guerrero. Well, upon opening this blaster, I wondered if this Tigers rookie happened to be related to Mike Cameron. Sure enough, yes. Daz Cameron is Mike's son, adding to the long list of familiar names that will be populating MLB rosters for some time to come.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter #166 Germán Márquez

The lone Rockie found in this blaster is their staff ace, Germán Márquez. He took a no-decision on Friday night against the Nationals, a game the Rockies ended up winning. It's highly typical of the Rockies to have a fantastic road trip this late in the season, long after having a terrible time away from Coors Field all season which cemented their hold on fourth place. It's a frustrating pattern nearly as old as the franchise itself.

Maybe next year. Likely without Trevor Story and potentially without Jon Gray.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Historic Hits #HH-11 Roberto Clemente

Several days ago, you saw Major League Baseball celebrate Roberto Clemente Day. It falls on each September 15th to coincide with the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Clemente's uniform number 21, clearly visible on this insert card, can be worn by certain players across the league. Not everyone gets to wear it like they do on Jackie Robinson Day, only players and coaches of Puerto Rican descent, as well as any past winner or current nominee of the Roberto Clemente Award.

It's hard to pick one particular hit out of 3,000 to feature on a baseball card, but Topps attempts to do just that in the Historical Hits insert set. It's a sizable 50-card insert set. Looking through the checklist, I feel quite certain knowing which Historical Hit is being featured on cards like Aaron Boone, Joe Carter, Bill Mazeroski, Carlton Fisk, David Freese, and Luis Gonzalez. But for others like Ken Griffey, Jr., Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Ichiro, it could be anything.

Roberto Clemente's Historical Hit was his last one. On September 30th, 1972, Clemente got hit number 3,000, reaching a milestone that will always remain the mark of greatness. As this card tells us, it was a double in the bottom of the 4th inning. Unlike all of those previous highlights, I don't think I'd ever seen the actual footage from this one before. It really got me when he tossed the ball to his coach for safe keeping, because we all know now that Clemente would tragically die in a plane crash on a humanitarian flight to Nicaragua before the next season could begin.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Historic Hits #HH-17 Kirby Puckett

The second Historical Hit card from this blaster is of another player who left us too early at just 45, Kirby Puckett. He didn't pass away during his career, but it too was was sadly cut short due to a sudden eye disease that forced his retirement at 36.

But before that tragedy, he was a beloved star for the Minnesota Twins, leading them to two World Series titles. The second of those came in 1991, thanks to his heroics mentioned on this card. In an extra-innings game on October 26th, 1991, Puckett hit a walkoff home run to force a Game 7, which the Twins would win. This was a little before I was following baseball, so I don't have any specific memory of it, but here's the highlight anyway.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter T51 Murad Reimagined #MR-32 Ernie Banks

An equally-sized insert set found in 2021 is T51 Murad Reimagined, which are horizontal cards done in the style of an early 20th century tobacco set. The T51 designation signifies that it was originally issued by a tobacco company, the same classification as the famous T206 set. All this was devised by Jefferson Burdick, author of the American Card Catalog in which those classifications could be found. Burdick later went on to donate his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and spent a decade and a half cataloguing it for the museum.

One man quite literally spent a lifetime collecting and cataloguing what were mostly pre-war baseball cards. The hobby long ago ensured that it would grow far beyond what one person could handle in a lifetime. Sometimes I toy with the idea of putting my collection into a database, but it would truly be a massive undertaking and I simply can't imagine finding enough time to even put a dent in it.

In any case, Ernie Banks was one of the players selected for the T51 set. He shares the card front with a brownish-gold border, a circular Cubs logo, and a pennant that graces the front of all cards in this set. It's a design element that works particularly well for a Wrigley Field-dwelling Cub. On the back, we're told about a Historic Hit of sorts, Banks's final walkoff hit on April 13th, 1969, a bases-loaded single.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini Framed Relics #MFR-CYE Christian Yelich

I'll save the minis and non-baseball topics for Part 2, so I'll end with this quasi-mini relic card of Christian Yelich. It's a tobacco-sized mini sealed within a full-sized frame, and I do recall getting one of these via trade once before. Topps hasn't changed the design of these since 2008, as it still has the same little window so you can feel the actual relic.

It's small, but you can see part of the 50th Anniversary patch the Brewers wore last year. Just look down and left of the Nike swoosh. None of that made it to the actual relic.

The Brewers just clinched their fourth straight postseason appearance, and while they won't roll over the Rockies in three games like they did in 2018, they have a strong team, with or without the recently-retired Ryan Braun who did not play this season.

I've had a soft spot for Yelich ever since I got his foul ball way back in 2014. It's nice to have a relic to go along with it.

All-Star Week

Now that the All-Star break is complete, the second half of the MLB season is underway. Even though we call it the halfway point, the true midpoint of the season falls around the end of June or beginning of July, but I'm sure the players don't split hairs like that. I'd bet a lot of them, especially those on contending teams, would perceive the midpoint to be around the trade deadline at the end of July, or even later.

It's a long season.

