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.

Eight Clubby Nights: A Stadium Club Hanukkah (Night 4)

As we continue with our Stadium Club Hanukkah, we've reached Night 4, nearing the halfway point. By now, one side of the menorah is entirely full, and we're up to using five candles for tonight's ceremony. Yes, even though it's just the fourth night, there are five, since you use a separate candle, called the shamash, to light the nightly candles, rather than just lighting the nightly candles with a match or lighter.

There are all sorts of rules and customs concerning how Hanukkah is celebrated, each with varying degrees of debate surrounding them. It's a translated Hebrew word, so there are about a dozen ways to spell Hanukkah. There's a bit less debate about which direction to light the candles, traditionally from left to right (i.e. newest to oldest). The menorah is supposed to have certain design elements, candles have to burn a certain length of time, and so on. But they don't have to be wax candles in the modern form we're familiar with.

More to come as we progress past the halfway point, but I think there's room for only one rabbit hole on this blog, or at least one a night, so let's see what this fourth pack contained. Spoiler alert: it was pretty awesome.

2018 Stadium Club #52 Paul Goldschmidt

Paul Goldschmidt is the face of the Rockies' chief division rivals, the Arizona Diamondbacks. I've never been a big D-backs fan, but there's been more of a sense of solidarity in recent years, thanks to the shared spring training facilities, and the alliance the rest of the NL West seems to have built against the Dodgers. There was a lot of "root for whichever NL West team is playing the Dodgers this week" camaraderie in our individual team subreddits this season.

As Hot Stove season heats up, the trade rumors are swirling around Goldie, as it has been for a ton of other players. (EDIT: Looks like he's going to the Cardinals.) The six-time All Star is starting to cool off just a hair as he hits his 30s, but he's been in the running for MVP honors more often than not. He was the runner-up twice, and finished third in MVP voting in 2017, a point the card back stresses. It remains to be seen whether it will fully click for Goldschmidt and he'll walk away with the highest individual honor in baseball.

If he does, that will probably not be a great year for the Rockies.

2018 Stadium Club #103 Tim Raines

Tim Raines, or "Rock", as nearly everyone else besides Topps called him, is our second retired player from this blaster, and our first Hall of Famer. Raines is one of the rare players to play across four decades, his career spanning from 1979-2002. His playing time in '79 amounted to nothing more than six pinch-runner appearances. It would be 1980 before he saw big league pitching for the first time. He was a speedster, leading the NL in stolen bases for four straight seasons, 1981-1984, even eclipsing the great Rickey Henderson in a couple of those years.

His career was in full swing (pun not intended) when I became a baseball fan in 1993. I remember him playing for the Chicago White Sox in the ALCS that year, though it would take him getting traded to the Yankees before he'd win his first of two World Series rings. The Yankees came out on the winning end of that swap, as the PTBNL in that trade, Blaise Kozeniewski, never progressed past Double-A, nor did he ever play a game in the White Sox farm system.

I like seeing retired superstars scattered throughout this checklist, and I especially like seeing the Expos uniform pop up from time to time. We're over a dozen years removed from their departure to Washington, D.C., and I regret never having the chance to see them play in person. That may change, as it's been twenty years since the last round of MLB expansion. There are a few cities in the running, with Portland, Oregon leading the rumor mill. Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville, even sites in Mexico have been suggested. But seeing baseball return to Montreal is something many people want to see, and it could definitely happen.

That might leave the Rockies in an odd spot. They may end up in some sort of weird Central-South division and could even have to switch leagues. I'm not wild about that idea, but it beats having your team moved across the continent.

2018 Stadium Club Power Zone #PZ-NA Nolan Arenado

For now, the Rockies remain in the NL West, and Nolan Arenado's tremendous power swing is a part of that. This insert of the six-time Gold Glove winner is our first Rockie of the blaster. I think this space theme works a little better with a righty than on left-handed hitter Kyle Schwarber's card. It looked vaguely like Schwarber was moving backwards. But Nolan's launch angle on this card really does make it look like he could put a ball into orbit, and he's not even at Coors in this photo.

The back of this Power Zone insert card, which seems to be pretty common in this year's Stadium Club, goes in-depth about Arenado's unique "step back", a slight lift of the back foot before he steps into a swing. MLB has written at length about it, and I never really picked up on this movement, but it certainly seems to work well for him. He's climbed up one spot in NL MVP voting each year since 2016, so by 2020, he'll have the award, if that trend continues. Of course, there's no guarantee he won't instead get a massive payday in free agency, so that MVP award may not come as a Rockie.

The Rockies as a member of the AL South without Nolan Arenado is really not a future I'm looking forward to. But nothing lasts forever.

