Star-Spangled Sunday

Every year, I have a birthday.

It's in March.

So that means that I've had a handful of cards on my desk since March, as this blog has really slipped down the list of priorities for me. Meanwhile, my list of bird species seen in the wild has grown to 263, and my number of eBird checklists is approaching 500, so I'm still doing something prolifically, just something that gets me outdoors a bit more than typing and scanning.

1993 Score #419 Joe Girardi

Our hobbies and interests shift over time. I look at this Joe Girardi card from 1993 Score that my Mom gave me for my birthday, and I notice that beautiful snow-capped mountain behind him, and I see not just an inaugural-year Rockies card, I also see what looks like perfect habitat for a White-tailed Ptarmigan, which is not one of my 263 species.

Girardi is one of just five Rockies in the 1993 Score checklist. It isn't a top priority, but I'm very slowly working my way toward that team set completion. I got the Bichette via trade quite a few years ago, back in 2017, so I will have to pick up the pace if I hope to get the remaining three by the time the Mets finish paying Bobby Bonilla in 2035.

1994 Topps Gold #791 Mike Cook

While 1993 Score remains incomplete, one goal I've been working towards for many years is collecting the Topps Gold cards from 1993 and 1994 Topps that replaced the checklist cards from the base set. In the strictest sense of the word, 1992-1994 Topps Gold were not true parallel sets. 1994 had four such replacement cards, three of which you can see here, the fourth and final above.

According to the card back, Mike Cook, who made his MLB debut on July 1, 1986 (long before July 1 became synonymous with Bobby Bonilla), got this as his first and last Topps base card. He did make it into 1989 Fleer, and appeared in the rarely-seen 1994 Topps Team Stadium Club, but that was it other than a handful of Minor League and oddball issues.

Although I'm not sure how much I trust Beckett these days. This card of Mike Cook doesn't appear on his Beckett player page (or Beckett doesn't display multiple pages anymore?), even though they have the 1994 Topps Gold checklist correct. 

In any case, Cook's three games in 1993 were his last in MLB, making this an example of the exceedingly rare Rookie Card and Sunset Card all rolled into one.

From here, I'll have to decide if I want to chase the 1992s as well, but that set predated my interest in Major League Baseball by a year, so it never held quite as much draw over my elementary-school-aged brain as the 1993 and 1994 sets. Still, to a collector from the '90s, gold foil is gold foil, so my next task is to check the 1992s to see how far along I might already be.

1984 O-Pee-Chee #361 Mike Schmidt

On a 96-degree Sunday afternoon, one of my favorite things to do is to write up a blog post for you, my dear readers. Very often, there's a Rockies game being broadcast, and sitting in air-conditioned comfort while watching it is somewhat preferable to cooking like a broiled steak under the intense Colorado sun. It's quite the opposite extreme to the freezing wind tunnel that the ballpark can be on Opening Day.

As I write this, Rafael Devers of the Giants just hit his second home run of today's game, being broadcast on Peacock as part of "Star-Spangled Sunday". That one was "shot out of a cannon" and landed firmly in the upper deck at Coors Field. 463 feet according to Statcast.

It was a similar story on Opening Day this year against the Phillies. It was a day game, home runs were flying, and the only real difference was the temperature. But since it was the Phillies in town to open the 2026 season, family friend Roger saw fit to gift me a 1984 Mike Schmidt card, a power-hitting slugger who no doubt would have loved playing in Coors Field. He ended up with 548 career homers, and even after the steroid era, even after the shift to the focus on exit velocity and launch angle, he's still 16th on the all-time home run list.

I had "the Rockies were losing" as part of that previous paragraph, but they turned it around with Kyle Karros' 3-run shot in the 8th (yes, Eric's kid) to take the game and the series. As the sportswriters like to say, at Coors Field, leads are blown and then ledes are blown.

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that this is actually an O-Pee-Chee card, printed up with the same design as 1984 Topps but on slightly different card stock and with the requisite French translations on the card back.

2024 Topps Chrome Rookie Autographs #RA-CK Connor Kaiser (AU)

Our final card today was given to me by a Braves collector in my friend circle. He knows I'm a Rockies fan and set this autograph card aside for me. It's from the 2024 Topps Chrome set, picturing Connor Kaiser, who very briefly played for the Rockies in 2023. The Diamondbacks took a flyer on him in 2025, where he appeared in eleven games, but he only managed to eke out two hits during that time.

Kaiser is still playing at the Triple-A level in the Royals organization, but at the age of 29, it seems doubtful that it's going to happen for him. Wishing him the best, of course, and regardless, an on-card autograph of a Major League player is always cool.

I've become the guy who people come to for bird identification, but at least for a few people, I'm still the guy who can appreciate a baseball card, too. Whether it's a two-hit flash in the pan, or an all-time great legend, or anywhere in between, these all have a place in my collection.

The Trading Post #168: Roger

I can't even remember the last time I did an in-person trade. Most likely it was when I was in middle school. But I had the chance to rekindle that activity around the holidays this year. 

