Gold Medal Club (Part 1: Base)

Despite all the chaos and disruption around us, one thing remains constant. 

I still love Stadium Club.

Thanks to Target's recent policy of taking baseball cards out of their stores, I've actually been able to grab a couple products from their website at regular pricing. One of those was a blaster of 2021 Topps Stadium Club, and it's worthy of at least a podium finish in the 2021 Set of the Year race.

2021 Stadium Club #57 Ronald Acuña Jr.

As usual, the set is full of baseball's brightest young stars, including the Venezuelan sensation Ronald Acuña, Jr. He was having a great season until about a month ago, when he suffered a season-ending knee injury. Sadly, that also meant he had to miss out on playing in the All-Star Game, though he did attend.

When he's not on the field, he's usually enjoying his time off it. His dreadlocks and #13 chain are on full display in this borderless photo. Obviously, the picture was shot through the screen, which detracts slightly, but getting such a candid shot of Acuña that's different from so many other action shots is refreshing.

About a half-century ago, action photos first started appearing in baseball card sets. That artform has advanced so dramatically that us collectors take special notice when a card doesn't have one. Almost every card in the Topps flagship set is an ultra-sharp closeup of a player batting, pitching, fielding, diving, leaping, etc.... Just hanging around on the sidelines has become a rare sight.

2021 Stadium Club #172 Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Not that perfectly-cropped action photos are boring. Far from it. I think we just like more variety. A set like Stadium Club needs shots of the All-Star Game MVP snagging a ball in his blue glove as much as any other. And that's not even what Vladimir Guerrero Jr. does best. He is second on the home run leaderboard for 2021, just three behind Shohei Ohtani.

2021 Stadium Club #241 Joey Bart (RC)

As young as they are, both Acuña and Guerrero have some service time under their belts by now. But there are lots of fresh rookies in the Stadium Club checklist, like Joey Bart of the Giants. Ostensibly the eventual replacement for Buster Posey, the former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket is ranked #15 on the list of top MLB prospects. He got a little playing time in 2020 while Posey opted out of the season, but he's appeared just twice in 2021.

In any case, whether they're rookies or veterans, photos of catchers in full gear are great every time. Design-wise in 2021 Stadium Club, there is little to distract from the photo. There's just a little black banner in the lower left with the player's name in silver foil and the color-coded team abbreviation. The Stadium Club logo is in the upper right, and the Rookie Card logo in the lower right. That's about it, which makes the Nike Swoosh stand out that much more.

And clearly he's a catcher, even though this design doesn't explicitly tell us the player's position.

2021 Stadium Club #41 Ian Happ

The ivy wall at Wrigley Field also always looks good on cards, and here's Ian Happ tracking down a daytime fly ball for the Cubbies. The friendly confines have stood for well over a century, but Ian Happ's surroundings have changed dramatically in the past couple weeks. He's now part of a drastically different Cubs team, with stars Rizzo, Bryant, Kimbrel, Báez, and others traded to a variety of contending teams for a massive haul of prospects. Most of them, you'll recall, were part of that magical championship team in 2016.

We'll see what happens with the Cubs and their new prospects in 2026 or so, but the Cubs front office had to make sure that their fans were still intimately acquainted with heartbreak.

2021 Stadium Club #205 Kyle Lewis

It's only fitting that I get to blog about my favorite set on National Baseball Card Day. Of the many synthetic holidays that now fill the calendar, it's one of my favorites, right up there with International Chicken Wing Day, National Potato Chip Day, World Whisky Day, and of course Look For Circles Day.

And I found one, right behind 2020 AL Rookie of the Year Kyle Lewis.

In all seriousness, this is an excellent photo. It would require a lot of patience to get a snapshot of an outfielder right in front of his team's logo. It's definitely a shot the photographer prepared for. And if you look closely, you can see just how perfect the pocket is on Lewis's glove. The only way this could be any better is if the ball were in frame.

2021 Stadium Club #185 Kirby Puckett

Moving on from the current young players, we come to the retired legends that populate the Stadium Club checklist. It's been a while since I pulled a Kirby Puckett card out of a pack. And because players like Puckett built such a solid career, it's easy for us to forget that they were once young players with a promising but uncertain future. We've loved watching Acuña these past few years, but that ACL injury definitely puts a question mark or two out there.

When I first started watching baseball in 1993, the Twins were wearing pinstripes and had moved away from the "TC" lettering, so this photo is certainly from early in Puckett's career, maybe even from his rookie year of 1984.

2021 Stadium Club #116 Greg Maddux

More difficult to place in time is this clubhouse celebration photo of Greg Maddux. He's clearly wearing a shirt that says the Braves were National League Champions, but that happened numerous times throughout the '90s, both before and after Maddux's arrival in 1993. The Yankees won more World Series that decade, but the Braves had a longer streak of reaching the Postseason. 

