The Trading Post #173: Dime Boxes (Part 2: Nick’s Picks)

Picking up where I left off in August, here's a continued look at the stack of cards Nick at Dime Boxes sent for his 10th Anniversary. I picked a solid stack of cards from his giveaway pages, but being the guy he is, Nick included an even larger stack of hand-selected Rockies cards that have been keeping me company on one corner of my desk for quite some time now.

Seeing as how I'm still working my way through this shipment, I didn't think it right to make a claim during his 11th Anniversary giveaway in December. I simply made a congratulatory comment and left the spoils of that giveaway to my fellow bloggers (mostly because I didn't see it for five days).

True to his blog's name, getting a stack of cards from Nick is basically like having him look through a ten-cent box at a card show on your behalf. Which, I'm sure, is pretty much exactly how the magic happens.

2017 Topps Gallery #16 Trevor Story

I've seen some gorgeous cards from Topps Gallery over the years, and if it were more available and affordable, I'm sure I'd chase some of it down myself. It carries on the spirit of the UD Masterpieces brand, something that remained in the hobby for far too short a time.

The artwork on this Trevor Story card is done by Mayumi Seto, who only recently withdrew from her post as the artist on nearly 500 cards of the long-running Topps Living Set. As with this Topps Gallery card, her artwork graced Topps products prior to the introduction of the Living Set, a set which remains absent from my collection.

Maybe one of those would be a good candidate for my Eight Men Out list.

Though Trevor Story has had a solid career, he made his biggest splash during his first week in the Majors, hitting seven home runs in his first six games. His pace trailed off significantly as April 2016 wore on, but he still hit a total of 10 that month. The card back tells us that was one better than Albert Pujols's mark for an NL Rookie.

2016 Topps Heritage Rookie Performers #RP-TS Trevor Story

I was personally pretty impressed with Story that month. In fact, I have a very specific memory of watching a couple of those homers from a Buffalo Wild Wings near the office. I snuck away for a quick snack as the Rockies home opener was getting underway, and watched Story launch one to left field. It was probably this highlight.

That B-Dubs location is closed now, but I saw plenty of games there, including the start of Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, and most of the 2007 Game 163 tiebreaker.

Topps was also impressed, as they included him in multiple insert sets in 2016 Topps Heritage, which went to print not terribly long after Story's Rookie of the Month-worthy performance. He appeared in the Rookie Performers insert set, looking ready to crush another home run. I saw more than a few of his homers in person over the years, and as far as Coors Field home runs go, his always somehow had just a little extra. And I'm not even talking about the 2021 Home Run Derby.

2016 Topps Heritage Now and Then #NT-1 Trevor Story

Trevor Story's second insert set appearance came in the Now and Then set. 2016 Topps Heritage took us back 49 years to the 1967 set, and while insert cards weren't really a thing in 1967, this insert fits with the retro theme nicely. 

The card back again documents Story's sizzling-hot April 2016 while somewhat awkwardly tying it into Mel Stottlemyre's Opening Day 1967 two-hit shutout of the Washington Senators.

He may be long gone from 20th & Blake, but I'm still rooting for him. Sadly, he'll miss most if not all of the 2023 season while recovering from elbow surgery.

2017 Topps Golden Glove Awards #GG-10 Nolan Arenado

Another Rockie that has departed for greener pastures is my favorite active player, Nolan Arenado. No matter where he lands, he's the best defensive player around. He already had four Gold Gloves to his name by the time this card was printed in 2017, earning a spot in the Golden Glove Awards insert set along with seventeen other players.

Apparently, due to trademark issues, Topps couldn't officially use the term "Gold Glove" anywhere on the card, but they did manage to sneak it into the card number, giving this one a prefix of "GG".

Call it whatever you like, but Nolan somehow took his game to an even higher level after this. In 2017, he won his first of what is now an active streak of six consecutive Platinum Glove awards, which is given to the best defender in each league, not merely the best defender at each position. The Platinum award hasn't been around that long, but Arenado's streak is truly unprecedented.

Incidentally, most of the other NL Platinum Gloves since its inception in 2011 went to Yadier Molina, Arenado's now-retired Cardinals teammate. There have been a variety of winners on the AL side, but only Anthony Rizzo and Andrelton Simmons have managed to crowd out the elite masters of Molina and Arenado on the NL side.

2018 Topps Salute Series 2 #S-94 Nolan Arenado

One year later, Topps decided to tell us all about Arenado's continued defensive prowess, including him in Series 2 of the Topps Salute insert set. The card back of course talks about his "fielding award" and being "honored as the top overall defender in the Senior Circuit", a roundabout, lawyer-friendly way of saying he won the National League Platinum Glove.

Don't miss The Big Game in a few weeks.

An insert set of this size (an absurd 250 cards across three series) requires some repetition, and Arenado also made an appearance in Series 1. That one showed Nolan at the plate, while this one has Arenado reaching into the crowd for a foul pop in front of a bunch of smiling Padres fans, presumably at Petco Park.

2020 Topps Big League Defensive Wizards #DW-15 Nolan Arenado

A couple more years of this allowed Arenado to reach Wizardly status, showing up in a horizontal insert card from 2020 Topps Big League. This is a set I bought a blaster of back in 2020, and it's been on my card shelf awaiting a blog post ever since. But this card jumped the line, thanks to the purple orb of arcane magic, as befitting a Defensive Wizard.