Roger is an old family friend that my girlfriend has known forever. He and his wife Beth joined me, my girlfriend, and her sister to watch a late-season Broncos game on TV, which was the last game or two of the 2021 regular season. I can't quite place the exact week even though this was merely two months ago, but I did take the opportunity to give Roger a few cards from my collection. Roger is an avid card collector and often shares his extensive collection (including lots of graded vintage) on his Facebook page. He's one of the very few people in my immediate circle that speaks the language of card collecting.

I knew I wanted to surprise him with some cards for the holidays, but as nice as it is to chat with someone who knows about baseball cards, that does mean it's a bit tricky to put together an appropriate trade. I can't just come bearing a stack of recent Topps commons; that would simply shift duplicates I have seven or eight copies of into his stack of what is also likely seven or eight copies.

What to do?

I settled on a half-dozen or so duplicates from the oversized 1994 Fleer Extra Bases set. I originally got them from Julie at A Cracked Bat, one of the most entertaining blogs in this whole community. I haven't seen a post from her since October, so I hope she's well.

In any case, I felt reasonably confident that my extras from Fleer Extra Bases would be new to Roger's collection, and he certainly seemed to enjoy them. Many of us longtime Colorado residents remember all those early Rockies. Burks, Girardi, etc..., although I may have stumped him with Mark Thompson.

A couple weeks later my girlfriend gave me a stack of cards that Roger found for me in return. He knows I'm a Rockies fan (we've all been to a game together), and these cards from did not disappoint. Current Rockies, past Rockies, and even some yet-to-be Rockies. And football, to match the occasion.

1993 Upper Deck #481 Marquis Grissom / Delino DeShields / Dennis Martínez / Larry Walker

1993 Upper Deck is one of the best sets to come out of the entire (first) overproduction era, and for good reason. This team card of the Montréal Expos shows four of the team's Big Stars ("Les Grandes Étoiles" in French on the card front), conveniently arranged according to height. From left to right, these players are Marquis Grissom, Delino DeShields, Dennis Martínez, and Larry Walker. Martínez is one of just a small handful of MLB players to hail from Nicaragua, and is also on the similarly short list of pitchers who have thrown a perfect game. None other than Marquis Grissom chased down the 27th out that afternoon in Los Angeles.

And of course Larry Walker is now a Hall-of-Famer. His #33 is retired in Coors Field, numerals that are prominently displayed on his attractive blue jersey. You can also see the 25th Anniversary patch the Expos wore in 1993. It's sad that they didn't make it to fifty, and that we didn't get to see how the 1994 Postseason would have played out. It's very possible that Larry Walker would have done better in Hall of Fame voting had he had the chance to display some heroics that year.

Here's hoping the 2022 season doesn't leave us with similar question marks.

1992 Stadium Club #256 Larry Walker

Here's another of a surprisingly acrobatic Larry Walker, this time a solo card from 1992 Stadium Club. This horizontal shot shows him in San Francisco's Candlestick Park, with Christy Mathewson's retired name banner in the background. Mathewson played in the days before uniform numbers, so just his name gets the special recognition. The Tigers gave Ty Cobb the same treatment on their wall of honor in left center at Comerica Park. 

Larry Walker would eventually have his number retired by a team that didn't exist when this photo was taken, during a ceremony that took place in a stadium that wasn't built yet.

1991 Topps #610 Andrés Galarraga

Few fans really think of this, but Andrés Galarraga and Larry Walker were teammates for three seasons on the Expos, long before they ever reached Blake Street Bomber status. Galarraga was even an All-Star in 1988, a fact I was surprised to learn when I thumbed through the All-Star subset in 1989 Topps at a young age. This posed shot makes for a great horizontal card, something we saw plenty of in 1991 Topps. 

I miss the Expos. I never had a chance to see them in person, at least not until they became the Washington Nationals. Maybe someday we'll have them back in some form, although it seems unrealistically hopeful to think about expansion when the current labor dispute appears to be quite serious.

1992 Topps Gold Winners #371 Dante Bichette

Moving on to a card that is new to my overall collection and not just a walk down memory lane, we come to former Brewer Dante Bichette. Like Galarraga, he was one of several players who had a rather unremarkable career going until he joined the Rockies. 

1992 marked the year Topps made the move away from traditional cardboard, as well as when they added their first photographs to the card back. Those photos showed a panorama of the team's home stadium, in this case County Stadium in Milwaukee. I ran across a photo on Reddit the other day showing Miller Park (now known as American Family Field) under construction right next to County Stadium, which you might enjoy seeing.

This is clearly a Topps Gold parallel, the first year of one of my all-time favorite parallel sets. Many of these were found as a one-per-pack parallel, but this particular card has a "Winner" stamp in the lower right. That's meant to differentiate it from a pack-pulled Gold card. Topps had a redemption program in place during 1992 where the reward was more Topps Gold cards, but unfortunately it was easily abused. Topps responded by including the Winner stamp on the redemption cards only, and they're generally more common than the normal Gold cards. This matches what I see in the ratio between the two types in my 1992 binder, but not dramatically so.