2018 Stadium Club #74 Ichiro

The standard arrangement of these packs is starting to become clear. Two vertical cards, followed by an insert, concluded by two horizontal cards. This glorious card of Ichiro shows him taking the field in a spring training game. It's probably the Peoria Sports Complex, which the Mariners share with the Padres, and you can just make out a tiny "SD" logo on the outfield wall. If you look closely, you can see the ageless outfielder bounding onto the field without his feet even touching the ground. That youthful vigor isn't often seen as players near their retirement, but Ichiro has always been in a class of his own.

He returned to Seattle to finish his career, which many thought would end in 2018. But the Mariners are opening their regular season against Oakland in Tokyo in March 2019, and the M's have confirmed that Ichiro will be on their slightly expanded roster of 28 players. I never really quite know what Ichiro's retirement plans are, but if he plays his final two games for the Mariners in his home country, a place where he amassed nearly 1,300 hits starting at the age of 18, it will be a spectacular end to an amazing career.

2018 Stadium Club #96 J.D. Martinez

Speaking of international series, the Boston Red Sox and J.D. Martinez will be squaring off against the Yankees in London in late June 2019. The two-game set will be held at London Stadium, the central location of the 2012 Olympics. It marks the first time the MLB will visit the UK, and I see no reason to doubt that the iconic AL East rivalry will be diminished in any way. Power hitters like J.D. Martinez, who finished second on the home run leaderboard last year, and whoever the Yankees get this offseason to complement Stanton and Judge, will surely put on a show this summer.

Interestingly, that series was announced on May 8th, 2018, which was right smack in the middle of my trip to London. Copies of the free Evening Standard are handed out at all the Tube station entrances during the homeward-bound rush hour, and I happened to grab a copy as I was returning to my Airbnb from the Saint Pancras area. I remember reading all about this announced series on the final leg of the train journey from Victoria Station to Battersea Park, and it was actually quite comforting to read about baseball after being alone in a giant foreign city like London for several days.

Coincidentally, I visited the Jewish Museum in Camden Town that same day, which included a collection of menorahs, among many other items. Even more coincidentally, I just saw a production of, and have been reading, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and none other than Bob Crachit and his family lived in Camden Town.

You never know what will come out of a sealed pack of cards, and it's amazing to be able to tie a baseball card of J.D. Martinez to a destination I visited in London half a year ago. The candles are pretty, but when I see a bunch of seemingly unrelated puzzle pieces fall into place, that's what really makes me feel there's something bigger than myself. The philosophers might call it sympatheia. It can catch you off guard, but it's there if you look for it.

And I'm pretty sure this post broke my record for using italics.

The Trading Post #110: Summer of '74

If you're not following Summer of '74, a newcomer to the blog community, head on over and take a look. Matt and I have already swapped cards once, and a 1994 Topps-focused post he did in October caught my eye. He showed a bunch of base cards from an unopened box of Series 2, and offered the one-per-pack Topps Gold parallels, which I happily claimed. It and its 1993 predecessor were the first parallel sets I chased, and I enjoy them just as much today.

There's lots of mid-1990s Topps goodness to be found over on Matt's blog, including Tuesday's post about 1995 Topps. There were lots of clouds involved. But in 1994, before the strike, Topps was still sticking with pretty traditional photographs. They dabbled with images on the back in 1992 and 1993, with stadiums and headshots, respectively. But in 1994, they finally followed Upper Deck's lead and gave us action shots on the back, too.

1994 Topps Gold #669 Tim Wakefield

Tim Wakefield's front image in 1994 Topps is more interesting than the back. Before he began his long tenure with the Red Sox, he spent two seasons on the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's an unfamiliar uniform, because Wakefield was getting lots of national exposure when the Red Sox were regularly appearing in high-profile playoff series, often against the Yankees. And he's known for more than just giving up the Aaron Boone home run. He took the victory in Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, a 14-inning marathon that kept the Red Sox alive and enabled them to finally break their curse.

I've been watching a lot of sports documentaries this off-season, including many episodes of ESPN's 30 for 30. The other night, I saw the Four Days in October episode, chronicling that improbable comeback that the Red Sox made while being down 3-0 to the defending pennant winners. Wakefield didn't have a huge role to play that year, but he won his ring nonetheless. He is, on the other hand, a prime figure in the Knuckleball documentary, his signature pitch. I feel that Topps' photography on this card is appropriate, the slow shutter speed blurring Wakefield's hand and the ball, adding to the mystery and unpredictability of the knuckleball pitch.

1994 Topps Gold #625 Charlie Hough

Charlie Hough threw it too, and we can see the grip much more clearly. It's another unfamiliar uniform, as he spent most of his career with the Dodgers and Rangers, squeezed onto the back in the tiniest of fonts. But he was a Marlin in 1993 and 1994, their equivalent of Bryn Smith, another veteran hurler who kicked off the Rockies' inaugural home opener. As I've said before, I know many other fans never knew of this period in Hough's career, but given when I started collecting, seeing him in the Marlins' early turquoise colors looks a lot more normal to me than to longtime Dodgers and Rangers fans.