While I realize this card is color-coded to the Colorado Rockies, the color palette on this card looks like it's straight out of the Wizard class of Diablo III. And, not to torture the metaphor, but there's a "Slow Time" skill in that video game, which simply has to be how Nolan can make some of these plays.

Seriously, watch the play described on the card back from September 4th, 2019. Corey Seager didn't stand a chance, and Nolan barely looked like he was trying.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Walk-Off Winners #GWO-18 Carlos González

He might not have the superstar cachet of Story or Arenado, but Carlos González was certainly a well-liked Rockie during the ten seasons he spent here. Perhaps his most famous Rockies moment made it into a 2015 Gypsy Queen insert set called Walk-Off Winners, which should need no explanation. It's a 25-card set filled with players like Bill Mazeroski, David Freese, and Mookie Wilson, not unlike the Historic Hits insert set from 2021 Allen & Ginter.

CarGo, who last appeared in a Major League game in 2019, had a great day on July 31st, 2010. Not only did he win the game with a solo shot in the bottom of the 9th, but he also completed the cycle with that swing. There was only one pitch thrown that inning, and that was all he needed. Topps also highlighted this achievement in one of their many "Golden" insert sets from 2012.

Look closely at his follow-through on that home run swing (hit to a pre-Rooftop upper deck at Coors Field), and you might notice something familiar.

2017 Topps '87 Topps #87-4 Carlos González

According to the card back on this 1987 throwback 30th Anniversary card, González said that he modeled his swing and bat drop after Ken Griffey, Jr.

Being a power-hitting lefty with a clear love for the game has been a recipe for success nearly as long as this game has existed, and CarGo turned it into a solid career.

I'm not sure why Topps had to omit all but two seasons of CarGo's stat lines to squeeze that tidbit onto the card back, but that's okay. We have enough 1987 reprints not to need total stylistic accuracy on each one of them.

2017 Topps Update Salute #USS-49 Kyle Freeland

Going back to the Salute insert set (well, a year prior), here's Kyle Freeland joining another member of the Rockies rotation in the massive checklist. Freeland pitched the home opener in 2017, an honor he has been given multiple times in his career, including 2022 which I had the good fortune of attending.

This one is actually from 2017 Update, giving Topps enough time to mention Freeland's home opener from the same season, as well as his first career home run a couple months later. Now that we've seen the last of pitchers batting, that one home run in Cincinnati is likely to be the only one of Freeland's career.

2014 Topps Toys 'R' Us Purple Border #290 Chad Bettis (RC)

That's one more than Chad Bettis ever hit, though.

I received the base version of his rookie card several years ago, but I liked the 2014 set and this Toys 'R' Us exclusive colored border so much I thought I'd show it again. I started this blog in 2014 (wow, I just passed my own 9th anniversary), and I also got into Topps Bunt that year. I find it to be a familiar, almost comforting design, even though the base version of this card isn't brand-new to the blog.

I actually put in quite a bit of effort to avoid repeating myself, which is hard to do with what is apparently approaching a decade of blogging. I don't like using the same card multiple times (except in rare cases like this), nor do I enjoy repeating my own written phrases, which comes across like I'm plagiarizing myself. But then again, when we have AI tools confidently declaring total falsehoods, maybe a little human error isn't such a terrible thing.

2002 Topps 206 Piedmont Black #267 Chin-Hui Tsao (PROS)

To make up for the repeat photo, here's a Rockies player that is making his first appearance on Infield Fly Rule. Chin-hui Tsao played part of three seasons for the Rockies, then jumped over to the Dodgers. He was in and out of independent and overseas leagues for many years, then returned to the Dodgers after an eight-year hiatus, finally retiring in 2016.

Tsao is the only Taiwanese player to suit up for the Rockies, and he was included in mini form as a parallel of the 2002 Topps 206 checklist. Specifically, this is a Piedmont-back parallel, reproducing the logo of one of the many early 20th-century tobacco brands that were marketed along with the first baseball cards.

Come to think of it, it's actually a little uncomfortable in this day and age when you think about how the history of baseball cards is inextricably linked to tobacco products. The actual brands in question have been defunct for well over a century by now, but it's not too far removed from having a Marlboro logo appear on one of these things. And we all recall how much effort Fleer put in to scrubbing Randy Johnson's card of any tobacco advertising.

Just a thought.

Anyway, the World Baseball Classic is coming up soon! Tsao's home country of Taiwan is hosting one of the round-robin sites in the first round, and will be competing as Chinese Taipei. This ambiguous name mirrors the country's identity in the Olympics and other international events, which is done this way due to ever-present geopolitical tensions with mainland China, far beyond the scope of this blog.

2003 Fleer Platinum #5 Todd Zeile

One of the lesser-known Todds to play for the Rockies, third baseman Todd Zeile is seen here having some fun at Spring Training outside the batting cages.

Rather than use an exact reproduction of a legacy set, Fleer went in a slightly different direction for 2003 Platinum. It still has the unmistakable look and feel of an '80s Fleer card, right down to the card back with the vertical orientation and two-colored columns. The thick pinstripes on the front remind me of the unintentionally famous 1989 set, but it's not an exact match like the two prior years of Platinum. Of course, I had to look all that up.

