The Trading Post #158: The Collector (Part 1: Topps)

Just a few days ago, I said that Opening Day Mascots was my favorite insert set of all. I stand by that, but what I didn't know until I got this box of cards from Chris at The Collector was that it used to be a subset in the Opening Day set itself, circa 2007.

2007 Topps Opening Day #192 Dinger

Dinger is getting us pumped up for a two-part series, which will cover a Pay It Forward box that Chris sent to me early this year. After this, I'll finally be caught up on trade posts from all you generous bloggers and readers. I can't thank you all enough.

Like the Rockies' uniforms themselves, Dinger's shade of purple has evolved a little bit over the years. It's a bit darker these days. Even though this was a 2007 set, this photo was already a decade old when Topps picked it for the white-bordered '07 Opening Day set. It's from all the way back in 1997, which was the year that players league-wide wore the Jackie Robinson 50th Anniversary patch. The obscured Met has that patch on his right sleeve if you look closely.

This is one of the few Dinger cards that doesn't mention the dinosaur fossil story, an often embellished tale which does have a grain of truth to it. Instead, the card back tells us about how he works with elementary school kids to advocate literacy and fitness, and that he's a hit with fans of all ages.

The 2007 Opening Day design differs from the base Topps set in an obvious way. The border is white with gold foil instead of the bold black with silver foil we got that year. The Mascot subset has one other slight difference from a player card, and sharp-eyed readers might notice that there's no facsimile signature. 

Fortunately, I have the real thing.

2007 Topps Opening Day #73 Cory Sullivan

Looking at Opening Day side-by-side with Topps base really makes it obvious how different Opening Day used to be. This link has Cory Sullivan's black-bordered 2007 Topps card, and they have a pretty different feel. There's a minor difference, in that the facsimile autograph is shrunk slightly to make room for the Opening Day logo, but the white borders and gold foil make it feel a lot different. The black borders are nice, but they make the card feel a little claustrophobic. It's subtle, but this looks a little more open to my eye.

Other than that, not much is changed. The card back is identical, other than the card number of course, and the Opening Day logo, which occupies a usually conspicuously empty area on the left.

2008 Topps Opening Day #162 Jeff Francis

The whole box of cards was organized chronologically, making sorting extremely easy. That was much appreciated. That meant that this 2008 Opening Day card was quite nearby in the whole stack, and the red borders make this pretty easy to spot at a glance. The design is pretty similar, but there are a few differences here as well. There's no color-coding to speak of on the front, but the polka dots at the top have gold foil. That's just colored ink in the base set. Anywhere else that has foil is gold instead of silver, but the differences don't end there.

The major complaint everyone has about the 2008 set is the notch at the top, which is where the Topps logo lives. Maybe you've gotten more used to that by now, because your smartphone probably has something like that. But if you don't like that feature, you'll like Opening Day even less, because Topps made another notch at the bottom for the Opening Day logo. That forces the facsimile signature up slightly without resizing it, and that led Topps to simply crop the photo more tightly.

Have a look at the 2008 base card, pulled from my existing collection:

2008 Topps #511 Jeff Francis

The card backs are again identical, other than the Opening Day logo appearing like a watermark (think of 1991 Topps backs) and the card number.

The write-up is the same, and both cards praised Jeff Francis as the Rockies ace, pointing out that he was the Game 1 starter in all three Rockies playoff series in 2007. He won two, and the loss was Game 1 of the 2007 World Series, where he lost to Josh Beckett. It just so happens that tonight is Game 1 of the 2020 World Series, where we're seeing Clayton Kershaw face off against Tyler Glasnow.

2009 Topps Update #UH28 Matt Murton

Advancing one year into the Topps library, we come to 2009, with a mid-swing bat barrel shot of Matt Murton. I'm pretty good at remembering the Rockies who only played in Denver for a short time, but this one came as a complete surprise. He played 29 games as a Rockie at the end of his MLB career, which came to an end in 2009. He played in Japan for a while, then tried to mount a comeback via the Minors as recently as 2017, but that didn't pan out.

I really don't remember any of this. The only thing I remember about Matt Murton is that for a few weeks in the mid-2000s, he was The Guy to have in Fantasy Baseball early in his Cubs career. But now I have a Topps Update card to document his short time as a Rockie.