1991 Score #585 Joe Girardi

Early Score cards were known to have write-ups on the back that fell somewhere between pamphlets and novellas. Joe Girardi's 1991 Score card is no different, as it tells us all about how he became the starting catcher, his defensive and offensive accolades, how he beat up on the Giants in 1990, and that he blocks the plate well. The card front verifies that, as we can see an incoming Atlanta Brave baserunner (possibly Lonnie Smith) bearing down at motion-blurring speed.

We can also see a commemorative patch on Girardi's right sleeve, which is the All-Star game host patch the Cubbies wore during the 1990 season. 

1993 Upper Deck #706 Dale Murphy

Even casual fans likely know that all the above players once suited up for the Colorado Rockies. Maybe not Girardi; he's probably better known for his managerial career, but surely the rest. But not many know that Dale Murphy, one of the most well-loved Atlanta Braves players in history, was once a Rockie. It only lasted for 26 games in the early part of the 1993 season, but it really did happen. It was real enough for Murphy to make it into Series 2 of that magical 1993 Upper Deck set, and he even got a photo on the card back of him wearing that most desirable of '90s apparel, the Starter jacket.

1993 Donruss #357 Pat Mahomes

Pat Mahomes never joined the Rockies, but he was a journeyman through 2003. Presumably, Roger included him in this stack because of the football connection. NFL fans all over recognize Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City as one of the game's superstars, but few know his dad spent about a decade as an MLB pitcher. 

After all these years, it's pretty surprising how little 1993 Donruss I have in my collection. It's not tiny; I'd say six or so full pages front and back, but for a major brand's base set from the first year I collected, it's positively scarce. I'm pleased to add this one to my collection. I would have preferred a better-exposed photograph, but Donruss was not great at that for a number of years.

2020 Donruss Retro '86 Signatures Red #84 Peter Lambert /99 (AU)

Roger gave me one card of a current Rockie, which is right-handed pitcher Peter Lambert. This one from 2020 Donruss is a parallel based on the 1986 Donruss set, and it includes a /99 serial number as well as a sticker autograph. The purple uniform, the dazzling red design, and the Coors Field forest almost made me forget the lack of MLB logos. It's a well-done card of a young player we all hope will turn into a solid member of the rotation.

Lambert did get a couple games in as a late-season call-up at the end of 2021, but he hasn't had much of a chance to make an impression on Rockies fans yet. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2020, so hopefully 2022 will be a positive and injury-free season for him. Once the season starts, that is. We've blown well past the time when pitchers and catchers would have reported to Spring Training, with no real end in sight.

I'm not sure why there's a disconnect between the card number according to Beckett compared to the card back. This has "86S-PL" on the card back, so I don't know where #84 came from.

1977 Topps Football #100 O.J. Simpson AP

Finally, digging back into the archives that's more consistent with Roger's overall collection (at least with what he chooses to showcase on his Facebook page), here's O.J. Simpson's 1977 Topps football card, printed long before his second, much sadder, period of life.

I'm far from an expert on football cards, but I have learned that the annual Topps football releases used different designs than the familiar baseball sets. I can't be confident that's true for every year, but 1977 Topps baseball didn't look quite like this. Regardless, Topps didn't stray far from their signature ribbons and chevrons when choosing design elements. 

One of those banners on the top lists Simpson as a 1976 All-Pro, the NFL equivalent of an All-Star. There's also a little football graphic in the lower left noting that O.J. reached the 1,000-yard mark as a running back during the prior season. In fact, he made it well past that, with 1,503. Flipping the card over, we discover that he actually cracked the 2,000 yard mark once, which happened in 1973. 1,000 in a season is, you know, nice. Respectable. Maybe roughly equivalent to a 100-RBI baseball season. Not Hall-of-Fame material unless you string a ton of them together, but certainly enough to make you one of the most productive players on your team.

2,000 yards, on the other hand, is a different level. O.J. Simpson was the first to do it, and only seven others have done so since. Terrell Davis just got past that mark in the 1998 season, which is the same year the Broncos won their second Super Bowl. Some other names on that list are Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders, and Adrian Peterson. Truly some of the greats.

I'll have to keep an eye out for more cards that Roger would like. This was a good trade, full of familiarity and also of surprises.

Gold Medal Club (Part 2: Inserts)

I wouldn't have to split my posts up into multiple parts if Topps didn't pack their blasters so full of blog-worthy cards.

Or if I didn't find myself writing at least 1,500 words every time I put a stack of cards together.

Either way, Stadium Club kept me interested for another year with fun inserts, new and old.

2021 Stadium Club Greats #SCG-23 Roger Clemens

If you dig out your old 1991 Stadium Club box, you'll find a card of Roger Clemens that looks nearly identical to this. The photo on this Stadium Club Greats insert is the same as on the 1991 original. The only difference you'll find is gold foil instead of silver, although it's less likely to be centered quite as well. That was a common issue with early TSC, the foil not lining up all that well with the rest of the design elements. This is a sample size of one, but it appears that they've made great strides in that department over the past thirty years.

Thirty years, yes, that's how long it's been since Stadium Club first hit the shelves. It's been on-again off-again since then, but I continue to enjoy its renaissance.