Fleer's names for their retro sets always threw me off, anyway. To me, "Platinum" implies not an '80s style design and card stock, but more of an extremely shiny and thick card laden with gold foil and lots of refractory rainbows. Something like Topps Finest. I suppose it is similar to Topps Archives, but it just never made sense to me. I was further confused by the company calling its true flagship set Fleer Tradition for a couple years, which itself evolved into a Topps Heritage competitor, going so far as to resurrect the 1961 Fleer set in 2003.

Frankly, I struggle with any changes the hobby made after about 1996.

2012 Topps Opening Day #101 Todd Helton

Which is right around the time Todd Helton burst onto the scene. He debuted in 1997, nearing the end of his career when this Opening Day card came out in 2012. He's by far the most famous Todd to ever play for the Rockies, and one of only two players with a retired number, the other being Larry Walker.

It remains to be seen whether Helton will one day join Walker in Cooperstown, but his chances are still looking somewhat promising. I hear Scott Rolen has the best chance this year, but it's far from a sure thing. We'll find out in less than 48 hours whether the BBWAA will be adding anyone to the Class of 2023 to join Fred McGriff.

Partly because Nick sends more great cards at one time than I could possibly fit into one post, and partly because I can't edit myself, there will be a part 3 of this post. All the shiny cards needed their own space.

If you've ever traded with Nick, then you know.

 

Weekend Roundup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2015 Topps Mini #62 Nolan Arenado

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

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

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

The Trading Post #155: Topps Cards That Never Were (Part 2: Newer Rockies)

Picking up right where we left off in Part 1, we're looking at some of the best recent Rockies cards from a trade I did with Jeremy at Topps Cards That Never Were. Here's a link to his end of the trade, in case you're curious. There are two more postseason games happening tonight, a backdrop I quite enjoy when cranking out a couple thousand words about baseball cards. Although, NLCS Game 3 was over pretty much before it began.

2014 Topps Gold #20 Charlie Blackmon /2014

Transitioning from Terry Shumpert's 2001 Topps Gold card in Part 1, here's what Topps Gold looked like in 2014. The gold border is still there, but the foil is just the usual silver we saw on 2014 base cards. They didn't have this in 2001, either, but I miss the "ToppsGold" logo that we saw very early in this parallel's life, back in, say, 1994.

Additionally, you'll obviously notice this is what Charlie Blackmon looks like without facial hair. We're not used to seeing him like this at all. I see his 2011 Topps Update Rookie Card quite frequently, and that throws people for a loop, too. We just don't really recognize him without that scraggly beard.

Another change from 2001 Topps Gold is the color of the serial number on the back. Topps still sets the print run equal to the calendar year, meaning these become ever-so-slightly more common with each passing year, but the gold foil serial number is no more, as you can see below. It's just a plain black.

2014 Topps Gold #20 Charlie Blackmon /2014 (Reverse)

Note that Blackmon had a scorching-hot end to his 2013 season, earning NL Player of the Week honors as 2013 neared its end, hitting an even .500 that week.

2018 Donruss Holo Green #235 Charlie Blackmon RETRO

That's a bit more like the Charlie Blackmon we've come to know and love. I'm not sure which road park he's in here, but Panini selected a good photo for an unlicensed set. Blackmon's forearm obscures where "COLORADO" would be lettered across his uniform, making the job of the photo editor that much easier.

This is the second consecutive post in which we've seen the 1984 Donruss design, and it is one of their better ones. The Rockies weren't a team back in '84, but this design accepts new teams quite well, something that can't always be said for '80s sets. "Diamondbacks" is particularly hard to squeeze in to some designs. But licensed or not, Rockies and Colorado fit in these yellow swoops just fine.

Obviously, this one has a green border, my favorite special color to find on a card. Panini goes totally overboard with the number of parallels, so it's a bit of a guessing game, but I'm confident in identifying this one as the Holo Green version. It's a little hard to tell, because only the border has any sort of shininess to it. The card itself is glossy, but it's really just the edges that give you the rainbow look.

2018 Topps Rainbow Foil #559 Ian Desmond

2018 Topps, on the other hand, did this whole card up in rainbow foil, edge to edge. Topps kept this reasonably simple and just called this parallel "Rainbow Foil". It's a pretty card, and will fit nicely right next to a similar David Dahl card that Night Owl sent my way.

Another benefit of this shiny card is that I can disingenuously say that I have the 2018 Topps Ian Desmond Rainbow, even though almost all the other parallels are absent from my collection.

But I wouldn't do that.

I'm not sure how 2021 Topps sets will treat players who opted out of the 2020 season. They'll have to dig into the photo archives deeper than usual, as I imagine they would do anyway. I can't imagine that empty stands would look great on a card, and there were far fewer photographers than usual at 2020 games. Ian Desmond missed it all, as he decided to opt out. I certainly would have done the same.

2016 Topps Chrome Prism Refractors #37 DJ LeMahieu

DJ LeMahieu decided to play, and earned himself another batting title for his efforts. He hit .364 for the Yankees, becoming the first modern player to win a batting title in both leagues. It's a shame the Rockies didn't keep him. They didn't even make him an offer.

