The Trading Post #160: It's Like Having My Own Card Shop

No sooner did I get caught up on trade posts than more started showing up. With no expectation of anything in return, I fired off a card to Daniel at It's Like Having My Own Card Shop, a Kirby Puckett duplicate I knew I had (help him with 1989 Cap'n Crunch if you can!). Nevertheless, he returned the favor with a card from my favorite Topps brand, and that of course is Stadium Club.

I know that my Wish List tab is a tremendously inadequate representation of what I'm actually on the hunt for, but I did put one Coors Field card on it from 2014 Stadium Club. Daniel sent it.

2014 Stadium Club #93 Chris Owings (RC)

My Coors Field frankenset is slowly but surely coming along. It's a long way off from completion. Truthfully, it's a long way off from even having most of the numbers filled. But each year gives me more candidates for the list, and now I can cross #93 off. The background shows the left field wall, which has some chain link gaps below the yellow line, which you can see here. Also there's one fan with just a hint of purple, and it's an NL West team, so the odds are good that I've guessed the right stadium.

Side note, the Rookie Card logo on this 2014 Stadium Club design nestles in perfectly and is in about the most unobtrusive spot I can ever remember seeing.

Pictured is Chris Owings, then a Diamondbacks rookie. I can't tell exactly which game, but it's likely this is from the September 20th-22nd, 2013 series in Denver. Owings was a September call-up then and was just getting a taste of the big leagues. We have another indicator that this was from 2013, and that's the #19 patch worn on Owings's right sleeve. That wasn't for a player, but rather to honor the memory of nineteen wildland firefighters that perished in Arizona's Yarnell Hill Fire. Fortunately, no firefighters died in the recent round of Colorado wildfires, and I certainly hope that continues to be the case.

Chris Owings got a front row seat for the smoky Colorado air earlier this year, as he signed with the Rockies for the 2020 season. The versatile player appeared all over the diamond, although he played in only seventeen games before being sidelined with hamstring troubles. It will likely go down as a Short-Term Stop, but it was long enough for Rockies fans to at least learn his name.

Kind of.

I say that because my girlfriend and I had a running joke this season. During a game, a camera happened to catch the back of his uniform. The tall, squarish shape of the letters and the wrinkle of his jersey made the "O" look more like a "D", which quickly turned into us both calling him "Dwings". As in, "Dwings made a nice play there." "I think Dwings is on deck." "Get in here, Dwings just hit a home run!" That sort of thing.

He's a free agent once again, and I hope he lands somewhere in the Majors. He's been a journeyman since he first reached free agency, so odds are another team picks him up. If he lands in the NL West again, he might even get another slot in my Coors Field frankenset.

Thanks to Daniel for the trade, and good luck with the rest of the Cap'n Crunch set!

The Trading Post #120: It's Like Having My Own Card Shop

I'm still here.

As you might have guessed, it's been a pretty busy month for me. I haven't posted (or really kept up with the Cardsphere at all) in about a month. I hope I didn't miss a super-awesome Blog Bat Around topic or anything like that.

So what have I been up to? Well, the main event was a trip to London, which happened the same week that MLB announced the Yankees and Red Sox would be playing each other in London in 2019. It was kind of neat to read about that in the evening paper as I headed down to the nearest Tube station. I didn't have a ton of time to read, since I don't think I had to wait more than seven minutes for a train or bus the whole trip. They know how to do public transit in that city.

Other highlights this month included my nephew turning one, my first ballgame of the season on Friday, which resulted in a win against the Reds, and (more of a lowlight), a new ERP system at work, which I managed to miss the first week of due to the aforementioned vacation.

The baseball season has carried on, as have a handful of trades. I'm going a bit out of order here, but one such trade came from Daniel of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop. He did a great job of finding a few cards for my Coors Field frankenset, but one thing he sent isn't quite a card.

Daniel's team, the Diamondbacks, and my Rockies share a spring training facility in the Phoenix area, and Daniel snagged a pocket schedule from the '18 Cactus League season. All the usual Western teams are on here, as well as an exhibition game the D-Backs played against the ASU Sun Devils.

