2007: The World Series that got away

Every year, a team loses the World Series. For some teams, that happens a lot, but many of them have the talent and good fortune to go on and win in other years. Others aren't quite so lucky.

In response to Collecting Cutch's contest, in which he asks bloggers to recall a year in which their favorite team didn't win the World Series, the Cardsphere has turned out a batch of excellent posts. There are a few ways to interpret this contest, such as picking a year in which your team had no chance of going anywhere. Finishing in last place with 58 wins is technically one way to "not win the World Series". But entrants tended to pick a season in which their team came oh-so-close to winning it all. Teams like the 2003 Yankees, 1996 Braves, and 1990 Athletics simply lost the Series. The 1980 Dodgers, 2003 Red Sox, 1960 Orioles, and 2016 Red Sox fell varying lengths short of winning the pennant, or short of even making it to the postseason.

The Rockies have never won their division, but they came extremely close in 2018. For Rockies fans, a playoff appearance has always been a question of "will we win the Wild Card?" That's happened five times. And one of those years, they did the improbable and not only advanced to the NLCS, but made it all the way to the World Series.

2007 Upper Deck #304 Clint Barmes

That year was 2007, also the year of one of the least-favorite Upper Deck base sets ever. Clint Barmes was a middle infielder with a few seasons under his belt, but it all came crashing down in 2007. Despite what Upper Deck tells us, that "Barmes has consistently upped his production", his 2007 campaign was one to forget, and one that he spent most of with Triple-A Colorado Springs. He did get called back up in early August, but didn't appear on the Rockies postseason roster until their next Wild Card, in 2009.

Upper Deck did manage to give him a great action shot, which they squeezed in between the columns on both sides. His glove looks a little flat, so it's possible that this lunge didn't quite snag the ball, but we'll never know because the border cuts it off. It's appropriate for this championship that fell just out of reach.

2007 Topps Update #UH209 Troy Tulowitzki SH

A large reason why Barmes had a forgettable 2007 season was this man, Troy Tulowitzki. The talented shortstop was an enormous reason why the Rockies did as well as they did, and he almost won the NL Rookie of the Year award. He made a strong case for Barmes' starting spot, and even managed to turn an unassisted triple play in just his 46th game in the Big Leagues, as this Topps Update card documents (but does not depict). Footage of the actual play shows Tulo wearing a different uniform than the purple jersey.

I've mentioned this before, but I was at the game the day before that rare event happened to occur. It was against the Braves, and while I got to see future Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz pitch, it would have been amazing to see another future Hall-of-Famer, Chipper Jones, line in to such a play. It was my first of four games I attended that season, and the familiar chant of "Tu-Lo!" echoing across Coors Field graced the ballpark for many years to come, even when he visited Denver as a Blue Jay, another game I attended.

2007 Topps Heritage #247 Jamey Carroll

Part of why the 2007 season was so amazing is that even the regular guys did pretty well. Journeyman utility player Jamey Carroll spent two years in Denver, and his trip to the postseason in 2007 was the only one of his career. Even in hitter-friendly Coors Field, he didn't put up stellar numbers, but he did hit a pinch-hit grand slam during my second trip to the ballpark that year, a work outing against the Cubs that the Rockies won in blowout fashion. I had a new camera by then, and snapped a shot of the center field fountains that were activated after that home run.

He also drove in the winning run in the 2007 NL Wild Card Tiebreaker game. More on that later.

The Rockies have put plenty of great fielders on the diamond, and the back of this '58-design Topps Heritage card tells us that Carroll had a stellar .995 fielding percentage in 2006, the best among NL second basemen.

2007 Topps #205 Cory Sullivan

Cory Sullivan was once tasked with patrolling the jumbo-sized center field bordering that fountain, and he did well, as I recall. I don't remember any home run-robbing plays like Ian Desmond flashed the other night, but he had the speed to do it. Longtime readers might remember him as the player who hit two triples in one inning a year prior. He's still well-known among Rockies fans, as he's an in-studio host for the Rockies' TV network.

2008 Topps Heritage #394 Ryan Spilborghs

Ryan Spilborghs shared outfield duties with Sullivan, and "Spilly" remains a fixture in the Rockies broadcast booth to this day, even though his career ended in 2011. He started in center field that day against the Cubs, and I took this picture of him casting a shadow on the outfield grass. I was a real shutterbug back then, and that photo still graces the banner of my blog's Facebook page. It's one of my favorite photos, and I took it from one of the top rows of the center field bleachers.