That means that cards like this of him facing an NL West team are unlikely to surface again. A version of this card has appeared here before, thanks again to Night Owl, but this time it has one of the many refractor patterns instead of snowflakes. I believe this is the Prism Refractor, but nowhere on the back does it say so.

Seriously, is there anything more frustrating about Topps Chrome other than Topps seemingly using a coin flip each year to decide whether to label a refractor?

Well, the curl, I guess. This one isn't bad.

What is on the card back is a paragraph telling us that the 6'4" LeMahieu is the tallest everyday second baseman to play the position since George "High Pockets" Kelly back in 1925. That's of course an all-time great baseball nickname, and it rang a bell this year. I remember hearing his name on the Rockies broadcast at some point this season, but I couldn't quite recall why. A Twitter search led me to the Giants' blowout of the Rockies on September 1st, in which Alex Dickerson hit three home runs and had five total hits. The only other Giant to do that was High Pockets himself, way back in 1923, one of many excellent performances on his way to a Hall of Fame career.

2017 Topps Gold #81 DJ LeMahieu LL /2017

One year after that card, DJ got a league leader card for that 2016 batting title I mentioned earlier. He beat Daniel Murphy by just a point, hitting .348. A little lower than .364, yes, but keep in mind that 2016 was a full season. 

This Series 1 card is another example of a Topps Gold card, and without a border, it's pretty difficult for Topps to get that message across. There are a few gold-colored shapes in the background, and the bottom banners have just a little bit of shiny foil. The card back does have a serial number, but it's black, just like Blackmon's Gold card that led this post off. 

2017 Topps Update #US27b Nolan Arenado SP

This is a more accurate example of 2017 Topps base cards. The banners aren't shiny at all, and the only foil to be found is the silver Topps logo. The banner appears on these horizontal cards at a shallower angle, intruding on the photo a little less. Thanks to that, we get to see the curly W on Bryce Harper's left sleeve, part of a snapshot of NL teammates Harper and Nolan Arenado at the 2017 All-Star Game.

Jeremy helpfully set this one apart, because it happens to be a short-printed variation. I appreciate that, because I don't know these sets nearly well enough to spot the gimmick cards at a glance. 

There are quite a few highlights from Nolan's career on the card back, such as his walk-off home run on June 18th, 2017, which completed the cycle. That was on Father's Day, and is one of the most frequent recent highlights the Rockies use in TV spots. He had 50 extra base-hits in the first half of 2017, but the stat that really caught my eye is that he didn't make an error until June 1st. He's that good in the field, and that's why he keeps winning the Platinum Glove.

2012 Topps Career Day #CD-24 Troy Tulowitzki

Troy Tulowitzki had games like that, too. That's the subject of this 2012 Topps insert set called Career Day. It's 25 cards in total, and Tulo shares the checklist with some truly legendary Hall of Famers. We can see on the front that he had an excellent game on August 10th, 2009, and flipping the card over gives us his complete stats that day. He went 5-for-5 and hit for the cycle, defeating the Chicago Cubs. At the time, that was the fifth cycle in Rockies history.

Get used to seeing inserts like these, because they're going to make up all of Part 4 (and Part 5 depending on how deep the gold mine goes).

2011 Topps Chrome Vintage Chrome #VC33 Troy Tulowitzki

Here's another Tulowitzki insert card, known as Vintage Chrome. It's a 50-card set modeled after the debut 1996 Topps Chrome set. This isn't a perfect replica of the design, as the original had an array of tiny diamonds across the whole card. This is a lot more like a mirror finish, and has the least amount of curl I can ever remember on a Chrome card.

I'm almost certain that this is from the same game as the photo from Tulo's 2011 Topps base card (and by extension, Opening Day). The unknown Royal isn't present in this photo, but the same sign is behind Tulowitzki on the outfield wall, placing him in Kaufman Stadium. I believe that's an ad for Buck Night, a promo the Royals run where all sorts of food and goodies within the ballpark are priced at just $1.

The card back is also an accurate reproduction of 1996 Topps, and the paragraph mentions Tulowitzki's hot September 2010, in which he had 15 homers and 40 RBIs, putting him on par with Babe Ruth in his dominant 1927 season. I found that surprising. We all know that Babe Ruth set his asterisk-free home run record of 60 back in 1927, but I didn't know that fully 17 of them came in the final month of that legendary season. 

If you think about the way we track a season's worth of home runs these days, Ruth wouldn't have been on pace to set his own record until the final week or so.

2019 Topps 150th Anniversary #346 Chris Iannetta

One last modern-looking card before we get to a few retro sets. It's the newest one of the day, just a year old from the 2019 set. I ran across this 150th Anniversary parallel set in one of my first posts of 2020, not knowing what a crazy year we'd be in for. Nevertheless, the 150th Anniversary logo was used in 2019 Topps Series 1 and 2, not just Update like I saw in that post. 

By this point in his career, the recently-retired Chris Iannetta had a long enough career to crowd out room for a paragraph on the back. Between that and a complete list of statistics, I'll take the statistics. 

I mentioned that I split the Older Rockies and Newer Rockies into two posts, separating them right around the time of their 2007 Pennant. Iannetta was there for that glorious season, but he returned to the Rockies for his final two Major League seasons. We'll see that happen once more by the time this post ends.

