The Trading Post #7: The Card Papoy

My seventh trade (which I still need to reciprocate) came from Kevin of The Card Papoy. Kevin collects mostly Blue Jays cards, and resides all the way across the pond in France. It's been said in this community before, but in a country where the basements, garages, drugstores, and hypermarkets aren't likely to contain baseball cards, he must have a hard time adding to his collection.

Kevin sent mostly mid-1990s cards of the Blake Street Bombers, such as Dante Bichette hitting off a yellow tee while wearing his trademark wraparound sunglasses.

1995 Upper Deck #175 Dante Bichette

As though this card weren't goofy enough, there's a rather shady-looking character in the background checking his mobile phone or pager (hey, this was 1995). Apparently he trusts that Bichette won't foul one back off that tee.

There were a few "hits" as well, like a Topps Certified Autograph of Rockies starter Jeff Francis.

2006 Topps Autographs Green #TA-JF Jeff Francis D

It's nice that they left so much room for the player to go wild with his signature, but I am having a hard time trying to visualize any other design with that much empty space, especially on the front. But it is an on-card autograph, rather than a hologram sticker that seems to be generally less desirable.

There were cards from numerous different years of Topps Stadium Club, a brand that Kevin seems to enjoy. In fact, he posted earlier today about the enormous 1992 set, so I'm not surprised to have found lots of TSC in this assortment. I'll have to keep that in mind before I send his trade package across the Atlantic.

2003 Stadium Club Royal Gold #59 Todd Helton

The thickness of this card made me wonder if it was some type of special parallel. If memory serves, this era of Stadium Club parallels had a refractor finish, so I looked it up to be certain. Sure enough, this is the Royal Gold parallel. Turns out I even had the base card already. This will go well alongside another card I already had of the Royal Gold variety.

2003 Stadium Club Royal Gold #65 Albert Pujols

Interestingly enough, both of my cards from this parallel set are horizontal. This is not true for all cards in 2003 Stadium Club.

Over the years, Stadium Club got to be a bit like Fleer Ultra. They always used full-bleed photographs and some type of foil, but they never really changed the designs much. You could always count on a nice-looking card, but being able to tell each year apart remains a challenge. Frankly, the same goes for some of Upper Deck's later releases.

2002 Stadium Club #9 Mike Hampton

2002 Stadium Club #30 Larry Walker

I haven't found any 2014 Stadium Club yet, but I do welcome the brand's return, especially after the long-ago demise of Fleer.

As I mentioned before, Kevin threw in lots of Blake Street Bombers, and one that particularly caught my eye was a sparkle-fest from Score Summit.

1995 Summit Nth Degree #105 Dante Bichette

1995 Summit #105 Dante Bichette

The scan of this "Nth Degree" parallel came out pretty blue, but in reality it has more of a silver appearance. As if that weren't enough, Kevin even threw in Dante Bichette's base card! For being a mid-1990s set, Score Summit is one that I don't see very often.

To wrap up this Bichette-heavy post, here's a card from one of my favorite parallel sets of all-time, 1994 Topps Gold.

1994 Topps Gold #372 Joe Girardi

My sister and I got Girardi's autograph once at the Rockies "Dugout" merchandise store in Boulder, where he was signing next to Eric Young. I remember it quite vividly. Dinger was present and up to his usual triceratops antics, I congratulated Joe on his home run the previous night, and he gave a live radio interview before heading back down to Denver for that evening's game.

Such great memories to be jogged by a stack of cards that have traveled all the way to Europe and back.

The Trading Post #6: Catching Up With Collecting

Trade packages continue to fill my mailbox! Jared from Catching Up With Collecting reached out a few weeks ago to say he had "a ton" of Rockies cards, and would be happy to send some over. Jared also included a few cards from Julie at A Cracked Bat, some Rockies that snuck their way into the wrong trade package. I'll save those for a later post, but I appreciate both Julie and Jared working together to correct that error.

His shipment showed up Monday, the very same day I was selected to sit on a jury for a week-long trial, so as you can imagine, I haven't been able to keep up with my hobbies this past week (or even work, for that matter).

