Joel Kaningher (1947-2023)

My dad passed away earlier this year.

It happened just a few weeks after I penned this post about four new cards I found for my collection amongst the belongings he left behind here in Colorado. It has been a difficult several months to say the least, and is certainly part of why you haven't seen me write anything since then. 

In mid-March, I flew down to Florida to settle his estate. My sister had already planned a trip down there to visit him, so I just tagged along on what we all expected would be a different kind of vacation. An old friend of mine who lives nearby helped me clean out his office and bedroom, and I flew back to Colorado a few days later with a few of his prized possessions. Watches, books, photo albums, things like that. A few fountain pens, which has turned into quite the little addiction, let me tell you.

And yes, baseball cards.

It wasn't much. His card collection from when he was a boy was long gone before I was even born. And most of the few hundred cards he kept from my duplicates box stayed behind in Colorado. But I did find three or four pages of his favorites from recent years.

2010 Yankees Topps 27 World Championships #YC2 Lou Gehrig

Over half of the cards I found came from this complete 27-card set that Topps released in 2010, documenting each of the 27 World Series the Yankees have won in their illustrious history. I remember giving this set to him as a gift, probably for Father's Day. I'm glad he liked it so much that he kept it nearby all this time.

Lou Gehrig was before Dad's time, as was much of the team's success that began with Babe Ruth. The Iron Horse also predated Topps itself, so for all the 1920s, '30s, and '40s guys, Topps simply added their photos to the 1952 design. Later on in the set they did true reprints of actual Topps cards, which you'll see later.

DiMaggio is actually not in this set, surely a rights issue that Topps couldn't resolve.

2010 Yankees Topps 27 World Championships #YC15 Mickey Mantle

But Mickey Mantle is. Three times, actually. 

A reprint of Mantle's mythical 1952 Topps rookie card is #15 in this checklist, already over halfway through the set before The Commerce Comet even makes an appearance. 

Even a casual collector knows this card front very well. But this particular reprint set is a bit different. The back is a dark blue with pinstripes, and it contains a decently long paragraph describing the Series (more or less like the lenticular mini cards found in 1991 Score), along with the overall World Series outcome, and the special championship logo unique to that year.

The 1952 World Series went the distance, with the Bronx Bombers taking the full seven games to defeat their crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. My dad was actually born in Brooklyn, but moved to Queens as a child, a decade or so before the Mets came into existence.

It should be obvious by now that my dad was a Yankees fan, through and through. And none other than The Mick was his favorite player.

2010 Yankees Topps 27 World Championships #YC19 Roger Maris

He spoke fondly of Roger Maris, too. Dad would have been fourteen years old during the home run chase of 1961, exactly as old as I was when McGwire and Sosa had their own chase in 1998. I think he felt bad for Maris when remembering how much the media pressure got to him when he hit 61 in '61.

The Yankees did win the World Series that year, a year after their heartbreaking loss to Pittsburgh at the hands of Bill Mazeroski. Topps reprinted Maris's 1961 card, and noted on the card back that the new home run champion hit a World Series home run in Game 3 against the Reds.

2010 Yankees Topps 27 World Championships #YC24 Derek Jeter

I don't think Dad really followed the Yankees that much in the 1970s or '80s, although I did find a picture of him wearing the classic "NY" hat circa 1983. But when the dynasty re-established itself in the late 1990s, he and I were both excited to watch it. Derek Jeter was of course a huge part of that, reprinted here on his 1998 card. It's not quite a perfect reprint, but the only major difference is that the foil is silver instead of gold.

2002 New York Yankees Pocket Schedule

He took my sister and I to Maine and New York City for a vacation in 2002, and he picked up this Yankees pocket schedule somewhere during that trip. One of these games in mid-June says the Yankees played in Colorado. June 19th, to be exact. He splurged on two Club Level tickets for that game, and we got to see the Yankees rout the Rockies in a 20-10 victory. Until last Saturday, that was the most runs I had ever seen an opposing team score against the Rockies.

You'll notice the schedule documents 26 World Championships. The 27th was in 2009, and coincidentally my dad and I went to see them play in Anaheim that year. He lived all over the country, and telling his story through a few baseball games barely scratches the surface of who he was. But, as Terence Mann says in Field of Dreams, baseball marks the time.