Sadly, this was Hough's final Topps card. The shrunken 1995 set didn't have room for him, let alone another line in his career that spanned a quarter-century. It's a sunset card and an unfamiliar uniform all wrapped up in one, along with a highly unusual pitch that only two current players use.

1994 Topps Gold #460 Orel Hershiser

Orel Hershiser had a much more conventional pitching style, and thanks to 1989 Donruss, we know he can juggle. He could actually hit, too, earning the elusive pitcher's Silver Slugger award in 1993. The sentence on the back tells us he was near the .404 Major League record for batting average by a pitcher before settling at a still-impressive .356. His 1988 season has a lot of red on it, the same year he pitched a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings. That helped his season statistics climb as high as 23 wins, 15 complete games, and 8 shutouts, on his way to the NL Cy Young award, not to mention a World Series ring. Surprisingly, none of these players are in the Hall of Fame, but Hough and Hershiser had a decent shot.

By the way, if Topps did then what they do now, just giving us five years of stats, Hershiser's amazing 1988 season would have scrolled off the screen by the time his 1994 card was printed.

1994 Topps Gold #470 Rafael Palmeiro

Rafael Palmeiro holds the dubious distinction of being the first All-Star MLB player suspended for using steroids. Yet, at 53, he's talking about making a comeback. If it does happen, I hope it ends up being more than just a publicity stunt. But it would be interesting to see such a giant gap in his statistics if he gets a 2019 Topps card.

As you can see, these Topps Gold cards didn't survive almost 25 years in a pack unscathed. Most are fine, but a handful, like this one, show clear signs of being stuck together. It's not too bad, and Matt told me as much when we were talking specifics. It's clear enough that it's possible to see the number 22 on his right batting glove, meaning he might have borrowed it from teammate Will Clark. But it looks like he's wearing the same one on the card back in a home jersey, and I doubt he made a regular thing of it. The Cuban superstar could surely afford his own batting accessories.

1994 Topps Gold #612 Jim Thome

About the only sure-fire Hall of Famer in this illustrious group so far is Jim Thome. His 612 home runs are likely to buy him a ticket into Cooperstown any day now. But in 1994, he had yet to play a full season, and was just getting his career going. The back of this moderately damaged card still has minor league stats going back to 1989, and mentions his 1993 MVP award in the Triple-A International League. 

Coincidentally, just like Palmeiro, Jim Thome wore #25 for most of his career. And his batting gloves match.

1994 Topps Gold #690 Mo Vaughn

I can't think of Mo Vaughn without remembering him tackling George Bell as he charged Aaron Sele on the mound. Sele was clearly throwing at Bell, who was having none of it. But as he, um, went to the mound to have a word with the opposing pitcher, in comes Mo Vaughn like a Mack truck and body slams Bell like a bowling pin.

Tempers were hot in 1993. That clip took place just a month or so after the legendary Nolan Ryan / Robin Ventura brawl, and I clearly remember the benches clearing not once, but twice at my first Major League game on June 15th, 1993 between the Rockies and Dodgers.

Years later, during another Dodgers visit to Denver, none other than Jeff Kent was hit by a pitch and both teams rapidly ended up on the field. That game, July 4th, 2005 was a fireworks game, and I'm sure that many fans in attendance just wanted the extra-innings affair to conclude so their kids could see the pyrotechnics. I enjoyed that part, sure, but I'm sure I was in the minority of fans who were excited about those final two nail-biting innings.

1994 Topps Gold #397 Tim Salmon

I haven't said much about the design. 1994 Topps never climbs very high on the Topps set countdowns, but it always holds a special place in my heart. Lots of people seem not to like the home plate shape that makes up the photo frame, but it reminds me of the baseline frames that UD frequently used in their first few sets. And it gives us that lovely patch of green at the bottom, set behind the player's name in a script font. In Topps Gold, that's much easier to read in 1994 than in 1993. And once in a while, the Topps Rookie Cup graces a card with its presence.

Tim Salmon was the 1993 American League Rookie of the Year, sharing the honor with Mike Piazza on the NL side. The first fishy Angels star hit a couple more home runs in 1993 than noted slugger Mo Vaughn. And one fateful day that year, he'd play a game in Baltimore.