But that's all wrapped up, and I've been diving into my many recent pickups and trade packages this weekend. Digging into Jared's shipment, one of the first that caught my eye is this insert from 2013 Topps.

2013 Topps Chase It Down #CD-12 Carlos Gonzalez

When healthy, Carlos Gonzalez is quite the upgrade in left field from Matt Holliday, who hit well enough to make up for some pretty serious defensive blunders during his tenure as a Rockie. Here he's shown "chasing it down" to strand a runner in scoring position, according to the paragraph on the back. It looks like he dug out a small divot in the outfield grass while lunging for this liner.

The other oft-injured Rockie superstar that's rumored to be on the MLB trading block is Troy Tulowitzki, who introduced me to another insert set by appearing on a UD Starquest card.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Starquest #SQ-58 Troy Tulowitzki

I seem to be a sucker for this lovely shade of green, and am considering chasing this 60-card insert set, along with 2013 Topps Emerald.

Even with Upper Deck out of the hobby, it never ceases to amaze me how many cards are out there. Despite having tens of thousands of cards lying around, it's quite common for me to see a set or parallel for the first time. More on that later.

2010 Topps Attax Silver Foil #28 Ubaldo Jimenez

I've seen plenty of Topps Attax cards that refer to the defunct toppstown.com website, but I never knew there was a "silver foil" parallel to this unnumbered insert set. It's not any thicker than usual, but has a refractor-like finish and still looks pretty despite the broken URL on the back.

In one of my first posts, I wrote about the "Topps Finest Protector" peel-away coating, which I peeled off this card of now-manager Walt Weiss mere seconds ago.

1997 Finest #180 Walt Weiss B

I seem to remember something about any copper-colored card in 1997 Finest being termed a "Common", and sure enough, flipping this card over confirms that my memory is intact. Amazing, since fractured sets like this aren't exactly easy to keep track of.

Carrying on, Jared included one of my favorite bonuses in the hobby, a serial-numbered card!

2013 Topps Gold #427 Chris Nelson /2013

A thought occurs. What if 1991 Donruss cards, for example, were serial numbered? They'd probably look something like those gimmick $100 million bills. I've read that industry-wide, "billions" of cards were printed annually during those years, and that estimate doesn't seem far off the mark.

Nick over at Dime Boxes has been writing about 1995 Fleer quite a bit lately, so this scan is for him!

1995 Fleer #531 Eric Young

It is one crazy-looking set, especially the NL West theme, yet it's somehow distinctive. I have a lot of trouble telling one Fleer Ultra set from another, for example, but love it or hate it, this one really made a mark on the hobby.

Earlier I mentioned that I often run into older sets for the first time. Right around 1997, Fleer had the brilliant idea to actually include the year and set name in the fine print on the back, a feature that makes sorting quite a bit easier. Pacific followed this innovation a couple years later, as did Upper Deck in the mid-2000s. Topps still doesn't do this, and I must admit that having nothing to go on besides the copyright date (which is sometimes a year behind) drives me a little crazy.

But anyway, Pacific made quite a unique insert set in 2000 Crown Royale called "Card-Supials". An obvious play on "marsupial", the mammal variety that raises its young in a pouch, these standard-sized cards also include a removable miniature card (1.25" x 1.75"), slightly larger than Topps Micro.

2000 Pacific Crown Royale Card-Supials #5 Sammy Sosa
2000 Pacific Crown Royale Card-Supials Minis #9 Ben Petrick

Above the pocket is a large gold-foil team logo, in this case Sammy Sosa's Cubs. Research indicates that there are twenty cards of each size, though they are paired randomly. In fact, since minis are a bit difficult to store alone in 9-pocket pages, this "pouch" is a perfect way to display them.

Thanks again to Jerad for all the Rockies, including plenty that were novel to this collector. I still need to send some cards his way, but I have a healthy stack of Red Sox and some of the catchers on his player collection already set aside. I've been receiving quite the wide variety of new cards from my fellow bloggers, and I'm happy to reciprocate.

The Trading Post #4: Bob Walk the Plank

Matthew might have one of the best blog names in this whole community.

