Ceremonial First Penguin

We're slightly closer to Opening Day than we are to Game 7 of the 2025 World Series. Baseball will soon return, and this year we have the World Baseball Classic to whet our appetites.

In the meantime, the hot stove season has been heating up again, with most of the remaining big free agents completing their upcoming deals. It hit the wire today that the Mets landed Bo Bichette, yesterday the Dodgers signed yet another superstar in Kyle Tucker, and Alex Bregman will be headed to the Windy City.

Bregman will be crosstown rivals with a particular feathered friend who threw the ceremonial first pitch at a White Sox game last season, as documented on a Topps Now card.

2025 Topps Now #276 Pepe the Penguin /3720

Pepe, a Humboldt Penguin who resides at the nearby Brookfield Zoo, popped over to Rate Field on Chicago's South Side last spring for World Ocean Day, documented in this adorable video. 

3,720 of my fellow flightless bird lovers picked up the Topps Now card documenting the occasion in honor of World Ocean Day, although I believe I bought this one on the secondary market rather than directly from Topps.

That's my second Topps Now card with a bird on it. Only about 11,000 more species to go.

Whether its cards or birds, I'll always be a collector at heart. I couldn't even begin to guess how many cards are in my collection, but I have seen 257 unique bird species since I picked this hobby up during the early days of the pandemic.

We don't count zoo animals.

2025 Topps Now #497 Brenton Doyle /389

I visit the zoo on occasion, but you're more likely to find me at the science museum, which is where I was when the Rockies staged their amazing 17-16 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in early August last year. I was so fired up by that win that it inspired me to write a whole post about it, so naturally I picked up the Topps Now card highlighting the game's biggest hero, Brenton Doyle. 

This one had a much smaller print run at just 389, but it gives us a great look at the second release of the City Connect uniforms the Rockies now wear. Personally, I preferred their license-plate themed green and white alternates. The new alternates are a mix of blue, purple, pink, and orange. They're meant to generally represent the outdoors of Colorado, especially the eye-popping sunsets we get a great view of at Coors Field, but I have heard several fans critique them as looking like a 1990s Taco Bell uniform.

In any case, a win is a win, albeit one of only 43 the team put together last year. In response, the Rockies have finally decided to make some (potentially) meaningful changes to the front office, hiring Paul DePodesta to run the show at 20th and Blake. You might remember Jonah Hill playing him in the Moneyball movie.

We'll see what happens, but fans are cautiously optimistic that this season might be the sign of better things to come. We're still a long way off from guys like Schwarber or Bregman signing here, but they've made a couple interesting free-agent pickups thus far. Willi Castro just signed a 2-year deal with the team, who should be a helpful utility player. He'll join Michael Lorenzen, who the Rockies formally inked yesterday, a veteran pitcher who is eager to meet the challenge and has some possible two-way potential. They call the new pitcher/DH regulations the Ohtani Rule, but the rule is available for any team to try.

2017 Topps Update #US28 Drew Robinson (RC)

Today is a quick three-card post, concluding with one of my Eight Men Out cards. It's from the 2017 Topps Update set, which is getting a bit far back in years already. Drew Robinson, pictured here on his rookie card, played a handful of games for the Texas Rangers and then later as a Cardinal. His career bWAR is -0.4, so you may not have much memory of him as a player. 

He is more well-known for an off-the-field reason, in that he survived a suicide attempt in April 2020. Since then, as part of his recovery, he has become an advocate for mental health, even serving in that capacity for the San Francisco Giants front office.

Sadly, he lost an eye and experienced other injuries on that day in 2020, but he did mount a comeback in the minors for the Sacramento River Cats in 2021, before deciding to retire. It's an inspirational story, a reminder that mental health is a priority for all of us, even for those living the Major League dream. His story isn't over, and as the saying goes, "where there is life, there is hope."

There's more to this set than Aaron Judge's rookie card.

Take care of yourselves.

Bees?

Remember that Diamondbacks game where a swarm of bees decided that the backstop would be a great place to set up shop? And they had to bring in a local beekeeper to vacuum them all up so the game could start? And then he victoriously threw out the first pitch?

2024 Topps NOW #145 Matt Hilton /16946

That was April 30th of last year.

Feels like ancient history.

But at the time, I was amused enough by this whole saga to be one of 16,946 Topps customers to order the related Topps Now card. Topps spared no expense in cranking out the bee puns front and back, warning us to "Bee very afraid" while "fans swarmed into Chase Field" to see the Dodgers and Diamondbacks "causing some buzz", etc....

The Diamondbacks ran with it, too. Beekeeper Matt Hilton even got a bobblehead later in the season.

At the end of the day, these cards are just toys. Might as well have some fun with it. 

2024 Topps NOW #774 Charlie Blackmon /1348

But it was a more serious atmosphere at Coors Field on September 29th, 2024, the date that career Rockie and four-time All-Star Charlie Blackmon finally decided to hang up the spikes. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Denver, marking my seventh game of the season, and the first time I saw both the home opener and the final game in the same year. I sprung for a Club Level ticket to see Chuck Nazty off, and got there early to catch all the pre-game ceremonies.

Charlie got the honor of taking the field alone in the first inning, jogging out to his usual spot in center field, only this time with his uniform #19 mowed into the grass. He got a hit in his first at bat, left the game, and that was a wrap.