Greg Maddux, one of the greatest control pitchers of all-time, was there for most of it, and his Braves came away with the ultimate prize in 1995. As the card back tells us, he had a 2.84 ERA throughout the 1995 Postseason, part of which came in the NLDS against the Rockies.

2021 Stadium Club #262 Frank Thomas

Of these retired stars, Maddux is mostly out of the spotlight, and sadly Puckett is no longer with us, but Frank Thomas is still well-known to current baseball fans, as he's part of the Fox broadcast crew. David Ortiz is usually the one who is up to the most mischief at the postgame desk, but Thomas is a commanding presence.

Once upon a time, he was known as The Big Hurt, and he was as big a name as they came in the early '90s. The two-time MVP was a fearsome hitter, and it appears that he is using an actual piece of rebar to warm up in the on-deck circle. Apparently, he used this throughout his career, and it allegedly came from the demolished Old Comiskey Park.

If he could actually swing this thing, I'd love to see how far he could hit a baseball with it. 

2021 Stadium Club #123 George Brett

George Brett appeared in this blaster too. His career wrapped up in 1993 along with Nolan Ryan's, so I didn't end up seeing any of it. Neither Brett nor Ryan made the All-Star team or the Postseason in 1993, and that was before Interleague play, so all I knew of them was from their legendary status, and in the case of Nolan Ryan, that orange and blue Pacific set.

On the card back, there's only a single line of stats for his career totals. Active players got another stat line for their 2020 season, but these retired players just have their gigantic numbers jockeying for position on the vertical card back. Brett's 10,349 at bats. Thomas's 4,550 total bases. Maddux's 999 career walks (!). Only the greats can stick around long enough to get that high up the leaderboards.

2021 Stadium Club #51 Willie Mays

As impressive as those numbers are, a few players have true numbers that are even higher. Late last year, the Negro Leagues were elevated to Major League status, so that means some players, like Willie Mays, actually have statistics that aren't really what we thought they were. The card back says that Mays had 1,903 RBI, but thanks to six more that we know about during his 1948 season with the Birmingham Black Barons, that total is now 1,909 as per Baseball-Reference.

It remains to be seen what Topps will do with Negro League stats in future years on cards of Mays and Monte Irvin and Elston Howard and so many more, whether their traditional National League and American League stats will be used for the totals on card backs, or whether we start to see a more complete representation of what actually happened in their careers.

I'm also curious to see whether we'll start seeing more cards of players whose careers ended before Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers. It's been a while since I've pulled a Kirby Puckett card, yes, but I most definitely have never pulled a Martín Dihigo card. I'd like to see Topps change that.

2021 Stadium Club #184 Jackie Robinson

Our final card today is Jackie Robinson's, one that I've seen frequently on the blogs this summer. Lots of bloggers have pointed out that this photo was colorized incorrectly, as the Dodgers have never worn red numbers on the back of their uniforms. The small numbers on the front are red, but the backs have always been blue. I wish Topps would just use the original black-and-white photos like they did in earlier releases of Stadium Club.

As the Tokyo Olympics draw to a close, I wanted to share a fun fact about the Robinson family and the Olympics. Due to World War II, Jackie never got a chance to compete in the Olympic games, though he was certainly talented enough. He was a multi-sport star at UCLA, and excelled in Track & Field. So did his older brother, Mack. 

Surely you know about Jesse Owens, who famously won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. One of those races was the 200m, which Owens won in 20.7 seconds, setting what was then a world record. 

Just a few tenths behind and winning the silver medal was Mack Robinson.

We'll never know what Jackie might have done in the 1940 or 1944 Olympics, had they occurred as planned. But we'll remember for all time what he did for baseball, and what his legacy is still doing for baseball. It's just worth remembering that to a degree, he was following in his brother's footsteps.

A more local LCS (Part 1)

Tonight, Justin Verlander's World Series record dropped to 0-6. This is his fourth World Series, and half of those decisions came with the Detroit Tigers, a 114-loss team that was a Postseason contender not too long ago.

2010 Topps Chrome #134 Justin Verlander

Even before most of those appearances, he was established as a top-notch strikeout pitcher, putting his name on the list with other Detroit greats like Hal Newhouser, Virgil Trucks, and Mickey Lolich, as mentioned on the card back. That dominance has continued in Houston, as he whiffed 300 batters in 2019 for the first time in his career.

Accordingly, Topps selected him for their 2010 Chrome set. The giant Tigers logo in the corner is as shiny as ever, but I've yet to see a card from this set that didn't have at least some rather serious curling. At least this one is curled along the x-axis, which is slightly less annoying than how most of the other 2010 Chrome cards in my collection are curled. It's not even straight on a couple of them.