Bob Walk the Plank is now on my rapidly growing list of trading partners. I sent him some Pirates in a blind trade, and he quickly responded with a shipment of his own. His trade post is already up, and he appropriately picked out a few Bob Walk cards to display.

What an unfortunate name for a pitcher, by the way. Almost as bad as Grant Balfour.

Matthew must pay a fair bit of attention to the MLB at large, as one of three autographed cards he included was from Drew Stubbs' collegiate days. One has to keep up pretty closely to follow all these players around.

2008 Donruss Threads Diamond Kings Signatures #DK-9 Drew Stubbs /465

Stubbs is a fairly obscure player, and he didn't have a spectacular year with the Rockies, but I always appreciate cards of current or former Rockies, even if they're pictured on a different team. Pre-expansion draft cards of the early Blake Street Bombers—such as Walt Weiss on the A's or Vinny Castilla as a Brave—make pre-1993 sets a bit more interesting.

1992 Fleer #666 Vinny Castilla RC

It seems that the Rockies used to do quite a few more transactions than they have in recent years. There has been persistent buzz that Tulowitzki will be traded to the Yankees, but other than that, they've been pretty quiet on the trading front. Perhaps their long-awaited new GM will change that a bit.

But I'm glad they hung on to this guy for his whole career.

2005 Donruss Elite Series Black #ES-24 Todd Helton /100

Todd Helton was a Rockie for 17 years, in fact, matching his uniform number, which the Rockies retired in August. The concession stand in left field at Coors Field is even named after him.

You know you've made it when you have your name on a hot dog stand.

In a team bag separate from these "hits" was a complete oddball set! Sets like these rarely contain more than a couple dozen cards, so it's surprising how unusual it is to find the whole checklist in one place.

1989 Topps Cap'n Crunch #9 George Brett

1989 Topps Cap'n Crunch #20 Kirby Puckett

More than anything, the thing that bugs me about unlicensed sets are those giant blank baseball caps. But I guess they call them oddballs for a reason. One can only imagine how much Cap'n Crunch was required to obtain the entire 22-card set—and in what state the roof of your mouth would be in after all that cereal.

Thanks to Matthew and others, I have plenty of cards to sort! This will be a fun activity to do with the World Series on TV, which commences Tuesday. I wouldn't mind seeing George Brett's Royals take this year's championship. The Giants are not to be counted out, as we've seen in recent years, but the Royals haven't lost a game this whole postseason, even eclipsing the record tied by the Rockies in their 2007 run.

Thanks to the generosity of my readers, I've done nothing but trade posts on this blog all month, and there are still more where that came from!

The Trading Post #2: A Cracked Bat

The trade packages are starting to roll in! My second one came from Julie at A Cracked Bat, who sent over some Rockies in exchange for a shipment of Tigers.

I've been having a lot of fun sending out and receiving trades. I didn't have too many trading partners when I was young other than my next door neighbor. I remember once getting a bunch of hockey cards for free at a mall card show long ago, and traded him most of the Quebec Nordiques shortly after they announced they would move and become the Colorado Avalanche.

Anyway, it's certainly a great way to send some of my extra cards to collectors who might appreciate them more, rather than them just taking up space in a giant duplicates box (hint, hint). Having trading partners and putting together trade packages really lets you look at a batch of cards from someone else's perspective, which can be quite refreshing. Not to mention the obvious benefit of free cards in return!

Julie's been quite active in the community recently, as I noticed she sent a shipment of Blue Jays to Robert at $30 a Week Habit not long ago, and sent Pirates to Matthew at Bob Walk the Plank, whose trade post went up mere minutes ago. As you'll see, the contents of my Rockies shipment mirrored those two pretty closely, and here are some of my favorites, starting with one of the best-ever examples of a team-colored set.

1995 Select #10 Dante Bichette

Just look at all that purple! I'd like to see a Cardinal or Red from this set - the marbled area on the right must look a bit like a steak. Score put out some underrated and well-designed sets under the Select brand in the early- to mid-1990s, other than their 1994 release which had that odd gold bar right down the middle.

1994 Select #174 John Smoltz

Next, a very prominently-placed Pinnacle logo caught my eye as Eric Young rounded the bases and lost his batting helmet.