1994 Topps Gold #477 Arthur Rhodes

Arthur Rhodes was the starter for the Baltimore Orioles on April 17, 1993. The Rockies and Marlins were just infants, but elsewhere in the league, Rhodes had faced the Angels before, early in his 20-year career that lasted until 2011. Tim Salmon was getting his first taste of the Big Leagues, nearly being nabbed by the lefty on a pickoff attempt, but making it to second on an error. He'd walk twice that day, first in the third, and again in the ninth by the late Todd Frohwirth. Following the Orioles' third error of that day, Salmon made it to third base, which brought up the the Angels' own third baseman, Rene Gonzalez.

With Salmon at third and Gary Gaetti at second, Rene Gonzales hit one weakly toward the third base side.

1994 Topps Gold #664 Jeff Tackett

And that resulted in a play at the plate. Salmon was out, but the Angels still had the lead, and they'd hold on in the bottom of the ninth to win it.

Gary Gaetti was on third base when all this was happening, and he had his own play at the plate card in 1993 Topps. The Angels were playing lots of small ball in this era, apparently. There were seven stolen bases in this game, over half by Chad Curtis. They were then known as the California Angels, but they had a brand new logo for the 1993 season. Also visible on Jeff Tackett's left sleeve is a small commemorative patch, marking the year the Orioles hosted the All-Star Game in their shiny new retro park, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Topps must have been really proud of this card. In the 1993 factory set, they included a 9-card pack of 1994 preproduction cards. The colors were a little different, and as I recall they changed one photograph selection, but it's more or less accurate. In that set, you could find major stars like Nolan Ryan, Kenny Lofton, Juan Gonzalez, and also this Jeff Tackett card. The official version added his 1993 stats, and removed the Studio-like paragraph about Jeff's hobbies and family, replacing it with the inning he pitched in Detroit on August 11th, 1993, and his cameo in the movie Dave, which Topps tells us was a TV show.

TV shows and movies have been elevated to a similar plane in 2018, but in 1993, not so much.

Also, Tackett seems to have grown an inch in the 1993-94 offseason. His preproduction card had him at only 6'1".

1994 Topps Gold #586 Brent Gates

There were a few other cards that caught my eye, like this one showing a post-hustle Brent Gates giving a forearm bump to a fellow teammate. There's a tiny Minnesota Twins cameo in the lower right, but I can't tell who that is, nor the recipient of said forearm bump. That might be a coach or batboy on the left, and Gates may have just slid into home, which could identify the unknown Twin as catcher Brian Harper.

The green patch that's already on 1994 Topps goes particularly well with the A's color coding. Some of the color choices are a little odd, like yellow for the Red Sox lettering. But the green and yellow works well, even if the shades are ever so slightly different from the actual photo.

1994 Topps Gold #784 Gabe White / Rondell White

I often had a tough time deciding where to put these two-player cards when alphabetizing them by team. Would I use the player on the right or left? Was that consistent with the top or bottom on the card back? What if the right and left varied from front to back? Would a featured Rockie take precedence even if he was in a less-preferred location? Four-player cards were even harder. These were all very important decisions to make when organizing my first-ever factory set.

These cards are now quite rare, so it doesn't come up as much. And every so often, I go through my old factory sets and organize them by the players who ended up making more of an impact. Rey Ordonez over three guys you've never heard of. That sort of thing.

But I always appreciated this Expos card for giving me two guys with the last name "White". Either way, it would fit. Gabe White had an 11-year career, including two as a Rockie, and his only postseason appearance was with the 2003 Yankees. Rondell White had an even longer career at 15 years, making it to the postseason twice, and the All-Star Game once, in 2003. During that Midsummer Classic on the South Side of Chicago, he pinch hit for Barry Bonds and promptly grounded into a double play on the first pitch he saw from Mark Mulder.

1994 Topps Gold #155 Todd Stottlemyre

Last up is Todd Stottlemyre, a Blue Jays pitcher that was one of the first American League players I saw on TV. There was no interleague play in 1993, my first year watching the sport. So other than that All-Star Game in Baltimore, where the announcers bantered about nothing while Andres Galarraga had the first-ever Rockies All-Star at bat (and was flirting with a .400 average), I didn't really see any American League play until the postseason. A couple names stick out in particular, Wilson Alvarez and Todd Stottlemyre. Their two teams battled it out for the AL pennant that year, with the Blue Jays beating the White Sox. I probably didn't see Game 1 or Game 2, as Game 1 was on a school night, and Game 2 was a Wednesday day game. Early in 4th grade, I was unlikely to see either of those.

But Wilson Alvarez started Friday night's Game 3, and Stottlemyre in Game 4 the next day. It was likely my first taste of AL baseball, the Designated Hitter, and names I'd only seen on the occasional card instead of on TV regularly. It was also the only World Series I'd see until 1995 for obvious reasons. Todd Stottlemyre started Game 4 of the 1993 World Series, but thanks to a 15-14 roller coaster, did not remain the pitcher of record for long. By now, though, we all know that Joe Carter came through with a historic home run in Game 6, helping Stottlemyre and the rest of his Blue Jay teammates earn their second ring in as many years.

