The World's Champions (Part 2: Minis and non-Baseball)

The stage is set. 

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini Black Border #149 Ian Anderson

For the 2021 World Series, the Atlanta Braves will be facing the Houston Astros, beginning Tuesday night. Former Astro (and Ray) Charlie Morton will be taking the mound for the Braves in Game 1, but we can expect that rookie Ian Anderson will toe the rubber at some point during this best-of-7 series.

We're all familiar with how Allen & Ginter has all the numbers written out on the card backs, but when it comes to a Rookie Card, like this one, it's not quite so eye-crossing. Games: Eighty. Wins: Seventeen. That's easy to digest at a glance, although Three Hundred Seventy Seven and Two Thirds career innings pitched still needs a second look to really understand. And when it comes to advanced stats, A&G must be the only place in history where a pitcher has a WHIP of "One Point Twenty Three".

Anderson's Black Bordered Mini parallel leads off Part 2 of this Allen & Ginter blaster, a card I had once set aside for its parallel-ness but not necessarily for any expectation it would be relevant for the World Series.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini #316 Yu Darvish

In fact, even as late as the All-Star Break, it certainly looked like the San Diego Padres would be well on their way to a Postseason berth. They experienced quite an epic collapse, and will have to try again next year, although they did finally get their first no-hitter in franchise history. Yu Darvish is in a good place, teammates with veteran talent and one of the most exciting young players in the game, but he remains in a tough division. Time will tell whether he'll ever get to play in the World Series again, or if he'll fall just millimeters short like his two near-perfect games.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini A&G Back #30 Rickey Henderson

Throughout his long career, Rickey Henderson managed to get much closer to those elusive milestones. Of course, he became the career leader by a tremendous margin in Stolen Bases, and also got to hoist the Commissioner's Trophy twice. That first one, as pictured on this A&G parallel, came with the Oakland Athletics in 1989, and then again in 1993 with the Blue Jays.

We're long past the days of Rickey Henderson swiping bases left and right, but it's been good to see the Stolen Base (or Caught Stealing) make an occasional clutch appearance throughout this year's Postseason.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini A&G Back #30 Rickey Henderson (Reverse)

It may not look like a parallel, but longtime A&G collectors know that back variations can come into play. Because, you know, there aren't enough ways to turn the front into a parallel.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini A&G Back #110 Daulton Varsho

Daulton Varsho's rookie card has the same back variation, although his Diamondbacks finished tied for the worst record in the league. There's definitely no postseason magic in the forecast for Arizona's near future. The RC logo blends into the overall brownish-gold design, and it looks a little busy on this narrow-cut mini. These tobacco-style cards measure a very precise 2 11/16" by 1 1/2".

Daulton Varsho is part of the current crop of second-generation Major Leaguers along with Tatis, Guerrero, Bichette, and so on. He's the son of former National Leaguer Gary Varsho, whom I mainly remember as a Pirate. Gary signed with the Phillies for his final season in 1995, teaming up with catcher Darren Daulton. You'd be correct in assuming that his late former teammate is his son's namesake.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini Rookie Design Variations #MRD-1 Casey Mize

It doesn't seem like that long, but Allen & Ginter has been with us since 2006. Not counting the original 19th century product, of course. But that's long enough for Topps to bring back the original 2006 design as a 20-card insert set. Casey Mize of the Tigers led it off with card #1, reminding us of how minimal this brand used to look. And more colorful, somehow, at least as far as the Rookie Card logo goes. 

For the most part, this was a rookie-heavy batch of Minis. Several appearances of the Rookie Card logo are going to be scattered across the page once I get these in a binder. And I'm sure we can expect to see at least some of these guys in the league for a long time to come.

But compared to the last Mini I found, they're all younger. So much younger.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini Far Far Away #FFA-2 Caldwell 5

Eleven million years younger, to be approximate.

We keep coming back to A&G for all the fun non-baseball topics, and this blaster delivered as promised. Here's an image of the spiral galaxy Caldwell 5, discovered in 1892, not long after the original release of the Allen & Ginter set in 1887.