I tried really hard to only use cards from 2007 in this post, but I couldn't find a card of Spilborghs in the 2007 binder, so I had to advance one year. The 1959 design is one of my favorites, but it took a while for Topps to place him in more than a small number of sets.

I could go on with guys like this all day. Seth Smith, Jeff Baker, Kaz Matsui, Yorvit Torrealba, Willy Taveras. They weren't superstars, but they got on base, got key hits, and came through in the clutch. The Rockies are never going to be a team full of top-dollar free agents, so for them to have success, they need the right mix of average utility players that pull more than their weight and come through at the right time. When that happens, they tend to do pretty well. Exactly that happened last year in the Wild Card Game against the Cubs. In the extra-innings pitchers duel, none other than Tony Wolters got the game-winning hit. ESPN couldn't even say his name right.

2007 Topps Co-Signers Silver Bronze #4a Garrett Atkins w/Jeff Francis /175

The Rockies have always been such an offense-driven club, but their pitching was quite good in 2007. The staff ace was Jeff Francis, who shares some ghostly card space with third baseman Garrett Atkins. This bronze Topps Co-Signers card was sent to me long ago by Wes, before his recent retirement and even before a couple blog name changes.

Atkins was a middle-of-the-lineup guy, and he rewarded the Rockies with 25 home runs in '07. More importantly, Jeff Francis went 17-9 that year, putting him in a four-way tie for second place on the Rockies single-season wins leaderboard.

2007 Topps Update Red Back #UH43 Ubaldo Jimenez

It wasn't until 2010, but Ubaldo Jimenez eventually eclipsed that record, winning 19 games. No Rockie has ever cracked the 20-win mark, but there are pitchers in the rotation right now who are capable of doing just that. Kyle Freeland already has one and it's just the first day of April.

Jimenez had two relief appearances in 2006, but he really got going as a member of the rotation in 2007. He and Tulowitzki gave fans a glimpse of what the Rockies would be like for several years to come. It was a young team. Of all these players so far, Clint Barmes had the most experience as a Rockie, and he was only in his fifth year.

2007 Ultra #57 Brad Hawpe

2007 Fleer Ultra, the final Ultra set to grace the hobby, had a card back very similar to 2007 Upper Deck. There is a ton of empty white space on that back, but room enough for Fleer (really UD by that time) to tell us that the right fielder was "Part of a rising young core of hitters for Colorado". Hawpe hit even more dingers in 2007 than Atkins, with 29, a career high.

I love Coors Field cards, and these lefties really get great ones. When they're at the plate, we can see right into the Rockies dugout, which is more or less an extremely close-up version of what I see when I go to the ballpark. I tend to favor the third-base side, mainly to keep the sun out of my face, but it's also nice to see my team while they're not on the field.

Speaking of right field, this is a good time to bring up the third game I attended in 2007. It was an early-September night game against the San Francisco Giants, my first time seeing them play. If memory serves, I was was there with my dad and sister, and we sat out in right field, above the out-of-town scoreboard and underneath the overhang. That was fortunate, because if I'm thinking of the right game, it was rainy. I don't remember a delay, just a cold and wet night. Brad Hawpe was the closest player on the field to us, and while he had a hit, the Giants won that night. I even witnessed one of Barry Bonds' 762 home runs.

2007 Finest #53 Matt Holliday

Other than Tulowitzki and maybe the two pitchers, casual Rockies fans probably haven't heard of most of these players, or maybe they don't have the context that current broadcasters Sullivan and Spilborghs used to play for the team. We got pretty deep into this post before I got around to the big names, and they're plenty important to the cause, but this is a team sport first and foremost. Mike Trout, who has better stats than anyone by their age-27 season, has played in a grand total of three Postseason games so far. The Angels are on the upswing, but baseball is a sport where a superstar really needs his teammates to shine.

Topps Finest has always been a pretty small set, so only the big names like Matt Holliday get included. The power hitter led the 2007 team with 36 home runs and 120 runs scored, the last one being pivotal to win game 163 and eclipse the Padres to win the Wild Card. It's easily the most controversial play in Rockies history and, to be honest, probably wouldn't pass replay review in this day and age. It's important to note, though, that Garrett Atkins hit a home run in the 7th inning that evening that was incorrectly ruled a double. If replay review existed, the game would have been over in regulation. But no one really talks about that.