Traditionally, I use the All-Star Break as an excuse to do some entertaining at my home, but this year I had the rare opportunity to attend the festivities in person. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I hadn't been to the ballpark since the final Rockies home game of 2019. It was a bit weird to be back among a crowd of that size (or really to see Coors Field that full in general), but it was a fun experience.

2021 Topps Heritage #31 Pete Alonso

Pete Alonso was the big winner Monday night at the Home Run Derby, and he took home the trophy for the second consecutive time. For that occasion I sat in the Rockpile at Coors, the distant bleacher section in straightaway center. A former coworker of mine had an extra ticket and invited me along, which is exactly the same way I got a World Series ticket back in 2007. It really helps to be the first baseball guy everyone thinks of.

Normally, the Rockpile is far, far away from the action, but it was actually a pretty solid seating area for the Home Run Derby. Anything that was hit over the center field wall was out of sight for me, but for the tape-measure shots landing in The Rooftop or on the left field concourse, I had a surprisingly good view. Sort of like being in a control tower.

To make sure fans got a good show, none of the balls used in the Home Run Derby were kept in the humidor, where game balls are usually conditioned for a month. This ensured that souvenirs reached the deepest parts of the park, both in batting practice and in the tournament itself. One BP ball landed directly on the concrete fifteen feet or so behind me when I was standing on the concourse eating a burger. I lost an inch of beer as a sea of humanity suddenly closed in around me.

Nowhere was safe.

My friend stayed in that area for the entire tournament hoping to catch a ball, and a couple of Pete Alonso's shots were right in his vicinity. 

This 2021 Topps Heritage card is pretty much how Polar Bear looked all night. No batting helmet, admiring a long home run in his post-swing pose. Repeat 74 times throughout the evening, walk away with $1 million. 

Incidentally, Alonso has made more money winning two Home Run Derby tournaments than he's made from his regular playing career so far.

2020 Topps Heritage #346 Trey Mancini

Trey Mancini was Alonso's foe in the final round, and while he put up a respectable 22, it wasn't enough to take the title. But he beat Matt Olson and hometown favorite Trevor Story to get all the way to the final.

If you've watched this tournament since they changed it to a timed format, you'll know that distance equals time. That is, if you hit especially long home runs, you'll earn a little extra time to keep hitting dingers. In past years, players had to hit two homers beyond 440 feet to qualify for bonus time. This year, the distance to qualify was increased to just one beyond 475 feet. Almost everyone got it. 

It was a quite a show. And it was inspiring to see Trey Mancini do so well, because he was being treated for stage 3 colon cancer little more than a year ago. The back of this 2020 Topps Heritage card tells us that he almost went into medicine, like a few of his close family members. Last year, he got a closer look at the healthcare system than he intended, for several reasons.

2020 Topps Big League Roll Call #RC-25 Shohei Ohtani

I raided a few piles on my card shelf to find most of these, and this insert is from a blaster of 2020 Topps Big League that I have yet to blog about. Big League is growing on me more and more, and this is the second consecutive post containing that crossed-bats "BL" logo. The Roll Call insert set tells us a lot about how the players interact with their fans and how popular their merchandise is. Apparently, the Angels simply can't keep Ohtani gear in stock.

And judging by the buzz around Shohei Ohtani, I believe it. Coming into the Derby, he was the league leader in home runs, and showed everyone in the ballpark why. Fans that would usually be much too far away to catch a ball were in striking distance. If you're visiting The Rooftop or sitting just below it, normally you can enjoy your snacks, take in the Denver skyline, and perhaps enjoy a sunset if the weather is just right. But on Monday, the fans up there needed to keep their eyes peeled. Juan Soto, who ended up beating Ohtani in the first round after an exhilarating series of tiebreakers, hit the longest homer of the night up there at 520 feet.

A surprising number of Derby participants, including Trevor Story and both finalists, weren't even on the actual All-Star Game roster the following day. But Ohtani most definitely was, and he made history by being both the starting pitcher and leadoff hitter. Seeing him play will definitely be a story to tell someday.

2018 Stadium Club #241 Aaron Judge

I've been going to games since I was a kid, and I've still never seen the Twins or Royals play. So to have a chance to see all the superstars in one place on one day is pretty amazing. For Tuesday's All-Star Game, I sat in right field near the foul pole. I was in the first row of the third deck, several rows below The Rooftop. And I had a great view of Aaron Judge throughout most of batting practice and for the first few innings

As each session of batting practice winds down, players often toss balls to fans in the first few rows of the lower sections. But Judge took aim at the second level of the Rooftop, basically the very top of the stadium and approximately where the purple row would be. I saw him fling four or five balls all the way up there, at least as high as the foul pole. All the while he had a huge smile on his face.

I am now an Aaron Judge fan.

Batting practice was effectively a continuation of the Home Run Derby itself. I'm not sure who was up at the time, possibly Joey Wendle, but during BP a few balls came screaming into the third deck. One landed nearby about three or four seats to my left, and at a terrifying velocity. I didn't end up with that ball either, but I didn't really bother trying. I was ten feet away and I knew it was a hopeless endeavor, as it was snatched up in a split second.

Sure got my heart racing, though.