2012 Topps Archives #143 Marco Scutaro

On the other hand, I do remember Marco Scutaro. He only played 95 games as a Rockie, but he clearly made much more of an impact on my memory. He got a card in the first Topps Archives set, which used the 1980 design, among others.

As you see here, his only season with the Rockies was in 2012, and even then it was only for a few months. Near the 2012 trade deadline, the Rockies and Giants did a swap, Scutaro for Charlie Culberson. Luckily for Scutaro, he ended up being a part of the Giants' even-year magic. He was named the MVP of the 2012 NLCS, catching the final out off the bat of Matt Holliday on a rainy night in San Francisco. A really rainy night, actually. He'd go on to get his only World Series ring that year.

On the other side of the trade, Charlie Culberson remained with the Rockies for a couple years, and is currently with the Braves. He played in his own NLCS as recently as last Wednesday.

Long before all this, Scutaro was a Minor Leaguer featured in the documentary film A Player to be Named Later, which chronicled several players and their journey through Triple-A.

2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary HTA #HTA-12 Troy Tulowitzki

I'll have all the other brands in Part 2, but this is our final Topps card of the post. It has the feel of an insert, which would go well with all the other inserts I showed in Part 4 of the previous trade series, but it's actually from a 25-card set distributed through Topps' Home Team Advantage program. You had to go to a Topps-authorized hobby store to get this, and I haven't frequented local card shops recently to know whether it's still active.

The silver foil Diamond Anniversary logo on the front clearly dates this to 2011, right in the middle of Troy Tulowitzki's tenure with the Rockies. The card back gives us one of Tulo's "Diamond Deeds", and they picked August 10th, 2009, the same 5-for-5 day they profiled on his Career Day insert a year later.

It was a really good game for him and the team.

Most of this box from Chris included brands other than Topps, and I'll have about twice as many cards coming up in Part 2. Until then, enjoy the World Series!

2007: The World Series that got away

Every year, a team loses the World Series. For some teams, that happens a lot, but many of them have the talent and good fortune to go on and win in other years. Others aren't quite so lucky.

In response to Collecting Cutch's contest, in which he asks bloggers to recall a year in which their favorite team didn't win the World Series, the Cardsphere has turned out a batch of excellent posts. There are a few ways to interpret this contest, such as picking a year in which your team had no chance of going anywhere. Finishing in last place with 58 wins is technically one way to "not win the World Series". But entrants tended to pick a season in which their team came oh-so-close to winning it all. Teams like the 2003 Yankees, 1996 Braves, and 1990 Athletics simply lost the Series. The 1980 Dodgers, 2003 Red Sox, 1960 Orioles, and 2016 Red Sox fell varying lengths short of winning the pennant, or short of even making it to the postseason.

The Rockies have never won their division, but they came extremely close in 2018. For Rockies fans, a playoff appearance has always been a question of "will we win the Wild Card?" That's happened five times. And one of those years, they did the improbable and not only advanced to the NLCS, but made it all the way to the World Series.

2007 Upper Deck #304 Clint Barmes

That year was 2007, also the year of one of the least-favorite Upper Deck base sets ever. Clint Barmes was a middle infielder with a few seasons under his belt, but it all came crashing down in 2007. Despite what Upper Deck tells us, that "Barmes has consistently upped his production", his 2007 campaign was one to forget, and one that he spent most of with Triple-A Colorado Springs. He did get called back up in early August, but didn't appear on the Rockies postseason roster until their next Wild Card, in 2009.

Upper Deck did manage to give him a great action shot, which they squeezed in between the columns on both sides. His glove looks a little flat, so it's possible that this lunge didn't quite snag the ball, but we'll never know because the border cuts it off. It's appropriate for this championship that fell just out of reach.

2007 Topps Update #UH209 Troy Tulowitzki SH

A large reason why Barmes had a forgettable 2007 season was this man, Troy Tulowitzki. The talented shortstop was an enormous reason why the Rockies did as well as they did, and he almost won the NL Rookie of the Year award. He made a strong case for Barmes' starting spot, and even managed to turn an unassisted triple play in just his 46th game in the Big Leagues, as this Topps Update card documents (but does not depict). Footage of the actual play shows Tulo wearing a different uniform than the purple jersey.