This and the rest of the cards in this post came from Colorado Sports Cards, a newly-established card shop just a few miles from where I live. It's only a couple years old, so it isn't packed to the brim with Zephyrs-vintage memorabilia like Bill's. I'm sure that will come with time, though. And even if the pickings are a little slimmer, at least it's a much shorter drive.

Clearly they're not that much slimmer, as I found more than enough there to turn into two posts. Have a look at what else came out of the dollar box.

1992 Topps McDonald's #3 Rickey Henderson

In 1992, even McDonald's saw that gold foil was about to sweep across the card industry, so they partnered with Topps for a 44-card Baseball's Best promo set, putting "Limited Edition", the player's name, and the Golden Arches in a very appropriate gold foil. These were distributed at McDonald's in 1992 as an add-on purchase with a meal.

Happy Meal, indeed.

The black borders have held up well over time, and there don't seem to be any grease stains or lingering salt crystals anywhere. The McDonald's colors carry over to the back, with lots of red and yellow to be found. Stats-wise, it's pretty standard for a Topps card of the era, and it does mention Rickey's 1990 AL MVP award.

1992 Pinnacle Team 2000 #21 Larry Walker

Pinnacle took the gold foil trend even further, putting about as much on the back as on the front. "Team 2000" is in gold on both sides, as is Larry Walker's name. Pinnacle reserved their gold foil logo only for those who flipped the card over. They didn't overpower the photograph and just left "Pinnacle" in white on the card front.

Pinnacle thought Larry Walker would be a star in the year 2000, and were they ever right! He put up some truly amazing numbers throughout the '90s, even winning the NL MVP award in 1997. This card talks a lot about his defense, saying he has "sure hands, good range, and a rocket arm." He had a cannon in right field, inspiring Skybox to put a cartoon flame on one of his cards. Walker won seven Gold Gloves in his career, definitely earning all the gold foil Pinnacle gave him.

2000 Topps Hands of Gold #HG5 Tony Gwynn

By the time the year 2000 actually arrived (and what a party it was!), gold had blanketed the industry with a King Midas touch. Everything but Tony Gwynn on this die-cut card is either gold foil, gold colored, or the actual word gold itself. Hands of Gold is a seven-card insert set highlighting players with at least five Gold Gloves. I'm not sure why Larry Walker was skipped, as he had earned five of his seven by the time this card was printed.

Besides Gwynn, other defensive wizards can be found in this small set, including Roberto Alomar, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Omar Vizquel, who still has it in his early fifties.

I haven't run across a card like this in a while. Die cuts don't seem to be all that common anymore, especially ones with curved edges and an embossed design.

2018 Topps Gold Label Class 3 #65 Mike Piazza

Gold wasn't reserved just for insert sets back then, either. In the late-'90s, Topps gave a full set the same name as one of the higher-end Johnnie Walker products, Gold Label. Mike Piazza appeared in those early Gold Label sets, but this is actually from a much more recent set that resurrected the name.

Unlike in past years, there doesn't seem to be any particular pattern in the three different Classes of this fractured set. Class 1 was a hitting photo, Class 3 a baseruning photo, that sort of thing. From what I can find about 2018 Gold Label, I can't figure out a theme that weaves the three Classes together.

Regardless, the primary photo shows a clean-shaven Piazza at the plate, and there's an All-Star Game patch on his right sleeve. The Mets didn't host the Midsummer classic during his career, so this must be from an actual All-Star Game. That looks like the 2005 logo to me, held at Comerica Park in Detroit. That happened to be Justin Verlander's debut year, by the way. But more importantly to Piazza, that was his last of a dozen All-Star appearances, including 1996 in which he won MVP honors.

2000 E-X #49 Jose Canseco

E-X from Fleer/Skybox was a contemporary of the original Gold Label, but they abandoned the use of acetate for the 2000 set. Jose Canseco and everyone else in the 90-card set got plenty of shininess, regardless of the actual card material. It's a set that's color-coded by team, and the colors Skybox used for Tampa Bay reminds me of the EPA logo. The (Devil) Rays were still trying to figure out their identity a couple years in.

The card back includes a mirror image of Canseco's photo on the front, trying to maintain the illusion that E-X was still a transparent card set. Back on the front, the position is spelled out vertically in the lower left, which escaped my attention many times before I looked more closely. I was quite distracted by the vaguely shark-looking curved area in the center.

1997 Topps Screenplays #8 Tony Gwynn

After finishing up at the dollar box, I checked a shelf of unusual items toward the back of the store. There were some lapel pins back there, a Rockies team magazine from the early days, and a few of these Topps Screenplays cards, each packaged in a player-specific round tin. Inside the tin was a single card, safely tucked inside a foam protective case. They had three on offer. I passed over Juan Gonzalez and Mark McGwire in favor of another Tony Gwynn.

I've never seen one of these before, and it's awesome.