The card documenting the occasion was the third and final Topps Now card I bought in 2024. There's no paragraph on the back, just a photo of #19 high-fiving the fans as the team did their annual farewell lap of the warning track after the game ended. Incidentally, Charlie got a cameo on Ryan McMahon's Topps Now card from the 2024 home opener, bookending the season nicely.

2024 Topps NOW #39 Ryan McMahon /888 (Reverse)

In the little Spring Training action I've seen thus far in 2025, the team does have a different feel. The young guys that have peppered the Top 100 Prospects list are working their way up the farm system, and new fan favorites will emerge. Blackmon is still with the club in a front-office role as "Special Assistant to the General Manager," a title he shares with Vinny Castilla, Todd Helton, and Clint Hurdle.

You may recall that the Rockies gave Todd Helton a real live horse as his retirement gift in 2013. Charlie got his own steed, of sorts, as the team removed the promotional Toyota Tundra pickup truck from near the scoreboard in left field and gifted it to Charlie as a going-away present. There was a whole video on the scoreboard showing a huge crane taking it down the day before, and while I did vaguely note the truck's absence from its usual spot at the ballpark, I didn't quite put two and two together until they drove it onto the field.

I just hope Charlie doesn't run out of gas again, as DJ LeMahieu isn't in town to save him anymore.

2024 was a slow year on the baseball card front for me. I bought a couple blasters, received a few gifts, and picked up the Topps Factory Set, as is tradition. But I did feed a little nostalgia and branched far off the traditional path with one purchase.

Magic: The Gathering - Ice Age: Polar Kraken

To go along with the one Pokémon card in my entire collection, feast your eyes on what is now the one and only Magic: The Gathering card in my entire collection. 

I don't have the slightest idea what any of these numbers or symbols mean, but I do have a couple friends I could ask. And I only paid a few dollars for this on eBay, far below the value of the legendary Black Lotus card.

No, it's just the one particular card I remember seeing in my friend's collection in middle school, and that's about it. And now Seattle has a whole NHL team named after this mythical beast.

 

Back to baseball.

Chris over at Nachos Grande is running another Breaker's Club group, which got underway earlier this week. I didn't see a blog post about it, so those may be exclusively advertised on Discord now. I'm sure it's a lot of work to manage that in more than one place, and I might just be missing recent posts, but it's just another sign of the times that the blog community isn't what it once was. It's not lost on me that I only did four posts during the entire last year. Not that long ago I could crank four out in a long weekend or two. That's only half a Hanukkah!

Anyway, I bought in for the Rockies as I often do. Prior to that, I did have a couple boxes of cards to sort through from past Breaker's Clubs, and that was my main collecting accomplishment of 2024. It felt good to get those organized, as they had been sitting there a while. 

I don't remember anything major jumping out at me, but the one set I wrote down to mention in a future post was 1995 Bazooka. I don't trust Google Search as much as I once did, but I am not seeing any mention of this set on my blog before today. That surprises me, because in looking at the two-plus pages I have of this set in my 1995 binder, a few of these look extremely familiar. 

1995 Bazooka #102 Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor running the bases as a Blue Jay on Astroturf.

1995 Bazooka #113 Kirby Puckett

Kirby Puckett wearing a catcher's mitt.

1995 Bazooka #26 Robin Ventura

Robin Ventura on Tatooine, shielding his eyes from the twin suns with his fancy blue shades.

I could practically draw some of these from memory.

1995 Bazooka #83 Andrés Galarraga

But the Rockies look unfamiliar. Maybe the Bichette I already had, but this Galarraga, my favorite player from the Blake Street Bombers squad, doesn't ring a bell. It's probably the card that made me write a future reminder to myself.

It's a pretty basic photo and design for an entry-level set, complete with drop shadows under the lettering. The one unique design element is the position list on the right. It always seems to be on the right edge in this set regardless of whether it fits the photo or not, and the highlighted position comes in a variety of primary and secondary colors. Pitchers had four options depending on their handedness and role, and is likely the first time I ever saw the letters LHSP appear together in sequence.

Any color coding on the position markers appears to be purely coincidental. I saw it appear in purple on Expos, Dodgers, Blue Jays, and several other team cards, but Andrés Galarraga plays first base in green.

I don't make the rules now, and I certainly didn't in 1995.

As a 1995 release, of course these come in a parallel variety.

1995 Bazooka Red Hot #RH-6 Tony Gwynn

It's a partial parallel set called Red Hot, which has a red background and position marker, as well as that most '90s of premium design elements, gold foil. "Red Hot" isn't labeled anywhere on the card; it's just something I remembered from thirty years ago without having to look it up.

This hobby is nestled deep in my brain, truly.

Parallel or not, all varieties allow you to play the "Play Ball" game via a circular grid on the card back. It's meant to pair with a spinning pointer, conveniently included inside packs and awkwardly branded the "ToppSpinner".

This set is only 132 cards, a single Topps printing sheet. It wouldn't be terribly hard to complete or even to make a huge dent in the checklist for a minimal cost.

We'll see what 2025 has in store and whether I'll beat four posts this year.

 

This Is 40

In my previous post, I mentioned the occasion of reaching my 10th blog anniversary. What I didn't point out is that I had not quite turned thirty when I clicked "Publish" for the very first time. A glance at the yearly archives list and a simple bit of math will lead you to the conclusion that I recently hit the big 4-0.

Another trip around the sun means my mom checked my Eight Men Out list again, and a few more cards found their way to me.