I've mentioned this before, but I was at the game the day before that rare event happened to occur. It was against the Braves, and while I got to see future Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz pitch, it would have been amazing to see another future Hall-of-Famer, Chipper Jones, line in to such a play. It was my first of four games I attended that season, and the familiar chant of "Tu-Lo!" echoing across Coors Field graced the ballpark for many years to come, even when he visited Denver as a Blue Jay, another game I attended.

2007 Topps Heritage #247 Jamey Carroll

Part of why the 2007 season was so amazing is that even the regular guys did pretty well. Journeyman utility player Jamey Carroll spent two years in Denver, and his trip to the postseason in 2007 was the only one of his career. Even in hitter-friendly Coors Field, he didn't put up stellar numbers, but he did hit a pinch-hit grand slam during my second trip to the ballpark that year, a work outing against the Cubs that the Rockies won in blowout fashion. I had a new camera by then, and snapped a shot of the center field fountains that were activated after that home run.

He also drove in the winning run in the 2007 NL Wild Card Tiebreaker game. More on that later.

The Rockies have put plenty of great fielders on the diamond, and the back of this '58-design Topps Heritage card tells us that Carroll had a stellar .995 fielding percentage in 2006, the best among NL second basemen.

2007 Topps #205 Cory Sullivan

Cory Sullivan was once tasked with patrolling the jumbo-sized center field bordering that fountain, and he did well, as I recall. I don't remember any home run-robbing plays like Ian Desmond flashed the other night, but he had the speed to do it. Longtime readers might remember him as the player who hit two triples in one inning a year prior. He's still well-known among Rockies fans, as he's an in-studio host for the Rockies' TV network.

2008 Topps Heritage #394 Ryan Spilborghs

Ryan Spilborghs shared outfield duties with Sullivan, and "Spilly" remains a fixture in the Rockies broadcast booth to this day, even though his career ended in 2011. He started in center field that day against the Cubs, and I took this picture of him casting a shadow on the outfield grass. I was a real shutterbug back then, and that photo still graces the banner of my blog's Facebook page. It's one of my favorite photos, and I took it from one of the top rows of the center field bleachers.

I tried really hard to only use cards from 2007 in this post, but I couldn't find a card of Spilborghs in the 2007 binder, so I had to advance one year. The 1959 design is one of my favorites, but it took a while for Topps to place him in more than a small number of sets.

I could go on with guys like this all day. Seth Smith, Jeff Baker, Kaz Matsui, Yorvit Torrealba, Willy Taveras. They weren't superstars, but they got on base, got key hits, and came through in the clutch. The Rockies are never going to be a team full of top-dollar free agents, so for them to have success, they need the right mix of average utility players that pull more than their weight and come through at the right time. When that happens, they tend to do pretty well. Exactly that happened last year in the Wild Card Game against the Cubs. In the extra-innings pitchers duel, none other than Tony Wolters got the game-winning hit. ESPN couldn't even say his name right.

2007 Topps Co-Signers Silver Bronze #4a Garrett Atkins w/Jeff Francis /175

The Rockies have always been such an offense-driven club, but their pitching was quite good in 2007. The staff ace was Jeff Francis, who shares some ghostly card space with third baseman Garrett Atkins. This bronze Topps Co-Signers card was sent to me long ago by Wes, before his recent retirement and even before a couple blog name changes.

Atkins was a middle-of-the-lineup guy, and he rewarded the Rockies with 25 home runs in '07. More importantly, Jeff Francis went 17-9 that year, putting him in a four-way tie for second place on the Rockies single-season wins leaderboard.

2007 Topps Update Red Back #UH43 Ubaldo Jimenez

It wasn't until 2010, but Ubaldo Jimenez eventually eclipsed that record, winning 19 games. No Rockie has ever cracked the 20-win mark, but there are pitchers in the rotation right now who are capable of doing just that. Kyle Freeland already has one and it's just the first day of April.

Jimenez had two relief appearances in 2006, but he really got going as a member of the rotation in 2007. He and Tulowitzki gave fans a glimpse of what the Rockies would be like for several years to come. It was a young team. Of all these players so far, Clint Barmes had the most experience as a Rockie, and he was only in his fifth year.