Of course, there was a special pre-game tribute to the late Hank Aaron, with a video on the scoreboard and specially-commissioned artwork presented to his widow. His uniform #44 was mowed into the right field grass, and all players wore that number during the Home Run Derby.

2019 Topps #602 Germán Márquez

As the game itself got started, Nolan Arenado got a great standing ovation, a continued show of appreciation from Denver-area fans. I missed the series a couple weeks ago when the Cardinals came to town, so I had to wait until the player introduction ceremony and his at-bats to voice my support.

Germán Márquez, the lone current Rockie on the All-Star roster, pitched the 4th inning and got quite the ovation of his own as he struck out the final batter.

2019 Topps Base Set Photo Variations #700D Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. /Fielding 

Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. was the ultimate star of the show, hitting a Derby-worthy solo home run in the third inning, eventually being named the game's MVP as the American League won the Midsummer Classic yet again.

Also, apparently Chevrolet doesn't give away a car to the MVP anymore? Did I miss that announcement? I told the kids sitting next to me that Vlad was about to get a free Corvette C8 or something. Disappointed them for no reason.

2021 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-2 Wally the Green Monster

In any case, there was a lot to do all weekend. I already did a post about the Play Ball Park, but I missed the Futures and Celebrity games, and didn't make it to see the Red Carpet show. I didn't watch much of the Draft either. It's a jam-packed schedule. But there's a little more to tell.

On the first-level concourse, near the alarmingly long line to get into the merchandise store, many of the team mascots were keeping the fans company. Among the sightings were Mr. Met, Rosie Red, Stomper, Fredbird, Orbit, the Phillie Phanatic, and Wally the Green Monster. The All-Star Game is truly a place where all the greats are brought together.

Prior to the Derby, my friends and I stopped into the Hall of Legends, a temporary memorabilia display in the new McGregor Square complex across 20th Street from Coors. The showcase consisted of jerseys, bats, and other memorabilia from Marshall Fogel, a local Denver-area collector. You might remember something similar from the Play Ball! exhibit several years ago.

And there was one other thing.

1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle (PSA GEM-MT 10)

One of three known Gem Mint 10 examples of a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle.

This has gone on display on rare occasions in the past, but what better way to celebrate All-Star week than to let the public have a glimpse of this ultra-valuable baseball card. A PSA 9 recently sold for over $5 million, so this one is likely worth around $10 million.

Sometimes I wonder if the entire production run of something like 1988 Donruss is worth that much. That's a question for another day, I suppose.

The last time Denver hosted the All-Star Game was in 1998. At that time I was in no position to attend, and I'm glad I was able to this time around. It's a once-in-a-generation experience to take part in the festivities, and I'm excited to look back on this decades down the line to see how many of these guys ended up in the Hall of Fame.

Nearing Closing Day (Part 1: Coors Field)

As the 2019 Postseason continues, so does my flurry of blogging. I kept up my annual tradition of buying a blaster of Topps Opening Day, and as we near the final game of the season, I have time for my first real deep dive into the 2019 Topps design. This is actually going to be a three-part series, starting with some base cards.

As I leafed through these cards, I noticed that Topps picked a lot of photos that were taken in Coors Field this year. Continuing with Dinger's Mascot card from yesterday, I found over 10% of this whole blaster was shot inside my hometown ballpark.

2019 Topps Opening Day #26 Zack Godley

I'm sure most stadiums have some features that are easily recognizable to fans who have been there dozens of times. Several others, like the ivy walls at Wrigley or the Green Monster at Fenway are known even to casual fans. Coors Field has a few things that make it easy to spot on cards, starting with the forest and water feature behind the center field wall.

The visitor's bullpen is open to this area, giving travelling players a look at some flora native to Colorado. The most noticeable tree is a Colorado Blue Spruce, the official state tree. It's the blue-gray one above Zack Godley's calf, and it looks like a younger one is growing further toward right center. As a fan, you can get a great view of this area just around the corner from the batter's eye, right near where Dinger signs autographs.

On the card back, which returns to including complete career statistics instead of just the most recent five years, Topps mentions Godley's win in Colorado on June 10th, 2018, a Sunday day game. I went to the Friday game of that series, which the Rockies also lost. I am pretty sure, however, that Topps matched the photo to the paragraph on this card, making it sort of an unofficial Topps Now card. After taking a swim in 2018 Stadium Club, Zack Godley started in Denver twice in 2018, but only once during a day game. This is clearly from an afternoon game, so I'm confident in my detective work on this one.

2018 was the 20th anniversary of the Diamondbacks, and on Godley's right sleeve, we can see the patch commemorating that occasion. Most of the patch is the dark red found in the current colors of the D-Backs, but the "1998" on one side of the patch is done in the bluish-purple hue found in the early Arizona uniforms.

2019 Topps Opening Day #108 José Martínez

Other than a Rockies home jersey, the most common telltale sign that you have a Coors Field card is the purple front edge on the roof of the dugout. Like most parks, Coors puts the visitors on the third base side, and that's definitely not a Rockies logo on the cap of the player or coach in the dugout.