1996 Zenith Mozaics #12 Andrés Galarraga / Dante Bichette / Larry Walker

Leading off today is a shiny (Dufex, in fact) card of a trio of Blake Street Bombers. Arranged in a vaguely stained-glass collage style, the 25-card Mozaics insert set from 1996 Zenith combined three teammates per card. Featured for the Rockies, and referred to only by first name on the card back, were Andrés Galarraga, Dante Bichette, and Larry Walker. I'm pretty sure that's Eric Young, Sr. making a cameo in the Galarraga frame, and the design is embellished with a few assorted baseball equipment items, and lots and lots of gold capital letters.

It's a busy card. It looks like the smallest-ever scrapbook page. Note that "Mozaics" is deliberately misspelled with a "z" for "Zenith", because we did things like that in the '90s.

I'm not sure where I first saw this set. It might have been on one of Nachos Grande's group breaks, which is my primary connection to the hobby these days. But I knew it would be a great collectible right from the jump. (Update: it was this post from Mario.)

1994 Topps Gold #396 Jeff Bronkey

Continuing my ongoing quest to complete the Topps Gold checklist replacement cards printed from 1992-1994, here's the third such card to enter my collection from the 1994 Gold set. It features the only MLB player born in Afghanistan, Jeff Bronkey. This fact was mentioned on the card back, and remains true today. He briefly played in three seasons for the Rangers and Brewers, earning two saves in his short career.

Topps managed to shrink the typeface enough in 1994 to get the checklists onto only two cards per series, down from three each series in 1993. That means I only need one more to complete the 1994 run of these rarely-seen parallels.

2020 Topps National Baseball Card Day #10 Nolan Arenado

As the seasons continue on, the memory of Nolan Arenado as a Rockie feels more and more distant. While his time in St. Louis hasn't been as strong as hoped, his absence from 20th and Blake is striking. 

Occupying the same #10 in the checklist as he did in 2019, this card celebrating National Baseball Card Day 2020 featured Nolan and his fifth straight season with 35 home runs and 110 RBIs. That sustained performance was an "unprecedented" feat for a third baseman, a word that got far too much usage in 2020.

Though it's a 2020 card, the photo itself dates from 2019, as we can tell from two pieces of evidence. First, the MLB 150 patch on Arenado's right sleeve, worn league-wide throughout the 2019 season. Second, actual fans are in the seats.

Of the three cards Mom gave me for my birthday, this one was all her doing, and she picked well. She always does.

1984 Topps #750 Jim Palmer (AU)

The birthday festivities don't end there, though.

My new father-in-law is another guy I can count on, as he's been giving me autographs for years. My in-laws took us out to lunch at a nearby pizza spot, and there he added to my collection with this autograph of Jim Palmer on a 1984 Topps card. The card itself is a new addition, as is Palmer's autograph to my much more limited autograph collection. 

I always like how Hall of Famers sign with their year of induction, in Palmer's case 1990. He and Joe Morgan were the two inductees that year, both on their first ballot.

In 1984, Palmer was fresh off his third and final World Series championship, appearing in a few games before seeing his long and storied career reach an end. No one printed a card for him in 1985, so this is the closest he came to getting a true sunset card.

2024 Topps NOW #39 Ryan McMahon /888

My birthday doesn't quite stretch out to Opening Day, but spring training is always well underway by the time I blow out the candles. It's a fun time of year. Only a few weeks later, we were together again at the Rockies home opener, thanks to his longtime coworker Dianna.

It's a fun tradition, especially when the beers are flowing long before first pitch. And despite an extremely disappointing top of the 9th, I was there to see Ryan McMahon win it for the Rockies with a walkoff grand slam in the bottom of that same frame, and 888 buyers, myself included, decided they wanted to see this moment on a Topps Now baseball card.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, the card back doesn't have a paragraph, just a photo of Charlie Blackmon pouring out the sports drink cooler all over McMahon. RyMac, as he's known, has been one of the few bright spots of what has thus far been a pretty dismal Rockies season.

In the past decade, while there have been tears, loss, frustration, and grief, more often than not I've been the beneficiary of great strokes of luck and good fortune, and this little baseball card blog is just the tiniest part of it. My collection has grown, yes, but my life has grown in immeasurable ways. The simple fact that people in my life continue to show their appreciation in ways ranging from these little rectangular pieces of cardboard to acts of unforgettable generosity must mean that I've been doing something right these past 40 years.

 

There Is NOW a Bird on the Field

I haven't been particularly interested in any 2022 product, beyond of course Stadium Club, whenever that hits shelves, and Opening Day. However, Topps has managed to extract some money from me by printing up a couple Topps NOW cards that caught my attention.

Early in this crazy 2022 Postseason, while the 111-win Dodgers were hosting the San Diego Padres, a member of the avian community decided to pay Dodger Stadium a visit.

2022 Topps NOW #1066 Goose On The Loose /2889

In the 8th inning of NLDS Game 2, a Greater White-fronted Goose, initially misidentified on the broadcast as a duck, took up a position in shallow right-center field. Play continued for a bit until the grounds crew managed to trap the exhausted animal in a recycling bin and carry it off the field.

This is right up my alley. I've become quite the avid birder these past couple years (in case you're wanting an explanation for my dramatic drop-off in posting frequency), so of course I bought the Topps NOW card showing the goose as it flew around the infield. I must admit a touch of envy, as the only photograph I've ever managed to capture of this species was far less sharp.

The goose became a mascot of sorts for the Padres during the remainder of their run in the Postseason. They managed to upend the Dodgers to eliminate one of several heavily-favored teams that had an early exit this season. Perhaps their feathered friend helped them out a bit.