2007 Ultra #57 Brad Hawpe

2007 Fleer Ultra, the final Ultra set to grace the hobby, had a card back very similar to 2007 Upper Deck. There is a ton of empty white space on that back, but room enough for Fleer (really UD by that time) to tell us that the right fielder was "Part of a rising young core of hitters for Colorado". Hawpe hit even more dingers in 2007 than Atkins, with 29, a career high.

I love Coors Field cards, and these lefties really get great ones. When they're at the plate, we can see right into the Rockies dugout, which is more or less an extremely close-up version of what I see when I go to the ballpark. I tend to favor the third-base side, mainly to keep the sun out of my face, but it's also nice to see my team while they're not on the field.

Speaking of right field, this is a good time to bring up the third game I attended in 2007. It was an early-September night game against the San Francisco Giants, my first time seeing them play. If memory serves, I was was there with my dad and sister, and we sat out in right field, above the out-of-town scoreboard and underneath the overhang. That was fortunate, because if I'm thinking of the right game, it was rainy. I don't remember a delay, just a cold and wet night. Brad Hawpe was the closest player on the field to us, and while he had a hit, the Giants won that night. I even witnessed one of Barry Bonds' 762 home runs.

2007 Finest #53 Matt Holliday

Other than Tulowitzki and maybe the two pitchers, casual Rockies fans probably haven't heard of most of these players, or maybe they don't have the context that current broadcasters Sullivan and Spilborghs used to play for the team. We got pretty deep into this post before I got around to the big names, and they're plenty important to the cause, but this is a team sport first and foremost. Mike Trout, who has better stats than anyone by their age-27 season, has played in a grand total of three Postseason games so far. The Angels are on the upswing, but baseball is a sport where a superstar really needs his teammates to shine.

Topps Finest has always been a pretty small set, so only the big names like Matt Holliday get included. The power hitter led the 2007 team with 36 home runs and 120 runs scored, the last one being pivotal to win game 163 and eclipse the Padres to win the Wild Card. It's easily the most controversial play in Rockies history and, to be honest, probably wouldn't pass replay review in this day and age. It's important to note, though, that Garrett Atkins hit a home run in the 7th inning that evening that was incorrectly ruled a double. If replay review existed, the game would have been over in regulation. But no one really talks about that.

Either way, the call in the 13th inning went the Rockies' way, and he remained such a fan favorite that the Rockies brought him back for the last couple months of 2018. He even appeared on last year's postseason roster, going 2-for-8 and bringing a ton of postseason experience to the clubhouse.

2007 Topps Opening Day #81 Todd Helton

And here's that last big name you've been expecting all along, Todd Helton. I've used a lot of 2007 Topps in this post, so here's a look at the white-and-gold interpretation of the filmstrip design, courtesy of Topps Opening Day. Helton, whose number 17 has since been retired by the club, is the most well-known player on this whole team. He had been in the Majors for quite some time before he got a taste of the Postseason, and was an integral part of the Rockies sweeping both the NLDS and NLCS before encountering the buzzsaw that was the Boston Red Sox.

2008 Upper Deck #484 Garrett Atkins

That brings us to the final game I saw in 2007, Game 3 of the World Series. My boss got tickets from a business contact, and decided to take me, the resident baseball fan, to the game. This card is one of the great Coors Field cards, and I dipped into the 2008 binder a second time to find it. That's Hideki Okajima on the hill for Boston, and he faced Garrett Atkins twice, once each in Games 3 and 4. Atkins struck out in Game 3, but took Okajima deep in Game 4, bringing the Rockies to within 1 run of Boston. It would be the last run they'd score that series.

This card might depict that home run, which I think would be preferable for a card of a Rockie, but it might depict that strikeout in Game 3, which would be pretty awesome for this baseball fan. Other than Topps Now, I've only found one card from a game I attended. 50/50 that this is another one, and what a game it was.

Even though they lost, it is a magical experience to watch your team play in a World Series. Yes, I had my camera. And I'll never forget it.

Still, it would be great to win one of these.