Part of the Far Far Away insert set available only in the mini size, this is one of fifteen cards that are cut far too small to truly display these wondrous celestial objects. This particular galaxy, as we're told on the card back, is known as "The Hidden Galaxy" due to all the cosmic dust obscuring its view. Fortunately, we have a new space telescope scheduled to launch before the end of the year, and its capabilities should help reveal Caldwell 5 a bit more thanks to its infrared-sensitive instruments.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter #206 Sarah Spain

Returning back to the familiar 3.5" x 2.5" size, I did find a couple of non-baseball full-size cards. First is Sarah Spain, an ESPN host and reporter. I don't watch a whole lot of ESPN's news shows, so I can't say I'm familiar with her. I still watch a good deal of their other programming (such as Monday Night Football when I wrote most of this), along with their excellent 30 for 30 series. But for sports news, I get that mostly from The Athletic and now Joe Posnanski's Substack page, since he's no longer writing for them.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter #249 Rose Lavelle

The other non-baseball but still sports-related card is of Rose Lavelle, a member of Team USA women's soccer, as well as an athlete in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She helped the national team to its 2019 Women's World Cup championship, and earned a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. 

A&G has included a few other members of the dominant US Women's Soccer team over the years, including early stars Mia Hamm and Michelle Akers, along with more recent members like Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd.

Our final few cards are from a variety of nature and wildlife-heavy insert sets, something that is right up my alley these days.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Birds of a Feather #BOF-8 Green-Wing Macaw

Birds of a Feather is a ten-card insert set of birds. Beautiful, feathery, colorful, mostly tropical birds. And anyone who knows me well knows that I love birds. These are far from your backyard sparrows and wrens; you'd quite literally have to travel to the other side of the world to see them in the wild. Fortunately, Topps brought them a little closer with this insert set, and it's certainly a set where I'd consider chasing down the other nine.

This one is a Green-wing Macaw, also known as a Red-and-Green Macaw. It's a parrot native to South America, and is among the most intelligent birds found in the world. Lego enthusiasts will probably recognize this as the Parrot part, although that could possibly be a similar-looking Scarlet Macaw (also found in this insert set).

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Rallying Back #RB-7 White Rhino

Ten more animals are found in the Rallying Back insert set, a collection of endangered or threatened species. The White Rhino is featured on card #7, or more specifically the Southern White Rhino subspecies. Poaching and hunting decimated its population last century, but protections put in place have allowed the species to recover to around 20,000 individuals. 

No mention is made of the much unluckier Northern White Rhino subspecies, which is down to a mere two female individuals left in captivity. None are known in the wild. Not doing much better is the more distantly-related Black Rhino, which has a few thousand individuals remaining among several subspecies.

There are success stories in this insert set, like the bald eagle which has rebounded to well over 100,000 individuals, and humpback whales, which currently number around 80,000. But sadly, the state of the animal kingdom is far from secure.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Deep Sea Shiver #DSS-15 Silvertip Shark

Sixteen more cards dive into the shadowy world of sharks, and near the end of the checklist is this fearsome-looking Silvertip Shark. Maxing out at about ten feet long, they generally live in shallow waters along continental or island shelves. They're apex predators and are clearly not to be trifled with. Unless, of course, you're a confident little Remora fish that likes to hitch a ride, which we can see on the shark's left pectoral fin.

Like most sharks, this is a species that is viviparous, meaning it gives live birth. Most other fish and a few shark species lay eggs, scientifically known as oviparous.

2021 Topps Allen and Ginter Arboreal Appreciation #AA-13 Holly

Moving over to a different kingdom on the tree of life, we'll wrap up this blaster with the alliteratively named Arboreal Appreciation. It's fifteen cards depicting various trees, something I'm quite a bit less familiar with than birds. I'm learning, though. 

We all know the Holly plant from its festive association with Christmas, thought that's just one or two species among hundreds. The bright red berries you're accustomed to seeing in Christmas wreaths are actually known to be rather toxic, perhaps fatally so for children and pets. Contrast this with another Christmastime plant, the poinsettia, whose alleged toxicity is merely an urban myth.

A&G may have given us a fairly similar-looking set every year for a decade and a half, but the variety found in the non-baseball topics is truly limitless. Next year I hope to see a set showcasing the great variety of crustaceans in the ocean.

It's also worth noting in light of the Fanatics deal that Topps could very much keep the spirit of this set going after their MLB license expires.

Thank you for reading, and enjoy the World Series!

The Dawning of a New Age

We're three days into the 2021 season and it is already shaping up to be a wild one. Miguel Cabrera hit the first home run of the season into a blizzard. The Nationals and Mets had to postpone their opening series because we're still in a pandemic. The Rockies had a feral-looking feline visitor on Friday night. And, as I mentioned was a possibility in my previous post, the MLB has decided to relocate both the 2021 All-Star Game and the Draft, opting not to hold it in Atlanta in the wake of Georgia's recently-passed voting law.