On to the retro sets.

2009 Topps 206 Bronze #247 Huston Street

Topps 206 is one of those classic brands that sporadically hits the market every eight or ten years. You can never really be sure when it's the "final" year of something, can you? It's back for 2020 as a Topps Online Exclusive, but I haven't been interested enough to purchase any. I'm sure I'll see it come my way at some point in the next decade.

This card allows me to have shown all three Topps 206 sets on the blog, excluding 2020. I feel like it may have been an insert set at some point, but maybe I'm thinking of Turkey Red. Retro sets aren't my area of expertise.

Huston Street's card here is a Bronze parallel, an extra thick version of an already thick set. It looks fine from the front, but appears to be a little miscut on the back. Nothing serious, though. I especially like Street's old-style glove he's posing with. He definitely never used that in a real game, but how awesome would that be?

2011 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini A&G Back #193 Jorge De La Rosa

It's common to find minis when we're dealing with retro sets, and one came along in the form of a 2011 Allen & Ginter back variation. When you flip it over, you get a portrait of the same guy I saw on a Bazooka back variation that Nick sent long ago.

2008 Topps Heritage #317 Matt Holliday / Hanley Ramirez

Concluding Part 2 is a two-player subset card from 2008 Topps Heritage. It's based on the 1959 set, the first-ever vintage set to enter my collection. Like Chris Iannetta, Matt Holliday had two stints with the Rockies, returning in 2018 for a final playoff run before retiring. This card is from his first go-round with Colorado, and it documents his near-MVP performance in 2007. He led the NL in a bunch of statistics, including doubles, RBI, hits, and that frequent Rockies accolade, batting average. Holliday hit .340 in 2007, and while he narrowly lost the MVP award to Jimmy Rollins, he was named MVP of the 2007 NLCS.

Holliday's card mate is Hanley Ramírez, then a member of the Florida Marlins. They were still called the Florida Marlins at this point, and hadn't changed to that crazy shade of green you see in the Arenado/Harper card above. Hanley didn't lead any categories in 2007, but according to the card, he narrowly missed matching Eric Davis and Barry Bonds in putting together a season with 30 home runs and 50 stolen bases. No one really talks about the 30/50 club, but that is an impressive showing of both power and speed, even if he only made it to 29/51.

If you like oddballs, don't miss Part 3!

The Trading Post #151: Dime Boxes

Nick at Dime Boxes is back with another great batch of cards from his Free Card Friday series. These arrived long before the 2020 MLB season started, and here we are on the final day of the regular season. Despite all that's happened in the past year, the Rockies finished one game above last place for the second straight season. Unless they find a way to squeak into a Wild Card spot, they frequently finish in fourth place, slightly above whichever hapless NL West team happened to have a worse year.

No matter where they finish, a trip to Coors Field is always a great way to spend a few hours. Obviously that didn't happen this year, but in nearly every season since 1993 with just a couple exceptions, I've managed to make it to a game.

2017 Topps Opening Day Incredible Eats #IE-8 Foot-long Hot Dog

I have some favorite spots for food inside the ballpark, especially up in the Rooftop section, but you can get one of these foot-long hot dogs in plenty of places. When I first saw the Incredible Eats insert set in 2017 Topps Opening Day, I remarked how one of these "really sounds good right about now". As the 2020 season wraps up nearly a year after my last trip to the ballpark, my mouth is literally watering at the idea.

I'm not really a fan of yellow mustard, the buns lack a certain structural integrity, and I prefer a brat to a hot dog, but let's be honest here. I could have taken this picture. I prefer to sit on the third base side, I usually splurge for the peppers and onions (though I skip the relish), and once in a while I even end up sitting about this close to the Visitors' dugout. 

As the card tells us, this is what's known as a Rockie Dog, "topped with fresh grilled peppers, onions, and sauerkraut." Pair it with one of the many craft beers available throughout Coors Field and you have a proper ballpark snack.

Extra credit to Topps for opening the paragraph on the back with "Frankly". This is why I love Opening Day inserts.

2016 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini #44 Miguel Castro

While you're enjoying your Rockie Dog, how about some actual baseball? Former Rockie Miguel Castro makes his Infield Fly Rule debut with this Allen & Ginter mini. These are always tiny, and the horizontal orientation makes it look even tinier. Still, it's a better layout than the full-size card, which crops out his glove and forearm, leading to a cramped look. Despite how small this is, the aspect ratio gives it an expansive canvas, relatively speaking.

2019 Topps Walmart Holiday #HW165 Nolan Arenado

With this Nolan Arenado card, Nick has helped build out my 2019 Holiday parallel collection, started by Rod. Overall, it has a similar look to David Dahl's card, but the holly and ivy stencil becomes quite a noticeable design element in the horizontal orientation when it has so much room to expand. I mean, that's what ivy does. It's a vine.

This is a Coors Field card showing one of the all-time Rockie greats, but despite his contract, rumors continue to swirl that Arenado may have played his last game in a Rockies uniform. That would be a shame, as he's become one of my favorite players ever in just a handful of years. He didn't put up career numbers in 2020, but I definitely hope that this isn't the last we'll see of him in a purple jersey.

