Eight Clubby Nights: A Stadium Club Hanukkah (Night 2)

The first night of Hanukkah is kind of a big deal. It's usually the night when you might dig out the grater or food processor and begin the messy (but worth it) project of making potato latkes. You're reminded of the tradition in a religion that's steeped in tradition, and there's even a special third prayer to say that night, rather than just the usual two. Sometimes, the gift given on the first night is a bit bigger than the subsequent seven.

But once the sun sets a second time, and you start increasing the number of candles in the menorah, you can start doing fun things with all the different colors. My personal favorite is to save up all the blue and white ones until the final night and alternate their colors, and there's usually a night in there where you burn through your less favorite colors all in one go. You especially have to watch out for the red ones, because they have a tendency to drip like crazy.

You're still just getting started by the second night, and our second pack from this festive blaster of 2018 Topps Stadium Club represents just cards 6-10 of this theme. There is plenty yet to come.

2018 Stadium Club #135 Chance Sisco (RC)

Unlike the rookie in last night's post, Chance Sisco's early career looks a lot more promising. His .181 batting average this year needs quite a bit of work, but he's only 23 and already has experience in two seasons. Unfortunately, those two seasons both saw the Baltimore Orioles finish in last place. 2017 wasn't so bad, as a 75-87 record is generally good for about third or fourth place outside the AL East, but this year's 47-115 record took its place among the historically bad teams in baseball history.

There are usually some orange candles in your standard box of Hanukkah candles, so it's appropriate that we have a nice mix of color so far in these packs. Green is a rarity, but there's plenty of it behind Sisco as he holds his catcher's gear on a sunny day.

I'm always a fan of commemorative patches, and the one on Sisco's right sleeve marks the 25th year of Camden Yards, celebrated in 2017. It kicked off a flurry of construction of retro-classic ballparks around the league, including my beloved Coors Field.

2018 Stadium Club #19 Garrett Richards

Red candles are unavoidable during Hanukkah, and they tend to burn themselves out ten minutes before the rest, just because they drip so much. And Garrett Richards is dripping with red in this posed spring training shot, right down to his glove. I always thought gloves that weren't black or tan were pretty weird, especially the red ones. Probably because Mitch Williams wore a red glove, and he seemed like the oddest player on a 1993 Phillies team filled with odd players.

In little league, I was generally a middle infielder, that is, during the innings I wasn't way out in right field. I was definitely not a pitcher, and a knowledge of pitch grips and pitch paths remains one of the weaker areas of my baseball fandom. Richards, who will likely miss the 2019 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, shows us his version of the four-seam fastball.

This card has it right. He pitches at an ace level when healthy. Unfortunately, a healthy pitching arm has been elusive for Richards, as has command. Even when he went 13-4 in 2014, he led the AL in wild pitches, something he's done twice since then, including in an injury-shortened 2018. Still, the San Diego Padres have enough faith in him to sign him to a two-year deal, looking forward to 2020.

2018 Stadium Club Special Forces #SF-KB Kris Bryant

This pack's insert arrived one card earlier than last night. New for 2018 is the Special Forces insert set, or at least it's new since the brand's 2014 resurgence. Mid-'90s Stadium Club still surprises me, so this could very well have been a subset in past years. It's generally busy, and doesn't rank among my favorites as Topps insert sets go.

Kris Bryant, who was 2015's NL Rookie of the Year and 2016's NL MVP, appears exceptionally sharp on this photo. Printing technology has come a long way. It's more or less the difference between SD and HD video, and has progressed about as quickly. We even get to see Bryant's monogrammed blue and red batting gloves. There are Hanukkah colors all up and down this card. The back is pretty plain, and replaces the usual paragraph with a series of bullet points. "Serious quickness for a 6-foot-5 man", Topps opines.

Inserts are inserts, but it's definitely not as awesome as the Instavision parallel I pulled of Bryant last year.

2018 Stadium Club #163 Ryan Zimmerman

Now that's the way you do a horizontal card. I'm not sure exactly when this is from, but it likely shows Ryan Zimmerman triumphantly leaving the batter's box after what appears to be a walk-off hit of some kind. Most likely it's a homer; because that #11 you see on Zim's back also happens to be the number of walk-off home runs to his name, second only to Albert Pujols among active players.

Things were a little confusing when Jordan Zimmermann pitched for the Nats, but his ancestors did Ryan the courtesy of adding an extra "N" to the family name to avoid needing first initials. Ryan went by "Zim" on his Player's Weekend jersey, matching that sign in the stands, but he just as easily could have gone with "Mr. Walk Off", as he's commonly known in the D.C. area, and rightly so. He's closing in on Jim Thome's all-time record of 13.