This isn't a straight reprint, as the card back has an entirely new theme. Instead of the green back with the so-called BARS System and a little image of the player's first Topps card, we get a lengthy write-up of the Red Sox portion of Clemens's career. It mentions three Cy Young awards, four times he led the league in ERA, and his massive career strikeout total that has him in third place behind only Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson. It skips over additional awards earned during rest of his career with the Blue Jays, Yankees, and Astros, and makes no mention of his lengthy campaign to get into the Hall of Fame.

2021 Stadium Club Virtual Reality #VR-7 Ronald Acuña Jr.

For the 1995 set, Topps debuted a partial parallel set called Virtual Reality. It attempted to project the final full-season stats for 1994, which was cut short by the infamous strike. Sadly, the current state of the world gave Topps an opportunity to trot this theme out one more time, although that's one aspect of Stadium Club I would have preferred to never see again.

According to the Topps prognosticator, if the 2020 season hadn't been pandemic-shortened, Acuña would have finished with 124 runs scored, 38 homers, and a .250 average. His actual numbers during the 60-game season were 46 runs, 14 homers, and still a .250 average.

By running a bit of math, it appears that Topps really didn't forecast anything beyond multiplying his actual stats by 2.7, which is simply the rate of how much longer a full season would have been than the shortened season. There was no factoring in a hot spring, a late-season surge, a midsummer slump, or the actual difficulty of schedule the Braves would have faced if they played the rest of the divisions. It's an interesting exercise, but take these numbers with a grain of salt.

1995 Stadium Club Virtual Reality #94 Joe Girardi

The 1995 Virtual Reality set didn't take things quite so linearly. In looking at the back of Joe Girardi's '95 VR card, Topps had some faith that Girardi would bump up his average with a "late-season rush", and would put together a nice four-game hitting streak in an alternate-universe Labor Day weekend of September 1994. Which, as we know, is quite typical of how Rockies seasons go.

They also thought Barry Bonds would tie Roger Maris's single-season home run record of 61. Clearly they put some thought into this project back in the mid-'90s rather than just put =[cell]*2.7 into a spreadsheet and filled down.

2021 Stadium Club Sepia #43 Evan White (RC)

My haul of colored parallels was right in line with stated pack odds. I felt like I got a nice mixture of what was on offer, starting with Evan White's rookie card in Sepia form. The young first baseman already has a Gold Glove to his name, but his promising career is on hold for right now while he recovers from hip surgery.

2021 Stadium Club Black Foil #183 Joc Pederson

Back to the world of full color, here's Joc Pederson pictured (very briefly) as a Chicago Cub. Pederson only spent the first half of the 2021 season in the Windy City before becoming an early casualty of the Cubs rebuilding program. He was traded to the Braves in mid-July, shortly before most of his more well-known teammates were sent elsewhere.

The first game Pederson played as a Brave was against the Tampa Bay Rays, but that was a home game. He never played the Rays as a Cub, so I'd guess that this shot of him with a Mike Zunino cameo was actually taken during the 2020 World Series when he was still a Dodger, then given the Photoshop treatment.

This card is one of the Black Foil parallels, which is somehow even less shiny than you'd expect.

2021 Stadium Club Red Foil #38 Cal Ripken. Jr.

The Red Foil is much more striking, and is reminiscent of early Stadium Club sets like 1994. Of course, both Cal Ripken, Jr. and cameo player Wade Boggs were in that set, and between the two, we're looking at two Hall of Fame plaques, thirty-one All-Star appearances, sixteen Silver Sluggers, and more. Add to that a Rookie of the Year award for Boggs, and two MVP awards for Ripken, which is mentioned on the card back.

2021 Stadium Club Red Foil #77 Jesús Sánchez (RC)

Jesús Sánchez is clearly amazed by those accolades.

2021 Stadium Club Autographs #SCBA-JM Julian Merryweather (AU) (RC)

I was lucky enough to pull an autograph in this blaster, an on-card signature of Toronto Blue Jays rookie Julian Merryweather. He's appeared in twelve Big League games thus far, but has been recovering from an oblique strain for most of this year. When he does return, he'll pitch in Toronto for the first time. His home games thus far have only been played at his team's temporary homes in Buffalo and Dunedin, FL.

He's on the older side for a rookie, as he'll be turning 30 in just a couple months.

2021 Stadium Club Oversized Master Photos #OBPDG Deivi García

Concluding this 2021 Stadium Club blaster is the first card I found in it, the Master Photo box topper. It has unusual dimensions of 3 3/8" x 3 3/4", and is significantly smaller than past Master Photos I've seen from older Stadium Club sets. Compared to that, I'm unsure what makes this "Oversized".

I don't know much about Deivi García, who is probably the least well-known name in the entire collection of Master Photos, but it is nice to see an unfamiliar player on the 1993 Stadium Club design. There isn't much to be found on the back. It's mostly white like an old photo print. One of the corners is a little dinged, and there's also a little damage on the back of Sánchez's card. I escaped the worst of it, but I definitely heard some tales of woe regarding quality control of this beautiful set. I'm sure this not-quite-square thing would have gotten damaged eventually wherever I found a place to store it, but it's concerning.