A new host city has yet to be announced, although rumor has it that Denver is in the running. Such a decision is not without precedent, as we saw other sports leagues make similar relocation decisions in 2016 and 1991.

Even though it's still Opening Weekend, the All-Star Game is front of mind. The whole Cardsphere just wrote about the '83 Midsummer Classic a couple days ago. Night Owl was a participant in that, and he sort of blew us all out of the water with his post about how Whitey Herzog managed it, which effectively ushered in a new form of the All-Star Game. That, coupled with the news out of Commissioner Rob Manfred's office, got me thinking about the current state of the (almost) annual exhibition game.

Think back a ways to the summer of 2019. Long before the Nationals won that electrifying World Series. Before the pandemic that caused the cancellation of the 2020 All-Star Game. Before the tragic events that led to a rapid increase in our awareness of racial justice issues. Before the legislation in Georgia that led to MLB finding itself in the position of selecting a new city with barely more than three months to do it.

Who was the MVP of the 2019 All-Star Game?

2020 Topps Heritage New Age Performers #NAP-13 Shane Bieber

This guy. Everyone's favorite pitcher not named Justin.

Shane Bieber, featured on this card from 2020 Topps Heritage, part of the brand's long-running New Age Performers insert set, is our most recent All-Star MVP. He won the award in front of a hometown crowd in Cleveland. You can sort of see the commemorative patch on Bieber's hat.

In leafing through the contents of one of several blasters I bought last year, this card jumped out at me. Topps of course goes for a retro look with the Heritage set, but I feel like this card ended up inadvertently being a lot more relevant than they intended.

Because we are kind of in a new age, aren't we? An age where Major League Baseball will move the All-Star Game practically overnight in response to injustice. It wasn't that long ago when anything beyond a press release would be inconceivable. And when the 2021 All-Star Game happens, wherever that may be, we will all find ourselves in a dramatically different world than when we watched the 2019 game.

Shane Bieber might even be on the American League roster again, despite being the one who served up that snowy home run to Miguel Cabrera. Yet, a lot has changed for us all, and there are things that just won't fly anymore.

How many times have we said it? "Baseball is a business." Well, businesses have a responsibility to avoid liability. Surely this will cost the league millions, or at least their insurers. But are we under the impression that the MLB and other leagues aren't going to learn a lesson from this and perhaps be more cautious about site selection for future events? Might it be prudent for them to keep All-Star Games and Winter Meetings and expansion franchises and so forth in locations where the local legislature is less likely to manufacture what could charitably be called a PR crisis?

With similar laws in the works in Tennessee and elsewhere, this might very well affect Nashville's hopes for getting a team. And let's not forget, Atlanta might not have gotten teams in several sports when they did (if at all), had they chosen to continue the practice of segregation.

Just something to consider.

Maybe it feels like this is a brand-new thing, but it's really not. As we can see from the stories of Josh Gibson, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Adam Jones, and Masahiro Tanaka, racism is baked into the fabric of America even more deeply than this great sport we all love. It takes different forms, yes. And there's still a long way to go.

What is changing, and what should give us all hope, is who's willing to stand up. There have been great strides made between Babe Ruth, allegedly, to Branch Rickey, to the league as a whole.

In addition to New Age Performers, Topps also includes a News Flashbacks insert set in their Heritage checklists. For the 1971 retrospective, Topps made a few cards about the later years of the Apollo program, the deaths of Louie Armstrong and Jim Morrison, and the advent of Starbucks, NASDAQ, and Walt Disney World.

2020 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks #NF-15 Louie Armstrong Passes Away

In 2070, what will they say about us? Who's getting a card in 2070 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks? Rob Manfred or Brian Kemp?

See you in 49 years.

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.

The Trading Post #131: Nachos Grande

You're about to see a rare event on Infield Fly Rule. This is a post with precisely zero Rockies in it. I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure that none of these guys ever even suited up for the Rockies. That is surprising, both because the current nature of the game dictates that players are traded almost like stocks, and because this is the largest-ever Trade Stack ever claimed from the recently-redesigned Nachos Grande, at a whopping 35 cards.