Either way, the call in the 13th inning went the Rockies' way, and he remained such a fan favorite that the Rockies brought him back for the last couple months of 2018. He even appeared on last year's postseason roster, going 2-for-8 and bringing a ton of postseason experience to the clubhouse.

2007 Topps Opening Day #81 Todd Helton

And here's that last big name you've been expecting all along, Todd Helton. I've used a lot of 2007 Topps in this post, so here's a look at the white-and-gold interpretation of the filmstrip design, courtesy of Topps Opening Day. Helton, whose number 17 has since been retired by the club, is the most well-known player on this whole team. He had been in the Majors for quite some time before he got a taste of the Postseason, and was an integral part of the Rockies sweeping both the NLDS and NLCS before encountering the buzzsaw that was the Boston Red Sox.

2008 Upper Deck #484 Garrett Atkins

That brings us to the final game I saw in 2007, Game 3 of the World Series. My boss got tickets from a business contact, and decided to take me, the resident baseball fan, to the game. This card is one of the great Coors Field cards, and I dipped into the 2008 binder a second time to find it. That's Hideki Okajima on the hill for Boston, and he faced Garrett Atkins twice, once each in Games 3 and 4. Atkins struck out in Game 3, but took Okajima deep in Game 4, bringing the Rockies to within 1 run of Boston. It would be the last run they'd score that series.

This card might depict that home run, which I think would be preferable for a card of a Rockie, but it might depict that strikeout in Game 3, which would be pretty awesome for this baseball fan. Other than Topps Now, I've only found one card from a game I attended. 50/50 that this is another one, and what a game it was.

Even though they lost, it is a magical experience to watch your team play in a World Series. Yes, I had my camera. And I'll never forget it.

Still, it would be great to win one of these.

The Trading Post #111: The Chronicles of Fuji

It was just about a year ago when I blogged about a previous trade sent by The Chronicles of Fuji. Some of the themes might repeat a little bit, but Fuji is always able to send interesting cards, each carefully placed inside a penny sleeve.

My goal is to catch up on trade posts by the time the Winter Olympics start, which is just a few weeks away. Spring Training won't be far behind that, and just beyond, the earliest-ever Opening Day on March 29th. You'll probably see a flurry of activity on this blog by then, especially since there are lots of sports on (my preferred writing backdrop), a snowstorm incoming to the Denver area, and a day off work on Monday.

2011 Topps Wal-Mart Black Border #139 Eric Young Jr.

Lots of free agents are also likely to have Monday off, and Eric Young, Jr. is on that list. There remains a huge number of unsigned free agents just a month away from when pitchers and catchers report to their spring homes in Arizona and Florida, many ranked much higher than Young. Carlos Gonzalez, for example, still doesn't have a team at the moment. Perhaps everyone's saving up for Bryce Harper next year, who's expected to sign a $400 million contract.

Neither Eric Young, Jr. nor myself will be getting a $400 million payday anytime soon, but it's clear from this 2011 Topps parallel that he's much more acrobatic than I am. This is the Wal-Mart Black Border parallel, not to be confused with the Topps Black parallel, which were numbered to 60 copies and did not have the background blacked out.

Black borders have a tendency to chip, and this card is no different. But it's a great photo and is probably one of the best examples of this treatment in the 2011 Topps set. You can barely see the rest of the photo (the scan picks up more detail than you see in person), but you can tell that Young is executing a double play by leaping over a Giant in AT&T Park. I made it easy on myself to see what was really going on and just checked Young's 2011 base card. That's #48 on the Giants, better known as Pablo Sandoval.

If Kung Fu Panda were sliding into me while I was covering second, I'd also want to jump about this high.

1995 Topps Embossed Golden Idols #83 Dante Bichette

Black and Gold are my school colors. Not Missouri, not Purdue, not Army, but the University of Colorado. And Fuji sent me plenty of gold cards to follow up that black one from 2011, such as this parallel from 1995 Topps Embossed. This isn't the first time Fuji's sent me cards from this rarely-seen parallel set, so either he's gradually offloading parts of his collection to me, or he has a steady supply of mid-1990s Topps boxes.

This is somehow even more golden than Walt Weiss' card I got from Fuji last time, and I remain impressed by just how much texture Topps managed to get on this card. Usually this sort of stuff is confined to the front, but the back looks and feels just as much like a relief map as the front. No gold though, but there are some fun facts about Dante Bichette, such as that he hit the first-ever Rockies home run. That happened in their second-ever game, a losing affair at Shea Stadium on April 7th, 1993. In fact, it was the only run (and RBI) the Rockies scored, period, during that two-game set.