2019 Bowman's Best #5 Nolan Arenado

Rotate 90 degrees. Enhance.

Applying a little TV show cliché takes us back to the usual vertical orientation and shines things up significantly. As he did last time, Nick sent a Bowman's Best card of Nolan Arenado, this time from the 2019 set. It shows Nolan in his natural element, about to fire a baseball off to first base to throw out a runner. It's unknown how amazing this particular play was prior to the ball being in his right hand, but odds are it was a great one.

There's a faint checkbox pattern in the lower left area of the photo, transitioning to raster dots in the upper right. There's a slight curl to this card, common for shiny Topps products. Despite a slightly busy design with angles reminiscent of 2020 Topps, the photo itself is as sharp as can be.

I doubt that many Bowman's Best collectors flip the card over, but if they do, they'll find out about Arenado's "Best 2019 Game", May 25th against the Orioles. I was at this game with a good friend of mine, and even though Nolan batted in five runs on his way to an NL Player of the Week award, I can report that this particular game ended up in the L column for the Rockies. I don't remember every detail of this game, but I remember getting beers with my friend at a nearby sports bar and feeling a sense of relief that it was finally spring.

Things were extremely different one year later.

2019 Topps Chrome Update #90 Trevor Story AS

Not long after Arenado's best game of 2019, the All-Star Game happened in Cleveland. Arenado was a starter, and Trevor Story played a few innings as a reserve and got an at-bat. 

You've seen this photo before. This is a shinier version of a yellow bordered parallel I received from The Lost Collector as part of 2019 Update. The extra shine and the usual silver border made it a little easier for me to notice the tiny MasterCard logo on the dugout roof.

We'll see if the 2021 All-Star Game happens, with or without fans. It's scheduled to take place in Atlanta, and they just announced the logo a few days ago.

Speaking of Update, is there going to be a 2020 Topps Update set? What are they going to do since they can't cram it full of All-Star Game cards this year?

2018 Topps Chrome Sepia Refractors #128 Sandy Alcantara

We'll wrap up the shiny section with the one actual card I claimed from Free Card Friday. The rest of these were just things Nick knew I would like. This is a Sepia Refractor from 2018 Chrome. I like shiny, always. Even better, Nick and I were both happy that I took a Marlin off his hands.

I first pulled a Sandy Alcantara card in my 2018 Stadium Club Hanukkah blaster, and haven't heard much about him since. I assume Miami will keep him on the postseason roster, as the Marlins were able to snag a playoff spot despite their early challenges with COVID-19.

I didn't know this at the time, but curiously, I have another Marlin from this set. Chavez Ravining sent me Starlin Castro's Sepia Refractor back in #130, and yes, these are the only two Sepia Refractors I have. It would be one thing if I had two Rockies from one particular flavor of the many Chrome parallels. That happens all the time, for obvious reasons. But two Marlins with the same Refractor color and no one else? That's pretty weird. 

Law of large numbers, I guess. Something like that was bound to happen in a collection of this size eventually.

2019 Topps Update 150 Years of Baseball #150-60 Chad Bettis

Returning to a normal level of glossy card stock, here's a parallel from a huge 100-card insert set from 2019 Topps Update, similar to an even larger 150-card insert set from 2019 Topps base. Both the Base and Update versions of 150 Years of Baseball are chock-full of Hall of Famers, but recently-retired Chad Bettis got a card right in the middle of the checklist. The card talks about his brave recovery from cancer during the 2017 season. He had his initial treatment during the 2016-17 offseason, but had to undergo chemotherapy as Spring Training started in 2017. He battled back and returned later in 2017, helping the Rockies get a Wild Card spot for their first playoff appearance since 2009.

Quite a few players lately have had to deal with this horrible disease, including Carlos Carrasco, Trey Mancini, Anthony Rizzo, and Jon Lester. I'm glad to see them all still with us.

If you're interested, The Athletic ran a story about Bettis's battle with cancer that's worth reading. The Athletic is paywalled, but I can share a 30-day pass with up to five of you. Feel free to leave a comment if you'd like one.

2019 Topps Gallery #125 Garrett Hampson (RC)

It wasn't long ago when I'd have to dig into Bowman Draft to find a card of Garrett Hampson. But he's become a real bright spot in the Rockies lineup, earning him a place in Topps Gallery. He's a versatile player, fun to watch, is up to bat as I write this paragraph, and is one of the fastest guys on the whole team. The card back confirms that versatility, telling us he started at four positions in the first half of 2019. Also, that back in his Minor League days, he led his Low-A league in stolen bases and triples, so we've always known about that speed.

The artwork here was done by a different artist than Kyle Freeland's card, this one by Kevin Graham. It shares the same elegant design with the rest of the 2019 Gallery set, and this one is really growing on me.

2020 Bowman Prospects #BP-137 Ryan Rolison

Speaking of Bowman, I'll file this card away for future years when Ryan Rolison may or may not make it to the Majors. I'm sure the complete lack of Minor League games this year didn't do any favors for his development. 

This is another Bowman design in a long line of Bowman designs I'll never remember, but it seems like a much simpler design than what Topps has been giving us the past few years. I wouldn't mind seeing Topps base sets heading back in this general direction.