José Martínez of the Cardinals has seen a bit of playing time this Postseason, but unless the Cardinals can pull off a miracle, their road likely ends at the NLCS. His uniform number 38 appears on each piece of his protective gear, but there's also a #2 patch on his left sleeve. That is a memorial patch the Cardinals wore in 2018 following the passing of Red Schoendienst, the Hall of Famer who played for and later managed the team. That would place this photo between August 24th-26th, 2018.

2019 Topps Opening Day #159 Nick Martini (RC)

I'm nearing the end of a quest to see every team play at Coors Field. Only a few teams remain, as I crossed both the Astros and A's off the list in late July last year. Nick Martini was in the leadoff spot for the final two games in that weekend series, and pinch hit in the first, so I can't narrow this down any further than July 27th-29th, 2018. I went to the Saturday game on the 28th, which also happened to be Star Wars night. I may or may not have a card from the exact game I attended (part of why these cards interest me so much), but at least I have a souvenir Chewbacca beer koozie.

The Athletics celebrated an anniversary of their own in 2018, as we can see by yet another patch on rookie Nick Martini's sleeve. The A's completed their westward journey from Philadelphia in 1968, with a brief stop in Kansas City from 1955-1967. The patch features both a large "50" and the Tribune Tower, one of the taller old buildings in Oakland.

2019 Topps Opening Day #185 Khris Davis

Khris Davis, Mr. .247, has been showing up a lot around here lately. He was photographed inside Coors Field for his 2019 card, if not during the same game as Martini, then at least during the same series. This particular card doesn't mention his consistent .247 average like his Stadium Club card did, but it's more impressive to see each of those line by line in the usual Topps statistics format.

What the card does tell us is that he's only the third A's player to have three 40-HR seasons, the others being Jimmie Foxx and Mark McGwire. And McGwire didn't manage to do so consecutively, unlike Davis and Foxx.

2019 Topps Opening Day #143 Sean Manaea

With pitchers, it's much easier to narrow down a specific date. Sean Manaea started the Friday game of that series, July 27th, 2018. Easy. He took the loss that game, the opener in a series that the Rockies ended up sweeping.

There's not nearly as good a view of the forest on this card, but there is a blurred view of the "415" in straightaway center. Perhaps surprisingly, that is not the deepest center field wall in the league. That honor would go to The Polo Grounds Minute Maid Park at 436 feet.

Sean Manaea may not have won this game, nor the AL Wild Card game a couple weeks ago, but the card back does highlight his no-hitter on April 21st, 2018 against the Red Sox, the first of three League-wide that year. The card even gives us a quote from the catcher that day, Jonathan Lucroy, about how masterful it was.

2019 Topps Opening Day #85 Germán Márquez

The way the photographer captured Germán Márquez's pitching motion doesn't allow us to see the Rockies 25th anniversary patch, but it's still visible on the side of his hat. The card back mentions that he threw an immaculate inning in 2018—three strikeouts on nine pitches—and even took home the Silver Slugger award for pitchers. Depending on whether the NL one day adopts the Designated Hitter, he could be one of the last pitchers to ever win the award.

Obviously, any Rockies home card is a Coors Field card, or perhaps a Mile High Stadium card if we're talking about the early days. This Márquez card was the only Rockie in the blaster, which would be a slight disappointment if not for all these other Coors Field cards.

Even without the pinstripes, which were removed from the team's 2019 uniform when paired with the purple jersey, there's just enough purple among the fans in the seats to confirm that those are all Rockies fans back there.

2019 Topps Opening Day #12 Zack Greinke

Which is what I am using to place this Zack Greinke card in Coors Field. It's by far the most tenuous evidence, but there are so few other pro teams that wear purple that I think it's a reasonably safe bet. That is, unless there are a bunch of Minnesota Vikings and throwback Toronto Raptors fans that decided to show up that day.

Zack Greinke is a figure in the 2019 Postseason, but not with the Diamondbacks and their unappealing dark gray road uniforms. He's with Houston now, his first return to the AL since 2012. See, I remembered the Astros switched leagues! Partly because they are up to bat in the ALCS as I write this!

It's become apparent that Greinke is no fan of giving postgame interviews. He battles social anxiety, and getting up in front of a bunch of reporters before and after every start, especially in the postseason, can't be fun at all. It can be hard to put yourself in another man's shoes, but I wonder if he feels a nagging sense of dread every time his start comes to a close and he knows he'll have to face the media. If so, it's a feeling I can identify with; just one of those things you know has to be done but remains a pretty unpleasant feeling until you get through it one more time. Which is pretty much how I feel any time my office phone rings with an unknown number.

Whether you make five figures or eight, public speaking, or even human interaction in general, just doesn't come naturally for some of us.

2019 Topps Opening Day #56 Justin Upton

The last Coors Field feature commonly seen on a card is the manually-operated out-of-town scoreboard in right field. This is my favorite feature to find. Depending on the angle, it's likely that you'll be able to find the exact date of the photo, or if you're lucky, the exact play. Let's try with Justin Upton.

Even without looking, I know this is from the Angels' visit to Denver in early May of 2018. I know that because I was in London at the time, and prioritized getting $600 round-trip airfare over seeing Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. I'll catch them next time.

Specifically, the dates were May 8th and 9th, a quick two-game set that the teams split. May 8th was the day the Yankees-Red Sox London Series was announced, which I learned about from the nightly London newspaper.