2009 Topps Gold Border #646 Chris Iannetta /2009

As you may have heard by now, Chris Iannetta is returning to the Rockies, increasing the accuracy of this 2009 card in one fell swoop. He's one of a relatively small number of free agents that have found a home in 2018, and I'm sure he'll quickly settle into a groove behind the plate again. In this photo, he's still wearing an old-style mask, choosing not to go for the hockey goalie variety. Either way, it seems quite rare to see such a complete example of a catcher in full gear on a baseball card. Chest protectors, masks, and mitts are quite common, but shin guards rarely make an appearance.

It was printed long after 1994, but I'm still drawn to Topps Gold. They were a bit more scarce in 2009, losing the gold foil on the front, but making up for it with a golden serial number on the back. This particular copy is numbered an even thousand out of 2,009.

2013 Topps Gold #613 Jhoulys Chacin /2013

They get ever-so-slightly more plentiful as the years carry on, but I'm sure it will be far into the distant future when the year matches the print run of 1994 Topps Gold cards. In 2013, the parallel set lost the gold foil on the serial number, just getting slightly raised black numbering. This is still an interesting number, 737 out of 2,013, matching the narrow-body aircraft that I flew on earlier this week on a quick business trip to Portland, Oregon.

Chacin is another free agent who's found a home in 2018, signing a two-year deal with the Brewers. He pitched a full season with San Diego last year, earning a respectable 13-10 record, just one win shy of his best year as a Rockie. Coincidentally, that happened in 2013.

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Dick Perez #9 Troy Tulowitzki

In the baseball card world, artist Dick Perez is synonymous with Donruss' long-running Diamond Kings subset. But Topps couldn't stand by and let his talents go to waste, bringing him on board to "provide exclusive hand-painted images of the Hall of Famers of tomorrow". I'm not sure what relationship, if any, Perez currently has with Topps, but this 2007 Sketch Card let the baseball card world know that he was still around.

There really is a 1/1 version of this Tulowitzki card out there, but this is (presumably) not it, despite the facsimile 1/1 artist signature on the front. It's a thick card, and extremely sturdy, reminding me of those blank inserts that the card companies put in packs to confound pack-searchers. The card doesn't really tell us anything about the Rockies shortstop, and much more about Perez and his artistic endeavors. But I have plenty of Tulo cards to offset that if I want more information.

1995 SP Special FX #34 Dante Bichette

I'm not sure whether I ever saw a box of Upper Deck SP for sale when it was actually on the shelves. Or if I did, I didn't pay any attention to it due to the price. Even if I had that kind of dough as a kid, I would have spent it on Topps Finest instead. But because I never pursued it, I missed out on these holographic cards that UD printed up in the mid-1990s. Fuji must have taken note of my headliner cards in our previous trade and kept the supply coming.

Upper Deck was satisfied enough with the holographic headshot on the front that they did not include their usual hologram diamond on the back. But it's still clearly a UD card, and uses color schemes that are similar to some of the subsets found in 1995 Collector's Choice.

2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary #276 Miguel Olivo

The base variety of Miguel Olivo's 2011 Topps card once made an appearance on this blog, when I was recounting my visit to Raley Field to catch a Triple-A Sacramento River Cats game. He played in the Mexican League last year, but he's probably seen the last of a Major League park as a player. Still, it was good to see him in a Triple-A park. Perhaps it's not quite as cool as Portland, but I got a similar vibe from Sacramento, which has a vibrant downtown adjacent to the river, spanned by some picturesque bridges.

The veteran catcher was still crushing home runs in 2011, though Topps was a year behind on his team. Olivo suited up for the Mariners that year and hit 19 homers, just four off his high mark of 23. Maybe the familiarity is because I saw him in that River Cats game, but I was surprised to learn that Olivo only played one season as a Rockie. It was just the right season to take part in Topps' 60th anniversary, meaning he got this extra-shiny Diamond parallel.

2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary #141 Ubaldo Jimenez

Ubaldo Jimenez was one of Olivo's battery mates in 2010, and Olivo had the distinction of catching the first and only Rockies no-hitter. Jimenez was on the hill that day, however Topps did not pick that feat to honor with a checklist card in the 2011 set. Yes, this is a checklist card, and the shiny background steals your attention away from the small, gray print above the name banner, which says "Most single-season wins in franchise history".