Thanks to Matt for sharing these 1994 parallels! Clearly this set is a special one to me. To a card collector, there's nothing quite like your first factory set, and more broadly, to a baseball fan, there's nothing quite like your first season.

The Trading Post #98: Bump and Run Football Card Blog

Before the season started, the illustrious Night Owl sent an insert card from 1996 Fleer Ultra's Rising Stars set. Despite having a few in my collection already, it had somehow escaped my attention that Coors Field was the featured stadium throughout the set.

Fortunately, Trevor from Bump and Run Football Card Blog was watching out for me, offering a few more cards and getting me about halfway to completing the 10-card set. I still need to get a return package out to Trevor, but I figured today would be a good day for a post, since I'm attending my first baseball game of 2017 tonight.

1996 Fleer Ultra Rising Stars #8 Hideo Nomo

The Dodgers are in town this weekend, so who better to kick off this post than Hideo Nomo, the then-Dodger who pitched the first, and so far only no-hitter in Coors Field history. That happened to occur in 1996, the exact year of this card. I was not present for that game, but this card is a coincidental memento of that event, sort of an accidental Topps Now card.

The photo of "The Tornado", so called because of his windup, even appears to be from 1996, according to the commemorative patch on his left sleeve. That patch is for the team's 35th Anniversary of playing in Dodger Stadium, where they started in 1962. Of course, the Dodgers famously moved to the West Coast for the 1959 season, forcing them to play in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for a few seasons until their shiny new park could be built, which is now the third-oldest stadium in the Majors.

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, while woefully inadequate as a properly-sized baseball park, is getting lots of renewed interest as L.A. bids for the 2024 Summer Olympics, a city that is sure to reuse the iconic stadium that was opened in 1923 if they are selected over Paris, the only remaining candidate. Several other cities have withdrawn their candidacy in response to financial pressures and voter objections, reminding us of the tremendous costs of hosting such an event.

And they're not just financial costs. As we saw in Rio, there are plenty of societal costs, especially for those living on the land where the facilities will be built. And concerns about the environmental impact are partly what led Denver to turn down the 1976 Winter Olympics, the only city ever to do so.

1996 Fleer Ultra Rising Stars Gold Medallion #4 Cliff Floyd

That fact is something that Montreal knows better than most. Olympic Stadium, where the Montreal Expos played between 1977 through their departure after the 2004 season, was plagued with cost overruns and structural problems throughout their tenure. The stadium was built for the 1976 Summer Olympics, but wasn't fully paid off until 2006. Now the city doesn't even have an MLB team to show for it, thanks to a variety of reasons.

Cliff Floyd never became the star he was expected to be, only getting one All-Star selection throughout his 17-year journeyman career. But he was a good candidate for this insert set, and Trevor not only sent the base card, but also the Gold Medallion Edition parallel, which you see here. This parallel just gets a tiny bit of extra silver foil around the logo, quite a bit different from Gold Medallion parallels found in the main set.

1996 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion #459 Eric Davis

Maybe Fleer used so much gold foil printing those up that they had none left over for a little 10-card insert set. But I'm a little surprised they didn't even emboss Floyd's card, as they did with other insert sets in the 1996 Ultra set.

I'll give your eyes a minute to recover before we move on.

1996 Ultra Rising Stars #6 Chipper Jones

There are several players found in this set that could be part of the mythical "Hall of the Very Good", like Jim Edmonds, Ryan Klesko, Nomo, and maybe Manny Ramirez. But Chipper Jones is the only one of the ten that's a sure-fire bet to be voted in to the real Hall when he's eligible next year. As the card mentions, he was runner-up for 1995 NL Rookie of the Year, losing out to set-mate Hideo Nomo, the fourth of five straight Dodgers to win the award. But Chipper, whose stellar career ended with a frustrating loss in the first-ever NL Wild Card game, did indeed become a future MVP candidate as this card predicted, even winning it in 1999.

Jones' career mostly overlapped with the Braves' residence at Turner Field, one of the key venues built for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Of course, the Braves moved to the new SunTrust Park for 2017, making Turner Field one of the shortest-lived MLB ballparks in recent memory.

Like many Braves of the era, Jones (or C. Jones, when Andruw was his teammate) was a thorn in the Rockies' side, and many fans in the Rockpile, the center-field bleacher section where this Coors Field photo was taken, got a distant view of him at the plate. I only saw Chipper in person once, on April 28th, 2007. Jones went 1-4 with 2 RBIs and a walk that day, behind a strong pitching performance by John Smoltz.