All kidding aside, this poor goose was in all likelihood scared out of its wits. Mid-October is roughly the tail end of the fall migration season, and its journey south was probably disoriented and interrupted by the bright beacons of light at Dodger Stadium. Most bird migration happens at night, which is better for the birds to avoid predators and take advantage of cooler, calmer air. But our well-lit cityscapes play havoc on their migration paths.

This bird ended up being lucky, all things considered. A frightening but brief visit to Dodger Stadium is a lot better than flying into a window, which sadly is how up to a billion birds each year meet their untimely demise.

Fortunately, many cities in the busiest migration paths, or "flyways", have recently implemented initiatives to encourage businesses and residents to turn out the lights during the busiest times of migration season. This is also done at the 9/11 memorial in New York, where they turn off the upward-facing shafts of light for several minutes to allow disoriented birds to scatter and continue on their way.

Maybe playing Postseason games at 1:30pm on a Wednesday isn't so bad after all.

2022 Topps NOW #699 Wynton Bernard /787

I did pick up a second Topps NOW card this year, this one of longtime Minor League player Wynton Bernard, who finally got his long-awaited call up in mid-August. He had been toiling away in the minors for a decade before making his Big League debut at the age of 31.

The Athletic did a great story on him, detailing how he leaned on his mentors, including Ken Griffey, Jr., in his long, winding journey to The Show. His FaceTime call with his mother where he shared the good news was a bright spot in the social media world.

His debut game was August 12th, and he tallied his first hit (following a replay review), stolen base, and run that day. It was a real heartwarming highlight of the Rockies season, one in which they contributed mightily to the 111-win count of the Dodgers.

Topps didn't miss a beat, giving Bernard his first Major League card. Prior to that, he only had a few minor league cards dating back to 2014, although I'm not sure if Topps Now cards count as true Rookie Cards. The goose made an impression on oddball-loving collectors, earning a print run of 2,889, but only 787 collectors like myself picked up Wynton Bernard's quasi-Rookie Card.

So there you have it, those are the two most important highlights of the 2022 season according to Infield Fly Rule.

Weekend Roundup

I've obtained a grand total of two new cards so far in 2021. I still have piles of 2020 cards everywhere, but at this point I'm taking on a bit of a LIFO inventory model just to stay somewhat relevant. No new trips to Target because they're not offering cards as part of their pickup option, no orders from Dave & Adam's, no assorted packs. I've mainly just been watching the hobby get crazier and crazier, with NFTs and seven-figure rookie cards and Topps making a pretty insensitive blunder.

Topps Bunt has been taking up a lot of my time and attention, though. 

I do a lot of my writing when I can watch sports in the background, but even those opportunities have been few and far between. Spring Training isn't really capturing my attention, I didn't bother filling out an NCAA bracket for March Madness and didn't even know that my alma mater was participating until about three hours ago, and the other things like golf and such just haven't spoken to me. Yes, the NBA and NHL seasons are continuing, but it's quite difficult to legally watch my local teams due to the ongoing impasse between the RSN and the cable provider, which has lasted nearly two years and shows no signs of improving.

In short, sports has drifted pretty far down my list of interests, and likewise, so has collecting. In fact, my first purchase of 2021 has nothing to do with sports.

2020-21 Topps Now Election #21 Bernie Sanders Attends 59th Presidential Inauguration Ceremony /91,169

We're now two months into the Biden Presidency, and vaccine rates have improved dramatically. As of yesterday, I'm now considered eligible, and am keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to find an appointment soon. But we had to formally begin this Presidency with an Inauguration, and along with Amanda Gorman's wonderful poem, one of the highlights of that event was this now-famous photo of Senator Bernie Sanders ready for a New England winter.

Some people knitted his mittens. Some people crocheted a little figure of Sanders himself. Some people pointed out that a person only needs one good coat, after noticing that he's wearing the same coat from his "I am once again asking" meme. A friend of mine bought a coffee mug with this image and "The Man, The Myth, The Mittens" next to it.

I bought the Topps Now card. A lot of people did, as it smashed the record for a Topps Now print run, coming in at 91,169. That far outpaced Dr. Fauci's first pitch card at a mere 51,512.

I quite enjoyed reading the photographer's take on it, too. You can never plan something like this. You just have to be ready.

In addition to the occupant of the White House, a lot more has changed in the past year. But one thing that hasn't is that my mom still checks my Eight Men Out list for birthday gift ideas. 

2015 Topps Mini #62 Nolan Arenado

Unfortunately, Nolan Arenado is no longer a Colorado Rockie. But he was back in 2015, and he'll forever be pictured as a Rockie in '15 Topps. This Arenado is the penultimate one I need to finish the team set from 2015 Topps Mini, with only a three-player League Leader card remaining. Julie from A Cracked Bat sent almost the entire team set a little over four years ago, and because the League Leader card doesn't have the same border, I've now added the maximum possible amount of purple to that binder page. 

It's strange to think this set came out six years ago, and this photo of a youthful-looking Nolan is from all the way back in 2014. It's a solid Coors Field card showing him following through on a swing, even though he's better known for his fantastic defense. None of us should have been surprised at his eight consecutive Gold Gloves. 

That said, I certainly didn't think Arenado would be playing for the Cardinals by the time this Eight Men Out need came in, but the world is an unpredictable place. This is why no one has ever done a perfect bracket, for example. But even in an unpredictable world, come what may, things will always feel at least a little bit normal if I keep getting baseball cards for my birthday.