Anyway, let's see which game this was from. The key piece of info is the 6-5 score, Pirates over White Sox. That was their final score on May 9th, and while that was the score for a very brief two-batter window during the May 8th game, odds are this is from the 9th. This is almost certainly from the top of the 8th inning, where Albert Pujols doubled Upton in, after Upton doubled his own way aboard to lead off the inning. Upton did go second-to-third again in the 9th inning, but that was on a bases-loaded walk, and I wouldn't expect any player to be kicking up dirt on a leisurely play like that.

Incidentally, if MLB chooses to add another couple teams, this feature will need a little work. It has seven columns and two rows, room enough for the maximum of fourteen out of town games that can take place on any given day. But if there's a fifteenth in Portland or Nashville or wherever, they'll have to find a way to extend this under the right field foul pole, or perhaps encroach onto the warning track party suites that can be seen below it. That, or just overhaul the whole thing so each column is narrower, but that would make it even harder to read from my preferred seats on the third base side.

There are some other Coors Field views to be spotted, like the left field bleachers and the upper decks, but they're quite rare. And you'll basically never see them all in one set like in 2019 Topps Opening Day.

I found a few more base cards with photos from some of the other twenty-nine ballparks, which I'll have for Part Two of this miniseries.

The Trading Post #127: Night Owl Cards

It's official.

After tense negotiations, both parties have finally agreed that...

2018 Topps Opening Day At The Ballpark #ODB-COR Colorado Rockies

...Bud Black will remain the Rockies manager through the 2022 season.

A lot of the players in this pre-game anthem photo from 2018 Opening Day either won't be back or have already left, including Greg Holland, Carlos González, and the man standing two down from Black, DJ LeMahieu.

There is a particular player, though, who will be, and he just signed one of the most lucrative contracts in the history of professional sports.

2018 Topps National League Standouts #NL-17 Nolan Arenado

The ink is now drying on Nolan Arenado's contract, an eight-year deal for $260 million, with an opt-out after three years. That will keep him in Colorado for at least a few more years, and hopefully he continues to like it here enough to stick around to the end of it, or even beyond.

I'd actually seen that Bud Black card before; I just liked that lead-in so much I couldn't resist showing it again.

Anyway, these cards were sent by Night Owl Cards, a follow-up shipment to the Don Newcombe card sent as part of his 10th-anniversary giveaway. Sadly, Newk passed away since that card entered my collection.

You might think this is just a garden-variety Topps base card, and it does use the same photo, but it's actually from the National League Standouts Team Set, something that's definitely new to me. The set includes just 17 cards of some of the biggest NL players from various teams, mostly the Nationals, Dodgers, and Rockies. I guess the inclusion of Dodgers is why Night Owl bought it. At first, I thought these were just from the Rockies Team Set, not knowing there was a general NL set at all. I just hadn't considered that it would be weird for him to both A) buy a whole Rockies team set and B) send me three cards from it.

That photo, by the way, shows Nolan at bat in Target Field, home of the Twins. That would date this to May 16th-18th, 2017, the opening Interleague leg of a long road trip. There's nothing on the back to differentiate it from Flagship, other than the card number itself.

2018 Topps National League Standouts #NL-3 Charlie Blackmon

Charlie Blackmon's NL Team Set card is different than in Flagship, but still similar. He has the full white pinstripe uniform on instead of the black top, and he's at an earlier stage of his swing. The card back is also different, telling us some Studio-like tidbits like his chess and juggling hobbies, and that he has a finance degree from Georgia Tech. He got some league leader cards in Flagship, and there is a varying photo selection on them all, but always at the plate.

2018 Topps Chrome Pink Refractors #194 Charlie Blackmon

Chrome is different still, opting to show him on the basepaths on this Pink Refractor. Topps also made the massive design change of moving the Topps logo from the left to the right, and putting some background shapes on the design to make up for the lack of a border. This refractor isn't quite rare enough to warrant a serial number, and the color is in that weird gray area where you can't quite tell if it's pink or purple. I even had "Purple Refractor" written before I checked Beckett.

2018 Topps Rainbow Foil #96 David Dahl

Night Owl knows I like shiny cards, and he found a nice assortment. The final example of 2018's "Waterslide" set is a Rainbow Foil parallel of David Dahl, which shows him approaching third base. I'm not sure which stadium this is, but there's probably enough information on the scoreboard to nail down a date, even though they're both divisional games. Jake Arrieta wore #49 with the Cubs, so let's start there.

Turns out, this photo is from 2016, even though it's a 2018 card. The Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals (and #50 Adam Wainwright) by a score of 13-2 on August 12th, 2016. The other matchup lines up too, with Mike Foltynewicz beating Stephen Strasburg 8-5. That would place the Rockies in Philadelphia, on their way to a 10-6 loss. David Dahl only reached base once in this game, on a wild pitch in the first inning. This photo definitely shows him going first-to-third on a Gerardo Parra single. Dahl finished the game 0-4 with no walks and a run scored, not a line you see too often.

The Rio Olympics were in full swing on that date, and rather than watching this game, I was likely watching swimmer Katie Ledecky set a world record in the 800m.