Picture a horizontal Sportflics card with the usual lenticular surface, but with a clear back. Hold it up to the light, give it a little tilt, and be amazed at how they managed to pack a couple dozen smooth frames into this surface. As cool as we always thought Sportflics cards were, they were basically just two frames. Sure, they figured out some smoother transitions for the 1994 set in the nameplate area, but nothing like this. Not even close. Thanks to Kodak's Kodamotion patent, it's like a tiny highlight reel.

Tony Gwynn's name even appears and disappears inside a blue filmstrip element, and the Topps Screenplays logo alternates with the Padres logo in the lower left. Whatever my scanner decides this looks like, trust me, it is better in person.

The tin itself was a little beat up and showing signs of rust, but I might have to go back and see if they have any of these left. You'll definitely want to show this off next time you are highlighting some favorite pieces of your collection; it's that cool.

2014 Topps #378 Ryan Zimmerman

Elsewhere around the store, I found a box of unopened packs. Nothing earth-shattering, so I simply picked a five-card pack of 2014 Topps Series 2, hoping for an insert card. I only found five base cards, but the one on top was Ryan Zimmerman, the Washington Nationals veteran who went deep in his first-ever World Series at bat. It was also the first World Series home run in franchise history. Gerrit Cole was none too happy about giving that up, but it went a long way (no pun intended) in getting the Nationals to seven games.

I started this blog in 2014, and that year of Topps flagship is the recent design I find most familiar. I was collecting a lot in 2014, and I played a lot of Topps Bunt that year, too. Odds are it will go down as the last Topps base set with a traditional white border.

1991 Score Rookies #33 Mickey Morandini

My final stop (before finding the dime boxes for Part 2) was at the glass cases along the side. They had a bunch of small sets for sale for just a dollar each. Topps Traded, Donruss Rookies, that sort of thing. The newest one I found was 1991 Score Rookies, not to be confused with the larger Score Rookie & Traded set. This one is 40 cards, and the cardboard inside is much glossier than anything Score would do for a few more years.

Mickey Morandini, a September 1990 call-up, was described as "gung-ho and hard-nosed" on the card back, and was the top Phillies prospect at the time. He was on the 1993 Phillies World Series roster, and made it to the All Star team in 1995, but he's known for one particular play in 1992.

On September 20th, 1992 at Pittsburgh, Morandini found himself playing close to the second base bag with nobody out and runners on first and second. Normally, that situation is ripe for an Infield Fly Rule to be called, but every so often, the stars align and a fielder spears a liner with runners in motion.

Yes, Morandini turned an unassisted triple play, catching the liner off of Jeff King's bat, stepping on second base to double up Andy Van Slyke, and finally tagging out Barry Bonds to suddenly get the Phillies out of the inning.

This play is so rare that there's usually some confusion when it happens. This particular announcer was telling Morandini to throw to first, which he didn't need to do. Troy Tulowitzki did exactly that when he turned his, throwing to Todd Helton at first just to be on the safe side after stepping on second base a second time. The announcers in Fenway had no idea what was going on when John Valentin got his until they watched the slow-motion replay.

Sadly, despite that amazing feat, the Phillies would lose anyway.

1986 Fleer Sluggers/Pitchers #33 Mike Schmidt

The next set I found was one of Fleer's 44-card Sluggers/Pitchers sets, this one from 1986. It featured 22 cards of each, with Sluggers in red and Pitchers in blue. Mike Schmidt has almost exactly the same pose as Rickey Henderson's McDonalds card, right down to the bat doughnut. Also like the McDonalds card, "Baseball's Best" appears on the card front without being part of the set name.

The card back has the usual look of mid-'80s Fleer, except it's horizontal. It's strange to see that orientation, although they did keep the colored columns for easy reading.

The career Phillie would retire in 1989, so Mickey Morandini never got the privilege to play with the Hall of Famer.

1986 Fleer Sluggers/Pitchers #39 Rick Sutcliffe

The other side of the perennial pitcher-hitter battle takes the form of Rick Sutcliffe. He was the 1979 NL Rookie of the Year and the 1984 NL Cy Young winner, so he's clearly worthy of the title "Baseball's Best", not just the title "Pitcher".

Clearly this is a posed shot of Sutcliffe on the mound at Wrigley Field, as you'll never see a pitcher begin his windup without a hat. I know they call it the Windy City, but it can't be that windy on a sunny summer day like this.

1987 Fleer Limited Edition #7 Joe Carter

The last small set I found was a year newer, 1987 Fleer Limited Edition. They reoriented the 44 card backs to the usual vertical position this time around, and used a festive-looking colorful design on the front. They call it Limited Edition, with a fancy cursive font front and back, but seeing as this was 1987, I question just how "Limited" this Edition was.