I remember having awesome seats for that game, right behind the visitors' dugout, so close you could hear the Velcro rip when players removed their batting gloves. That game also happened less than 24 hours before Troy Tulowitzki turned an incredibly rare feat, an unassisted triple play, one that Chipper himself lined into while hitting from the left side.

2014 Topps Green #117 Anibal Sanchez / Bartolo Colon / Hisashi Iwakuma LL

That about does it for the Rising Stars cards, but Trevor wasn't done there. I mentioned that I like green cards, so he found a couple for that preference of mine. This league leader card from 2014 Topps is obviously one of the green-bordered parallels, a shade that clashes slightly with Bartolo Colon's Athletics jersey. Anibal Sanchez took the top spot that year with an ERA mark of 2.57, a player who threw a no-hitter in 2006 that couldn't have come at a worse time for my fantasy baseball championship run. Hishashi Iwakuma rounds out the top three, while ex-Rockie Ubaldo Jimenez squeaked his way into the top-10 as a Cleveland Indian.

Three photos is a lot to squeeze onto a card to begin with, but somehow the green border makes it feel more crowded. It makes me appreciate the single-photo League Leader cards that Topps is using this year.

1994 Stadium Club Team #116 Willie Blair

The green theme carries on with this one of pitcher Willie Blair, and it's from an infrequently-seen team set that Stadium Club put out in the early 1990s. As in 1993, only a handful of teams were represented in this set, and while I do run across the Rockies from time to time in the Denver area, finding other teams is surprisingly difficult. In case your chosen team appears in this set, keep an eye out for First Day Issue parallels. At the end of the day, this is still Stadium Club.

2006 Fleer Ultra #147 Matt Holliday

Fleer and their family of brands found themselves under the ownership of Upper Deck in 2006. They wouldn't have much longer to go, but they did put out this Fleer Ultra set, keeping the full-bleed design going for a little while longer. A simple band of silver foil with a little upside-down crown on it gives us the player, position, and team, along with a redundant but more stylish printing of the player's last name above that.

Holliday is hitting in Wrigley Field here, as we can see Cubs catcher Michael Barrett behind the plate and wearing a hockey-style mask. You can even barely make out the bear logo on the top of his helmet. I wasn't that up-to-date on my decade-ago Cubs catchers, so I had to break out the magnifying glass for this one. In that same area, we can see that Holliday, uniform #5, is using a bat labeled #19. This was way before Charlie Blackmon, so that bat belongs to Ryan Spilborghs, currently part of the Rockies' on-air TV broadcast crew.

2017 Topps Gypsy Queen Autographs #GQA-RT Raimel Tapia (AU)

The "hit" of this trade package is an on-card autograph of Raimel Tapia, one of the Rockies' top prospects. In fact, Tapia was just called back up to the Majors yesterday, so he might even play a bit tonight. Trevor put this one in an Ultra-Pro penny sleeve, easily the highest-quality sleeve I've ever seen. It's thick, almost like that sealed Mickey Mantle card that Topps put in their 1996 Factory Sets, if you ever ran across one of those. But more than that, it even has a little Ultra-Pro hologram on the back in the lower left corner. I might have to pick up a few of these for my higher-end cards.

I wasn't really aware that 2017 Gypsy Queen was even out yet, as it's not something I tend to seek out until it hits the discount boxes. But it's a nice card for the autograph collection, and I hope it will become a conversation piece if Tapia lives up to his potential.

I'm awarding extra bonus points to this card for its obvious location inside Coors Field, with a great, if a bit blurry, shot of the manually-operated out-of-town scoreboard in right field. It's blurry, but I think there's just enough information on the Giants/Cubs matchup we see under Tapia's right arm to date this card to September 4th, 2016. Those white numbers on the right side of the scoreboard signify the current pitcher's uniform number. 47 on the Giants facing 41 on the Cubs translates to Cueto facing Lackey, in Chicago.

Tapia got on base a few times that day, and advanced to third twice when DJ LeMahieu was at the plate, once in the first after being picked off but advancing to third on the pitcher's throwing error, and again in the 5th when DJ hit a long fly ball. Hard to say which of those two scenarios this is, but I'm leaning toward the 5th inning, since it seems like Tapia has slightly less a sense of urgency than if he had just escaped being thrown out.

2012 Absolute #44 Demaryius Thomas

With Trevor running primarily a football card blog, it should come as no surprise that a few Broncos made it into the envelope. Demaryius Thomas, one of the Broncos star wide receivers, looks like he just made a catch while playing against the Minnesota Vikings. Panini was resurrecting Donruss brands way back in 2012, using the Absolute set for this card, along with a little inspiration from Upper Deck thanks to the copper foil.

I never played football as a kid, but I've watched enough to know that the way DT is holding the ball out in midair like that is just asking for a fumble, especially since it looks like he's about to block an incoming Viking on his right.