NOW it's the Second-Longest Homer of 2019

I think it's officially a trend. Once spring and summer roll around, I seem to become a one-post-per-month sort of guy. What have I been up to in all that time? The weather has been pretty nice, so I've been spending a good deal of time outdoors. And some of that outdoors time involves watching live baseball at Coors Field.

Since my previous post exactly a month ago, I've been to four Rockies games, all of which they won. The first one was a freezing cold night where it rained and dipped into the low 40s. The rest were much more pleasant, and I saw some long home runs. My friend and I went to see the Cubbies in mid-June, and Ian Desmond drilled one 486 feet onto the left field concourse as a pinch hitter that night.

Speaking of the Cubs, you really should watch the clip of Cookie Monster doing the 7th Inning Stretch at Wrigley today.

Anyway, I've seen lots of huge home runs in the thin Denver air over the years, including some by Trevor Story. But that one from Desmond was just unbelievable. My initial guess from way on the other side of the stadium was 470', but even that underestimated it.

I decided that an occasion like that warranted my first Topps NOW purchase of the year, the subject of this one-card post.

2019 Topps NOW #357 Ian Desmond /146

Check out that power stroke. The current school of thought around the launch angle is very well represented on this card. And at the time, it was the longest home run in baseball this season. However, it didn't take long for someone to eclipse it, which Nomar Mazara did less than a week ago. His moonshot went 505 feet, far into the upper deck in Globe Life Park, home of the Rangers. More than a few fans didn't expect to see a baseball come that far up the seats.

I don't remember exactly which day this arrived in the mail, but Topps NOW might not have been quick enough to get this card to me before the record was smashed. Overall, the 2019 NOW design is pretty similar to years past, but they do a good job with the product. Of all the times I intended to purchase a Topps NOW card, they've never failed to create the card I had in mind. They are pricey, but I really do enjoy having a memento from a game I actually attended.

And if we're being honest, they're not much more expensive than a hot dog.

NOW We Finally Have Some Pitching

The season was almost over when I finally pulled the trigger, but I finally ordered some 2018 Topps Now cards. Sadly, their season was over by the time they arrived, even though I ordered them when the Rockies were on fire and looking great for another Postseason run. It just goes to show you how quickly your fortunes can change in this sport.

2018 Topps Now #791 German Marquez /194

Rockies starter German Marquez pitched a few high-profile games toward the end of the 2018 season on their way to their second straight Wild Card spot. More on that later, but the Rockies beat up on the Phillies in a 14-0 win on September 26th, 2018, the third game of a four-game set that the Rockies swept. I attended the first one of that series, the final contest I was able to visit during the regular season. It was a win, but I chose to get the Topps Now card from Wednesday's game, thanks to German Marquez tying a modern-era Major League record. That makes it the second Marquez Topps Now card in my collection.

Marquez struck out eight straight batters to begin the game, tying a record set by Jim Deshaies in 1986 and tied by Jacob DeGrom in 2012, which we know thanks to the helpful paragraph on the card back. That card back has some faint rainbow-colored Topps logos, basically a series of watermarks. What it doesn't tell us is that during this early-innings streak, German Marquez passed Ubaldo Jimenez to become the Rockies' single-season strikeout leader, finishing the year with 230.

It was an impressive performance, and even though a couple batters got on base to end the streak at eight, Marquez struck out another batter to end the third inning, meaning he got his first nine outs via the strikeout. And as soon as it happened, I knew exactly which card to pair it with, assuming Topps released a NOW card for the feat.

1987 Topps #2 Jim Deshaies RB

Long before Topps NOW, Topps opened their annual sets with a subset of Record Breaker cards, and this one of Jim Deshaies, the first player to set the modern record of eight strikeouts to start a game, is a card that's been in my collection since the very beginning. This 1987 Topps card has been replaced over the years, but it's one of the most familiar cards I own. It might have even been at the very top of the once-small stack that comprised my entire collection, since even back then I was alphabetizing cards by team. None of the 1987 Angels cards jump out at me, so this is pretty much Side 1, Track 1 of my baseball card collection.

Despite this being more or less my first-ever baseball card, it still has things to teach me. I keep saying that this 8-strikeout opener is a "modern" record, because according to Deshaies' card back, there was a game way back in 1884 where Hall-of-Famer Mickey Welch started a game with nine Ks.

The strikeout story doesn't end there, because in his very next start during the NL Tiebreaker game against the Dodgers, Marquez tied another mark, recording four strikeouts in one inning. Many pitchers have reached that catcher-assisted record, this time thanks to a passed ball from Tony Wolters. It ended up being extremely costly, because instead of Max Muncy sitting in the dugout as the first out, he remained on first base after the third strikeout, at which point Cody Bellinger hit a home run to lead the the Dodgers to a sixth straight division title.

That set up a Wild Card matchup between the Rockies and Cubs at Wrigley Field, and let's just say Rockies managed to earn another Topps NOW card, despite 13 innings of little offense and terrible announcing from ESPN.

2018 Topps Now #834 Colorado Rockies /360

I covered the results of the NL Wild Card game in my previous post, which ended up being the only Rockies win of the postseason. Lots of Rockies are visible on this team card, including Nolan Arenado, Scott Oberg, Garrett Hampson, and the backup catcher with the game-winning hit, Tony Wolters. Topps was sure to mention that the Rockies played games in three time zones in three days, something that had to take a toll on the team. Sunday was in Denver, Monday was in L.A., and Tuesday was in Chicago.