1995 Stadium Club #313 Andres Galarraga BES

Our final card finds us much earlier in Rockies history, all the way back to Mile High Stadium. 1995 Stadium Club is a perpetual gold mine, and this Best Seat in the House subset lives up to the Stadium Club name. Twenty teams got a card like this, showing the optimal view of the best sights on the field. Here, Topps picked a spot low on the third-base side, perfect for viewing Andres Galarraga take a pickoff throw as Lenny Harris of the Reds scoots back to first.

On the back, there's a small map of the stadium with a yellow arrow pointing to their selected spot, and a few key stats about the ballpark. Topps lists each park's capacity, playing surface, dimensions, and wall height. There were a lot more fields with artificial turf back then, making the playing surface a relevant data point.

Topps was fairly specific about when this photo was taken. Not quite to 1997 Upper Deck levels, but enough to pinpoint this to May 1994. Odds are this is from May 26th, 1994, as Harris, #28 on the Reds, spent a lot of time on first base that day. The Rockies were right to be worried, as he stole two bases that series. There is a chance it's from May 24th, but Harris was just a pinch hitter that day, making it to first only once.

I never sat in that part of Mile High Stadium, usually finding myself way up in the nosebleeds in right field foul territory. But I would have loved to sit in a seat like this at the age of ten. And compare this card to the similar view in the Opening Day hot dog card at the top. As far as Topps and I are concerned, the best seat in the house is pretty much in the same spot whether you're at Mile High or Coors.

Just as long as I have snacks.

A more local LCS (Part 3)

We come to the end of our three-part series on my trip to Colorado Sports Cards, the newest and closest-to-me LCS in the Denver area. Part 1 saw all the affordable goodies you'd expect to find at a card shop, and Part 2 a bunch of Topps Archives from a consignment box in the center of the store. Part 3 will wrap things up, containing everything other than Topps Archives I pulled from the consignment box.

2017 Topps Gallery #90 Eric Thames

Topps Gallery was one of the high-end brands Topps released in the late-'90s, and I regained a bit of familiarity with it in a recent organization project. Cards with artist-painted artwork as the primary image might seem recent, or perhaps a holdover from the overproduction era (read: Diamond Kings), but card artwork goes back to the very earliest days of not only Topps, but also to the very concept of a baseball card. Topps Gallery carries on that tradition, with this particular card of Eric Thames featuring artwork by Mayumi Seto.

Eric Thames is wearing a throwback Brewers jersey on this card, but once the 2020 season arrives, we'll see the classic "MB" return to the field as the primary logo. Whether slugger Thames will return to the Brewers is an open question, but as the club declined their option on him, he'll likely suit up elsewhere in the league next season.

Thames is perhaps best known for his amazing flurry of eleven home runs in April 2017, which is mentioned on the card back and remains a Brewers record. He honed his swing in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) and upon his return to the Major Leagues, was swatting balls out of Miller Park left and right, taking the April home run title away from Trevor Story.

2008 UD Masterpieces #64 Joba Chamberlain

Upper Deck joined in on the artwork card trend, giving us two of their best-ever sets, 2007 and 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces. If there was ever a reason to advocate for UD getting an MLB license again, Masterpieces is it. They were only 90 cards, making them easier to complete than some recent Topps insert sets, and they were also some of the most beautiful sets to ever come out of the Upper Deck factory.

This was the only Masterpieces card I found that day, depicting Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain. He played in the shadow of Mariano Rivera, but was a member of the Yankees when they won the World Series in 2009, and is perhaps best-known for being attacked by a swarm of midges in Cleveland during the 2007 ALDS. This card doesn't say anything about that, but does tell us that he delivered a 0.38 ERA in his rookie year of 2007.

2018 Topps Chrome Prism Refractors #28 Gregory Polanco

Artwork cards require a certain deliberate appreciation, but reflective cards like Topps Chrome quite literally have that "shiny object" attraction. I'm happy to have both in my collection. This Gregory Polanco card is more than just shiny. Rather, it's what I think is a Prism Refractor. It's shiny, sure, and the background pattern looks like what you'd get if a hummingbird's feathers got stuck in a baseball card. It's more subtle than in past years, with more obvious patterns like 2011 "liquorfractors" coming to mind, but it works pretty well with the recent borderless Topps designs.

2018 Topps Chrome #51 Ian Happ

Ian Happ's card is just of the normal Chrome variety, which makes the bottom banner shiny and the Wrigley Field ivy alarmingly dark. It's hard to tell exactly which position Happ is playing in this action photo, because he plays all over the field. His home run count has declined since his rookie total of 24, however he's a valuable utility player who appears to be filling Ben Zobrist's shoes on the Cubs roster. Managers might be willing to accept a bit less power at the plate if they know they can slot you in anywhere. And with Kyle Schwarber in left field, who singlehandedly makes a case for the NL adopting the Designated Hitter rule, Happ may one day have even more opportunities to cover left field in Wrigley.

And as we all know, strange things happen in Wrigley's left field.

2018 Donruss Variations #225 Anthony Rizzo RETRO

Happ's teammate, Anthony Rizzo, appeared in the same retro 2018 Donruss subset as Nolan Arenado from about a month ago. Like Topps, the Donruss brand has been around long enough to repurpose many of their classic designs for reprints. The 1984 set is a great choice, but I doubt they'll get the same appreciation if they reuse the 1991 design.