I've had Trade Stack #93 on my desk for quite some time, and while everyone's favorite Barry Larkin collector documented his end of the trade in short order, it's taken several months for me to get to it. I've travelled a lot this year, and have seen quite a few MLB games, even one in another city! I had the good fortune to see Billy Joel play at Coors Field on Thursday, who is simply excellent in concert. He even peppered in a couple of Eagles songs.

I haven't been to a Rockies game in a couple months. In fact, my most recent game was the one in San Diego almost a month ago, which is appropriate for our first card.

2017 Topps Heritage #81 Adam Rosales

Adam Rosales is currently in the Cleveland Indians organization, and hasn't played in the big leagues this year. But not long ago, he played a full season with the Padres. That was in 2016, the same year the All Star Game was in San Diego, as noted on Rosales's uniform patch. Topps included him in 2017 Heritage on the '68 design.

Rosales is listed as a third baseman, but he has the versatility to play all over the field. His 13 homers in 2016 was the highest mark of his career, and his signature move is sprinting around the bases after sending one deep. I love seeing hustle like that. He's like the anti-Machado, for a whole bunch of reasons.

One other thing I'll mention about Rosales is that one of my good friends knew him growing up. He's less than a year older than me, and my friend says he and some other buddies "used to take swings in his basement in Park Ridge." How cool would that be for one of your childhood friends to make it in the big leagues? I don't personally know any Major Leaguers, but my sister knows Deck McGuire and his wife. They have kids around the same age, and have all been to storytime at the library together.

2018 Topps Gypsy Queen #130 Michael Fulmer

There were many retro sets represented in this trade, so it's going to take a while to find a glossy card, and even longer to get to the gold foil. Gypsy Queen may be one of the many retro sets out there, but even it is embracing Sabermetrics. The card back tells us that Michael Fulmer had a 0.71 HRA in 2017. I'll admit, I had to look that one up. It stands for Home Runs Allowed (per 9 IP), and Fulmer had the lowest rate in the league that year.

I'm not the type to downplay the importance of advanced statistics, unlike many old-school announcers. This is a game of numbers, and there are some valuable insights to be gained by slicing the numbers a different way. The only trouble I have with them, as I was still raised on batting average and ERA, is that I don't have that innate sense for what a "good" number is. 0.71 HRA sure sounds good, but I'm not at the point where I can, at a glance, know whether that's better or worse than other players. I'm sure it will come with time, but it's a bit like the metric system. I know the math behind what, say 90 km/h represents, but probably couldn't pilot my vehicle to that exact speed without having to convert it in my head. It's a bit like a second language, I suppose.

Even with all this talk of Sabermetrics, I'm reminded of a post I ran across on reddit today. Since the dawn of Major League Baseball there have been nearly precisely as many hits as there have been half-innings. Well over a hundred years of play across hundreds of thousands of games has produced a sport that generates, on average, one hit per every three outs.

2009 Upper Deck Goudey 4-in-1 #35-56 Russell Martin / Brian McCann / Ryan Doumit / Geovany Soto

Upper Deck gave us plenty of entrants into the retro set library, including their brief resurrection of the Goudey brand. The 2009 set offered an insert set modeled on the 1935 design, which featured four players per card. This grouping of four catchers, two of whom are still playing, unintentionally foreshadowed Upper Deck losing their MLB license the following year. These four close-ups of armored catchers doesn't feature a single team logo.

This is actually a fantastic card for fans of catchers on the defensive side of the game. Current sets don't give us many catchers who aren't simply batting, and I'd love to see more cards like this, especially with catchers still wearing their masks, as Ryan Doumit is here. Remember that Johnny Bench card from 2017 Stadium Club? Catcher's gear cards are awesome, and might even be mini-collection worthy.

1999 Upper Deck Retro #90 George Brett

Most catchers on cards just happen to be partially in the frame, like this unknown American Leaguer behind George Brett. The mask is there, along with a left-handed mitt, but there's not much else to go on. Some of the coloration in the background is making me lean Blue Jays, but that's just a guess.

Like in the previous Trade Stack I claimed, there was some Upper Deck Retro. This base card is from 1999, the final year of the set's two-year run, and this is the first base card from the '99 set to enter my collection.

The card back has no picture, but includes about half of his annual stats, a color palette similar to the front, the usual Upper Deck diamond hologram, and a fun fact about this Hall of Famer. You may have heard this before, but we're told that George Brett is the only player to win batting titles in three different decades. One of those years, 1980, also was his MVP year.