Without a doubt, this is the shiniest checklist card in my entire collection, but I didn't even realize it was one until I flipped it over and saw the red background. Olivo's card has purple color coding, but this fits in with the general look of the Topps set. Topps has done it this way for most of the decade, but I find myself slightly annoyed year after year at how difficult it is to spot these checklists.

Jimenez' 19 wins in 2010 remains a Rockies season record. No Rockie has ever cracked the 20-win mark, but there's always next year!

2006 Topps Chrome Rookie Logos #CRC46 Manuel Corpas

He's not a household name in Denver, but Manuel (Manny) Corpas was the Rockies closer during their 2007 pennant-winning season. He notched five saves in the Rockies' seven wins in the NLDS and NLCS that year, and deserves more credit than he's generally given. Topps saw potential greatness in him, including him in 2006's Chrome Rookie Logos set, and this arrived to me still sealed in a cellophane wrapper.

I have no idea about the provenance of this card. Presumably it was an insert of some kind in Topps Chrome, or perhaps in a team set, but neither Beckett nor BaseballCardPedia have anything to say about the 50-card set. Regardless, it's in great shape, and has a nice /599 serial number on the back. I'm just not sure precisely where to file it.

1995 Stadium Club Virtual Reality #163 Mike Kingery

Another six weeks in the 1994 season would not have netted outfielder Mike Kingery any additional home runs, at least according to the Topps Virtual Reality computer's projections. He got several more doubles, but only two more RBIs. He wasn't a leadoff hitter, so I do have to question the plausibility of some of these computer-generated stats.

Frankly, this is a weird set. I collected it when it was new and opened plenty of packs. But despite what should be a familiar set to me, it remains quite an enigma. For one thing, I could never figure out the pattern in 1995 Stadium Club that determined whether a card got gold or silver foil. The base cards all seem to be gold. but the Virtual Reality cards can be either gold foil or silver, like this one. I've seen this partial parallel set since it came out, and Fuji sent me some last time. But it remains a curiosity. Not to mention the inserts and subsets that burst their way into my knowledge base after decades of dormancy.

1995 Flair Infield Power #4 Andres Galarraga

At least when a 1995 card is unfamiliar to me, like this Galarraga insert or Bichette's SP card above, it makes sense when I didn't actually collect it. The Dr. Who-esque wormhole on 1995 Flair Infield Power cards reminds me of Topps' more recent Power Players insert set, just a bit more muted. Fuji sent me one of those, too.

Fleer tells us that Galarraga's nickname is "The Cat", which is incomplete, to the best of my knowledge. He was always referred to as "The Big Cat" as best I can remember. But sometimes even nicknames have nicknames. The card also mentions his distinctive open batting stance, suggested to him by his old hitting coach in St. Louis, Don Baylor. I recall seeing some Galarraga cards of him as a Cardinal, but I didn't know that he and Baylor had a history before they both joined the expansion Rockies.

2010 Topps 2020 #T14 Ubaldo Jimenez

I know I've seen this set before. There are definitely some in my collection, but I believe this is the first time it's appeared on the blog. Surprisingly, this 3D lenticular insert set is not found in packs of Opening Day, but rather flagship boxes of Topps 2010. They turned the crystal ball forward ten years to guess at who might be top players in 2020. There are some sure things in this set, like Clayton Kershaw and Andrew McCutchen, but some that have virtually no shot at showing up for the 2020 All-Star game, like Tommy Hanson, Gordon Beckham, and well, probably Ubaldo Jimenez.

If you're interested in working on this set, you just have a couple years left to do it easily. By the time 2020 rolls around, you'll have to dig pretty deep into Google's search results if you search for "Topps 2020".

Fuji, I hope we're still trading in 2020, especially if you keep sending me cards like this!

The Trading Post #87: cards as i see them

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

2013 Topps Chrome Update #MB-15 Michael Cuddyer

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

I just don't think I quite get Update.

2013 Topps Update 1971 Topps Minis #14 Troy Tulowitzki

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

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

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

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

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

2011 Topps Heritage Black #C94 Ubaldo Jimenez

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

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

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

2009 O-Pee-Chee #73 Ian Stewart

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

2016 Topps Update #US256a Nolan Arenado AS

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

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

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

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

The Trading Post #74: Cards on Cards

I have a ton of Rockies duplicates. When you're the representative for a team on the #SuperTraders list, it's likely that you'll end up with a few extras.