2017 Topps Update Rainbow Foil #US230 DJ LeMahieu

Topps has been producing Rainbow Foil parallels for some time now, and DJ LeMahieu got one in 2017's Update Series. It adds a little pizzazz to the rather unattractive green-colored outfield walls in Miami, which sharply contrasts the orange jersey worn by the All-Star second baseman. The next time he makes an All-Star Game, it will likely be for the American League, as he has a two-year deal with the Yankees about to kick in.

The card back heaped lots of praise on DJ's 2017 first-half performance, including his back-to-back four-hit games in mid-June, leading the league in assists and defensive double plays, and a 1.0 dWAR. At the very bottom of all that, the paragraph wraps up with "Exhibition Performance: Did not play."

Sadly, NL manager Joe Maddon decided to keep DJ on the bench during the extra-inning affair. It was his second All-Star appearance, and he went 0-2 in 2015's Midsummer Classic in Cincinnati.

2018 Topps Big League Gold #121 DJ LeMahieu

DJ LeMahieu's leaping throw gives me my very first look at 2018 Topps Big League. I bought a blaster of this last summer, but I've yet to open it. Maybe you could say I'm aging it like a wine, waiting for it to improve the longer I let it mature.

I know this set didn't earn many fans, but I don't really have a problem with it. It's not too expensive, and it has the look of something like Topps Total, plus maybe a mash-up of the large logo from 2010 Topps and a little 1989 Topps with the curve in a different place. It is quite a nice design for such a bargain-priced product. This is the Gold parallel, but unlike the equivalent in Flagship, there is no serial number. It's not shiny, but I like this shade better than what they selected for 2002 Topps.

One of these days I'll dig into that blaster and see if there are any surprises. I just want to catch up on trade posts first.

2017 Topps Heritage Chrome #THC-685 German Marquez /999

The Cardsphere has been abuzz this week with the release of 2019 Topps Heritage, based on the 1970 design. Pat Neshek's sunglasses card will surely go on a few Card of the Year posts in December. But a couple years ago, we were still on the '68 design. German Marquez got a card in High Number that year, a 225-card set from which just 50 were selected to get the Chrome treatment. Those Chrome cards just have 999 copies each, pretty scarce for a partial parallel set.

Putting together a master set of Heritage seems like it would be an absolute nightmare. Good thing a pack or two here and there along with the usual incoming trades satisfies me.

Maybe Nolan Arenado just really likes Denver, but it's likely that the promising young rotation including Marquez and Kyle Freeland was a factor as well. Couple that with Charlie Blackmon sticking around for a few more years, possibly through his retirement, and you have a team that can really find some lasting success under a proven manager.

Thanks, Night Owl!

The Trading Post #125: A Cracked Bat (Part 1: Shiny)

The last time Julie from A Cracked Bat sent a trade package, there was so much to cover that I had to split it up into two parts, Topps and Not Topps. Her latest trade was similar, in that there was a wealth of great cards to pick from, but this time I decided to split it up into Shiny and Not Shiny, another great way to create a two-part post that I've used before. There is a lot of ground to cover, including sets I've never seen before.

2018 Topps Chrome #80 German Marquez

We're going to need to ease into it with some borderless 2018 Chrome, because by the end, you may be seeing stars. German Marquez' base Chrome card doesn't go too over the top, it just whets your appetite a bit for what's to come.

I haven't collected many of the 2018 sets, including Chrome. That's probably why relative newcomer German Marquez is pretty under-represented in my collection outside of Topps Now. He has cemented a solid spot in a talented Rockies rotation, even doing so well in 2017 as to earn a comparison to 2002 Rookie of the Year Jason Jennings on the back of this card.

The waterslide design element pops just a little bit extra when given the Chrome treatment, and for now, this is one of the newest Topps cards around, since I have not yet purchased any of the newly-released 2019 cards. My side table is crowded enough as it is, with lots more trades, an incoming group break, part 2 of this one, as well as two entire blasters unwritten-about, 2018 Opening Day and 2018 First Pitch Big League. Those posts will come in time, with about a 20 percent chance of Marquez being on the hill the day I post.

2016 Topps Update Rainbow Foil #US256 Nolan Arenado AS

I knew this Arenado card from the 2016 All Star Game in San Diego looked familiar. The base version arrived a couple years ago from cards as i see them, but Julie graciously added this rainbow foil version to my collection. The retro Padres colors don't look any more retro, but the background and thin bars surrounding Nolan Arenado's nameplate clearly differentiate it from the base card under the right light.

Night Owl's much-hated smoke area in the upper left remains almost untouched by the effect. The rainbow shininess trails off in that area on a gradient.

What I know for sure is that the "CR" Rockies logo looks really weird on mustard yellow.

2017 Topps Gold Label Class 1 Black #93 Nolan Arenado

Julie clearly knows I like Nolan Arenado, so she added one in from 2017 Topps Gold Label. This one eluded me in Nachos Grande's First Rockin' Retro group break. It's a Class 1 card, meaning that the primary photo of the star third baseman shows him doing what he does best, and that's fielding. This card says nothing about his string of consecutive Gold Gloves, which is now up to six, but it does tell us about his consecutive 40-homer, 130-RBI seasons by the young age of 26. The only other players to accomplish that, we're told, were Chuck Klein and Jimmie Foxx, way back in the 1930s.