Back on the front, in tiny print on the lower left, Upper Deck has the slogan "A Guaranteed Hit". I doubt that meant UD was promising a rare card in every box, and more likely referred to their certainty that this set would be a top seller. As "nineteen 99" (also spelled out in the lower left) was the final year of Upper Deck Retro, that did not come to pass.

1998 Upper Deck Retro #115 Mark Kotsay FUT

I've yet to see a base card from the prior year, 1998 Upper Deck Retro, but Nachos Grande has become my sole supplier for 1998's Futurama subset. This marks my fourth card from that subset, one from very early in Mark Kotsay's career. The journeyman outfielder played for seven teams before retiring, and shifted to first base later in his career.

I didn't really notice the sepia-toned photographs last time I saw these, but when you know Kotsay is wearing the bright teal jersey of the early Florida Marlins, it's slightly jarring to see that taken away.

1991 Topps Archives 1953 #25 Ray Boone

A major part of this trade stack was a batch of Cleveland Indians from the 1953 Archives set. Ray Boone, who took over at shortstop in Cleveland for Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau, would be traded to Detroit partway through the 1953 season, leaving the city where he began his career and earned a World Series ring in his rookie year of 1948. His one and only postseason at-bat was a strikeout in Game 5.

1948, of course, was the last time that the Indians won the World Series. That's 71 years, but that number becomes particularly impactful when you remember that was Ray Boone's rookie year, and his son Bob and grandsons Bret and Aaron have all concluded their MLB careers by now. Aaron Boone is now managing the Yankees, and had to argue against Brett Gardner's completely unwarranted ejection during Friday night's game in Toronto.

2018 Topps Allen & Ginter World's Greatest Beaches #WGB-5 South Beach

Boone's card is the glossiest one we've seen yet, but as retro as this post is, let's include some Allen & Ginter, shall we? Every year around this time, the hobby erupts in either appreciation for the set, or indignation for the so-called quality of non-baseball topics in the set. I still enjoy it, and the History of Flight insert set in 2019 A&G interests me, although I will question the skipping of card numbers 301-350.

Anyway, here's a card of a beach. I made sure to get some beach time in during my trip to San Diego, and even managed to avoid a sunburn. I haven't been to South Beach, the subject of this insert card, or even Miami. My beach visits in Florida have been limited to the Cape Canaveral region. It sure looks enticing, though I doubt you'll find three perfect scallop shells like you see on this card.

1994 Post #30 Orlando Merced

I've hunted for them more carefully than seashells, but try as I might, I have yet to find an Utz potato chips oddball card this year. Fortunately, I love potato chips even when they don't include baseball cards, so that's not a huge disappointment. Perhaps I'll just have to keep searching. However, I'm not really much of a breakfast guy. I'll have an apple for breakfast most days, or perhaps the occasional granola bar. I can't remember the last time I bought a box of cereal, so completing a Post cereal oddball set would be out of the question. Fortunately, I have trading partners looking out for me.

Long before Upper Deck lost their MLB license, companies like Post were putting out sets with the logos airbrushed out. Pirates outfielder Orlando Merced was the final card in the 30-card checklist that year, and this is the third card I have from the set. Andres Galarraga is in my collection, which I thought I posted about once upon a time, but I couldn't find anything in the archives.

There was another logo-less cereal oddball in this stack, the Kirby Puckett card from the 1989 Cap'n Crunch set. Bob Walk the Plank added that to my collection long ago in The Trading Post #4.

1995 Collector's Choice #26 Paul Shuey

I was a big fan of Collector's Choice as a kid, and I bought plenty of this 1995 release. I didn't notice until recently, though, how strange these Rookie Class subset cards are. The bubbly pink background wouldn't be at all out of place in 1995 Fleer. Maybe it's just Paul Shuey's card, because a few others in my collection have a much smoother background in the pink area.

I also question whether this is a true action shot, because that is certainly a strange look on this reliever's face, which goes along with a comically high leg kick.

Pitchers.

Incidentally, he is one of the few pitchers to pull off the error-assisted feat of striking out four batters in an inning.

1994 Topps Gold #351 Gary DiSarcina

We're finally at the point of gold foil, and what better way to introduce it than on 1994 Topps Gold? There's an anthem shot on the card back for you mini-collectors, and Gary DiSarcina is wearing the same California Angels uniform that was used in Angels in the Outfield, one of the baseball movies I grew up watching.