1994 Pinnacle #133 Eric Young

As his son has been in the Majors for some time, I suppose we ought to start calling him Eric Young, Sr.

Keeping a sharp eye on batting helmets, something about this Charlie Hayes from 1994 Upper Deck looked strange to me.

1994 Upper Deck #167 Charlie Hayes

I don't recall Hayes having a mustache, so I thought they may have swapped in a photo of a different player, but then I noticed the numeral "8" on his batting helmet. Flipping the card over shows him wearing #13, so he must have worn someone else's helmet during that particular at-bat.

However, these weren't all from the first few years of the Rockies' existence. Julie indulged my love of Shiny with a recent example of 2013's NL batting champion.

2014 Topps Chrome #157 Michael Cuddyer

After the Rockies acquired aging Twins stars Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau, one can't help but expect that Joe Mauer will be close behind.

Julie's trade package culminated with one of the best Rockies pitchers ever.

2002 Studio Private Signings #92 Jason Jennings /250

Yes, a signed and serial numbered card of Jason Jennings, who threw a complete game shutout in his debut start in 2001! That feat is even documented on the reverse of this card. Granted, "one of the best Rockies pitchers ever" isn't the highest of accolades, but it will go nicely with another autograph card already in my collection.

1999 Topps Traded Autographs #T70 Jason Jennings

Looks like Jennings changed up his signature a bit once he entered the Majors. I don't have too many certified autographs, but Jason Jennings is one of only two representatives of the Rockies in that stack, the other being Garrett Atkins, which I showed last month. An odd coincidence, and thanks again to Julie for the trade!

The Trading Post #1: Hot Corner Cards

As promised not long ago, it's time for my first-ever trade post! I took advantage of the "Take My Team Sets" offer at Hot Corner Cards, and in exchange for some Tigers, received a shipment primarily containing the Cubs I requested, along with a couple team bags full of Rockies, thanks to Pat's generosity.

Though I am sort of drowning in unfiled cards at the moment, getting a box full of Stuff You Didn't Specifically Pick Out is always interesting. Inevitably, that will result in some duplicates.

1993 Fleer Ultra #352 Darren Holmes

But no matter, as even though I already had that Darren Holmes card, there is always plenty more that I haven't seen before.

2010 Bowman Gold #204 Eric Young, Jr

One interesting aspect of collecting Rockies is that there aren't really any pre-1993 Rockies cards. I've seen a couple of commemorative cards circa-1992 that honor the founding of the franchise, but the bulk of them only started appearing when there was plenty of gold foil to go around. Of course, you won't find any Rockies in legendary vintage sets like 1975 Topps (save for the plethora of retro-themed products like Heritage and Archives), but the flip side of that coin means that there is a conspicuous lack of overproduction-era cards in a stack of Rockies. I guess that's one way to keep 1990 Topps from accumulating like tribbles.

But anyway. I asked for Cubs, and Cubs I did receive.

2014 Bowman #16 Starlin Castro

Starlin Castro looks extremely late on that swing, assuming that whitish blob is actually the baseball and not a Photoshop job or even the rosin bag. Looking at Castro's eyes in this photo, the ball still seems to be far away, not right on his wrists. This doesn't look like a major-league action photo to me, but more like I probably looked the first time I faced the 48-mph pitching machine in little league.

1997 Flair Showcase Row 2 Showpiece #84 Mel Rojas

Here's a nice shiny card from the post-strike 1990s, when all the card companies were trying to out-shiny, out-cursive, and out-fracture the rest. Yes, this is from a fractured set, meaning your brain will hurt if you try to figure out how it's numbered. Beckett lists six varieties of each card number, but they don't take into account the three different possible card backs, nor the one-of-one Masterpiece parallels, so by my count, each card has 27 varieties.

And now my brain hurts.

Incidentally, 1997 Flair Showcase was the set that introduced one-of-one parallels to the hobby, forever giving "supercollectors" a giant headache.

Back to a bit of normalcy, Ernie Banks makes an appearance on this recent mini insert that pays homage to 1989 Topps with a sort-of borderless interpretation.