I'm continuing to keep an eye on Target's website for Topps product, and it's actually somewhat consistently available. You have to be quick, but not as quick as when flippers were running rampant in the card aisle. They have A&G, Gypsy Queen, and Series 2 blasters available as I write this, so act fast if you want some!

And keep your fingers crossed for good quality control.

The Trading Post #129: A Cracked Bat

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

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

2001 Topps Archives Reserve #20 Dom DiMaggio '52

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

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

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

2002 Topps Archives Reserve #42 Roy Campanella '53

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

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

1996 Metal Universe #86 Joe Girardi

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

And somehow, we just accept this.

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

2000 Metal Emerald #245 Juan Sosa PROS

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

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

2018 Topps Chrome Update #HMT95 Trevor Story

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

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

2015 Topps Update Chrome #US170 Mike Foltynewicz (RC)

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

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

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

2016 Stadium Club ISOmetrics Gold #I-20 Dee Gordon

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

1994 Stadium Club Dugout Dirt #12 Darren Daulton

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

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

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

I like the front better.

1994 Ultra Award Winners #10 Kirt Manwaring

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

1992 Leaf Black Gold #208 Kirt Manwaring

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

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

1996 Topps Laser #115 Kevin Brown

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

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

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

#Walletcard Amongst the Greats

Well, I did it again. I waited until the last weekend of the month to write a post. That's how it's gone since May, which, perhaps not coincidentally, was the same month as a major change at work. I haven't taken any big trips this month, but I have seen four games at Coors Field in July, including a win against the Oakland Athletics yesterday for Star Wars Night. Another mark in the Win column, and I left with a souvenir Chewbacca beer koozie.

More news from the baseball front includes a visit to the Play Ball! exhibit at History Colorado Center, a showcase of the best of the Marshall Fogel Collection. On display were jerseys, gloves, hats, and more from the most memorable Hall-of-Famers from Babe Ruth to Sandy Koufax. Nearby, there was a large clear plastic case filled with about fifty bats spanning the history of Major League Baseball, all the way from Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker, up to Ichiro and Ken Griffey, Jr. Off to the side was a small case with memorabilia of some of baseball's more infamous figures: Joe Jackson, Pete Rose, and Mark McGwire. And, since this is Denver, plenty of Rockies memorabilia, such as a ticket stub from the first-ever Rockies game on April 5th, 1993 at Shea Stadium, three bottles of champagne and a ring from the Rockies' historic 2007 playoff run on loan from pitcher Jason Hirsh, and signed jerseys from current All-Stars Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon.

Don't think for a moment that there were no cards. There were. One item was a box (likely empty) of 1954 Bowman, a gumball vending machine that also once distributed 1956 Topps cards for a penny, and a serious highlight that was on display for only three days during the All-Star Break, a PSA 10 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, estimated to be worth $10 million. My visit was a day too early to see that (it was there between a Monday and a Wednesday, and I had All-Star Game parties to host), but there was plenty of news coverage about it in the Denver area.

Finally, as you might have gathered from the post title, my Wallet Card had a chance to come out and play with the greats, occupying a small space in a 1975 Topps frame, one of those wooden platforms you could pose behind.

Visiting the Play Ball exhibit at @historycolorado with my #walletcard. Spot it inside the 1975 Topps frame. #baseball #museum

A post shared by AdamK (@adamk0310) on Jul 15, 2018 at 12:00pm PDT

If you happen to find yourself in Denver before the MLB season wraps up, be sure to check it out. I've never been to Cooperstown, but I assume this exhibit offers a small taste of the full experience.

Also, now that the Wallet Card has some serious travels under its belt, I decided to give it its very own blog tab. Because travel seems to be way more fun when you can look back on the good parts.

The Travels of Adam

In the four and a half years since I started this blog, I haven't missed a month. Here it is June 30th, and this is my first post in the month of June, just barely keeping my streak intact. I have barely kept up with the Cardsphere since late April, and I'm sure I've missed quite a bit.

I did see Nick mention yesterday that Bob Walk The Plank is calling it quits, which hits particularly close to home for me, since that particular Pirates blogger and I started right around the same time, in January 2014. He's done zillions more posts than I have, but it's always tough to see another blog decide to cease operations. Despite my relative absence around here lately, I still intend to keep this blog going. I like writing; in fact hardly anything puts me in a state of "flow" more than this. Unfortunately, "baseball card blogger" isn't a job title that will pay the bills, as much as I'd like to live in that world.

Yet despite all its frustrations, my day job affords me the opportunities and the resources to see a bit of the world. Come along for the ride and I'll tell you what I've been up to the past couple of months while ignoring my blogger feed.

As I mentioned last month, I took a trip to London, England in early May. It was a great trip, and I saw some sights I'd wanted to see for quite some time, and also flew on a Boeing 747 for the first time, which was one of the reasons I took the trip in the first place. By now, I mainly recall the fond memories like world-class art museums, awesome corner pubs, tons of history, beautiful parks, outdoor food markets, cheddar & onion crisps, contactless payments nearly everywhere, usable public transit, and lots more. The general travel annoyances of jet lag, walking so far my legs and feet hurt, and generally being sandwiched in like a sardine in the Tube and in Economy class on said 747 are slipping out of mind.