2018 Stadium Club #20 Stephen Strasburg

Between these two and Daniel Murphy last night, this is rapidly becoming a Washington Nationals hot blaster, but that's just what red does on Hanukkah. It gets everywhere. Strasburg is even wearing a red jersey and going with the red knee-length socks. Even his beard is sort of reddish. I remember when he was a baby-faced youngster with a $25,000 1/1 rookie card and was drawing comparisons to Mark Fidrych.

I agree with one criticism of this set, that the team name is too faint. It's still pretty easy to tell, because Topps is more than happy to show off team logos. Still, with as much as players move around, it might be nice to have that outline just be a little bit thicker.

The obvious National missing so far is Bryce Harper, who won the 2018 Home Run Derby in front of his home crowd, but he's nearly certain to play for another team next year.

I haven't managed to pull any Rockies yet, but fortunately I have several already, thanks to a group break that Trevor ran over the summer, including an extremely rare Jon Gray parallel.

Each night it gets just a little brighter, so we'll see what tomorrow's pack yields soon enough. Harper can't be far behind, given the way this blaster has gone so far.

The Trading Post #84: Jaybarkerfan's Junk

Anytime you see a package on its way to you from Hazel Green, Ala., you know that some goodies are on their way from Jaybarkerfan's Junk. The creator of the #Supertraders group made sure that all his readers were able to get in on some holiday trading action. He ran what he called a Trade-a-Thon in November, offering each reader the chance to claim up to five cards throughout the two-week process. I claimed four, and even with the bonus pack he threw in, this will be a rare post without any Rockies.

2008 UD Masterpieces #5 Max Scherzer (RC)

Upper Deck Masterpieces is an absolutely beautiful set. 2008 was the second of only two years that UD printed this product. Even with short prints, it's only a 120-card checklist, but they did an absolutely terrific job selecting players for the set. Max Scherzer, who had no Major League experience when this card was printed, has gone on to win two Cy Young Awards, and he threw two no-hitters in 2015. The first of those was only a pitch away from being a perfect game, but one pitch got a little bit away from him, Jose Tabata leaned into it, and Scherzer had to settle for a no-hitter.

It's a heck of a card to get your Rookie Card logo on. Upper Deck couldn't know how dominant he would become, and we've all seen our share of busted prospects, but things worked out really well for this card, and more importantly, for Max Scherzer.

2010 Bowman Prospects Black #BP1 Stephen Strasburg

Scherzer spent the majority of his career so far in Detroit, but now shares the rotation with Stephen Strasburg on the Washington Nationals. Strasburg was the most hyped pitching prospect in recent memory, drawing comparisons to Mark Fidrych. Watching his debut back in 2010 was quite impressive, as he struck out fourteen Pirates in his first-ever start. Unfortunately, he needed Tommy John surgery shortly after that, but he's settled into a groove in the Nats' pitching staff. The Nationals have had a pretty terrifying rotation ever since his debut, fielding guys like Gio Gonzalez, Doug Fister, Jordan Zimmerman, etc....

Of course, this card itself has quite the story behind it. Strasburg mania was in full force in late spring 2010, and there was finally a Bowman gold mine out there. They print cards of virtually every young prospect out there, many of whom never make it to the Majors. But Strasburg's First Bowman Card was the rare item that briefly brought baseball cards back into the national spotlight. His /1 Superfractor parallel of this Bowman card was found in 2010, and promptly spiraled to a five-figure sale price on eBay. Just months later, it changed hands again for $25k. The national media didn't miss that story, and I'm sure that millions of Americans that hadn't paid attention to the hobby for years or even decades got a crash course in the existence of parallels, printing plates, and /1 products.

The above is a parallel itself, the black-bordered variety. Bowman's base Prospect set that year actually used a white border, saving the black borders for a parallel set.

So while I don't have the Superfractor that's worth as much as a new car, I am able to add a parallel to my collection that reminds me of the Strasburg Fever that gripped the nation in 2010.

2004 Fleer InScribed #80 Tom Seaver RET /1000

Fleer made a lot of sets in their final few years of existence. I thought I had seen most of them, but this Inscribed set is new to my eyes. 2004 was the only year of this set, but it's pretty striking. The thick black border has a matte finish with some silver foil (including that serial number). The background of the photo is also matte, but the player's image itself is glossy. It's a minimalist design, and all the right elements catch the light, while others fade into the background. The "Inscribed" logo at the top isn't my favorite, but I'd be interested in finding more of these.

Only the ten retired players in this set got the /1000 serial number, and all ten of those are Hall of Famers. There were also fifteen rookies rounding out the main set at a print run of /750, containing a few recognizable names like Matt Holliday, Yadier Molina, and Kevin Youkilis.