Football cards are significantly easier to date than baseball cards. You know the year the card was printed, you can usually make a good guess as to whether it's a home or away game based on the jersey, and as long as there's some indication of who the opponent is, that's pretty much all you need.

This photo was taken on December 4th, 2011, as the Broncos were visiting the Vikings. Thomas had 4 catches for 144 yards, on the way to a 35-32 win. The Broncos won it with a field goal as time expired, which was pretty typical of the way the Broncos won games in the Tim Tebow days.

2016 Prestige Xtra Points Green #63 Von Miller

This is a road game, as the Broncos typically wear the all-white uniforms away from Denver. I can't determine the opponent, but that's okay, as the shiny green foil more than makes up for a bit of ambiguity. The front of the card also has a rainbow finish, and the rest of the background behind Miller fades into the darkness a little bit.

Miller, the Broncos' star outside linebacker, has been racking up sacks for several seasons, amassing 73.5 since beginning his career in 2011. No Bronco has ever been on the cover of a Madden video game, but Miller was briefly the "cover athlete" for the iOS/Android mobile version of the game. Whether he was on the splash screen or the icon, I don't know. But that alone sets him apart as a Bronco. He's sure to become a Ring of Famer when all is said and done, and his MVP award earned during Super Bowl 50 is only a small part of that.

So that catches me up on trade packages, but I still have plenty of birthday gifts and card show purchases still waiting their turn. Thanks again to Trevor, and here's hoping the Rockies keep up the great season so we're not waiting for the Broncos by the time August rolls around.

Antique Mall Mystery Pack: Expos

We're past the two-year anniversary of Infield Fly Rule, a date in mid-January that I blew past about six posts ago (and long before the Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50!). I did a giveaway and everything for my first anniversary, but this one slipped my mind. Once Off Hiatus Baseball Cards and Bob Walk The Plank write their anniversary posts, I know I didn't miss mine by much. The three of us entered this community right around the same time, though they've both done way more posts than I have.

But I have plenty of material to keep going, though perhaps not at the frenzied pace of others in the Cardsphere.

1994 Triple Play #91 Moises Alou

Material like yet another Mystery Pack from the antique mall. Obviously this one is of the Montreal Expos, the team that moved to Washington over a decade ago to become the Nationals. Perhaps no team suffered as much from the Strike as the Expos. As the 1994 season came to an abrupt close in mid-August, they had a commanding lead of the NL East, the best record in baseball, a small but passionate fan base, and a giant helping of bad timing.

Alou was one of the key members of that 1994 Expos team, but didn't get his chance to shine in the postseason until he joined the Marlins for their 1997 World Series championship. And I'm sure if you're a Cubs fan, all I have to do is say Moises Alou's name to trigger some unhappy memories. He did end up with his ring, though some other players from that team never did.

This might be the first time that I used the same set to end one post and begin the next. 1994 Triple Play must look a bit familiar by now, as the impact of those big cutout letters can't be missed.

Also, is it just me, or does the Expos logo look like a "JB"? A kid in my third grade class used to wear an Expos hat, and I spent months wondering what the heck JB stood for. I finally did see the puffy-looking "M" in that logo, but I don't remember who finally clued me in, whether it was my classmate, my dad, or someone else entirely.

1994 Triple Play #289 Cliff Floyd

Anyway, I thought I knew 1994 Triple Play pretty well until I saw this Rookie Revue subset card. It's part of the base set, but it's the first time I ever ran across anything like it. Upper Deck did some Star Rookie subsets that looked pretty much like this, didn't they?

1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #19 Michael Jordan

That's right, 1994 Upper Deck! Those are some pretty similar designs, which makes me wonder if one copied the other, or if they came to this independently. Of course, this is one of Michael Jordan's more well-known baseball cards (perhaps second only to his 1991 Upper Deck card), but this happens to be the Electric Diamond parallel—UD's answer to Topps Gold.

1993 Ultra #420 John Wetteland

Alou and Floyd both won their World Series rings with the '97 Marlins, Jordan almost has too many NBA championships to count (fine, six), and Wetteland took home MVP honors for the 1996 Yankees, their first World Series in almost twenty years. Wetteland was a stellar closer, though he passed the baton to the legendary Mariano Rivera after that.

I am guessing that this photo from 1993 (not 1992!) Fleer Ultra was taken at Wrigley Field. The slope of that foul territory wall looks about right, and it's definitely a day game, still a common thing in Chicago. Plus Fleer shot a ton of photos in Wrigley Field. Go check 1991 Fleer Ultra to see what I mean.

1993 Topps #69 John Vander Wal

We saw a card of John Vander Wal not long ago, as one came via trade from Brad. But before he was a Rockie, he was an Expo, reaching the Bigs for the team that drafted him.