However, one less forgettable issue I encountered within about five minutes of venturing out into the city was losing my wallet somewhere near Victoria Station. Once I stopped kicking myself, ordering replacement cards and ID online was a cinch, which were all waiting for me when I got back stateside. Mercifully, I had the foresight to squirrel away another credit card, my Oyster transit card, and a couple banknotes in a separate wallet that became my lifeline, and is part of the reason I discovered the prevalence of contactless payments in the UK.

£120 evaporated into thin air, which is a bummer, but I'd say the biggest loss of all was probably my Wallet Card. It was a 1994 Topps Gold Joe Girardi, and it had been all over the place, including Vienna, Sacramento, and of course my home city of Denver. Interestingly, that particular card was sent by The Card Papoy, who mans the French outpost of the Cardsphere. I guess that Girardi card really wanted to be near the 0° longitude line (which I saw while visiting Greenwich).

1994 Topps #372 Joe Girardi

Fortunately, my girlfriend recognized my plight, and gave me a replacement just a few weeks ago. There's Mr. Girardi in his inaugural-season Rockies gear in Mile High Stadium, pictured on the 1994 Topps design. Longtime readers will recognize that as the first factory set I ever purchased, so this card has a lot of meaning to me, gold or not.

That explains a week or so in May, but that still leaves June. Well, work has been crazy the past couple months, but they believe I'm enough of a top performer to award me with a second President's Club award. The first award took me to Vienna, and this time I was headed to Orlando, Florida in mid-June. I happen to have friends and family in central Florida, so I extended the trip a few days before the company event started.

The first time I visited Florida in 2013, I was there for an old friend's wedding. She still lives there, and I got to meet her four-year old daughter. The next day, we went to Acme Superstore, which is first and foremost a comic book store, but also has aisles upon aisles of pop culture memorabilia. Star Wars, Mario, Hot Wheels, you name it. There were a few baseball cards, including a 1962 Topps Gaylord Perry rookie card, but I didn't pull the trigger on it.

1999 Pokemon Fossil Unlimited #52 Omanyte C

One thing I did get for myself was this Pokémon card, the first one in my collection. Like many people in the summer of 2016, I played Pokémon Go, a great opportunity to get out and about and explore my local parks. This little critter Omanyte, which is based on the extinct ammonite (a sort of nautilus squid thing), inexplicably became my favorite little Pokémon. I set it as my "buddy" when they added that feature to the app, and couldn't pass this card up when I ran across it.

After visiting friends and family, the four-night company event began in Lake Buena Vista. Similar to the Vienna trip, there were various daily activities to choose from, concluding with a dinner each night. It all went pretty well, other than flipping my kayak over in a creek following an inadvertent collision. One evening took us to dinner at a Universal Studios soundstage, followed by a rather empty theme park to explore. I have a lot of friends and family who are into Harry Potter, so naturally my guest and I spent some time in Diagon Alley.

Harry Potter Chocolate Frog Cards Gilderoy Lockhart (s17)

One can't go to Diagon Alley without getting a chocolate frog, and inside those chocolate frog boxes you'll find a pentagon-shaped lenticular card like the above. In addition to a pretty decent 5 oz. chunk of solid chocolate, I pulled Gilderoy Lockhart's card, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, portrayed in the film by Kenneth Branagh.

It's hard to find a complete list of these, but I think there are only seven or eight to be found at the Universal parks. This isn't something that Beckett has cataloged yet, and it'll be tricky to find a spot to store it. There's a little "s17" in the corner, which may refer to its release year.

So that's why I haven't been around much. "Work Hard, Play Hard" has definitely been the name of the game lately. That doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging, and has put me even further behind on trade posts from Nachos Grande, A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts, blog reader Chris, and my annual Opening Day blaster. The year's flying by (in fact the baseball season just hit the halfway point), but I'm still around.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Blog Bat Around: The All-Autograph Rockies

I haven't participated in every Blog Bat Around (I didn't touch the 30-day challenge, for example), but about two months after my What I Collect post, I'm keeping the trend going with Zippy Zappy's latest topic, the All-Autograph team.

I'm not a huge autograph collector, and I've never played the TTM game like William R so often does. But I did manage to scrape together enough autographs to put a fantasy team together, although you're not going to see as many Rockies stars as you might expect.

SP: Jason Jennings

1999 Topps Traded Autographs #T70 Jason Jennings (AU)

Autographed cards are usually enough of a highlight for me to include them in a trade post. So not only will you be seeing some repeats, I'll probably be able to thank the original senders all over again. This particular example came from Julie of A Cracked Bat, way back on #2 in The Trading Post series. It's easier to just scan it again than to dig within Google Photos for the original, plus I changed my scanning defaults a while back to make images look less contrasty and more realistic.