2014 Topps '89 Topps Die Cut Minis #TM35 Ernie Banks

I like this die-cut design - the extra curves on the corners give it a pleasing appearance but without introducing excessive fragility like other non-rectangular cards.

And last, now-Dodger Darwin Barney with a celebratory action shot on what has to be my favorite parallel set of all time.

2013 Topps Emerald #299 Darwin Barney

I've featured Topps Emerald on this blog already, but there's just something about this green that looks so amazing and eye-catching. This could be a massive and expensive undertaking, but I'm considering chasing the complete parallel set. Perhaps green really is my favorite color. I have quite a few cards from 1994 Finest, which has a similar color scheme. And just take a look at my blog's background, for that matter.

I expect there will be more posts like this to come, as I am finally embracing some real interaction with this blog community. I have a stack of cards picked out for Julie at A Cracked Bat, as well as a few shipments on the way from her and others. After all, these things are called "trading cards", and there are some wonderful people in the blogosphere that help them live up to their name.

Adam, you won!

I just got back from quite an enjoyable afternoon at the monthly 5280 card show. You might recall that I did a couple posts earlier this summer documenting a previous trip. The girlfriend is out in Seattle this weekend for the International Food Blogger Conference (We both blog...how cute!), so that left my afternoon open to mingle with fellow collectors and sports nuts.

I've been to quite a few shows, but this may have been one of the best trips ever. So get ready for my longest post thus far.

As usual, I headed for Christian's table first. As we were chatting and catching up, he suddenly exclaimed "Oh, Adam. You won last month's drawing!" and proceeded to hand me a sleeve of three autographed cards.

2007 Topps Moments & Milestones Milestone Autographs #MA-GA Garrett Atkins (AU)

This autograph is a little faded, and this is the first card I've seen from the gargantuan Moments and Milestones set that didn't have a serial number, but it's a Rockie and was free! To give a bit of background, every $30 you spend with a dealer gets you a raffle ticket. The other two were of a basketball player and a Denver Bronco. I promptly flipped these to another dealer at the show, which covered 20% of a stack of singles I picked out.

Christian is getting a pretty good idea of what I collect, as he had a showcase of late-80s mini-sets in their original packaging; mostly Donruss Rookies, Topps Traded, Fleer Update, things of that nature. Common, sure, but inexpensive, small, and mint! I hardly had any of these as a kid, as they just didn't seem to show up in my LCS or the Wal-Mart card aisle at the time.

1987 Donruss Rookies #5 Ellis Burks (XRC)

More interestingly, he had a 400-count box with a near-complete set of 1953 Topps Archives, which I believe is only the second reprint set in Topps history. I remember one of these was the front card in a "collector's kit" at Wal-Mart when I was a kid, and was impressed enough at the time to follow through with a purchase of that repack which came with one of those 80-card mini binders.

1991 Topps Archives 1953 #37 Eddie Mathews

While perusing Christian's table, he introduced me to another one of his regulars, a Cubs fan named Paul, who carried a black binder full of autographed cards. Most of that binder contained Rockies and Cubs, but every last one of those cards he got autographed in person, with a story to tell for each one. This Bill Mueller was at the Cubs Convention last year, that Addison Reed was after such-and-such Spring Training game, etc.... It certainly sounded like spring training is the place to be if you're after autographs.

There was plenty more to see at the show, and this time I ventured to a few other tables besides my regular spots. I picked up a 1990 Upper Deck factory set and a 1993 Rangers Stadium Club team set from a gentleman named Tom for $13. And at another table, a real highlight. These are now the oldest cards in my collection by four years, and they're 1955 Bowmans!

1955 Bowman #201 Allie Reynolds

I can't wait to show this to my dad. He collected these as a child, and as a Yankees fan, it's entirely possible he had Yankee righty Allie Reynolds in his own collection. The other three were Don Newcombe, Preacher Roe, and Carl Furillo. Not quite Hall-of-Famers, but well-known stars from an iconic set at $5 each.