None of that would be possible without air travel, which reminds me of an interesting article I read recently on the Washington Nationals and all the behind-the-scenes logistics management that it takes to field a Major League team.

German Marquez would take the mound one final time in 2018, starting NLDS Game 3 at home against the Brewers. I had the good fortune to snag four seats in the upper deck, two rows from the top. It was cold, cloudy, and rainy, and the offense that was on display during the final week of the regular season was nowhere to be found. Go figure, the team finally has some solid pitching, and the bats shut down.

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The playoff colors are flying at Coors Field! Let’s get a win in NLDS game 3! #nlds #rockies #postseason #ilovecoorsfield #baseball

A post shared by AdamK (@adamk0310) on Oct 7, 2018 at 12:13pm PDT

It was just the tenth postseason game ever played at Coors Field, and I've been to two of them. I'd really love to see these banners around the ballpark more frequently, but we'll have to wait until next year. The Brewers look great, and I can't help but wonder how this postseason would look if the Rockies had managed to win the division for the first time ever. They would have hosted the Braves for a rematch of the 1995 NLDS, and the Braves did almost as badly in this year's NLDS as the Rockies did. If the Rockies had been able to scratch out just one more win this year, things might be very different.

2017 Card of the Year

Apparently, I missed that Tom changed his Cubs-focused blog name back to Waiting 'til Next Year shortly after the 2017 NLCS ended. His blog went by the name "Eamus Catuli!" for about a year, but he just didn't feel that same spark in the year after the Cubs' century-plus drought was broken. So, like any die hard baseball fan, Tom is hoping that Next Year is the year, even if 2016 is a lot closer in the rear-view mirror than 1908. As he puts it, "It was great, it really was, but it has left me wondering, 'Now what?'"

Even if you win, you still want to win again. And maybe that helps explain the perspectives of Yankees, Patriots, and Duke fans. Obviously, my Rockies have never won it all, but in my lifetime, there have been two Stanley Cups and three Vince Lombardi Trophies brought to Denver. You still want to keep the party going.

However, even though his name change flew under my radar, I did not miss that he's running another Card of the Year contest, and I'm entering just a couple days before the deadline.

There's been a lot about 2017 that I'd just as soon forget. But assuming you managed not to pick up a newspaper, there were still plenty of bright spots, like a couple road trips I took, including one to see a particular celestial event back in August. I'll carry the memory of a total solar eclipse with me for the rest of my days. But another important event that occurred in my family this year was the birth of my nephew on May 10th.

2017 Topps Now #132 German Marquez /378

I bought a Topps Now card for that day, and luckily the Rockies performed well enough to get a card in the daily set. The German Marquez card you see above is my official entry into Tom's contest. Obviously, it's a Coors Field card, and I remember it being a rainy, drizzly sort of day. Marquez took a no-hitter into the 7th inning against none other than the Cubs, and even helped his own cause with a 2-RBI single. 

It's interesting that my selection for last year also featured a Rockies pitcher at home. The team or the location shouldn't surprise you, but what is surprising is that the Rockies have a solid rotation and lots of talented young pitchers. Most of the moves the Rockies have made so far this offseason are focused on the bullpen, so 2018's card may not be much different.

I bought this card to commemorate a very important birth in the family, and when I look back years later, this is how I want to remember 2017. 

Maybe I'll even give this to him someday.

It's all over NOW

Now that we're a few days into November, the annual (except 1994, of course) World Series has drawn to a close. And what an amazing series it was! The Houston Astros had luck on their side this year, winning Games 2 and 5 in extra innings, doing so in absolute nail-biter fashion. Dodgers fans are no doubt heartbroken, as this series could very easily have gone the other way. Just a handful of different outcomes in a few key spots may have led to an entirely different champion this year.

It might have been the most evenly-matched World Series I've ever seen, with two championship-worthy teams slugging it out over seven games like a pair of heavyweight boxers. If a split decision existed in baseball, this would no doubt have been one. The Dodgers and Astros even managed to score 34 runs each throughout the series. If that's not an even matchup, I don't know what is.

2017 Topps Now #678 Colorado Rockies Clinch NL Wild Card /345

And as much as I love my Rockies, I don't think they could have held up against teams like this even if they had won the Wild Card game. Playoff baseball is a different animal, and while I fully believe Bud Black would have managed as best he could, I don't think the Rockies had all the pieces in place to stay standing in the ring this long.

I've been doing kickboxing for the past several months. Sorry for all the boxing metaphors.

On the penultimate day of the regular season, the Brewers lost to the Cardinals, ensuring the Rockies would occupy the second NL Wild Card spot. I used that opportunity to buy my third and final Topps Now card of 2017, commemorating the Rockies' celebration of making the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

That would be as far as they'd get. I didn't buy a card for the Wild Card game itself; as we all know, these things run $10 a pop, and that adds up. This could have gotten pricey if the Rockies made it further. Not to mention the $100 pair of NLDS tickets I had lined up for Game 3.

On the card, Nolan Arenado is front and center, with teammates Charlie Blackmon and Gerardo Parra also visible. Unfortunately, the Rockies would end up losing the final two games of the season to the Dodgers, and it has to be a little strange popping champagne in the clubhouse on the same day you lose. But Nolan doesn't seem to mind, nor did anyone in Denver.

And even though the Rockies dug too big a hole too early, each league's Wild Card game set the stage for an unpredictable and thrilling postseason.