I keep my autographs, relics, and low serial numbers in toploaders in a two-row box, so I didn't have to dig too deep to start filling out my roster. I doubt this would have sold for $60,000 $75,000 when new, which is the offer for one of Shohei Ohtani's Bowman cards. That would be a lofty valuation for anyone else, even for the only Rockie to win the Rookie of the Year award.

RP #1: Darren Holmes

1994 Topps #562 Darren Holmes (AU)

Out of the bullpen is Darren Holmes, currently the bullpen coach for Colorado. Holmes earned 46 saves during his career as a Rockie, including 25 in their inaugural year. You'll notice that this isn't a Topps Certified Autograph, but it is an Adam Certified Autograph. Mr. Holmes himself signed this card for me in the 1994-1995 offseason, part of a family outing we took to the defunct Northglenn Mall near Denver for an autograph signing.

I mentioned this story a few months ago as part of another trade post from Julie, and I still remember it quite vividly. I remember my dad asking him about the Strike as he signed a couple cards, two 8x10s, a ball, and my hat. Perhaps I was a bit greedy with that haul, but I was also just 10 and he was the first big-league ballplayer I ever met in person.

I have few autographs, and even fewer that I obtained in person. I'll try to use most of them in this post, but my autograph collection doesn't hold a candle to Paul's, one of my buddies from the local card show, who is perpetually getting stuff signed at every opportunity.

RP #2: Rex Brothers

2014 Topps Update Trajectory Autographs #TA-RB Rex Brothers (AU)

Now, more than ever, relief pitchers are a key part of the game. The Complete Game has vanished from baseball even more than the stolen base, so relievers are getting more and more playing time, and managers are getting more and more steps in. The rules of this BBA topic call for a second relief pitcher, so this Rex Brothers sticker autograph is making its second appearance on Infield Fly Rule, courtesy of Matt at Bob Walk The Plank, whose blog was born just a couple weeks after mine.

Rex Brothers was a Rockie for five seasons, but didn't play in 2016. He's been a Brave for the past two years, and as of this writing, has the dreaded "infinite" ERA, one earned run allowed without retiring a batter. One's ERA tends to drop after leaving Coors Field, but the brand-new SunTrust Park has not been friendly to Brothers.

The rules also call for a closer, but I'm tapped out of relief pitcher autographs. Holmes and Brothers will have to get the final outs.

C: Joe Girardi

1994 Leaf Limited #103 Joe Girardi (AU)

Julie recently sent me a non-autographed version of Joe Girardi's 1994 Leaf Limited card, which I showed on that same trade post as Darren Holmes. But here's the real deal, the card that the former Yankees skipper signed in Boulder at the Rockies Dugout Store for me, while sitting next to Eric Young. I believe they just limited you to two items, so I didn't get every bit of memorabilia signed like I did with Darren Holmes. In fact, I recall being pretty far back in line when they announced the closure of the session, and my dad rapidly shepherded my sister and I to the front of the line where he signed this Leaf card and a 5x7. I congratulated him on his previous-night's home run, he did a quick radio interview, and then he was off to Denver for another night game.

I listened to a lot of games on the radio, and I remember hearing about this signing far in advance. I thought it would be a little secret, but the night before, right during the first few innings of the telecast, they announced it to the whole TV audience and the secret was out. I still lucked out, and got an extremely legible signature on the shiniest Girardi card I could find.

1B: Jordan Pacheco

2012 Topps Chrome Rookie Autographs Refractors #161 Jordan Pacheco /499 (AU)

You probably expected to see Todd Helton here. Well, I don't have a Todd Helton autograph, so utilityman Jordan Pacheco gets the first base slot. He also spent some time catching, and is currently in the Twins farm system. Thanks to Brad, of Brad's Blog, I have a shiny refractor to bat for the team. I would have selected the "base version" of this card otherwise, but right behind it in the box is this one, and you can see both copies on a long ago trade post.

I prefer the actual autograph from the base card, but this one gets the nod thanks to its serial number and refractor finish.

2B: DJ LeMahieu

2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Autographs #GQA-DL DJ LeMahieu (AU)

Significantly (infinitely?) less shiny is a DJ LeMahieu auto from 2013 Gypsy Queen, sent by Keith of The Home Run Apple. DJ just hit the disabled list to open the Rockies' series at Wrigley Field, so Pat Valaika is starting in his place.

I have a special appreciation for second basemen, since it's where I played in little league, at least when I wasn't out in right field. The rule in my league was that each kid had to play an infield position at least two innings a game, and I didn't quite have the arm strength to play at the hot corner, at least not until the occasional middle school gym class when I had a bit more experience than my fellow students.

It's nice to see that all the blogs I've looked back on so far are still active participants in the Cardsphere, even if I only traded once with some.

3B: Vinny Castilla

2015 Topps Tier One Acclaimed Autographs #AA-VC Vinny Castilla /399 (AU)

I'd like to be able to slot Nolan Arenado in here, but I haven't had the chance to find one yet. Instead, one of the original Blake Street Bombers will make an appearance, showing up on a thick premium card from Topps Tier One. This one came from Bob Walk The Plank again, whose trade packages are dominated by cards like these. It's a gorgeous card, with an on-card autograph, light-colored gold foil, and a nice shot of Castilla in his home uniform, wearing the uniform number that DJ LeMahieu would eventually wear.