2016 Topps #93 Charlie Blackmon

The rest of the cards I found were more stowaways from my duplicates box, like this 2016 base card of Charlie Blackmon. Dad retired to Florida in early 2016, so I'm not quite sure how he got this card. I don't remember mailing it to him, but maybe it was a duplicate I gave him from my very first pack or two of 2016 Topps Series 1. If that's what it was, he moved to Florida very soon after.

In any case, he enjoyed the local teams here, and we watched plenty of Rockies games both on TV and in person together. He knew how much of a baseball fan he raised. He taught me how to keep score, he (and my mom) drove me to little league games and practices, they bought me cards for holidays and birthdays, they took me and my sister to the ballpark.

I remember he got home from work early one summer afternoon, and he said, "I drove by Mile High Stadium on the way home and the seats were starting to fill up. There's probably a game on." And I immediately turned on the stereo to find that he was right. And surely, surely he knew that I stayed up past my bedtime listening to the Rockies on my little clock radio.

2014 Stadium Club #17 Michael Cuddyer

After all he gave me, I'm glad I at least got to share my love of Stadium Club with him. He picked this one out, and while he was never a Rockies die-hard like me, he knew a good card when he saw it.

I noticed the 20th Anniversary patch on Michael Cuddyer's sleeve on this 2014 Stadium Club card, the year the brand returned from a long hiatus. And this year the Rockies are wearing a 30th Anniversary patch. 

Which means that memory I have of turning on the radio is either 29 or 30 years old. Not sure how I feel about that.

2015 Topps First Pitch #FP-01 Jeff Bridges

Dad picked out a fun card or two, such as this well-liked First Pitch insert card of Jeff Bridges. Along with baseball, my dad liked movies. And chess, and physics, and cooking, and a thousand other topics. But during those years when our interest in baseball waned a little bit, he introduced me to plenty of movies. Blade Runner, Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, other movies with and without Dustin Hoffman. Later in his life, he just enjoyed watching his favorites over and over again. Charlie Wilson's War was a particular favorite of his, and I think I remember him mentioning Crazy Heart, which would explain why he liked this Jeff Bridges card.

1993 Yankees Team Stadium Club #5 Wade Boggs

But it always came back to the Yankees. That was his team no matter what. I asked him once who he would root for if it ever came down to Rockies vs. Yankees in the World Series. Without much hesitation, he told me the Yankees. I like them too, thanks to him, but I'd have to say the opposite. Mainly I grew to like New York because I wanted a horse in the race when the Postseason came around, and the Rockies, as we all know, are usually wrapped up by the end of September.

Losing 25-1 like they did on Saturday doesn't bode well for this year, either.

But those pinstripes are timeless, and they look good on this Wade Boggs Team Stadium Club card.

2011 Topps Lost Cards #60YOTLC-6 Whitey Ford

It's sad that 2009 was the last Yankees championship Dad got to see. But being alive for seventeen of them is pretty cool. He was still keeping an eye on them in these Aaron Judge years, and I think he would have liked Joe Posnanski's recent feature in Esquire about the new Captain of the Yankees.

I'm wrapping up with this insert card of Whitey Ford, from "The Lost Cards" Topps insert set. Due to rights issues, Ford was never actually in the 1955 set, but this is what it would have looked like.

Whitey Ford, it so happens, is one of the later Yankees connections I had to my dad. During that awful year of 2020, Whitey Ford was one of the many Hall of Famers we lost. I talked to my dad not long after that, asking about more of his old baseball memories. The main thing I remember was him repeatedly using Ford's nickname, "The Chairman of the Board", and I'm sure he saw him pitch at the old Yankee Stadium. 

Dad went to many Yankees games when he was young (somehow nearly always against the White Sox, he told me), and he idolized Mickey Mantle. I can't imagine how special it must have been for him to watch such a legendary superstar play just up the street. It's sad though, because we all know how much knee pain Mantle endured during his career, how "it about killed him", my dad said, when Mantle finished with a .298 lifetime batting average, how even though he's undoubtedly one of the greatest of all time, the knee injury The Mick suffered as a rookie made his career a what-if.