I have yet to visit this park, but I did once see the Rockies play the Cubs in 2008. That was when the Rockies and a few other teams still made their spring training homes in Tucson. It's about a three-hour drive from Phoenix to Tucson, though, so in 2011 everyone decided it would be a lot easier for everyone to just play in Phoenix, and you now find a situation where ten stadiums host fifteen teams, with many teams sharing facilities in a similar arrangement. However, according to the stadium map, the D-backs and Rockies still have separate gates. I'm not sure how strictly that's enforced for incoming fans, or if each team just wants a spot to run their own promos.

2014 Topps #199 Matt Davidson (RC)

The main event was a few D-backs duplicates from Daniel's collection, which all fit perfectly into my Coors Field frankenset. As in spring training, these two teams find themselves in each others's stadiums on a regular basis, whether that's Opening Day, the Wild Card game, the NLCS, or anywhere in between. Many Diamondbacks in 2014 Topps clearly had their photos taken in Coors Field, starting with Matt Davidson. Davidson is now on the White Sox, and he started off the 2018 season with a three-homer game. But before his current tenure in Chicago and a couple seasons of Triple-A, he was a late-season callup in 2013.

I had to do a lot of digging to date this card, but it's either from September 21st or 22nd, 2013. Davidson sure looks like he's casually rounding the bases after a home run, and he had one in each of those games. My initial guess was the 21st, which was a night game, and there are definitely lots of stadium lights reflected in his helmet, a trick we all learned from Night Owl. Davidson hit one to straightaway center off of Collin McHugh to drive in three, but video review shows that the team wore their gray jerseys that day. That must mean it was Sunday the 22nd, where he launched another three-run shot, this time to left field. It was late in the game, and the video shows it was a cloudy day, which would account for the lights.

So there you have it. September 22nd, 2013, showing Davidson rounding second after taking Chad Bettis deep. A close look at the video lets you match the out-of-town scoreboard, the numbers on the left corresponding to the Reds blowing out the Pirates 11-3 in Pittsburgh, and the Marlins beating the Nationals in D.C. Home teams did not have a great day that day, as this shot helped the Diamondbacks win 13-9, even though the Rockies chipped away 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th.

2014 Topps #232 Chris Owings (RC)

Chris Owings, now a veteran Diamondback, was a young rookie when this card was printed. It's very possible that this is from the same game as Davidson's card, but there's not much to go on besides the center field forest and the leg of a pinstriped Rockie who seems to be stuck in an inning-ending fielder's choice. Owings, another late-season callup in 2013, only played 20 games for the Diamondbacks that year. I'm certain it's from the same series, and it probably is from the same game on the 22nd, since a highlight from the Friday game in that series shows the Diamondbacks in their gray jerseys again.

Any candidate plays? Possibly in the first inning, when DJ LeMahieu hit a comebacker, resulting in Charlie Blackmon being forced out at second base. This looks more like an end-of-inning "can I keep the ball?" gesture to the ump, and that play was just the first out. But it's a reasonable guess.

2014 Topps #648 A.J. Pollock

A.J. Pollock, one of my (injured) Fantasy team members this year, appeared in Coors Field much more frequently that year than his rookie teammates. I can't be sure it's the same game, but the jersey matches. The distinctive purple banner on the dugout roof makes it easy to locate, but any one specific pitch is near impossible to pinpoint.

Also, is it just me, or does Pollock's right elbow look a little strange?

2014 Topps #379 Gerardo Parra

I showed this card before, actually just a few months ago when I wrote my entry into the What I Collect Blog Bat Around. It's nice to have an extra copy of this now-Rockie, as it shows an angle that's not often seen on cards. Interestingly, that press box has been the site of an important development in broadcasting. For the first time since 1993, a woman has called the play-by-play for an MLB TV broadcast. Jenny Cavnar, a longtime TV personality on AT&T Sportsnet, has been calling games for the Rockies telecasts all year long, and she's been doing a great job. It's not every game, but she has a wealth of knowledge, and has even inserted her own catchphrase into the Rockies fan's lexicon, "Fire up the fountains!" That phrase refers to the fountains near the center field forest that are turned on after each Rockies home run. I assume it's a home-game-only phrase, but I haven't watched enough games this year to know for sure.