This is the ammunition the big boys are using in their trades, as we can see in the regular volleys between Matt and his trading arch-nemesis Wes.

I'll let them dig themselves into their respective trenches, and enjoy the gold-colored shrapnel that ends up landing near me.

SS: Brendan Rodgers

2015 Bowman's Best Best of '15 Autographs #B15-BR Brendan Rodgers (AU)

Speaking of Wes, he sent me an on-card autograph of his own in The Trading Post #66 before he renamed his blog. Top prospect Brendan Rodgers got a shiny, simple, yet bold design in this Bowman's Best autograph set, and that giant star is repeated on the back, congratulating me for receiving an autograph of Brendan Rodgers. Rodgers has yet to receive the call to the big leagues, but he may end up taking over at second base if the Rockies decide not to pursue DJ LeMahieu in free agency.

Even on my blog, Matt and Wes are battling for trade supremacy. There's no hiding from it.

LF: Matt Holliday

2007 Topps Highlights Autographs #HA-MH Matt Holliday (AU)

Some players start hot, others finish hot. Joey Votto took a few weeks to wake up this season, but the Braves' Ozzie Albies has been making a mark for himself very quickly. The Rockies have always performed similarly, starting off the season strong, usually finishing up strong, but that often bookends a subpar summer. Matt Holliday leaned more toward late-season strength, as this 2007 highlights card tells us. His September of 2006 found him batting in 34 runs, slightly up from 32 the years before and after. Yes, Matt Holliday helped the Rockies out plenty in their historic 2007 playoff run, making up for the fact that he was a not-so-great left fielder (or plate-toucher, if you're a Padres fan).

This black-bordered set looks a little cleaner to me than the base cards, without the filmstrip squares on each corner. The silver banner at the bottom gives it a bold look, and reminds me of the 1979 Topps set.

This one's also from Bob Walk The Plank, by the way.

CF: Charlie Blackmon

2014 Stadium Club Autographs #SCA-CBL Charlie Blackmon (AU)

Charlie Blackmon has spent many years patrolling the enormous center field at Coors Field, and he'll be around for a good while longer, thanks to a recent contract extension. We have another repeat trader, this time A Cracked Bat once again, and from the now-legendary resurgence of 2014 Stadium Club.

Not bad for a Coors Field card. And unlike 2007 Topps, Stadium Club is premium enough to give collectors an on-card autograph. The beard has grown to wizardly lengths by now, but several years ago it was just a beard.

RF: Dante Bichette

1995 Leaf #135 Dante Bichette (AU)

This card that's clearly from Wrigley Field is especially appropriate, as the Rockies are in the midst of their annual trip to the Windy City. Rookie Noel Cuevas started in right field this evening, but that space was once occupied by Dante Bichette, a card sent my way by Jeff of Wish They Still Came With Bubblegum.

Dante used all of this borderless card to sign his John Hancock in a thick blue Sharpie, without detracting from the rainbow foil on the left that's used for the team name.

I wonder how often players are surprised by the cards they sign. It's one thing if Topps prints up a set specifically for them to sign, but with all the inserts and parallels out there, surely they can't know about every card with their likeness.

Well, maybe Pat Neshek does.

Bench: Eric Young, Jr.

2010 Topps Chrome Rookie Autographs #171 Eric Young Jr. (AU)

Just like his dad, who was sitting right next to Joe Girardi when that Leaf card was inked, Eric Young, Jr. signed a few cards himself. He has a small but legible signature, and he added a little flair with a "3" next to it, his uniform number at the time.

I need a bench player, and since LeMahieu will be missing a few games, it's just as well that E.Y. can come to the rescue. He's more of an outfielder, and is listed as such on this card, but he did play second base on occasion.

I couldn't find a post with this card, so it may have come from a card show. But if you sent it to me, thank you. I've enjoyed looking back at all these trade posts, and it's nice to see that everyone is still putting posts out into the world. These Blog Bat Arounds are a great idea, and I have lots of fun mixing things up a bit from the usual subject matter (i.e. all the awesome trades).

But something's missing.

To properly cheer on a team like this, you need a mascot.

Mascot: Dinger

1995 Rockies Promo #NNO Dinger (AU)

Love him or hate him, Dinger has been a fixture at Rockies home games ever since their second home opener on April 16th, 1994, a date noted on this card as when he "hatched". There was a giant dinosaur egg and everything.

You'll notice that he's a left-handed hitter, liked to wear his hat backwards in the style of Ken Griffey, Jr., and his uniform number used to be #94, the year of his hatching. Dinger wears #00 now, not to be confused with #0, Adam Ottavino.

He signed this card (one each for me and my sister) while we were waiting in line for that Girardi/Young signing back in 1995, which has a border representing the green girders that are so noticeable in Coors Field's construction.

I'm not sure if this post will make me more of an autograph collector, and I'm a little surprised that I managed to fill an entire roster, though I did have to reach in a couple spots. This was a good topic, and the Blog Bat Arounds make me feel like I'm part of this community more than just about anything else.