1992 Donruss #350 Ray Lankford

I can safely assume that's the case for my fellow trading partners, judging by the Cardinals extras used as packing material in a trade from Cards on Cards earlier this year. He sent me lots of, um, cards, and even though I've completed 1992 Donruss, a dugout shot of speedster Ray Lankford before I got to the Rockies nestled safely within the team bag is a nice bonus.

2007 Upper Deck #667 Byung-Hyun Kim

Byung-Hyun Kim was a Rockie for a couple seasons, primarily in 2006 and for a handful of games in 2007 before being traded to Florida. His sidearm delivery is pictured well on this 2007 Upper Deck card (one of the few later UD sets I can recognize on sight), and the card mentions his transition from closer to starter.

He always seemed to be on the wrong side of famous home runs, allowing the Yankees to nearly grab the 2001 World Series, and helping Derek Jeter get his "Mr. November" nickname. He also gave up #715 to Barry Bonds as a Rockie, on which Bonds passed Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list with only Hank Aaron ahead of him.

Amazing that Bonds hit that shot over ten years ago.

1997 Bowman #349 Shawn Chacon (RC)

That was the only one that Bonds got off Kim, but he did hit three off Shawn Chacon. Chacon, a native of Alaska, began pitching in the Rockies rotation a few seasons after his first Bowman card. He was picked for the All-Star team in 2003, one of the few Rockies pitchers to have that honor. But he went an abysmal 2-16 in his next two seasons for the Rockies, who traded him to the Yankees in 2005.

1997 Bowman #331 Todd Helton

Todd Helton appeared just a few cards prior in that same Bowman set, and 1997 was the exact year Helton kicked off his memorable career. This card was printed before that, so it doesn't have much to talk about beyond a scouting report, listing his success in the Minor Leagues, his "swing to die for", and his three starts at QB at the University of Tennessee.

Though the card doesn't mention it, Helton had to come out of the game in that third start, replaced by a now well-known NFL player named Peyton Manning. No one knew it at the time, but this card had a lot of Denver sports history ahead of it.

2011 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball Highlight Sketches #BHS-22 Ubaldo Jimenez

Allen & Ginter gave Rockies Fans an insert card in 2011 commemorating the first, and so far only no-hitter in Rockies history. The back is sure to point out that this feat wasn't achieved at Coors Field, but he had untouchable stuff on April 17, 2010, even though he walked six batters.

April is a fun time to be a Rockies fan, let me tell you.

Surprisingly, six or more walks in a no-hitter isn't that uncommon. Dock Ellis walked eight in his LSD-fueled gem, A.J. Burnett walked nine earlier this century, and the record is ten in ten innings by Jim Maloney of the Reds in the mid-'60s, of course against the Cubs. Could it be that batters hold back in some of these games expecting to get a free pass?

2008 UD A Piece of History #115 Seth Smith (RC)

I've been sent a couple cards form 2008 A Piece of History via trade, which were printed right after the Rockies' magical 2007 season. this Rookie card, which looks more like a tombstone than 1972 Topps ever did, has Smith listed as a rookie on both the design itself and the logo in the upper right. He was a mid-September call-up in 2007, but did well enough that he got to be a part of the Rockies playoff run, getting a few clutch pinch hits and scoring or driving in some key runs.

You never know what can happen in September. Hopefully you keep yourselves in the pennant race long enough for some star rookie to help push you over the edge.

2016 Topps Spring Fever #SF-33 Jon Gray (RC)

I'm always surprised at how many Spring Fever cards I run across, given how limited their distribution is. I guess there are still a lot of card shops out there. This one has some great color-coding to match Jon Gray's jersey. I've seen him pitch a few times in his short career, including his fourth career start, in which he faced Bartolo Colon but got chased out of the game in the 2nd inning, partially by the first of Yoenis Cespedes' three home runs that day. He's settled down for the most part, but still tends to have a rough first inning.

2015 Topps Toys R Us Purple Border #540 Drew Stubbs

Even though Drew Stubbs isn't a Rockie anymore, he did get this Purple parallel in 2015 Topps, as perfect a colored border as ever there was one. These came from packs exclusively sold at Toys-R-Us, and while I haven't been to a Toys-R-Us in decades, most of my 1991 Score collection came from there.

This isn't just a colored border, there's actually some foil and shininess going on here. The three rows of dots at the bottom are printed in silver foil, as his Stubbs' name. I don't like it quite as much as 2013 Topps Emerald, but I'd love to find more of these.