Flip this card over and you'll see a strong influence from Leaf's Studio brand, as we get John's player data, complete professional stats, and fun facts like how he studied Civil War History, and enjoys snowmobiling and RC cars and airplanes in his free time.

If that's not a complete ripoff of 1991-1993 Studio, I don't know what is.

Topps has consistently been my favorite card brand, and honestly, if someone besides them had the exclusive MLB license right now I might be less interested in the hobby, but you have to admire all the competition and one-upmanship that was going on back then. Sure, they all printed billions of cards that are now pretty much worthless, but there was a firestorm of new ideas that hit the hobby in the space of a very few years. Pictures on the back and white card stock from Score in 1988, holograms from UD in 1989, right through the first relics and serial numbered cards in the mid 1990s.

Compared to that, new sparkly patterns and border colors don't really capture the imagination in the same way as seeing competitors push the limits of innovation. Or even blatantly rip off each other's ideas.

1993 Topps #89 Eric Anthony

Whoops, looks like an Astro snuck into this pack!

Though their team colors are quite different, and they played home games about two thousand miles apart, "Astros" and "Expos" sound enough alike to be confused from time to time. As I recall, my dad often mixed the two up, so whoever put this pack together had the same thought process. But I still have to pause when considering whether the Astros are playing an interleague game or not.

1991 Score #210 Tim Wallach

1991 Score is on my list of completed sets, so like everyone's Tim Wallach extras, this one will be headed to Corey at the Stackhouse Law Office. Happy to help the cause!

1993 Upper Deck #635 Kent Bottenfield

I don't know if Kent Bottenfield has British ancestry, but his name certainly sounds British. And not long after this card was printed, the Rockies traded a 2-8 Butch Henry to Montreal for Bottenfield, who ended up going a decent 6-6 in two seasons for the Rockies. One of those eight losses that Henry gave up was June 15, 1993, a game Tim Wallach also happened to play in.

Turns out a decent number of these Expos guys made it to Denver at some point in their careers. And we're not done yet!

1994 Collector's Choice Silver Signature #293 Rondell White

I don't remember much about Rondell White other than recognizing his name from a bunch of Expos cards in 1993-1994, though he had a surprisingly long career, and even made it to an All-Star Game in 2003. Just one of those guys that would pop up from time to time on some random team and you'd wonder aloud, "Oh, is that guy still playing?"

The image on this Silver Signature card was probably taken during his rookie year of 1993. He's just a righty, but it looks like he's wearing a switch-hitter's helmet with ear flaps on both sides. But if you look really closely, you'll notice that he's using Tim Wallach's bat!

I'm actually starting to have a bit of an affinity for this Wallach fellow. He's turning up everywhere. That's the third time he's turned up in this post alone.

1993 Score #488 B.J. Wallace

Remember that Kirby Puckett insert from 1993 Score I had never seen before? Well, here's a subset from 1993 Score I have never seen before. I have a good sixty-plus cards from that set, plus a few from the Dream Team subset, and plenty of the caricature All Star cards, but never a Draft Pick card. B.J. Wallace was picked third overall in 1992, but never made it past Double-A.

At least Greg Reynolds, picked second overall by the Rockies in 2006 ahead of Kershaw, Scherzer, and others, made it to the Majors. To snag B.J. Wallace, the Expos passed on Jason Kendall, Charles Johnson, Johnny Damon, Preston Wilson, Jeffrey Hammonds, and, most notably, Derek Jeter.

Oops. Clearly the best in the business get it wrong pretty often.

1993 Topps Black Gold #7 Marquis Grissom

1993 marked the debut of Topps Black Gold, the awesome insert set of my childhood. I pulled a few of them from packs, but I always stared longingly at the Ken Griffey, Jr. in the card shop, the one that always had a pretty hefty price tag for a nine-year old.

A guy like Marquis Grissom was much more reachable, and like many Expos players of this era, he did go on to win a World Series after the strike. In fact, he did so the very next year with the Braves, the only time Atlanta won a World Series during their decade-plus of dominating the NL East.

1993 Topps Black Gold #22 Larry Walker

Sadly, unlike many of the players you see in this post, Larry Walker never won a World Series. In fact, he never even won a World Series game, as the Cardinals were swept by the curse-breaking Red Sox in 2004, his only appearance in the Fall Classic. The Cardinals did end up winning in 2006, one year after Walker's retirement. That has to be quite a disappointment for a borderline Hall of Fame candidate. Still, he was a well-liked player in Colorado, one of the few stars to play in both the Blake Street Bomber era and as a contemporary of Todd Helton.

If I had a time machine, or at least an alternate-universe machine, I'd want to see what would have happened in 1994. And I bet Larry Walker would too.