Unpredictable, that is, unless you're Sports Illustrated.

NOW and Then

Heading into the All-Star break, Rockies starter Kyle Freeland twirled a masterpiece, one of the best pitching performances in Rockies history. Thanks in part to some clutch defense by Gerardo Parra, he took a no-hitter to one out in the 9th inning before surrendering a base hit to Melky Cabrera, over the head of a leaping Nolan Arenado.

His pitch count was pretty up there, so after he did give up that first hit, manager Bud Black went straight to the bullpen. Jordan Lyles cleaned things up and the Rockies sailed to a 10-0 win to take the series. I had seen the disappointing one-run loss the night before (but did attend the game with a very old friend), so the Rockies got some nice momentum heading into the break.

2017 Topps Now #341 Kyle Freeland /354

And with a performance like that, Freeland was honored with a Topps Now card, the second one I've purchased this year. That first card also documented a near no-hitter by German Marquez, but that only went into the 7th. And I bought that more for the birth of my nephew than for the game itself.

Like Marquez, Freeland got the Rookie Card logo on his Topps Now card, and he's sporting the black lettering and camouflage hat that the team wore for Military Appreciation Day. And it was thrilling to watch on TV, especially that play from Parra to keep the bid alive.

No-hitters tend to take a predictable path. It usually isn't until the 5th or 6th inning that the possibility really starts getting noticed. The unwritten rules start to be talked about, and the camera crew shows lots of shots of the pitcher sitting all by his lonesome in the dugout. The fans are hanging on the edges of their seats, hoping that they might get to witness history. And every so often, they do.

And if one does happen, the buzz inevitably turns to the pitcher's next scheduled start, and the name Johnny Vander Meer gets thrown around. Vander Meer, of course, threw two consecutive no-hitters in 1938, a record that has never been tied, and I think we can safely say it will never be broken. By the way, that second no-hitter, which took place on June 15th, 1938, happened to be the first night game ever played at Ebbets Field. For as often as Johnny Vander Meer's name comes up, it's a shame ESPN never seems to give a nod to history and mention that fact.

You might remember Ubaldo Jimenez' no-hitter in 2010, the only one in Rockies history. But that was in Atlanta. In fact, there's only been one no-hitter thrown at Coors Field, although there have been plenty of cycles.

So if not Freeland, who earned his tenth win of the season today, then who was it?

1998 Topps SuperChrome #15 Hideo Nomo

Hideo Nomo no-hit the Rockies on September 17th, 1996, in Coors Field's second year of existence. None other than Vin Scully can be heard on that clip, and he's just as much in disbelief about that as everyone in the seats. Perhaps he's less surprised knowing that no one has done it since. But that makes Freeland's performance all the more impressive.

This oversized Topps SuperChrome card of The Tornado makes no mention of this feat, one that he repeated as a member of the Red Sox in 2001, which remains the only no-hitter thrown at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Nomo has some impressive accolades in the NH statistic, including being one of just five to throw one in both leagues.

Anyway, you might think that this huge card (about 4" x 6") is a box-topper of some kind, but it's actually part of a 36-card set that was sold separately. It's a bit tricky to store, but it certainly stands out. I even remember where I got this one, and it was at the card store that has since closed in my local shopping mall. It was run by a guy named Adam, who I still see from time to time at the monthly card shows, but he's out of the retail game. I can't remember what I paid for it, and I surely don't have a Hideo Nomo collection like some of the Dodger bloggers out there, but it's a memorable card for more than just its size.

1998 Topps SuperChrome #29 Todd Helton

I was wandering through that very same shopping mall on Friday night, browsing one of the autograph shops that occasionally have cards, when I spotted this SuperChrome of Helton. This one set me back $7, surely inflated a bit by the Helton premium around here, but I was happy to add it to my collection, and I even mentioned to the owner that I had Nomo's card from the same set. Helton had just recently made a splash in the final months of the 1997 season, as documented on this card.

These are the only two cards I have from Topps SuperChrome, but fans of Nomar and Vlad might want to keep their eyes peeled for something similar, as Topps picked the young stars pretty well in this small set.

It's no secret that card shops have become a rare sight these days, but I've found a little bit of luck at the autograph and memorabilia stores in a few shopping malls. Sometimes there's nothing, other times you don't see more than 1988 Donruss, but occasionally you run across some gems. This store, which is just across the hall from where Adam's store used to be, also had a stack of limited-edition parallels from 1993 Topps, a few Gypsy Queen minis, some porcelain reproductions of Mickey Mantle's cards, and lots more "in the back".

It would be nice to have a card shop in every strip mall like it used to be, but there are still enough shopping malls and sports memorabilia stores around that you're likely to find a little something here and there. You never know what diamonds in the rough will turn up, so it's worth looking.

And you also never know when you might see a no-hitter. Which, as Bud Black said in his postgame interview, is why we keep coming back to see "the beauty" of this game.

Diez de Mayo

No one has thrown a no-hitter at Coors Field since Hideo Nomo did it in 1996. There's only been the one in the stadium's 23-season history. There have been a few close ones, though. Most recently was German Marquez taking one into the 7th inning against the Cubs earlier this month. The Rockies ended up with a shutout against the defending World Champions, but the Cubs did manage to scratch out three hits.