DiSarcina spent is whole career with the California/Anaheim Angels, and is now the third base coach for a New York Mets team that is heating up at a good time. Their walkoff win on Friday night saw Rookie of the Year candidate and Home Run Derby winner Pete Alonso (aka Polar Bear) hit his 38th home run of the season.

2001 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #23 Darin Erstad

Gary DiSarcina retired in 2000 without any Postseason experience, but his teammate Darin Erstad was present in 2002 for the first World Series title won by the Angels.

Really, he was more than just "present" in that Series. His leadoff home run in the 8th inning of Game 6 kickstarted a rally that would not only see the Angels stave off elimination, but go on to win the whole thing in Game 7 over the Giants, with Erstad himself catching the final out.

This Topps Gold Label card was printed a year before that, with a photo from 2000, their 40th Season. Erstad is sporting an anniversary patch on his right sleeve documenting that milestone, back when the team was still known as the Anaheim Angels and was laying it on a little thick with the heavenly wings motif.

There's another reason I remember Darin Erstad besides his World Series heroics. He was the subject of a trivia question I missed. One day in high school, my teacher asked a question about her alma mater: "Which Angels player went to the University of Nebraska?" I guessed Chad Curtis, drawing on my encyclopedic knowledge of the 1994 Topps set many years too late. Curtis hadn't been an Angel since then, and the correct answer was, of course, Darin Erstad.

Whether they're a friend of a friend or the answer to a trivia question, these baseball players are more than just athletes.

Thanks to Nachos Grande for the swap!

The Pity Prize Group Break (Part 2: The Pity Prize)

Usually when I participate in a group break, I get enough for one good post. Not so last time. According to Nachos Grande, the Rockies slot I picked did the worst out of any team. That means I ended up with the consolation prize, a complete base set of 2015 Topps Allen & Ginter!

I don't usually go out of my way to collect A&G, but I ended up with quite a few cards from the 2010 set, as well as a handful from most other years. And certainly none of the 19th-century originals. So this is really my first look at the whole thing, getting a sense for the balance between baseball, non-baseball, and general interest cards.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #21 Kolten Wong

You don't see many horizontal Allen & Ginter cards, and I really like this one! There's space for so much more of the background than just a little bit of color behind the head. An action shot like this would be pure witchcraft if it appeared in the late 1800s. The back of the card hasn't changed much, as they still spell all the numbers out. Two Hundred Thirty Six is on the low side for career batting average, but then again, he was only born in Nineteen Ninety.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #194 Zack Cozart

In case that wasn't enough, how about another NL Central middle infielder? Again, a great action shot, and a whole bunch of the outfield wall in the background. These are color-coded to a degree, not that they match the team colors, but the A&G logo and border colors can vary from card to card.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #301 Justin Morneau

As this is a complete set, of course there are Rockies. Morneau makes an appearance, although with the same photo as his Gypsy Queen card. This vertical card looks much more familiar, as there's just a splash of color.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #14 LaTroy Hawkins

Recently retired LaTroy Hawkins is in this 350-card set, too, though his recycled photo is from his Topps Heritage card. I won't belabor the point, but seriously. When I photograph, I usually end up with several exposures of one subject. SD cards are cheap. Mix it up a bit, Topps. It's not like it's Ty Cobb and there are only so many photos to choose from.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #48 Coco Crisp

But I guess recycled photos aren't all bad. We do get another look at one of the favorites from 2014 Topps base, Coco Crisp with his wraparound shades and textbook afro.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #322 Mark Melancon

Melancon is one of the last pitchers in the game I'd ever want to face. He has such an intense look, and he led the Majors in saves last season. But I'm sure it's all professional with him, unlike, say, Jonathan Papelbon.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #250 Jimmy Rollins

Now, I've only seen the Rockies and a couple others from Gypsy Queen and Heritage, so these may all be recycled photos. I don't know. But this bat barrel shot is probably my favorite Jimmy Rollins card in my collection, and the unfamiliar Dodgers uniform makes this card even more interesting. Of course, I'm not a Rollins supercollector or anything, but this is one of the dozen or so I picked out of the 350-card stack.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #309 Gabe Kapler

Gabe Kapler retired years ago, and is now working as an analyst on Fox Sports. He spent part of two seasons as a Rockie, then went on to help the Red Sox reverse the curse in 2004. Of course, A&G isn't limited to current players, or even players at all for that matter. But plenty more on that later.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #177 Bernie Williams

Bernie Williams won a few rings himself, but he followed that up with a successful recording career. He even played at Derek Jeter's final game, and he has appeared on a card or two with his guitar in the past. His baseball days are behind him, so the back of this card identifies him as a "musician".