Next, Adam had a table full of ten-cent cards, and I parked myself in front of one of the baseball boxes, right next to a fellow collector named Vince who I've seen for each of the past few months. Adam keeps his cards pretty well divided by sport, which is fortunate since Vince only collects football, and I only baseball. That allows us to sit and chat while digging for gems without having to be on top of each other the whole time. Of course, there are always a handful of stowaways from other sports in a baseball box, and vice-versa, so Vince and I separate those out and make sure that the other has a chance to see them before they go into the correct box. It's quite a sight, really.

Anyway, I had picked out a pretty large stack of cards, and even at the "disregard the price tag" prices that Adam offers, I was really getting up there. I thought it might be worth asking for a price on the entire 5000-count box, and after a little haggling, I walked away with the whole thing for $80.

2007 Topps Own The Game #OTG15 Justin Morneau

Given that this box seemed to have everything from shiny inserts like the above to foil-laden commons from the '90s below, I figured that it would save time (and potentially help out the collections of my dear readers) to just get the whole thing. Adam was happy to let me mix-and-match from a couple other boxes, since I really didn't have much interest in the giant stacks of Bowman. That brand has lost quite a bit of its allure for me since the 1955 set.

1993 Marlins Team Stadium Club #13 Jeff Conine

Coincidentally, while I was at Adam's table, I saw a tweet pop up in my feed from Nick at Dime Boxes, who confirmed that a shipment I sent arrived to him today. It's the first shipment I've sent his way since I won his contest back in January, and I can't wait to see what he chooses to highlight from that "UD-dominated" box.

And to top it all off, when I got home and checked the mail, there was another box of cards waiting for me from Pat at Hot Corner Cards. Night Owl recently referred to a team set giveaway that Pat was doing, so I promptly clicked over and picked the Cubs in exchange for a shipment of Tigers. Pat even threw in a few Rockies for me! More importantly, the contents of that box gives me the material for my first-ever trade post, coming soon! Yes, I did two posts from the spoils of Nick's giveaway, but that wasn't really a trade post. All I did was put my name into a virtual hat, and now Infield Fly Rule exists.

This hobby is really fun. And now that the craze of twenty years ago died down long ago, the few that are left in it are the ones who really want to be here.

1992 Topps Gold Winners #61 Paul O'Neill

Just like this Topps Gold card, I feel like a winner.

Shiny Object!

​Unsurprisingly, given the universal allure of shiny objects, the first box I finished opening from last week's shopping spree was a blaster of 2013 Topps Chrome, containing 32 cards.

2013 Topps Chrome #96 Yoenis Cespedes

Cadillacs and Buicks of the 1950s led us all to equate chrome with a silver color. I'm glad to see that the borders of 2013 Chrome match that bias, as several previous years used yet another white border. Even in their flagship set, Topps has only given us a non-white border once in the last decade, so I welcome the variety.

Incidentally, I don't believe Topps has ever done a flagship set with full-bleed photos. Upper Deck gave that a whirl 20 years ago, and I'd say it's long overdue. Or at least put a player photo on the back again. It's almost like Upper Deck never existed.

But I digress. Back to the blaster. One of the eight packs was a plain, unmarked silver foil, clearly calling attention to itself as the "bonus pack". Inside were four of these purple refractors.

2013 Topps Chrome Purple Refractors #154 Nick Franklin

Though it would have been ideal to find a Rockie in this pack (or anywhere in the blaster), despite the purple not being quite the Rockies' shade, they're pretty cards and the group of four will stand out in a binder.

Speaking of binders, one of the two insert cards was of the die-cut variety, from the same set that Nick at Dime Boxes wrote about last week, in fact. His post pointed out how challenging it can be to place these into a standard 9-pocket page.

2013 Topps Chrome Chrome Connections Die Cuts #CC-AB Adrian Beltre

I have to agree, though this card certainly is...different. And fragile. Sure, it's on thick Chrome card stock, but that is an awful lot of corners that could get dinged. I bet that using a couple of standard cards as a "sandwich" then removing them once they're in the page would help save that exotic die cut design.

The other insert was significantly less fragile.

2013 Topps Chrome 1972 Chrome #72C-AP Albert Pujols

The psychedelic, disco-era 1972 design it's one of just a handful from the '70s that I can identify at a single glance. All the white borders and horizontal chevrons found during that decade just blend together.