Tonight was Game 6 of the World Series, and Joe Carter knows all about Game 6. The most important hit of his career came in Game 6 of the 1993 Series, a walkoff home run that gave the Blue Jays their second straight championship. Tonight's Game 6 saw its share of home runs, including one by Anthony Rendon after a questionable interference call.

1987 Fleer Team Stickers #20 Houston Astros/Logo

The Nationals existed only as the Montreal Expos in 1987, so I wouldn't have found a sticker of them. I did pull this one of the Houston Astros. It contains their old logo, their old stadium, and their old league. Since then they've used several different logos, moved to a new park that was once called Enron Field, and switched leagues in 2013. They won their first World Series title in 2017, and they certainly have their hands full trying to win a second.

The Washington Baby Sharks have made a heck of a run. I'll be pulling for them in Game 7.

Nearing Closing Day (Part 2: Base)

Following up Part 1, in which I found a nice stack of Coors Field cards in a blaster of 2019 Topps Opening Day, there were several other cards that I wanted to showcase. The photography in 2019 Topps Opening Day perhaps isn't all that different from past years, but there are still some gems to be found, even though it's dramatically reduced in size compared to the full Topps flagship set.

2019 Topps Opening Day #182 Anthony Rendon

Our first player has already punched his ticket to the 2019 World Series, Anthony Rendon of the Washington Nationals. There's a lot of debate about whether Rendon or Nolan Arenado is the better player, and sure enough, the Rockies third baseman is mentioned on the back, the only player to match Rendon's three-year totals for home runs, doubles, and RBI. A quick check of Baseball Reference shows that Arenado was actually slightly behind in doubles, but significantly ahead in both RBI and home runs. Either way, they're both fantastic players, although Rendon is the first one to appear in a World Series.

The All-Star Game was held in Washington, D.C. in 2018, and the patch on Rendon's right sleeve confirms that. As you'd expect, the patch itself contains lots of stars and stripes, as well as the dome of the Capitol building. Bryce Harper won the Home Run Derby in his home park that year, although he won't be joining his former team in the Fall Classic, despite his Spring Training slip-up.

2019 Topps Opening Day #118 Dereck Rodriguez

Dereck Rodriguez came up the other day. I mentioned him as the son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan from that Toys 'R' Us set, and here he is continuing his father's Major League legacy. He's also continuing Tim Lincecum's long hair legacy for the Giants.

Rodriguez has a commemorative patch, too. There were a lot of them in 2018. This one marks the 60th Anniversary of the Giants' arrival in the Bay Area, a simple black and orange diamond with one tower from the Golden Gate Bridge above the "60". In about a decade, they'll have been in San Francisco longer than they were in New York. They're about as far away as you can get from their old crosstown rivals, or more accurately, cross-river rivals. The Polo Grounds were in Upper Manhattan, right across the Harlem River from Yankee Stadium.

2019 Topps Opening Day #142 Eddie Rosario

With the Washington Nationals finally having some Postseason success, their predecessors, the Washington Senators, have been getting some airtime recently. The 1933 World Series, Walter Johnson, that sort of thing. Neither participant from '33 remains in their original city. The New York Giants won that in five games over the Senators, and that initial iteration of the Senators moved to Minnesota in 1961. Oddly, the second Washington Senators began play that same year as an expansion team, and have since become the Texas Rangers.

The decision of the Dodgers and Giants to move to the West Coast kicked off some real chaos in the Major Leagues. It was clear there was a market for expansion, and New York wanted to bring the National League back to the city quickly. There were attempts to move an existing NL team to New York, but those efforts didn't bear fruit. The next idea, courtesy of New York attorney William Shea, was to form a third major league, the Continental League.

The Continental League rapidly made plans to start their own eight-team league, matching both the NL and AL of the time. I knew even less about this proposed league than the dead-ball era Federal League, but apparently numerous cities that now have a team were on the list. Atlanta, Dallas, Toronto, and even Denver. Of those eight, only Buffalo remains without a team today. Obviously, the Continental League never got off the ground, and once the NL agreed to form the New York Mets, William Shea was satisfied. The Mets even named Shea Stadium after him.

Meanwhile, Denver remained without a team, and Bob Howsam, the Denver Bears owner who was due to get Denver's CL franchise, was left in the lurch. He had a massively-expanded Bears Stadium on his hands and suddenly no major league team to put there. His solution? Use the lessons learned in forming the failed Continental League to join the American Football League (AFL) and bring the Denver Broncos to life.

The Rockies history books mention the Continental League only in passing, but Denver's favorite pro team, the Broncos, can trace their roots to early attempts to make it a Major League Baseball city.

Anyway, all that to point out that Eddie Rosario is on the Twins, who used to be the Senators. And he got a great Tatooine card in 2019 Topps Opening Day.