The photo shows him standing up, but it still could be a highlight-reel play. Just not the ones where he's thrown out runners from his knees in foul territory, often by several steps.

All three of the Rockies from the earlier group break had white backgrounds on the right side, but Sonny Gray, then of the A's, had a black area instead, just like Nolan's card. Apparently, this is a Black parallel, which led me to go back and revise the caption on Gray's card from a few months ago. I honestly did not put that together until after I scanned the cards for this post, because who knows with fractured sets?

2018 Bowman Platinum #65 Charlie Blackmon

While that revelation settles in, we'll shift to another Rockies star, Charlie Blackmon. Bowman Platinum is something I haven't seen in a while, and that's further reinforced by it being found only in Wal-Mart these days.

Topps took a weird direction with this set. It is a rainbow foil card, although I'm used to lots more shininess with this brand. I like the black border on the right, but this giant pastel-colored swoop thing completely dominates the design. It took multiple looks at this card before I even realized the photo's background is still there, as you can see someone standing on the top step of the dugout.

This set may be too niche to earn its own nickname, but it looks a lot like light trails on a long-exposure photograph. That, or a scene from Speed Racer.

And yes, the swoop is on the back too.

2018 Topps Fire Power Producers Gold Minted #PP-11 Charlie Blackmon

From what little I've seen of Topps Fire, there's a lot less actual depiction of fire than numerous sets have used over the years. Even though it's been on the market for two years, this is the first time it's entered my collection. I don't really have an excuse on why I haven't bought any, since this is a Target exclusive. And it's just the sort of thing that seems to unintentionally wind up in your shopping cart when all you needed was mayonnaise.

This yellowish-gold insert parallel is actually from the 2018 release, but Julie also threw in some 2017, which we'll see in part 2. This design doesn't really scream out to me; maybe that's why I haven't sought it out in two years. Like his Bowman Platinum card, it's also rainbow foil, but this shade of yellow is a massive distraction from that. Julie also threw in the Blue Chip variety, but this one of course caught my eye. Picture a slightly lighter shade of the Topps Bunt blue parallels and you'll get the idea.

I'm not sure where Beckett came up with its listing for this set, which I'm not using in the caption. The card number begins with "PP", consistent with the "Power Producers" name I found in a few places. Beckett declares this and its three colored varieties is part of the "Golden Sledgehammer" insert set. Granted, that is a pretty awesome name, but doesn't seem to match anything about this card.

Whatever its true name, the card back mentions Blackmon's 477-foot home run on July 9th, 2017. As is often my luck, I was at the game a day before. But what this card doesn't mention is that it happened on the same day as Kyle Freeland came within two outs of pitching a no-hitter.

Freeland was [puts on sunglasses] on fire that day.

That's to reinforce the pun, but we might really need those sunglasses soon.

2018 Donruss Optic Shock #89 Charlie Blackmon

Donruss Optic is still going strong in 2018, and they're even starting to get fancy with their shiny parallels. I am pretty sure this is the Shock parallel, but I am even less an expert in Donruss Optic than Topps Gold Label, so feel free to correct me. It's actually pretty mesmerizing, because there appear to be shiny dots that move around when you tilt the card. And unbelievably, it scanned pretty accurately.

This design with hints of 1984 Donruss appears to show the center fielder playing in St. Louis. That's my best guess, since it looks like there's just a tiny bit of the Cardinals logo painted on the back wall of the dugout. It might be a logo that Panini missed, though they did a fine job on Blackmon's uniform.

He had a great year in 2017, becoming the first player to lead the Majors in hits, runs, triples, and total bases in the same year. To put a feather in that cap, he also won the batting title.

2017 Donruss Optic #53 Raimel Tapia RR (RC)

Optic was a little bit more in check the prior year as far as parallels go, and that year the set used the familiar upward-sloping design that appears to carry behind the photograph. This year's design is most like 1991 in that regard, and the 1986 design used a similar angle but narrower lines. Panini has a wealth of designs to use if they keep this brand active in the future. It's only a matter of time before we see little baseball bats at the bottom facing right one year, then left the next. Or is it left, then right? I can never remember.

Raimel Tapia got the Rated Rookie treatment in 2017, and the card back describes his first career hit on September 2, 2016, his first of ten that season at the young age of 22. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be many times that, but Panini did a pretty good job describing that highlight in less than a hundred. They even put the right name to the card, something the broadcast crew flubbed at first.

2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC-63 Garrett Hampson

With the departure of DJ LeMahieu, Garrett Hampson may be in line for some more playing time in 2019, depending on where Daniel Murphy appears on the defensive chart. He's a promising rookie, although he drew the short straw when the Rockies acquired Matt Holliday in late 2018. They sent him down to make room for the fan favorite's return, but called him right back up once rosters expanded in September, and even kept him on the roster for the Postseason. In fact, he scored one of just two runs the Rockies managed to plate during the entire 2018 NLDS.