Another change at Coors Field this year is the updated video scoreboard in left field. It's now even bigger, and rather than just a plain old rectangle, it now has the outline of a mountain range at the top. It's quite stunning to see in person, and the traditional analog-style clock still occupies the top areas of the scoreboard during the normal course of play. They do use its full height during some of the introductory videos and between-inning features, and sometimes the top of the action was cut off a little bit. To this collector, that reminded me of 2008 Topps, the set with the bump at the top where the Topps logo intruded into the photograph.

2016 Topps Wal-Mart Marketside Pizza #3 Nolan Arenado

Finally, Daniel found a card from my Eight Men Out list, my first one from Topps' Marketside set, the one that was inserted into frozen pizza boxes at Wal-Mart. These were all the rage a couple years ago, but I'm not a Wal-Mart shopper so I never ran across one. I was still interested to add one to my collection and see the design up close, so thanks to my trading buddy for unearthing one. It's too bad these weren't more widely available, because it's a solid design. The two bold silver stripes at the bottom are attractive, and the grid of small squares in the background add some character without taking things over. They're about the size of what you'd see on a Chrome X-fractor without being shiny, and remind me of another insert set or two that I can't quite place at the moment.

The back makes that grid theme just a little bit bolder, and also mentions Nolan's excellent defense, plus his ability to reach 40 HRs and 130 RBIs, numbers that he's pretty consistently met or exceeded for a few years now.

Thanks for sticking around. If I missed anything major this month, feel free to let me know in the comments!

The Trading Post #86: It's Like Having My Own Card Shop

Daniel from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop and I are kindred spirits, in a sense. We're both fans of the recent expansion teams in the NL West, sort of all by our lonesome among all the Dodgers, Braves, Yankees, and Cubs collectors in the Cardsphere. He was one of many bloggers who got a #supertrader mailer from me shortly before Christmas, and he was sure to return the favor with a PWE of his own.

1997 Collector's Choice All-Star Connection #42 Ellis Burks

Once my eyes returned to normal after being blinded by the giant silver star on this Ellis Burks card, I started doing a little research, as I didn't recognize the set. It's an insert from 1997 Collector's Choice, part of a moderately-sized insert set of 45 cards. There's quite a bit of red foil on it, including the 1997 All-Star Game logo, which took place in Cleveland that year. Until recently, the AL and NL did a pretty good job of alternating which league hosted the Midsummer Classic, although we're in the middle of a four-year stretch of NL hosts. Cleveland, of course, is an AL city, and the Rockies would get to host the very next year.

Upper Deck put a unique spin on their usual method of putting five lines of stats on the back. Rather than the five most recent seasons (which always kind of bugged me, and why I preferred Topps and Fleer as a young collector), they put the 1996 season, along with his stats for the All-Star Games and each playoff series he had appeared in. It definitely reads like an early-season line or single-game box score. One triple, one stolen base, six at-bats and so on. He hadn't appeared in a World Series by this point, and would never get the chance. In fact, his team lost each of the six playoff series he appeared in, including the 1995 Rockies.

2003 Upper Deck Classic Portraits #181 Clint Barmes MP /2003 (RC)

Clint Barmes would be an important part of the next Rockies team to make the playoffs, but he hadn't quite made it to The Show yet. This is actually the second time I've seen this set, and it's starting to grow on me. It has a similar look and feel to UD's later A Piece Of History products. The serial number this time around isn't quite as low as Chris Capuano's card, but at 2,003 copies, it's still fairly scarce.