Seaver had a long, Hall-of-Fame worthy career, but this card only had room for five seasons. Fleer featured his early time on the Mets for this card, giving us stats from 1969 through 1973. During that time, he led the league in strikeouts and ERA three times, somehow managing to miss out on the Cy Young Award for two of those seasons. During that same span, he appeared in two World Series, winning one, was an All-Star in each of those five seasons, and might have gotten into the Hall on those five seasons alone, not even counting the other fifteen seasons he pitched.

Not sure if Strasburg will join Seaver in the Hall of Fame, but I like Scherzer's chances.

1992 Triple Play Gallery #GS-11 Cal Ripken, Jr.

It wasn't all pitchers in this package. I have a soft spot for these early-1990s Donruss insert cards after they finally decided to evolve their design a bit. Cal Ripken, Jr. was definitely one of my favorite players when he was still active. I didn't get to see much of him at all, since it was pretty tough to see American League games back then, especially before Interleague Play. The All Star Game was usually the only time he'd make a TV appearance in my household. Cable, not to mention MLB.TV, has really changed things.

Of course, this card mentions his streak of consecutive games played, a record he'd break about three seasons later, toward the end of 1995. I remember being in sixth grade when that happened, and that many of my classmates chose the occasion to feature in their "Current Events" presentations to the class.

Ripken wasn't just known for his longevity, like Omar Vizquel or Jamie Moyer. He was darn talented out there, winning two MVP awards in his career, and making the All-Star team every year from 1983 until his retirement in 2001. He even hit a first-pitch homer in that 2001 All-Star Game in Seattle.

Not a bad way for one of my favorite all-time players to wrap up a legendary career.

1986 Sportflics #8 Cal Ripken, Jr.

My fellow Supertrader didn't stop there though. He even threw in an unopened pack of cards for his Trade-a-Thon participants, and I ended up with a pack of 1986 Sportflics. I bought some of the 1994 product, but I didn't really know this brand went back further than that. I might have a card or two from the 1990 set, but definitely none this old.

Of course, these never scan well, but the lenticular printing process on this card allows for one of three images to be visible, depending on how the card is tilted. A much younger Ripken, only several hundred games into his streak, gets one headshot and two action shots at the plate. I'm sure he sat a few late innings later in the streak, but at the time of printing, he hadn't sat a single inning in 603 games. That's nearly 5,500 straight innings!

There were a couple of miniature trivia cards in here, a little smaller than those World Series History lenticular insert cards from 1991 Score. On these, we learn that Ernie Banks holds the NL Record for most Grand Slams in a single season, with 5. Albert Pujols has since tied that NL mark, and a couple AL'ers even surpassed it with 6. Travis Hafner did it about a decade ago, as did Don Mattingly just a year after this was printed. The other Trivia card is about Mike Schmidt, then the active player with the most Gold Glove awards.

1986 Sportflics #179 1985 Gold Glove

I found this final card to be quite interesting, and I assumed that these Sportflics cards just displayed two images like they did in 1994, until I looked more closely. This is something like a League Leader card, but riffing off of the second trivia card, they picked six 1985 Gold Glovers to feature. The three photos on the top (Don Mattingly, George Brett, and Keith Hernandez) are posed shots, while the three on the bottom (Willie McGee, Ron Guidry, and Dale Murphy) are action photos. My scanner preferred to show Brett and Guidry, plus a ghostly inclusion of McGee's bat.

By the way, the presence of Dale Murphy makes this ever-so-slightly a Rockies post, as the two-time MVP signed as a free agent with the Rockies in 1993 and played 26 games for them before retiring.

Anyway, these six players all led a statistic in 1985, as well as an award for defensive excellence. Every position has a Gold Glove winner (sometimes co-winners), so there's no mention of thirteen other players, unlike what we might see on a more traditional League Leaders card.

Keith Hernandez led the NL in Game-Winning RBIs in 1985, a statistic that isn't tracked anymore. There was quite a bit of debate about whom to actually credit with a GW-RBI (the back of 1987 Topps went wild over this stat). A walkoff hit is easy enough to figure out, but when your team takes the lead by three in the 7th, for example, but ends up only winning by one, the GW-RBI went to the player that took the lead, not the player that padded the cushion enough.

To my mind, that sounds pretty much the same as how a winning pitcher is determined. All a team has to do is keep a lead to ensure a pitcher gets the win. It can be a cat-and-mouse game all night, but as long as the lower-scoring team doesn't at least tie it, the pitcher of record remains the same. I'm sure better statisticians than I can explain the nuances of why tracking Wins that way is fine, but GW-RBIs isn't. But I digress.

When the statistic existed, no one had more than Keith Hernandez, thanks in large part to his 1985 performance. And we definitely just went down a statistical rabbit hole there, but they're an integral part of baseball, now more than ever.

Just like trading is an integral part of card collecting.