2015 Topps Chrome Prism Refractors #58 Justin Morneau

Morneau isn't a Rockie any longer either. He's now on the White Sox, who a few days ago reached a 55-60 record after 110 games, precisely as they did in 2015 and 2014. This Chrome card looked like a base card to me at first glance, but it has a pattern in the background of some kind. There doesn't seem to be any sort of colored border, so I'll guess that this is the Prism Refractor. Under the right light, it's pretty striking.

2010 Topps Chrome #93 Carlos Gonzalez

This is definitely CarGo's Chrome base card from 2010, and happily, it's about the flattest 2010 Chrome card I've ever seen. The curl in that set was the worst I've ever seen, but this is a pretty good specimen. You tend not to see umpires on cards very often, but the home plate ump #41 is watching what looks like a walk-off hit by Gonzalez.

2015 Topps Chrome Sepia Refractors #77 Charlie Blackmon

Charlie Blackmon has continued to grow as a baseball player and as a beard-wearer. He hit three home runs in a game against the Phillies last week, though they were in vain in a 10-6 loss. His post-swing pose appears on this Topps Chrome Sepia parallel, one of the more common of the many varieties from that release. It's actually a pretty interesting juxtaposition of a photograph that looks like it could be a century old (especially with that beard) on a card with lots of shininess and gloss. Topps elected not to specify what variety this card is, or even that it's a refractor of any kind.

If they want to print up all these varieties, fine, but I'd find if extremely helpful if they told us which was which, even a little bit.

2015 Topps Update Tape Measure Blasts #TMB-2 Andres Galarraga

In a stack of Rockies this big, there are sure to be plenty of Blake Street Bombers. This is actually a pretty recent card, but fan favorite Andres Galarraga hit such a memorable grand slam one day in Miami that he got honored in this 15-card insert set from 2015 Update. It went halfway up an empty third deck, driving in four (yes, you get your own RBI on a home run), and cementing his place in Rockies highlight reels for years to come. Other players in this set come from the annals of baseball history, including Ted Williams, Josh Gibson, David Ortiz, and Reggie Jackson.

The Marlins had a tarp over the upper sections that day, one of which had the Jackie Robinson 50th Anniversary logo on it. That logo patch appears on Galarraga's sleeve...

1998 Score #97 Vinny Castilla

...as well as on a very cold Vinny Castilla's sleeve on this Score card. It's a Coors Field card, with the right-center wall just visible in the background. I don't know when this was taken, but it looks absolutely freezing out there. I don't envy whoever's at the plate. Hitting a ball in cold weather really does a number on your hands and wrists. It could be in April or even May, as wintry weather still tends to hang on a bit into spring around here.

As is common for a late-1990s card, there are a lot of fonts being used. The last name is in an easy-to-read stencil font, the team name in a basic serif font, and the letters of his first name each housed in their own little rounded cylinders, sort of like an old-time cash register. The color-coding is nice, though.

1994 Score Rookie/Traded #RT16 Walt Weiss

Score's Rookie and Traded sets tended to be a bit louder than the base sets, but the front of the card is relatively simple. It's almost like an evolved 1990 Donruss. There's a Pittsburgh Pirates cameo here alongside a young Walt Weiss, and it's fellow middle infielder Carlos Garcia.

When Weiss signed with the Rockies, triggering this late-series update, he became the first player to represent both the expansion Marlins and Rockies. He's currently managing the Rockies, but some question remains as to whether he'll continue that job in 2017 and beyond.

2016 Topps Heritage #166 Tom Murphy (RC) / Jon Gray (RC)

This year's Heritage set, using the 1967 design, has a few multi-player cards to be found in it. Both these rookies have reached the Majors, though Jon Gray seems to have more staying power. Tom Murphy does seem to show up on a lot of Topps cards, though. That same structure is behind Jon Gray as we saw on numerous Heritage cards last year. The back of the card mentions Gray's last Triple-A start before his call-up, where he struck out eight batters on the Salt Lake Bees.

More on why I know that Salt Lake's Triple-A team is called the Bees in an upcoming post.

2011 Topps Update #US2 Ty Wigginton

Ty Wigginton has been coming up a lot around here, previously on some Topps Minis I received from Tony L at Off Hiatus Baseball Cards. This one is from the 2011 Update set, a year before that 2012 card of his was printed for the main set.