As the card back tells us, Anthony Rizzo, who just won his third Gold Glove, is heavily involved in philanthropic activities. He's a cancer survivor, and his foundation has raised millions of dollars for cancer research and healthcare. Panini may not be able to use MLB team names and logos, but a close look at Rizzo's right batting glove lets us see the ribbon logo of his foundation.

2019 Donruss Variations #181 Blake Snell

Sometimes Panini looks back at classic Donruss sets, and sometimes they give us easy-to-spot variations. Like Topps, some of the variations just use a different photo, so you either have to be an expert or have good reference material on hand. Apparently that is the case with Rizzo's card, which is a variation I had no idea about until I looked it up on Beckett. But other variations use the player's nickname in addition to an alternate photograph to differentiate, like this Blake "Zilla" Snell card.

I prefer the latter. Who has time to be checking their cards for little sparkles or wondering whether the photo on the front is anything out of the ordinary?

Panini has been doing the nickname variation for a few years with the Donruss brand, and I once received a variation of Daniel Murphy's card from the 2017 set, courtesy of Nick. I had no idea at the time that "Murph" would one day become a Rockie.

Blake Snell, one of the few players in this day and age with a nickname that isn't simply a slight alteration of his actual name (i.e. "Murph"), won the AL Cy Young Award in 2018. He regressed significantly this year, so he isn't a finalist for the 2019 award, but his teammate Charlie Morton is.

2018 Finest #39 Wil Myers

Back to shiny, this time in the form of 2018 Topps Finest. The mirror finish is nice, and reminds me of something like Fleer Brilliants or Pinnacle Certified, but that's an awfully busy background design. The card back is a little more interesting in this case, as we get a complete history of cycles hit by the San Diego Padres.

After close to a half-century of games, Matt Kemp finally hit for the cycle for the first time in Padres history. That happened on August 14th, 2015. Not long after that, on April 10th, 2017, Wil Myers hit for the second Padres cycle. Careful observers will note that both those feats were accomplished at Coors Field.

That leaves the Miami Marlins as the only remaining team without a cycle.

They will be visiting Denver from July 20th-23rd, 2020.

Interestingly, the Padres are still on the hunt for their first franchise no-hitter. Their chances of finally crossing that off the list will likely depend on whether they sign one of the free agent ace pitchers this offseason.

2008 SPx #57 Johan Santana

For the longest time, the Mets were the team who had gone the longest without a no-hitter following their inception. They had played just over eight thousand games before Johan Santana managed to finally throw one in June 2012. There is debate about whether that feat put an end to Santana's career, but the Mets finally got that elusive performance. The Padres didn't start until 1969, so it took them until this past spring to surpass the Mets' no-hitter drought.

I can't resist the die-cut pattern of 2008 SPx. I'll buy this every time I come across it. In fact, it's the third time I've had it on the blog.

This card is yet another example of how these posts practically write themselves. I did not know that Wil Myers hit for the cycle in Coors Field, let alone that his 2018 Topps Finest card mentioned it. Nor did I have a deliberate plan to follow it up with the pitcher who threw the only no-hitter in Mets history. But that's how it worked out. And while this SPx card pictures Santana with the Twins, the logo and team name clearly indicate this is a Mets card. It was printed right around the time the Twins traded the two-time Cy Young winner to the Mets for a bunch of prospects, including Philip Humber, who would somehow toss a perfect game before Santana would break that minor curse for the Mets.

In case you were curious, the only player still active as part of that 2008 trade is Carlos Gómez.

2008 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini #262 Mark Spitz

As much as I don't want to admit it, we are in the offseason. I suppose that makes it appropriate to have a non-baseball sports card. Minis, and especially these cigarette-card-sized minis, can be hard to find in a five-row card box. They have a tendency to slip out of stacks, especially when the curly 2010 Chrome is anywhere to be found in said stack. Even so, this mini of swimming legend Mark Spitz survived the journey.

2008 Allen & Ginter was released just weeks before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Games at which Michael Phelps broke Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in one Olympics, winning a whopping eight. Phelps may have come away from Beijing with a little more hardware than Spitz had when he left Munich in 1972, although technically they tied each other by setting seven world records. One of Phelps's eight races wasn't quite done in world record time.

Olympic Games are four years apart, so depending on the sport, you do see repeat participants and winners over the years. Certain sports like gymnastics and figure skating don't lend themselves quite as well to dynastic domination as swimming or snowboarding. Spitz is known for his 1972 Olympics, but this card back informed me that he also won four medals in Mexico City in 1968, including two golds.

Tokyo 2020 will mark the first Olympics in two decades that won't feature Michael Phelps in the pool. He didn't medal, but his Olympic career began way back in 2000 in Sydney, just a few months after Johan Santana began his Major League career.

No-hitters and cycles are impressive, of course. But one of the most amazing sports moments I can remember was when Michael Phelps edged out his opponent by a hundredth of a second to win one of those eight golds.

I guess the offseason isn't so bad, especially when there are Winter Olympics every four years. The next Winter Games will next take place in 2022, also in Beijing.

Maybe the Padres will finally have their no-hitter by then. Or at least the Marlins might have a cycle.