Looking ahead, 2014 Chrome was released quite recently. I'm sure it'll be a while before those start showing up in the clearance section. But at least they're silver.

Man Overboard

I went a little crazy on an online shopping spree at Dave & Adam's Card World recently.

The Haul

What you see there includes unopened 1995 Collector's Choice, a couple early Score factory sets, Topps Traded sets that are surprisingly uncommon in the usual channels, lots of Opening Day, and even some rarities like Goodwin and Topps Chrome.

I hadn't planned on getting this much, but surpassing that free-shipping threshold just became too big a temptation. I haven't even come close to opening everything yet. In fact, I've been rationing, as opening a pack of Opening Day is quite a fun (and calorie-free) alternative to cruising by the fridge again.

I have run across a couple of early highlights, like this card from one of Night Owl's favorite insert sets. It even made his "Awesome Night Cards" showcase.

2011 Topps Opening Day Stadium Lights #UL-2 Troy Tulowitzki

Coors Field Card! Though the details of the stadium are a little tough to discern, the relief surface of the card was a welcome surprise. The texture reminds me of the mid-90s Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion parallels, though these are clearly quite a bit more understated. The numbering leads one to believe that Topps was planning on calling this insert set "Under the Lights" but had a change of heart late in the production process.

Relevant to today's game, when the Rockies unsurprisingly lost to Adam Wainwright, here's the Cardinals' ace in full throwback gear.

2011 Topps Opening Day #151 Adam Wainwright

Sharp eyes might notice an error, not to mention a slightly odd-looking Photoshop job on the jersey lettering, as the star pitcher is listed as an outfielder on the bottom of this card. That's not surprising, as the foil-free treatment of 2011 Opening Day renders the position quite difficult to read.

Finally, longtime collectors might recall a few of Charlie Hayes' 1995 issues, which depict him wearing a football-like faceguard after he was hit in the face by a Salomon Torres pitch mid-season.

1995 Upper Deck Collector's Choice SE #207 Charlie Hayes

Given what happened to Giancarlo Stanton and Chase Headley yesterday, we might start seeing more protective masks like this in the not-too-distant future. I wish them both a speedy recovery from those scary hit by pitch plays.

The weather in Colorado has gotten quite wintry in recent days. Sorting through these packs and sets during the upcoming cold months will surely remind me of summer.

Fun Fact: baseballs float.

Things have not been pretty for the Colorado Rockies lately. At this moment, the Rangers are one game behind in the race for 2014's Worst MLB Record. They're dangerously close to losing 100 games for the first time in club history.

When the season has sunk to depths that low, you have to start looking at small miracles to distract yourself from the constant losses.

For example, my first-ever foul ball souvenir would definitely qualify, which I snagged last Friday on Star Wars night at Coors Field!


Incidentally, this ball came off the bat of Christian Yelich on a 2-1 count with runners on first and second and two outs in the top of the 7th.

2014 Topps #358 Christian Yelich

Thanks for the foul ball, Christian!

Though the Marlins trounced the Rockies 13-5, I finally have an indisputable piece of game-used memorabilia, which feels way more special than any relic card I've ever purchased. Except maybe that Willie Mays one.

2002 Topps Archives Reserve Uniform Relics #WM Willie Mays 62 (MEM)

Back to small miracles. Justin Morneau was able to break up Madison Bumgarner's bid at a perfect game in the 8th inning on Tuesday, which was pretty close to being the first no-hitter/perfect game I watched on live TV. It saved the Rockies from being on the business end of a second no-hitter this year, but I would have been just as happy witnessing history.

The following night, Rockies outfielder Corey Dickerson set a milestone with the 100th "Splash Hit" home run in AT&T Park history. It was a beauty, made all the more impressive by the skill with which a fan literally fished it out of the water.

2013 Bowman Draft #35 Corey Dickerson RC

Even after all those years of 'roid-monster Barry Bonds launching home runs into San Francisco's McCovey Cove, it ends up being a Rockie with the distinction of the century mark.

The 2014 Rockies gave us a great April and May, followed by a disastrous summer, concluding with spoiling the fun for the San Francisco Giants. Another textbook Rockies season.