2019 Topps Opening Day #50 Mike Clevinger

Unlike the rest of the teams thus far, the Cleveland Indians have stayed put for much longer. Their franchise briefly played in Grand Rapids, Michigan before moving to Cleveland for good in 1900. They've undergone a few name changes, and more recently, logo changes, but they've been part of Cleveland history for well over a century.

Mike Clevinger, who also carries on Tim Lincecum's long-haired tradition, has been a solid part of the Indians rotation for a few years now. The main thing that caught my eye on this card wasn't his hair, nor was it his tattoos. Actually, it's the pitch grip. Even with all the pitcher close-ups we've been getting on cards for most of this decade, a clear view of the pitch grip isn't terribly common. I remember a Darryl Kile card from a while ago which shows his circle change quite well. This one of Clevinger shows the old classic, the four-seam fastball.

2019 Topps Opening Day #154 Sean Doolittle

Joining Anthony Rendon in the World Series this year will be relief pitcher Sean Doolittle, with an appropriately high relief pitcher uniform number. His unique pitching stance hides any commemorative patch we might otherwise see, so good thing Rendon has it on his card. No pitch grip to see here, but it looks a lot like he's letting the Opening Day logo dangle out of his hand.

2019 Topps Opening Day #46 Clayton Kershaw

Surely you've seen this Clayton Kershaw card by now. Looks like another four-seamer, but the main feature on this card, unfortunately, is that Kershaw's fly is down. They fixed this in post by the time Chrome was released, but that's an embarrassing oversight. It's not quite as bad as Billy Ripken's infamous 1989 Fleer card, of course.

After so many Postseason disappointments, Clayton Kershaw is developing quite the reputation for having the yips in the month of October. He's thrown some gems, but has been the goat more than a few times, and that's a lower-case goat, if you get my drift. Most recently, he surrendered two solo home runs and the lead late in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Nationals, setting them up to take the series in extra innings. Looking at it more closely, he seems to be the victim of poor managerial decisions more often than not, and has been thrown out there on short rest quite often. People already seem to have forgotten that he got a key strikeout to end the prior inning, and if a different member of the Dodgers bullpen had been brought in, the narrative could be a lot different.

2019 Topps Opening Day #49 Willson Contreras

Like Eddie Rosario's card above, the horizontal cards in this set look great. They work well with the design, i.e. not too much of the card design encroaches on the photo. The photographer managed to capture Willson Contreras at just the right angle not to include the umpire or the batter. Just a catcher behind the plate, all alone in Wrigley, pacing his pitcher for the next throw.

On the card back, flanked by a lovely coral color scheme, we're told that Contreras erupted for an offensive onslaught against the Cubs' South Side rivals, the White Sox. That was last May during a weekend series at Wrigley, which happened to be the best two-game hitting performance by a Cub since Billy Williams in 1968.

2019 Topps Opening Day #132 Kevin Pillar

If you watch the baseball highlight reel regularly, then seeing Kevin Pillar in a position like this is quite normal. He's one of the most fun outfielders to watch in the whole league, and frequently makes catches you wouldn't think are possible. Though he's pictured with the Blue Jays, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants just days after the 2019 season began. That means I got the chance to see him play at Coors Field this year, and while I don't remember any great catches in particular, he did hit a two-run home run that chilly evening of May 7th. It should be right there on my mom's scorecard.

Year after year, Opening Day is known for its insert sets. We got a taste of the Mascots set a few posts ago, and part 3, the final one of this series, will feature the usual insert goodies from this inexpensive Topps brand.

The Trading Post #53: Wish They Still Came With Bubble Gum

Not long ago, Jeff from Wish They Still Came With Bubble Gum sent a pretty interesting small shipment in return for some Braves. It came in a bubble envelope, but had about the number of cards normally found in a PWE. You'll see why soon.

2015 Topps Update #US358 Nolan Arenado

This is the third time he's sent me cards, and he definitely knows I like Nolan Arenado. I rarely purchase Topps Update; rather it seems to find me pretty quickly through trades and at card shows. As is usual for Update, there are a whole slew of All Star Game cards, and though the back of this card has the normal red and blue color scheme, the front wears Purple with pride.

The All-Star hats were a little weird this year, but I see the century-old look they were going for. At least they didn't make everyone wear handlebar mustaches. Mike Trout certainly set the tone in that game by belting a first-inning home run, while Arenado took over in the field in the 7th for the Home Run Derby champ, Todd Frazier, and struck out in his only at-bat in the 8th.

Unless this is just a warm-up shot, this is the last out of the top of the 8th, when Jose Iglesias grounded out to 3rd with Mark Melancon on the mound.

There might be an oversupply of All-Star cards in Update, but it's not often you can date a card down to a single play.