Interestingly, there's a slight error on the back. Even though he didn't have any MLB experience at this point, the column headings are clearly meant for a pitcher, not a position player. I suppose it's not entirely wrong, as he hadn't taken the mound in a MLB game. But he's clearly listed in a couple places as a shortstop. The only other two cards I have from this set are of actual pitchers, and they have the same column headings. So I can't be sure if this error affected all position players or just Barmes. But Capuano's card wasn't quite accurate either, as I pointed out last time, further indicating that this set didn't get a proper quality check.

1996 Collector's Choice Silver Signature #758 Andres Galarraga CL

The run of silver foil continues with an Andres Galarraga checklist parallel. It's from 1996 Collector's Choice, and if you want to see more of that set, Nachos Grande is in the middle of opening a whole Series 1 box pack-by-pack. This one is from Series 2, though. In fact, its the third-to-last card in the whole 760-card checklist, not counting a small update series that came a little later.

Silver Signatures were one-per-pack in this product, and they're pretty plentiful. Unlike Topps, which didn't make Topps Gold checklists, UD had no problem recognizing that checklists are an important part of a set and giving them the parallel treatment. They go pretty in-depth on Galarraga's performance in June 1995, highlighting his 3-for-3 day on June 25th, which included three home runs in three consecutive innings, plus two walks. Coors Field was in its infancy then, but the Rockies were already earning their Blake Street Bombers nickname.

There's an error on this card, too, by the way. The front of the card has the correct date, but the back lists June 15th, 1995, which was an off day. Maybe Night Owl's recent post about error cards has me paying extra attention to these things.

2005 Diamond Kings Framed Red #251 Jeff Francis

The streak of silver foil comes to an end here, but there's still a little red foil and a framed border. With the continued growth of Panini cards, these mid-2000 Donruss cards are starting to look a bit more familiar. Francis is listed as a Rockie, but the painting by artist Dave Kramer has him wearing a Canadian jersey. Francis would represent Canada in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, but that didn't happen until the following year, and their actual jerseys were different. That makes this image basically an artist's concept, one that would become technically correct later on. I especially like the combination of the Rockies' "CR" logo on the hat, paired with the little Canadian flag on the jersey. Not sure about the yellow stripe, though.

2010 Topps 206 Bronze #262 Melvin Mora

Topps 206 Bronze parallels from 2010 look pretty similar to that Diamond Kings set. While they don't have the same playing card finish, they're about the same thickness, and the design of the border frame is strikingly similar. Before the Rockies started signing aging Twins stars like Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau, they picked Melvin Mora. Mora, according to this card, played more games at third base for the Baltimore Orioles than anyone besides Brooks Robinson. Mora is Venezuelan, one of many from that nation to play in Denver, including Galarraga, Carlos Gonzalez, and Alexi Amarista, whom the Rockies just signed to a one-year deal today. Mora only stuck around for a year himself, making this a good candidate for an unfamiliar uniform mini-collection.

2013 Topps Update Gold #US226 Michael Cuddyer /2013

Speaking of Michael Cuddyer, here's the newest card that Daniel stuffed into this envelope. Julie from A Cracked Bat sent me the base version once upon a time, but it looks more dramatic with a gold border. Cuddyer did pretty well in the Derby that year, finishing third overall, just barely missing the final.

I'm not sure whether these bright orange jerseys are that much better than the brown and yellow ones worn in San Diego last year. And this year it will be in Miami, so for all I know they'll wear bright green and look like airport gate workers.

2008 Topps 50th Anniversary All Rookie Team #AR85 Aaron Miles

Aaron Miles played second for the Rockies for a couple of seasons. He was traded to the Cardinals at the 2005 Winter Meetings, and would go on to win a World Series ring that year. He was one of those adequate-but-kind-of-invisible infielders, putting up a decent average but not having much power or speed. Sort of like my own career as a second baseman.

This one is part of a 110-card insert set in 2008 Topps, showing various members of the Topps All-Rookie Team. It reuses the design from a subset found in the 1960 set, giving us an early hint at what Topps Archives is today. The same design on different card stock appeared in 2009 Topps Heritage, and it seems so strangely familiar that they may have used it again on a more recent insert set. Not too sure about that, though. Maybe I've just seen this design so often but never knew precisely where it came from.

