Finding a Triple Crown Winner

Today is Opening Day.

It's been a while since I've been able to say that in the month of April. In both 2018 and 2019, the season began in the last few days of March, and 2020 was scheduled to do the same until, uh, events happened. Instead we got an Opening Day in late July.

But while much remains wrong with the world, far more than I have the heart to discuss here, at least Opening Day 2021 is in April.

To me, that's normal.

As you may have discovered by now, I and many of my fellow bloggers are participating in a coordinated Scavenger Hunt today, really more for an April Fools' Day prank than for Opening Day, but the two happen to coincide this year.

Last year, Matt at Diamond Jesters had us all write about Phil Niekro's 1988 Score card in honor of Knucksie's 81st birthday, which would sadly turn out to be his last. Niekro was one of far too many Hall-of-Famers that left us in that awful year of 2020, and while I doubt he ever knew about our little activity, it's comforting to know that at least he could have.

This year, things are a little different. Participants from last year's one-day Blog Bat Around were offered the chance to participate in this year's iteration, a complete look at the checklist of a particular 22-card insert set.

1984 Topps Glossy All-Stars #11 Carl Yastrzemski

With that, you can now check Carl Yastrzemski's card #11 off your list of 1984 Topps Glossy All-Stars.

I own none of the cards in this set, so Matt graciously supplied the above image. Consequently, I didn't have much of a claim to write about any one particular card, so by luck of the draw, I was assigned this very famous Hall of Famer. You've seen him on Infield Fly Rule before in vintage form. Many of us know that his grandson Mike plays for the San Francisco Giants, but in my research, I learned that Carl is second all-time in games played, trailing only Pete Rose.

As is usual with the nature of cards predating the existence of Topps Now, this set documents the prior season. In this case, that's the '83 All-Star Game. It was held in Chicago's Comiskey Park, and it was the last of eighteen that Yaz participated in. He looks weathered here at 43, and is listed as an "Honorable Mention" on the front, and an "Honorary Member" on the card back. Those have the same initials of "HM", but it seems that either Topps or MLB were a little indecisive about what that actually stood for. 

Presumably, he didn't get in via balloting, but was granted a spot anyway as part of a farewell tour. His only at bat resulted in a strikeout in the 7th inning.

As has happened throughout much of my baseball fandom, the American League was the victor in this one. As the home team, they won by a score of 13-3, thanks in part to the only grand slam in All-Star Game history. Whoever ended up with Fred Lynn's card #7 will surely tell you all about that.

I'm glad I have the chance to participate in this scavenger hunt. It's also a good reminder that there is such a thing as the All-Star Game, because that is one of many events that did not occur in 2020. At this point, it's still on for 2021, although where it will be held is perhaps up in the air. It was supposed to happen at Dodger Stadium last year, but we'll have to wait for 2022 for L.A. to get that chance again.

If you didn't already know this Blog Bat Around was happening, I hope you're pleasantly surprised. And if you've just now discovered Infield Fly Rule while hunting for #11, welcome!

ToppsGelt

As another year's Hanukkah winds to a close, it's about that time for your occasional education on Jewish culture here at Infield Fly Rule. It's certainly nothing as in-depth as my full eight-night Stadium Club extravaganza from 2018, but there's still cause for celebration. We all know the mail hasn't been especially speedy this year, but I did get a Hanukkah card delivered from my mom, and inside was yet another Eight Men Out need.

1994 Topps Gold #395 Bill Brennan

As longtime readers may know, I've gradually been collecting the Topps Gold checklist replacement cards from 1992-1994 Topps. I have a full set of the six 1993 cards, completed last year. I don't think I have any of the 1992s, but with the above Bill Brennan card, I'm well on my way to having the '94 set as well. For those not in the know, Topps figured that getting a one-per-pack Gold parallel of a plain old checklist would be disappointing, so they picked a few extra players that didn't make it into the regular base set and gave them gold-only cards.

In a rather inattentive error, I actually had this card on the list twice, so Mom must have figured I really wanted it. It ended up being Bill Brennan's last Major League card. He had numerous minor league issues, and a few major-brand MLB cards following his 1988 debut, including an appearance in the famed 1989 Upper Deck set, but his career never took off. He appeared in four games for the '88 Dodgers, so he probably has a World Series ring somewhere. His career didn't progress beyond the Minors until a final, brief stint with the Cubs in 1993, as pictured here in a Studio-esque posed shot.

On the back, Topps has this listed as Brennan's Rookie Card. Donruss, Score, and Upper Deck all gave him cards in 1989, but Topps didn't get around to it until after his career ended. That makes it one of the rare examples of a Rookie Card and a Sunset Card all in one.