And my dad watched his childhood hero go through that, and the aftermath. I hardly ever saw him upset or bothered by anything he saw in the news, especially over something as inevitable as a celebrity death. But one of the few times I saw him shaken up was in 1995, when the newspaper came one morning and he learned of Mickey Mantle's death. It got to him.

I'll never know what it was really like to watch Mickey Mantle play, but I think at least maybe a little of how much time and effort my dad put into cultivating a love of baseball in his only son was to try to share some of that magic that he (and my grandfather) got to witness all those decades ago in the Bronx.

Thanks, Dad.

The Trading Post #118: Nachos Grande

Shipments from Chris at Nachos Grande have been a common fixture in my mailbox so far in 2018. Here's another, and there's still one more yet to come. The prolific blogger has had his Trade Stack theme going on for many years, and I finally managed to claim one.

To claim his Trade Stack #88, I mailed a few 2018 Topps cards sent to me by Peter at Baseball Every Night, plus a couple more from 2017 Topps Archives that probably came my way in one of Chris' own group breaks. As I wrote in my note, the cards came full circle. Chris, who is much more on top of his blog than I am, already posted a month ago about what Trade Stack #88 earned him in return.

2014 Topps Heritage #2 Michael Cuddyer / Chris Johnson / Freddie Freeman

Trade Stack #88 was mostly retro-themed, starting off with a couple of multi-player cards from 2014 Topps Archives, modeled after the iconic 1965 set. Even on this three-player card, the famous pennant is visible right on top, above Michael Cuddyer. Thanks to Cuddyer's prominent photograph, we know that the now-retired first baseman won the NL batting title in 2013, kicking off a run of four titles for the Rockies in the past five seasons, interrupted only by Dee Gordon in 2015.

Two Braves appear on this card, the first being Chris Johnson, who hasn't played in the Majors since 2016 and is now in Baltimore's farm system. Freddie Freeman, on the other hand, has been extremely hot to start the 2018 season, including an RBI single against the Rockies in yesterday's home opener at Coors Field. He's certainly the best player the Braves have, but they're developing lots of young talent.

The beginning of the baseball season also means the beginning of Fantasy baseball, and Freeman has been the second-most valuable hitter in my league, behind only the even hotter Didi Gregorius. Things on my team are getting of to a bit of a slow start, but I did pick one of Freeman's young teammates, Ozzie Albies, who was the R in Freeman's RBI I mentioned earlier. Ablies also hit one out of a snowy Coors Field as just the second batter of the day, which was about an hour late thanks to the snow. Or as the Rockies put it on Twitter, #SnowpeningDay.

2014 Topps Heritage #7 Anibal Sanchez / Bartolo Colon

Speaking of Fantasy baseball, Anibal Sanchez always reminds me of 2006, the first of two times I ended up as the runner-up in my league. I briefly mentioned that when Sanchez' equivalent card in 2014 Topps arrived (well, a parallel), which he also shared with Bartolo Colon and Hisashi Iwakuma. For whatever reason, Topps chose to just feature two players instead of three, giving lots of room to the ageless Bartolo Colon.

Sanchez, by the way, is pitching out of the bullpen for none other than the Braves this season, but he began his career as a Marlin. And in September 2006 against the Diamondbacks, he threw his only career no-hitter.

No hitters are hugely valuable in my points-based fantasy league, stacking with the Win, the Shutout, the Complete Game, and all the strikeouts. I had Justin Verlander's in 2007 and it was worth 126 points, if memory serves. I don't remember the point value, but Sanchez' in 2006 upended the league's playoffs quite a bit. It advanced a competing team that wouldn't otherwise have won. I met that team in the final, and even though my team scored a whopping 550 points that final week, Andruw Jones went on an absolute tear for my opponent, hitting 5 homers and helping them outscore my team 558-550 in a heavyweight bout.

This was twelve years ago, people.

Anyway, I'd have won the league if not for that no-hitter, so the way I see it, Anibal Sanchez owes me about $600.