The Trading Post #108: All Trade Bait, All The Time

It was my own fault, I suppose.

Here I was, mentally acknowledging that I actually felt, you know, good. Happy. Content. And of course that lasted all of about eight minutes, because I had unwittingly tempted fate. Following that thought, what did Blogger decide to do to cut me back down to size than to overwrite a completed post when I was uploading the images with a completely blank draft?

Thanks, autosave.

So please forgive me if this second draft isn't as cheerful or well-written as the first.

But that doesn't change the fact that a fellow blogger, specifically All Trade Bait, All The Time, sent a PWE as part of his Operation Cardboard Christmas initiative. There are several piles on my side table from the usual generous bloggers, including one from Nachos Grande that I haven't even opened yet. But it's the holiday season, and I decided to let this Christmas-themed one jump the line a little bit.

1998 Topps #274 Andres Galarraga IL

The Winter Solstice happened just three days ago, and the days are finally getting longer. It still gets pretty dark at a quarter to five, but the trend is heading in the right direction toward its astronomical opposite, the Summer Solstice, a date that this Topps subset card is only three days removed from. (Yes, I ended a sentence in "from". Deal with it). Interleague play was a big change for the 1997 season, but the way this particular game played out is pretty much what you'd expect for one played at Coors Field.

Heading into the bottom of the ninth with a three run lead is a good situation to find yourself in. But sometimes things don't go your way, and that inning on June 18th, 1997 got away from Rangers' All-Star closer John Wetteland rather quickly. An early error let the leadoff runner on, and after he allowed another batter to reach, Andres Galarraga promptly evened the score at 9 with a three-run homer before an out had been recorded.

As this card tells us, the Rockies kept the Blake Street magic going the rest of the inning, loading the bases, still without recording an out, until the sharp-eyed Walt Weiss came up and drew a walk, forcing in the winning run. As the Rangers' win probability continued to fall of a cliff, that walk elevated the score to 10-9, elevated John Wetteland's ERA accordingly, and led Topps to document the occasion on their first of two straight gold-bordered sets.

That was just the sixth Interleague game in Rockies history, and just the second at home. You can spot an empty Rockies dugout behind the Big Cat's power stroke, and his pinstripes further cement this as a Coors Field card. To my eye, this looks better than a lot of the base cards in 1998 Topps, partially because it's a lot more readable. I do have one gripe, which is that the home team is usually listed on the right, opposite to this card's design. But that's the only point of confusion, as the pinstripes, stadium, and wild 9th inning pretty obviously locate this in a pre-humidor Coors Field.

1997 Upper Deck #197 Vinny Castilla GI

Vinny Castilla was on base during the above scenario, drawing an intentional walk two batters after Galarraga's homer. Remember those? When pitchers had to throw four actual pitches to put a batter on? Those were the good ol' days. And perhaps went just a little further in rattling Wetteland that day than if his manager could do it with a gesture.

Anyway, Galarraga's fellow Blake Street Bomber appeared on another subset card, this time from 1997 Upper Deck, shiny but somehow devoid of copper. I once opened a box of '97 UD, and these Global Impact subset cards were everywhere. I seriously wonder if they were double printed. My fellow blogger must have experienced the same, as he sent me Larry Walker's card in a previous trade. That covers the countries to America's north and south, Walker being from Canada and Castilla from Mexico, even though his card looks more like the Italian flag. You can just barely make out the central eagle feature of the Mexican flag under his left shoulder.

2005 Bowman #56 Jeff Francis

If Bowman International parallels existed in 2005, this one could have had the Maple Leaf behind Jeff Francis, giving us a nice tour of the world's flags. But this is a base card, one with a nice splash of red on the sides. I guess you could sort of pretend that's the Canadian flag. Jeff Francis didn't appear in a Major League game before 2004, but seven appearances that season was enough to qualify him as a veteran in 2005 Bowman, earning these red accents on his card instead of the usual blue for prospects.

I will never really understand Bowman, try as I might.

His photo on the back caught my eye, as it's pretty similar to his 2005 Diamond Kings card, sent by Daniel. In that, Francis is pictured wearing Canada's World Baseball Classic jersey along with his Rockies cap. At the time, I guessed that was an artist's rendering, perhaps to drum up interest in the first-ever WBC in 2006. But Francis has the same jersey on the back of this 2005 card, leading me to assume that it must have been taken during a qualifying round.