This occasion marked my first purchase of a 2017 Topps Now card, which I believe is my first one of Marquez. The pitcher was a more minor piece of the Corey Dickerson trade, where the Rockies and Rays swapped players, with the Rockies also getting Jake McGee for the outfielder. Dickerson has been a solid piece of Tampa Bay's outfield this year, and Marquez has a 3-2 record so far in the 2017 season.

2017 Topps Now #132 German Marquez /378

It's a Coors Field card, yes, it marks yet another series the first-place Rockies won, and it shows off the new extra-purple Rockies jerseys. But I wasn't at this game, and a near no-hitter isn't exactly Hall of Fame material.

So why did I order this Topps Now card?

Well, May 10th, 2017 happens to be the day that my nephew was born. Little baby Levi came into the world at 6 lbs, 3 oz on a rainy Wednesday, just about equaling the weight of nineteen baseballs. He's already the proud owner of an official Colorado Rockies pacifier, so I'm doing my part to instill fandom early.

The print run was only 378 cards, and it documents the excellent pitching feat as well as the Rockies hot start to the 2017 season, which is still going strong almost into June. As many other bloggers have observed, the reverse of the card has a rainbow finish, the only set I can remember that has a special finish on the back but not the front. The packaging has been upgraded quite a bit from the 2016 cards, as well.

May 10th has always been an important date in my family. The day would have been my grandfather's 97th birthday, as well as my parents' 37th wedding anniversary. It feels extra-special for that date to suddenly be cause for celebration again.

Even if the Rockies gave up three hits that day.

From now on, our troubles will be out of sight.

Even though I only bought two cards out of about a thousand available from Topps Now in 2016, Topps still made sure to send me a small token of appreciation for the Holidays. In addition to a more traditional holiday greeting card, they threw in a Topps Now baseball card with four images from the 2016 season!

Lots of other bloggers have received the same card, so I have no idea of the print run, but I'd assume it's in the tens of thousands.

2016 Topps Now #NNO Highlights Bryant / Sanchez / Ichiro / Ortiz

First and foremost is Kris Bryant, the player who made the final out of 2016, at last putting an end to the longest championship drought in North American major sports. 108 years is a long time, but there has to be some soccer team somewhere that's gone longer, so I hesitate to say "in sports history".

But Kris Bryant, later named the NL MVP, clearly wasn't thinking about any of that when he fielded that grounder. He knew there was a drought, but I think he was just thrilled to win the World Series, no matter the team.

Also gracing the front of this card is Gary Sanchez, the slugging Yankees catcher who finished just a little short of winning the AL Rookie of the Year award. He still managed to crush twenty homers in just over fifty games. The Yankees have been in a bit of a decline recently, missing the playoffs entirely in 2016. But with young players like this, things are looking brighter for them. Still, it's a tough division even when they're not the ones making it tough.

2016 Topps Now #NNO Highlights Bryant / Sanchez / Ichiro / Ortiz (Reverse)

No Rockies made it onto this card, but Coors Field did! Ichiro doffing his helmet after reaching the 3,000 hit milestone in Denver is the first photo on the back. The actual card commemorating that achievement had a huge print run, and that's one of the two I bought. It was one of the most memorable baseball events I've seen in person, and I'm glad that Topps thought it important enough to share with every other Topps Now customer.

Recently retired David Ortiz gets the final spot on this card, and even though his baseball career is (probably) over, he still led the AL in doubles and RBIs last year. And he left behind quite a legacy in Boston, helping the Red Sox come away with three championships. He'll always be a fan favorite there, and while Gary Sanchez and Kris Bryant still have a lot of work to do, we could potentially be holding a card of four Hall-of-Famers.

I haven't decided yet if I'll keep this one with the back facing out in my binders. Ichiro's photo on his 3,000 card is about the same, and it would be nice to have a reminder of the Cubs' World Series win.

Either way, this was an unexpected gift from Topps, and the relatively high price of a Topps Now card stings a little less when they take the time to say "thank you".

Happy Holidays to all my readers, and thanks for stopping by!

Mister Three Thousand Eight

The 3,000 hit club is pretty bunched up at the bottom. In the short time since Ichiro Suzuki got his 3,000th MLB hit to tie Roberto Clemente on August 7th (about as long as the Olympics), he's passed Al Kaline, with Wade Boggs and Cap Anson just a few hits ahead.

2016 Topps Now #327-A Ichiro Suzuki /11,550

That's also about how long it takes to get a Topps Now card delivered, but at least the shipping was free.

Card 327-A has become my second card from 2016 Topps Now (I assume they'll start the numbers over next year), and I definitely wanted a copy of the card to go along with the historic moment. This is more of an unusual Topps Now card, as the back doesn't have a write-up. Rather, it has two more photos, one of the scoreboard graphic they put up at Coors Field after the hit, and the other is a shot of his fellow Marlins coming out to congratulate #51.

See for yourself:

2016 Topps Now #327-A Ichiro Suzuki /11,550 (Reverse)

Most Topps Now cards don't have variations associated with them, but the -A on this card number signifies there were a few on offer. Topps printed up five serial-numbered colored relic parallels, all of which went for a pretty penny. The /1 card sold for a thousand bucks. Needless to say, I didn't order that, nor did most fans, instead being happy with the base card. This one had a whopping 11,550 copies printed, by far the most I've seen for a Topps Now card. It's definitely not as exclusive as most Topps Now cards, but it's not a bad way to bring in $160k.

It remains to be seen whether I'll feel the need to order any more Topps Now cards, but the season still has over a month left until the Postseason begins. And an unassisted triple play can happen in the blink of an eye.