1998 Upper Deck Retro #103 Travis Lee FUT

Shifting back to cards, the retro theme carries on, thanks to a set literally called Upper Deck Retro. This Futurama subset has an elongated hexagonal frame that 1999 Starquest borrows from, and the set itself has a nostalgic feel that pretty much everyone else borrowed from, and continues to.

Travis Lee was one of the top rookie prospects of the day, and let's not forget that 1998 marked the inaugural year for the Arizona Diamondbacks. This card just has his 1997 minor league statistics on the back, but the paragraph mentions his home runs as a full-fledged member of the Diamondbacks, with 17 by the time the All-Star Break happened. He finished his rookie year with 22, a high water mark he wouldn't pass. Lee finished third in Rookie of the Year voting in '98, trailing Todd Helton and winner Kerry Wood.

1998 Upper Deck Retro #106 Mike Caruso FUT

Mike Caruso, another prospect for the much more established Chicago White Sox, only played three seasons in the big leagues, despite finishing third in his own league's Rookie of the Year voting. 1998 and 1999 were decent seasons for him, but he had a gap until he briefly returned in 2002 for a handful of games as a Royal. That's all she wrote for Mike Caruso, one of the least-recognizable names in the entire 30-card subset.

This was an early attempt at a retro set. The design is about right, but the card is a little too smooth, the photo a little too sharp despite the sepia filter, and the jewel-like Upper Deck hologram diamond on the back always looks out of place on these retro cards.

2000 Fleer Tradition #352 Barry Larkin

2000 Fleer Tradition was fully on board with the retro craze, and they gave us a set that is pretty close to 1954 Topps, at least on the front. Topps seemed not to really care, nor did they with 2002 Upper Deck Vintage, so I bet UD was pretty surprised when Topps' legal team came knocking in 2009 after the release of O-Pee-Chee.

Regardless, the card back of 2000 Fleer Tradition is nothing like 1954 Topps, but it is a bit hard to read. The color scheme is sort of like an inverted 1989 Topps. Barry Larkin, the topic of Chris' top player collection, had a few more seasons left in his Hall of Fame career by the turn of the millennium, and it is nice to see a single team listed next to each year.

Perhaps Charlie Blackmon will be a lifetime Rockie, as he just signed a contract that will keep him in Denver for a few more years, possibly through 2023. That seems like a long time away, but it will be here pretty quickly. I was sure that Verlander's no-hitter I mentioned earlier was his second, in 2011, but it was over a decade ago, back in 2007.

2012 Bowman Draft Draft Picks #BDPP109 Johendi Jiminian

There was an extra spot in the PWE, so Chris tossed in a Rockie that wasn't part of the trade stack, one I've never heard of. The longer the Bowman card number, the longer the player's shot seems to be at making it to the big leagues. Indeed, Johendi Jiminian has been toiling away in the minors since 2010. Although he did make it as high as Triple-A last season, he still hasn't cracked the code, and is now part of the Mariners farm system.

It broke the retro card theme, but that's fine. It's part of an even twelve-card trade, and I think it worked out just fine for both sides!

The Trading Post #97: Nachos Grande

I've been pretty out of the Cardsphere loop lately. I entirely skipped the 30-day Card Challenge, for example, although I suppose I could do it all in one go, like Night Owl and Dime Boxes did this weekend. In fact, this is only my third post in April, my lowest monthly total since...well, February. Between watching half my fantasy team go on the DL in the first month (Bumgarner, Sanchez, Beltre, others, and now Cespedes), and keeping an eye on the Rockies' textbook April hot streak, I haven't had a lot of time for blogging. The weather's been getting nicer too, and I took a pretty strenuous hike last weekend with some friends, but since this weekend has brought us our annual spring snowstorm, what better time to pick my virtual pen back up?

Fortunately, I've had plenty of potential blog post topics, such as a trade sent by Nachos Grande long before the season started.

2013 Topps Heritage #164 Dexter Fowler

Dexter Fowler was a fan favorite around here, spending time with Houston, Chicago (of course winning the World Series last year), and now St. Louis. I was about to say that he's really made the rounds in the National League, but then I realized Houston moved to the AL. I remember, really, I do.