At this point in his career, he's a perfect Bowman guy, but he just got his first real Rookie Card in 2019 Topps Series 1. Bowman's scouting report on this Chrome Draft card is that he's a "scrappy competitor" who can "leg out infield hits". That may be, but his first MLB hit was a towering RBI double off the wall in Arizona. That didn't miss being a home run by much, and Topps already mentioned the hit on his 2019 card.

Incidentally, his name came up during a recent conversation I had with Big Shep's Cards, whose friend's cousin is Garrett Hampson.

2017 Topps Chrome Prism Refractors #92 Trevor Story

Clearly, Julie has tapped a rich vein of 2017 Chrome cards, because she sent me a slightly different version of this Trevor Story card last year. That was the regular refractor, this one is the slightly rarer Prism Refractor. The "spotlight" design on the normal refractors isn't used here, instead using lots of tiny facets in the background design, while at the same time allowing a clearer image of the dugout in the background.

I spent some time last year gushing that Topps labeled the refractor as a refractor, but this one is missing that note. I guess it's obvious enough that it doesn't need to be differentiated from the normal chrome card. I don't think I noticed the "Chrome" lettering in the banner before, which is a little redundant with the usual Topps Chrome logo.

2018 Topps Fire Green #54 Trevor Story /199

Like me, Topps isn't above using puns. The card back on this trippy 2017 Topps Fire parallel tells us that "Story was en fuego" at the beginning of the 2016 season, having hit seven home runs by the time his career was six games old.

What we're looking at here is the green parallel, and I guess green is the dominant color here, but red is really giving it a run for its money. As are numerous other colors. This wouldn't be out of place in 1995 Fleer, and is probably the closest thing yet to what we'd see if Jackson Pollock designed a baseball card.

There's a /199 serial number on the back, which is also the only place we see Trevor's first name.

2017 Topps Triple Threads #49 Carlos Gonzalez

We're going to take a little break from the contemporary art of Topps Fire parallels and return to a more traditional design with clean lines. Julie has sent me Triple Threads cards of Carlos Gonzalez before, too. I have no idea where she gets all these, but I'm glad she's on my side.

Despite endless trade rumors, Carlos Gonzalez reached free agency after his time with the Rockies, and with the cold state of free agent signings, his place for 2019 has yet to be determined. I'd love to see him return to right field at 20th and Blake, (well, right field is more like 22nd), but the free agent market is weird right now. Things are also weird in his home country of Venezuela right now, although he resides in this beautiful home in Orlando.

We're about to leave the modern era and return to the Blake Street Bomber era. If anything, the cards are just going to get stranger.

1997 Upper Deck Star Attractions #SA14 Larry Walker

I almost forgot about die-cuts. This one really isn't all that shiny compared to some others, but it has a pretty unique look. The background is blurred in a way that looks like a still from a rotoscope movie. You can still see the dugout and the first few rows of fans, but it's a different style of blur than you normally get from a camera.

The die cut itself is fairly simple, although it reminds me that there are relatively few die-cut designs that are so symmetrical. And the photo is cropped perfectly to contain Larry Walker, not omitting any of his batting stance and the power he's generating with his back leg.

Most of Larry Walker's cards from this era mention his stellar MVP 1997 season, although Upper Deck lamented on this insert that "another season went by without a Triple Crown winner". He fell a little short on RBIs, and trailed in batting average to the great Tony Gwynn, but did manage to lead the NL in home runs.

1998 Studio Hit Parade #2 Larry Walker /5000

Studio was no different in 1998. They got a little more in-depth than the usual Triple Crown statistics, pointing out that Walker's .720 slugging percentage was fifth-best in NL history. That number was miles ahead of the AL leader Ken Griffey Jr. at .646, who took home that league's MVP.

Sportflix and Studio both used Hit Parade as an insert set before Topps got around to it some time later, and Donruss even decided this one of Larry Walker was worth limiting to 5,000 copies. I am in possession of #3,886. The surface is what's known as etched foil, and up close, it basically looks like the ridges of a fingerprint.

1996 Ultra Power Plus #11 Larry Walker

Our final card has a very similar etched surface, but lots more color. At first glance, I thought this was yet another mid-90s Stadium Club subset that eluded me all these years, but it's actually from 1996 Fleer Ultra. Those who collected 2014 Topps Power Players should find the colorful concentric circles on this similarly-named Power Plus insert set somewhat familiar.

Baseball terminology has changed a bit over the years. The card back says that Larry Walker is a "strong two-way player", and then proceeds to tell us about his home runs and steals, as well as his outfield arm. That could be taken a couple ways, that he has both speed and power, or that he excels at both offense and defense. Today, of course, with the arrival of Shohei Ohtani, that term has evolved to mean players who can both hit and pitch, perhaps the two most divergent skills in the sport. Matt Davidson's name is coming up frequently in those discussions, and many scouts are looking for it in young players.

I could never see Larry Walker as a pitcher, but the two photo selections of this card give us a glimpse of what that might look like. Maybe, with a design like this, it's from a parallel universe where that did indeed happen.

I always learn a lot from Julie's trade packages, and in part 2, there are still more sets that are making their debut in my collection.