Canada never had much success in the World Baseball Classic, which was created in the wake of the International Olympic Committee's 2005 decision to remove baseball following the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The sport was absent from both the London and Rio games, but it will be making a return in Tokyo 2020, surely thanks to the increasing global popularity of baseball. Israel was a favorite underdog in the 2017 WBC, and it's even gaining traction Down Under. I hope the WBC continues in 2021 and beyond, and I think it's important to keep interest going, which was part of the reason that baseball was removed from the Olympic lineup in the first place.

I can't say I fully agree with the IOC's original decision, as there is lots of interest in the sport outside of the USA. "World" Series jokes aside, both Japan and Korea have highly competitive leagues, and the first three players in this post are from three different countries, Venezuela, Mexico, and Canada to be specific.

2016 Topps Archives #174 Tom Murphy (RC)

Tom Murphy adds the USA to that list, and he's a catcher prospect that the Rockies keep banking on.

The two big news stories this offseason are the Angels signing Japanese star Shohei Ohtani, and yet another Marlins fire sale. But in case you missed some of the more minor news, the Rockies are bringing back Chris Iannetta for 2018, penciling him in as the primary catcher. Veterans Jonathan Lucroy and Ryan Hanigan became free agents when 2017 ended, and it doesn't look like the Rockies are pursuing either of them. But no one can catch 162 games, so that means that Murphy and Tony Wolters will be the backups.

The batter's eye at the Salt River Fields practice facilities, Spring Training home of both the Rockies and Diamondbacks, is becoming a frequent sight on their Topps cards, especially in sets with lots of posed shots like Heritage and Archives. This 1979-esque card will go along nicely with several other cards from 2016 Topps Heritage. I just hope that Murphy starts showing up in the lineup as often as he appears in my collection.

2017 Topps Gypsy Queen #19a David Dahl (RC)

The Rockies outfielder situation, as usual, is a lot clearer. Even with the likely departure of Carlos Gonzalez, David Dahl and Raimel Tapia are waiting in the wings, and there has to be somewhere to put them. Topps is already mentioning Dahl in the same breath with retired legend Todd Helton. Both Dahl and Helton turned in .315 batting averages in their rookie year, which is about the extent of what's on the back of this sparse Gypsy Queen design.

2017 Topps Gypsy Queen Green #24 Adam Ottavino

In addition to that GQ base card, this green parallel arrived, which is a bit better centered than the Tapia card that Scott sent in a recent trade. Surprisingly, even though this appears to be precisely the same thickness as Dahl's card above, it feels a lot sturdier.

I have seen a few examples of this year's Gypsy Queen set, but I didn't truly notice the gentle rainbow gradient at the bottom of the design. Somehow the green border made it a little easier for my eye to catch. On the photo side, GQ tends to be hit or miss for me. This one is quite nice, and the shadows aren't obviously highlighted, unlike a particular Ben Zobrist card that I haven't quite been able to forget.

Ottavino had a rough season in 2017, but that was largely due to one rough road outing against the Dodgers. We started this post with that theme, where John Wetteland gave up four runs without recording an out in the middle of what was otherwise a pretty solid season. There's just no telling what will happen on any given day, and it doesn't even need to be in Coors Field. I'll kindly remind you that both roller coaster games in the 2017 World Series took place at sea level.

Depending on what happens with Greg Holland, Adam Ottavino is likely to play a larger role in the 2018 Rockies bullpen, despite his rough patch last year. The team as a whole is set to look quite a bit different next year, with numerous players throughout the talent range hitting free agency. Holland, CarGo, and Lucroy I already mentioned, Mark Reynolds is still on the market, and Tyler Chatwood and Pat Neshek have already signed on with other clubs. There's still lots of young and retained talent; I just hope that reaching the 2017 Wild Card game isn't the high water mark for the next decade.

The Rockies still have some work to do this offseason. But not right now. It's the Holidays, and I hope the Rockies and their front office are all set to spend some quality time with friends and family.

And I wish the same for you.

Just like I did the first time I wrote this.

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.