2003 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion #60 Jason Jennings

Finally, something very different from what was on offer in 1960. And not just batting helmets with ear flaps. It's a die-cut card, but not with a zillion odd corners like Topps has been doing these days. It's subtle, and goes well with the angles of the thin gold lines elsewhere in the design. It's just batting practice, but it's still a pitcher at the plate, who's also working on his bunting. He was a righty, but batted from the left side of the plate. It's not that uncommon to have opposite handedness depending on whether you're throwing or hitting, but I can't think of many pitchers that play that way.

It seemed to work for Jennings, one of the best homegrown pitchers to ever come out of the Rockies organization. This gold medallion parallel was my favorite card in the envelope.

I don't expect to see Fleer Ultra again, but perhaps the Rockies will have a young pitcher that's as good as Jennings one of these days.

The Trading Post #12: It's Like Having My Own Card Shop

Instead of wrapping up a post with a green-colored card, as I have been known to do, how about I lead off with one this time?

1999 UD Choice StarQuest Green #28 Larry Walker

This was part of a recent trade package from Daniel at the Diamondbacks-focused blog It's like having my own Card Shop. Daniel already put up a post about the cards I sent his way, and I'm glad I was able to fill some needs from his Topps want list.

I had never seen 1999's StarQuest design, but the green theme is one that UD used repeatedly for that insert set. I think it's reached the point where these green-colored cards have become a bona fide "mini-collection".

Many of us bloggers have been waxing poetic about the return of Stadium Club this year, myself included. The below card, however, is from their previous 2008 release, which was a bit of an underwhelming flop.

2008 Stadium Club First Day Issue Unnumbered #122b Jonathan Herrera VAR (Safe at Home)

Unlike this year's set, Topps did resurrect an early '90s parallel set in 2008 by printing "First Day Issue" parallels, but it was done quite strangely. I don't want to bore anyone with the details; suffice to say there was a lot of dividing the card number by 3 to determine whether such a parallel even existed. No wonder the product flopped.

I do have several of those 2008 First Day Issues, and this Herrera variant card is a new addition.

When it comes to Topps base, I typically wait until the factory set is released before I make a purchase. This nets me the full set in one fell swoop, but I don't usually see the inserts and parallels until they start showing up in discount boxes and trades. Thus, this portion of my collection is a bit underrepresented, which is why I appreciate so much getting these via trade.

There is often plenty of shininess to be found in Topps inserts, such as Season's Best from 1997...

1997 Topps Season's Best #SB3 Ellis Burks

...Own The Game from 2008 (and several other years)...

2008 Topps Own The Game #OTG13 Matt Holliday

...and Topps Stars, also from 2008.

2008 Topps Stars #TS25 Matt Holliday

Topps Stars wasn't always an insert set. For several years around the turn of the millennium, it was its own separately-sold base set. Topps made it an insert set from 2006 to 2008, and I'd welcome its return to packs if Topps continued to find value in resurrecting our favorite older brands. In fact, they've already announced next year's Stadium Club set, which I take as a very good sign.

In addition to green, my longtime readers will know that I am also a sucker for serial numbered cards.

1998 Donruss FANtasy Team #13 Larry Walker /4000

Where is it, you ask? Why, on the back, of course!

1998 Donruss FANtasy Team #13 Larry Walker /4000 (Reverse)

The above marks the first card back to appear on this blog! The /4000 serial number is quite prominent, but also notice that this card is from 1998. That was a very early year in the history of the internet as we know it today (also the same year as Pacific Online), and Donruss apparently ran an internet-based survey that year for this FANtasy Team insert set. Walker didn't manage to break a thousand votes, yet still ended up in 13th place. I'd be interested to see what the top ten looks like, and if the #1 vote-getter managed to break 2,000.

Something tells me that if Topps or Panini were to run a similar survey today, the total number of votes cast would be a little higher.

In addition to Daniel, I've established partnerships with quite a few new trading partners this month, so keep an eye out for more trade posts!