2015 Topps Heritage #306 Rafael Ynoa (RC) / Jackson Williams (RC)

I've seen a lot of 2015 Heritage this year, and this dual-player card adds to what I've shown on the blog so far. But that same scoreboard/fence/net thing we previously saw on some Rockies' High Number cards is present on both Ynoa's photo and this Angels guy's. For all I know, Topps took a photo of the entire Cactus League on this single spot. Incidentally, this Jackson Williams fellow has signed on with the Rockies twice. He played a few games for Colorado when rosters expanded in September 2014, and re-joined the Rockies organization just a couple months ago.

2015 Bowman Draft #200 Brendan Rodgers

Unless you follow the draft and Bowman cards in general, you probably haven't heard of Brendan Rogers. But the Rockies picked this shortstop third overall this year, and here's hoping he turns out to be a great pick, unlike Greg Reynolds in 2006, who was selected second, just a few spots above Award Winners and MVPs you may have heard of, like Evan Longoria, Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum, and Max Scherzer.

Ouch.

Anyway, he might be the future of the Rockies' shortstop position whenever Jose Reyes wraps things up in Denver, assuming he sticks around that long. I, for one, would love to see Reyes gone, especially in light of the domestic violence charges for which he'll stand trial just as the 2016 regular season opens.

2015 Bowman Prospects #BP19 David Dahl

Now that Jon Gray has made his Major League debut, David Dahl is probably the most promising prospect in the Rockies' farm system. But this card confuses me. It's branded as a Bowman Chrome card, but it doesn't have a BCP card number, nor, obviously, a chrome finish. Just a plain card. So either Bowman goofed up the logo and it should just be the red Bowman logo like you see on Rodgers' card, or there really is a Bowman Chrome set that doesn't have a chrome finish.

It's probably the former, but Bowman sets have been so convoluted for so long that the latter wouldn't surprise me a bit.

2014 Bowman Chrome Purple Refractors #54 Troy Tulowitzki /150

There, now that's what a Chrome card should look like. This purple-bordered beauty of Tulo happens to be serial numbered to 150, and there's a decent view of the Rockies' 20th Anniversary patch on his right sleeve. Of course I miss him, but it was fun to watch him in the postseason last year.

And to give you an idea of when I composed this post, the end of that Green Bay / Arizona game was pretty fun to watch too.

1998 Collector's Choice StarQuest #SQ13 Todd Helton SD

Helton had his share of postseason play, but long after this card was printed. He was still a clean-shaven rookie on this Star Quest card. The purple and white look great, and if there's one thing I miss about late 1990s cards, it's red foil. I first saw it on 1994 Stadium Club, and it's a bold look that I'd love to see make a comeback.

2002 Post #11 Todd Helton

2002 Post #22 Ryan Klesko

These two Post oddballs were still sealed in their plastic wrap, which insulated them from who knows what kind of sugary cereal. A rare non-Rockie makes an appearance on one of my trade posts, but he did play in the same division as the Rockies after the Braves traded him. I see a lot of NL West teams at Coors, so I definitely saw him in person a time or two. I'm pretty sure he was on my fantasy baseball squad in my early years of that activity.

So far you've seen almost every card Jeff sent. Think that would be about right for a PWE?

2013 Topps Allen and Ginter Box Toppers #OB-TT Troy Tulowitzki

Not if this oversized box topper is part of the deal.

This giant thing is roughly 4"x7". The back is not terribly interesting, but the front has a much sharper image that you'll see on most A&G cards. I have no idea how rare these are, but I've sure never seen one. I have a Hideo Nomo Topps Chrome card about this size, so I'll probably squeeze it into that page.

You might have noticed a lack of Blake Street Bombers in this post so far. Have no fear.

1995 Leaf #135 Dante Bichette (AU)

Yep, that's autographed! And it's on the great 1995 Leaf, no less, a set I singled out recently as one of my favorites of 1995. I got a few Rockies autographs in their early years, like Joe Girardi, Eric Young, and Darren Holmes, but missed out on the biggest sluggers of that era. So I'll happily put this one in my Rockies autograph collection.

And on the subject of the card itself, this isn't the only shot of Bichette playing the field at Wrigley. He was "Mr. .310" and he excelled on a two-strike count, but the card companies loved when he came to Chicago.

There was some really interesting and unexpected stuff crammed into this envelope, spanning the whole of Rockies history, and likely several years into the future. Thanks Jeff!

The Trading Post #47: Waiting 'til Next Year

Spoiler alert: there are no pitchers in this post.

2003 Topps #97 Todd Zeile

There are, however, plenty of hitters. Like this great horizontal shot of Todd Zeile, a journeyman third baseman who holds the dubious distinction of having played in the most games without ever being selected for an All-Star team. He was off the Rockies by the time this 2003 card was printed, but the Rockies purple works pretty well with the blue borders of Topps 2003, probably my favorite Topps base set of the years I wasn't collecting.

Zeile's was one of the cards I got in trade from Tom at Waiting 'til Next Year. He's one of several bloggers that I've traded with for the first time in the last couple months. It took me a while, but I finally got a return package shipped out Monday.