But back when 1964 took its turn in the Topps Heritage set, Fowler was spending his final season as a Rockie. This retro-themed shot of a hatless Fowler in the dugout offers a pretty intimate look at the day-to-day job of a ballplayer. The action shots are always a crowd-pleaser, but hanging out in the dugout while the other part of the batting order is taking its turn is roughly as common as playing the field. Many of them find interesting ways to pass the time, such as (Buster Posey's good friend) Hunter Pence coming up with personalized handshakes for each of his teammates.

2012 Elite Extra Edition #91 Tom Murphy

The injury bug has bitten the Rockies, too. Their shiny new free agent, Ian Desmond, has yet to play in a game this year. David Dahl and Jon Gray are on the DL, and CarGo narrowly missed a broken hand during an unfortunate foul ball last week. Catcher Tom Murphy is down as well, the subject of this red foil card from Donruss Elite. He's been called up to the big leagues twice, but his potential is still yet to be fully realized. For now, that means most of his cards are in the Donruss Elite and Bowman sorts of brands. But if he becomes the star catcher he's expected to be, we should be seeing a lot more cards of him.

I'm sure that's just a batting glove in his back pocket, but it looks slightly like he has a duck tail.

Anyway, Mark Reynolds and Tony Wolters have been filling in nicely in the Rockies' lineup, good enough to keep them in first place. Because they just won this weekend's series in Arizona, they've held on to first place into the month of May, barely, despite the absolute destruction that the Washington Nationals visited upon them this past week. But they've bounced back nicely with an exciting come-from-behind win and will go for the sweep tomorrow.

1994 Bowman's Best #R72 Ellis Burks

Bowman's Best did shiny red cards better than just about anyone. Ellis Burks, who had just joined the Rockies when this card was printed, was already an established power hitter. He even had eight grand slams to his name before becoming a founding member of the Blake Street Bombers, tacking on even more before his retirement in 2004.

Topps knew they had a hit on their hands with the production of shiny cards like this, a set that appeared after the seminal 1993 Finest set. I would like to know what the design in the upper left is supposed to be. It looks a bit like the NFL shield. But maybe it's just some sort of home plate thing.

Standard practice for close to two decades over at Bowman was to use red colors for veteran players, and blue colors for rookies.

1994 Bowman's Best #B11 John Burke

Fortunately for our exploration of this design, Chris was kind enough to include both. They look really good side-by-side, especially since the design elements are a mirror image. Burke's card is noted as a "Blue Chip", though Burke only went 4-6 in two seasons with the Rockies, his only time spent in the Majors. Burke was more of a speculative small-cap than a blue chip, but others in this set went on to do great things, such as Shawn Green, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, and Chipper Jones, to name a few.

I can only imagine what a green card from this set would have looked like. Throw in a yellow with that and you can make the Microsoft logo.

1994 Topps #780 Jason Bates / John Burke

Burke showed up again along with Jason Bates on the Rockies' Coming Attractions card in 1994 Topps. This movie theater-themed subset caught my eye, as I can still recognize the first factory set I ever bought in a split second. Jason Bates, who found a bit more success with the Rockies than Burke, is called out as a "switch-hitting shortstop with power." Burke, on the other hand, was at that time the career leader in strikeouts as a Florida Gator. Besides those one-sentence tidbits, this card gives us a rarely-glimpsed bit of info: the scout who signed the player. Randy Johnson (no relation to the Big Unit) signed Bates, and Bob Gebhard, the first General Manager of the Rockies, signed Burke.

I'm surprised that doesn't make it onto Bowman cards. It would be perfect for a prospect-heavy set like that, and might give hope to fans and collectors who want to be part of baseball but aren't good enough to play.

2014 Topps #237 Michael Cuddyer / Chris Johnson / Freddie Freeman LL

When it comes to League Leader cards, the players are much more likely to have found success than a pair of prospects. Michael Cuddyer won the NL batting title in 2013, one of many times that trophy has been brought to Denver. Rounding out the top three are two Braves. Chris Johnson hit .321 in 2013, but hasn't had a stellar career since. He broke a bone in Triple-A a few weeks ago, and was released by the Indians in 2015. The likelihood of him making a comeback is looking slimmer by the day.