Though he's listed as a third baseman, he's stretching with all his might to catch the ball at first before Rickie Weeks (another #23) beats it out. I'll guess this is from May 21st, 2011, a day when Wigginton started at first in place of Todd Helton. Hard to say which exact play it was, or whether Weeks made it to first safely. It's definitely a bang-bang play, and the lower banner mostly obscures what's occurring on the bag itself.

1993 Upper Deck Home Run Heroes #HR20 Ray Lankford

Seeing as these Rockies cards all came sandwiched in team bags between Cardinals, I figured it would be appropriate to do the same on this post. I'll pick another Ray Lankford card, and even though he was a leadoff center fielder, obviously a player you'd expect to have lots of speed, he still got a card in Upper Deck's Homerun Heroes insert set from 1993 UD by leading the Cardinals in home runs for 1992. He was only one behind Ozzie Smith on stolen bases, so Lankford was clearly a well-rounded player.

A fitting bookend to a well-rounded trade package.

The Trading Post #67: Tim Wallach - An attempt to collect them all

Like most of us, anytime I run across a Tim Wallach duplicate, it goes in a very specific pile for trade to a particular lawyer down in New Mexico. He's probably the most famous of all of us, having been written up in Sports Illustrated and the Los Angeles Times for his collection of Tim Wallach cards. He's not just a supercollector, going after one of every card of that player. He's a super-super collector, going after every copy of every card.

While I'm sure he's aware of the futility of that mission, he's still racked up close to 17,000 cards thanks to us readers (and a few eBay purchases). My initial shipment put Colorado on his map for the first time, and I sent four more cards down a few months ago. Yes, I've done my part twice, and in return, Stack22, the writer of that world-famous Tim Wallach blog, returned the favor recently with a few Rockies cards.

2011 Topps ToppsTown #TT-44 Ubaldo Jimenez

Like Pacific Online cards, the website on ToppsTown cards no longer resolves. The URL on those Pacific cards at least has a redirect to the MLBPA, but ToppsTown.com just serves up a basic 404 page. The code on this card expired in early 2012 anyway, but I don't recall ever seeing the live site, or what you could really do there. Topps' digital efforts have since shifted to the BUNT app, but it would be nice to at least have an idea of what went on there. I haven't opened much 2016 product yet, but I hear that there are BUNT codes to be found in physical packs these days. Hopefully the app sticks around long enough not to make those cards obsolete in a few years.

ToppsTown cards are pretty easy to come by. They still turn up in discount boxes quite regularly, and though they look a bit plain except for the bright blue background, I have the complete 50-card insert set found in 2011 Topps Series 1 packs. In fact, Tulowitzki's card was an Eight Men Out card that was filled by two separate traders. Series 2 and Update each got their own 50-card sets that year, but I've only run across one or two from those later series. For some reason the Series 1 stuff seems to be everywhere.

1994 Topps Gold #135 David Nied

Also in this envelope was a ToppsGold parallel of David Nied, who remains the first player selected in the Expansion Draft. Though his career didn't pan out, he'll always have that fact to throw around.

One-per-pack inserts, like ToppsGold, were a fairly common fixture in the hobby by 1994, and that was also long before gold foil was played out. Even though it was the first factory set I ever owned, I still opened packs once in a while just to get these gold cards. And I wouldn't be opposed to doing that even today, although 1994 Topps is rather scarce in unopened form, quite unlike Stadium Club, Upper Deck, Leaf, and Fleer Ultra from just a year or two prior.

I'd know 1994 Topps in my sleep. I don't remember dreams that well, so for all I know, I literally have known it in my sleep. But I'll need some help identifying these next cards.

2015 <unknown> #NNO Corey Dickerson

I know Corey Dickerson was one of the members of the stacked Rockies outfield. I also know that he's on the Rays now. He's even on my Fantasy team, though I've benched him in recent weeks. But I don't recognize this card, nor is there really any way to identify it. No card numbers, no logo, no copyright. Just perforations on all sides, leading me to believe it is some sort of promotion or giveaway, and a small symbol in the lower left that looks vaguely like the Coors logo crossed with a stock chart.

2015 <unknown> #NNO Charlie Blackmon

Here's one of Charlie Blackmon, a current member of that strong outfield, in front of the right field scoreboard. Same logo, but no other identifying marks, but this scan shows the perforations better. Oddballs have always sort of been lost on me, and when I can't even identify them or figure out where they came from, I just end up puzzled.

Ideas, anyone?