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #67 Malcolm Gladwell

A&G goes way beyond the world of baseball. I'm sure few of us would associate author Malcolm Gladwell with America's Pastime, though he does have some interesting things to say about snap judgments, underdogs, and lots more.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #347 Aaron Paul

Aaron Paul might not appeal as much to the New Yorker crowd, but being a main character in a TV show as awesome as Breaking Bad will do wonders for your career. You can even appear in a Fast & Furious knockoff based on a video game franchise.

Magnets!

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #293 Philae Probe

Some of the cardsphere's all-time favorite cards from A&G have nothing to do with baseball, sports, Kate Upton, or celebrities of any kind. So the Philae probe, the comet lander from ESA's Rosetta mission, gets its own card. If you liked the Revolving Door card, you'll love this one.

Unfortunately, it's really, really hard to land on a comet, and Philae only had enough juice for a few measurements and photos once it settled to the comet's surface at an odd angle. But you can't expect to get much better results from the extremely harsh environments of Venus or Titan, so any data at all from a lander like that is a success.

You don't see space missions in most baseball card sets. But there is something else about Allen & Ginter that is quite unusual in this hobby.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #93 Kelia Moniz

Women.

There are some card sets featuring women, mostly of WWE, WNBA, Danica Patrick, that sort of thing. Also entire sets of (NSFW) scantily-clad models and Japanese pop stars. Let's just say that professional surfer Kelia Moniz is definitely dressed for the beach on that card.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #124 Lakey Peterson

As a Coloradan, I'm landlocked. But I do know that the ocean in California is colder than the ocean in Hawaii. So Lakey Peterson, another professional surfer, is practicing her craft in a wetsuit.

But you're starting to get the idea, right? Allen & Ginter is a set of mostly baseball cards, along with with some retired baseball players, some influential male artists and authors, random stuff like spacecraft and elevators, athletes from rather obscure sports which might feature a few women, and usually a supermodel like Chrissy Teigen or Kate Upton thrown in.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #92 Michelle Beadle

We see Jennie Finch pitch in the celebrity softball game that's aired after the Home Run Derby each year, but other than her and various sideline reporters, there aren't many women to be found on-field at the typical sporting event. There are the occasional anchors like Michelle Beadle, though I can't think of any women in the main broadcast booths. Some sports (though segregated) are quite a bit more equal overall; golf and tennis come to mind. And yes, Annika Sorenstam and Serena Williams have both been given the A&G treatment over the years. As have numerous Olympians.

And while that's not an indictment of the Big Four sports themselves, as I clearly understand that there are no women in the typical baseball card set because there are no women in the MLBPA, it is an indictment of Topps. Say two-thirds of this set is active MLB players, then that still leaves more than 100 cards for non-baseball. And there is no good reason not to split that more evenly.

Sure, a lot of the non-baseball cards in A&G are just of other sports, even of "sports" like poker and billiards, but there are lots of historical figures that have nothing to do with sports. And since the whole point of A&G is to have a sizable non-baseball section, including inanimate objects like space probes and revolving doors, where are the non-sporting women? Like Sally Ride? Or Sheryl Sandberg? Or Jane Goodall? Or Meryl Streep? Or Amelia Earhart? Or Tina Fey? Kate Middleton did once get a card, but only with Prince William on it, too. I couldn't find First Ladies in any base set, though there was an insert set this year.

Celebrity chefs like Anthony Bourdain and Daniel Boulud have cards. Even some of the more inane Food Network personalities like Adam Richman, Guy Fieri, and Jeff Mauro have A&G cards. But what about Rachael Ray? Or Giada de Laurentiis? Or even Julia Child, for that matter?

It all reminds me quite a bit of the #MoreWomen campaign that Elle Magazine published a few months ago. Forgive my rounding, but a set that's 1% space probes and 2% women seems pretty unequal to me. Apply the #MoreWomen treatment to 2015 A&G and you can fit it in a 9-pocket page with the card backs showing.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #341 Malala Yousafzai

Just saying. If you're a woman and not an athlete, sports announcer, or beauty queen, then you pretty much have to win the Nobel Prize to get in this set.