Freddie Freeman, on the other hand, the second runner up to the 2013 batting title, is still performing well as a Brave. He went deep on Friday with a go-ahead two-run shot, and is finding a nice home at SunTrust Park, the Braves' shiny new stadium.

2014 Topps #20 Charlie Blackmon

I often remark on how different Todd Helton looks without his goatee. But that's nothing compared to Charlie Blackmon without his lumberjack beard. He has a little bit of scruff on this 2014 Topps card, but he looks like a completely different person. He's just as capable in center field as Fowler was, beard or no. And it's a Coors Field card, worthy of a spot in my Frankenset. This 2014 set does make me miss the previously ubiquitous silver foil and white borders that were once so familiar.

But what's still familiar is great trading partners, a Rockies team that is hot in April (though winning all these one-run games is a little weird), and shiny Topps cards from all eras of the Colorado Rockies.

The Trading Post #87: cards as i see them

Veterans of the Cardsphere (am I the only one still using that term?) know garvey cey russell lopes as one of the well-known early entrants into our community. Its writer wrapped up that particular blog in 2015, but couldn't stay away blogging for long, starting up a new one in September called cards as i see them. It has his trademark no-capitalization style, though I can confirm that his handwriting doesn't follow the same pattern, based on the PWE I got from him right around Christmas.

2013 Topps Chrome Update #MB-15 Michael Cuddyer

Inside that envelope was another iteration of Michael Cuddyer's 2013 Update card, this one of the Chrome variety. Right around the same time, the Gold version arrived from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop. I can't decide which of the colored borders I like best, but orange with the silver background looks surprisingly good. I had to look up why the card number has "MB" in it, and it's because these cards were sold in "Mega-Boxes" back in 2013. It's pretty much just a blaster, so I'm not sure why that packaging warranted a card number like that, but that's how they did it.

I just don't think I quite get Update.

2013 Topps Update 1971 Topps Minis #14 Troy Tulowitzki

Maybe it's just Chrome, though. Because this mini of Tulowitzki makes much more sense to me. I'm sure anyone who actually collected 1971 Topps will wonder what the heck I'm talking about, but I grew up being able to afford reprints, not the real thing. So current players on old designs seems like quite a good idea.

This is definitely a recycled photo, but it does look good when placed next to Cuddyer's card, as they've both been captured at precisely the same point in the swing from the same angle. Tulo looks a little behind the ball here, but it's a Coors Field shot, and this particular cropping of the photo shows us that they were playing the Padres that day. As we know now, the Padres are the last pro team remaining in San Diego, with the Chargers moving to L.A. next season. I didn't know this, but both the Rockets and Clippers of the NBA originally played in San Diego, before moving to Houston and Los Angeles, respectively.

Good thing Los Angeles already has two pro baseball teams, otherwise San Diego might be without a major league team before long.

2014 Panini Prizm Prizms Red White and Blue Pulsar #100 Jorge De La Rosa

Panini Prism took a page from Topps Chrome and went a little crazy with colored borders. There are more than a handful listed on Beckett, and this one is the particularly odd Red, White, and Blue Pulsar variety. Rotate it 90 degrees clockwise and you have the French flag, which actually looks pretty cool when held at arm's length. And I was so distracted by these colors and the dot pattern in the background that I didn't even notice there were no logos! Well, other than Nike. But I've flogged that dead horse before.

2011 Topps Heritage Black #C94 Ubaldo Jimenez

When 2011 rolled around, it was time for Topps Heritage to use the 1962 design that I so adore. Of course, it got the parallel treatment too, such as this Black variety. The border isn't entirely black, but they gave it this sort of charred wood look which looks great. It's a clever idea to implement on a woodgrain design. I'm interested to see if they do the same thing in 2036 when the 1987 design gets its turn with the Heritage treatment.

Of course, that assumes that Heritage, or even Topps itself will still be around in 2036.

Maybe by 2036 the Rockies will have had a 20-game winner. As it stands now, Ubaldo holds the Rockies single-season record, with 19 wins. This card was printed the year after that, so his 19-8 record is proudly displayed on the back. He finished third in NL in strikeouts, wins, and Cy Young voting. Perhaps the fact that he led the NL in wild pitches and finished second in walks issued hurt his chances at that accolade a bit.