2004 Bazooka Red Chunks #166 Jay Payton

Jay Payton stealing second leads off a trio of red-bordered cards, this one a surprisingly thick parallel from 2004 Bazooka. Like Zeile, Payton was no longer a Rockie by the time this card was released (they always seem a year behind, don't they?), but that doesn't detract from the awesomeness of this action shot. It seems more like a TV screen capture than most other cards.

And he's not a pitcher. Which I bring up because the Rockies signed a few Relief Pitchers I Have Actually Heard Of, getting Chad Qualls and Jason Motte. You may not have heard of them, but this is big news for the Rockies bullpen. Qualls, incidentally, was on his second stint as an Astro, a team I thought he'd been on all this time. Turns out he's been bouncing all over the league for years.

2006 Topps Turkey Red Red #553 Kazuo Matsui

In fact, the Rockies and Astros have done a fair bit of dealing over the years, as Kaz Matsui went there following the Rockies' World Series appearance in 2007. More recently, Jordan Lyles and Dexter Fowler were dealt between Denver and Houston. But (unrelated) I'm still not really used to the Astros being in the American League, although the 2015 Postseason helped me out quite a bit on that.

Like that Bazooka card, this Turkey Red insert is a red parallel (Turkey Red squared?), but this has that odd faux-vintage textured look, almost like a piece of leather. The back is slightly off-white, and the back uses that 19th-century spelling of "Base Ball" more than once. It's an odd set, and Turkey Red Red reminds me of saying PIN Number or ATM Machine.

2008 Topps Opening Day #35 Garrett Atkins

And this one is from when Opening Day took better efforts to differentiate itself from the Topps base set. All the Opening Day base cards were red that year, and featured lots of gold foil. I've found that they chip pretty easily, but this one seems to be in pretty good shape, even if that Topps logo is intruding on the photo area, a common gripe about the 2008 design.

2015 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP12 Emerson Jimenez

That's it for the red cards, so up next is a nice shiny Bowman card of a prospect I've never heard of.  He's still a single-A guy, so it'll be quite some time before we see him in the Majors. But you heard it on Bowman first.

2009 Bowman Prospects #BP58 Wilin Rosario

Every so often, though, a Bowman Prospect stays in the Majors. Like Emerson Jimenez, Rosario hails from the Dominican Republic, a real gold mine of baseball stars. And Rosario has one of the most legible signatures I can recall on one of these cards with a facsimile autograph. He'll be starting his sixth year as a Rockie in 2016, so he's got quite a bit of seniority already.

2013 Finest #35 Troy Tulowitzki

I'm pretty sure I've seen some variety of this card before (probably the refractor), but it wasn't until now that I noticed the tiny baseball on Tulo's belt. I can't quite tell what it is, a patch or possibly a sticker. Maybe you get a little shiny baseball sticker on your belt after each home run, sort of like an Axis flag you'd find on a P-51 Mustang.

2015 Donruss #82 Corey Dickerson

With Donruss, the logo-less Panini brand, we don't get anywhere that level of detail. Because the Rockies have fairly unique colors, it's not hard to spot them without the "CR" on hats or helmets. I imagine this would be much tougher with one of the red or blue teams, of which there are plenty. Maybe being a Rockies fan means I tend not to find issue with Panini sets that most others despise, like Prizm (or even Donruss, for that matter).

2007 Topps Wal-Mart #WM38 Matt Holliday

A couple posts ago, I mentioned that Matt Holliday cards don't seem to be that common. Tom sent over a couple, including this Topps 205 card (actually part of a Wal-Mart exclusive insert set), whose frame looks an awful lot like this year's Gypsy Queen. Holliday's baby-faced appearance originally made me think this was more like 2004-2005, but it is from the same year that Holliday won NLCS MVP honors, just a couple weeks after misjudging a fly ball in Game 163 against the Padres to send it to extras, then scoring the winning run in that same game.

2005 Topps Opening Day #136 Matt Holliday

Though he was (and remains) a fairly subpar outfielder, his talent at the plate can't be denied. His baserunning is known to be...iffy, but I'd say he's safe at second in Wrigley on this Opening Day card. The blue foil at the top looks striking, but the same color gets lost in the black bar at the bottom, at least in person. Amazingly, the scan picks it up better.

2000 Topps #53 Dante Bichette

Wrigley Field comes across even better in this Dante Bichette card from 2000 Topps. Tom threw in a good number of 2000 Topps, which might even be the whole team set. It was a small set that year.

We've seen Bichette near the ivy before, but this time it looks more like spring than autumn. At least he doesn't need long sleeves. And a couple of Wrigley Field cards from one of the bigger Cubs fans in the cardsphere makes for an extra-appropriate conclusion to his trade post.

And not one pitcher to be found.