2009 O-Pee-Chee #73 Ian Stewart

I never opened any, but I'm probably getting pretty close to completing the team set from 2009 O-Pee-Chee. It's an understated retro set, although the photos are significantly sharper than they are on Heritage, making it feel just a little bit too modern. I'm sure this was taken in Hi Corbett Field, the former Spring Training home of the Rockies. That scoreboard just visible on the left matches up with photos I've taken of it.

2016 Topps Update #US256a Nolan Arenado AS

Ian Stewart held down the hot corner for several years, but was traded to the Cubs for DJ LeMahieu, and clearing the way for Mr. Arenado and his four straight Gold Gloves.

Arenado was an All-Star in 2016, meaning he had the privilege (?) of wearing the retro yellow and brown All Star jerseys in San Diego. He did better in the field than at the plate, but anytime you're on the All Star team, you're pretty much guaranteed to get a card in Topps Update.

Starting this season, the All-Star Game is just going to be about having fun and putting on a show again, rather than determining the league with home-field advantage. But perhaps that doesn't really matter. In the 14-season period that the All-Star Game "counted", the NL was 3-11, but 8-6 in the World Series. However, in the three seasons the NL did have home field, (2010-2012), they also won the World Series.

I'm sure there's more in-depth analysis out there than that. But either way, if the Midsummer Classic can just be about having fun and wearing oddly-colored jerseys, I am fine with that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2005 Diamond Kings Framed Red #251 Jeff Francis

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

2010 Topps 206 Bronze #262 Melvin Mora

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

2013 Topps Update Gold #US226 Michael Cuddyer /2013

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

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

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

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

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

2003 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion #60 Jason Jennings

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

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

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

The Trading Post #42: 2x3 Heroes

Trading activity is starting to pick back up. This summer has been pretty quiet on that front, but my mailbox has been graced by a couple PWEs in recent days.

2013 Topps Chasing History Holofoil #CH-97 Troy Tulowitzki

These have done some damage to my Eight Men Out list with very little warning. Jeff at 2x3 Heroes mailed over this Tulowitzki card, which is the silver holofoil parallel from a 2013 Topps insert set. You've seen other varieties of this card before, including the bat relic and gold holofoil. All that's missing is the base version, meaning I'll be completing this rainbow in a highly unusual reverse order. Sort of like hitting for the cycle with a homer, triple, double, and single.

2014 Topps Chrome Orange Refractors #157 Michael Cuddyer

Jeff continued to work some rainbow magic, sending over the orange parallel of Michael Cuddyer's Chrome card, adding to the base and blue parallel already in my collection. This orange is especially appropriate, given that he's playing for the Mets in the NLCS. In fact, he just ripped an opposite-field single up the first base line as I type this. Unlike the blue parallel, this orange is not serial numbered, but it certainly scans better than the blue.

2010 Topps #445 Miguel Olivo

2010 Topps had a good base design, and they really wanted to make all the collectors know that they still had the rights to display team logos and names, unlike their longtime competitor Upper Deck, who lost that right that year.

Still, they focused a bit too much on logos and not enough on photography, as this is one of the more egregious Photoshop jobs I can remember seeing in recent years. First, that isn't really the right shade of purple to represent the Rockies, the belt is still blue, and the pinstripes are way too close together. Even worse, flip the card over and you can see that Topps didn't even bother to edit Olivo out of his Royals jersey, meaning you can plainly see where they made changes for the front photo.

2010 Topps #445 Miguel Olivo (Reverse)

I suppose it's better than just some white text saying "Signed by Rockies", but Topps' image manipulation skills had a long way to go in 2010.

2014 Bowman #20 Nolan Arenado

There, now that's a proper Rockies jersey! This image is from Nolan Arenado's rookie year of 2013, which you can tell by that commemorative 20th Anniversary patch on the right sleeve. Arenado took a month or so to settle into his role at third base, but he's quickly become one of the best all-around players in the Majors. He'd had plenty of Bowman cards by the time he actually reached the majors, but some varieties of his 2010 card go for a pretty penny.

Here's hoping he can lead the Rockies to one of these playoff games in the not-too-distant future.