And since this is a Gold card, I thought I'd make a little Hanukkah pun and call it ToppsGelt. Gelt is a Yiddish word meaning "money", and in the context of Hanukkah, it refers to the little golden foil-wrapped chocolate coins that are given as small gifts. They're a favorite item to gamble with while playing Dreidel. I didn't buy any this year, but getting a relatively rare overproduction-era card is a great substitute.

Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!

The Trading Post #160: It's Like Having My Own Card Shop

No sooner did I get caught up on trade posts than more started showing up. With no expectation of anything in return, I fired off a card to Daniel at It's Like Having My Own Card Shop, a Kirby Puckett duplicate I knew I had (help him with 1989 Cap'n Crunch if you can!). Nevertheless, he returned the favor with a card from my favorite Topps brand, and that of course is Stadium Club.

I know that my Wish List tab is a tremendously inadequate representation of what I'm actually on the hunt for, but I did put one Coors Field card on it from 2014 Stadium Club. Daniel sent it.

2014 Stadium Club #93 Chris Owings (RC)

My Coors Field frankenset is slowly but surely coming along. It's a long way off from completion. Truthfully, it's a long way off from even having most of the numbers filled. But each year gives me more candidates for the list, and now I can cross #93 off. The background shows the left field wall, which has some chain link gaps below the yellow line, which you can see here. Also there's one fan with just a hint of purple, and it's an NL West team, so the odds are good that I've guessed the right stadium.

Side note, the Rookie Card logo on this 2014 Stadium Club design nestles in perfectly and is in about the most unobtrusive spot I can ever remember seeing.

Pictured is Chris Owings, then a Diamondbacks rookie. I can't tell exactly which game, but it's likely this is from the September 20th-22nd, 2013 series in Denver. Owings was a September call-up then and was just getting a taste of the big leagues. We have another indicator that this was from 2013, and that's the #19 patch worn on Owings's right sleeve. That wasn't for a player, but rather to honor the memory of nineteen wildland firefighters that perished in Arizona's Yarnell Hill Fire. Fortunately, no firefighters died in the recent round of Colorado wildfires, and I certainly hope that continues to be the case.

Chris Owings got a front row seat for the smoky Colorado air earlier this year, as he signed with the Rockies for the 2020 season. The versatile player appeared all over the diamond, although he played in only seventeen games before being sidelined with hamstring troubles. It will likely go down as a Short-Term Stop, but it was long enough for Rockies fans to at least learn his name.

Kind of.

I say that because my girlfriend and I had a running joke this season. During a game, a camera happened to catch the back of his uniform. The tall, squarish shape of the letters and the wrinkle of his jersey made the "O" look more like a "D", which quickly turned into us both calling him "Dwings". As in, "Dwings made a nice play there." "I think Dwings is on deck." "Get in here, Dwings just hit a home run!" That sort of thing.

He's a free agent once again, and I hope he lands somewhere in the Majors. He's been a journeyman since he first reached free agency, so odds are another team picks him up. If he lands in the NL West again, he might even get another slot in my Coors Field frankenset.

Thanks to Daniel for the trade, and good luck with the rest of the Cap'n Crunch set!

Holiday Haul

When I was young, Christmas was prime season for adding baseball cards to my burgeoning collection. Mostly it was parent-financed trips to Toys-R-Us where I filled up on packs of 1991 Score, then to the card shop around the corner, where I'd go a bit wild on a complete set or two from the bargain table. 1989 Topps, 1991 Donruss, that sort of thing. One year I got a (very heavy) 250-count box of Ultra Pro 9-pocket pages, and though they're not as crystal clear as they once were, many of my 1993-1994 cards are housed in those pages to this day.

Maybe that's why I'm still so into the hobby, and why I still gravitate toward the same sets that I collected then. Topps Black Gold and Collector's Choice Silver Signatures and such.

Of course, as an adult, I'm fortunate enough to be able splurge when the opportunities arise, like a trip to the antique mall (still more to come on that), or a nicely-priced Mickey Mantle card.

Still, my family members are awesome, and more than willing to indulge this hobby of mine. My girlfriend gave me a coffee table book of the 100 Greatest Moments in Baseball History, along with a framed print of US Patent #1668969. Great decor for the room were most of my cards reside.

And like she did on my birthday, my Mom took another glance at the old Eight Men Out list.

1994 Donruss #629 Jeffrey Hammonds

This was the only card missing from my box of 1994 Donruss, a slight incompletion in a hand-collated stack of Series 2 that came from the same trip as that Mantle card. Combine that with the Series 1 I already had, and you have a complete set of 1994 Donruss, the first set to introduce a brand new Rated Rookie logo after many years of sameness.

That's sort of the story in general with pre-1994 Donruss. Other than their debut 1981 set, everything else was pretty much the same for over a decade. They slowly adopted new trends in the card industry, finally changing the card back in 1992 by adding photos, and then nixing the middle name in 1993. But when 1994 rolled around, it was entirely new, completely on board with gold foil, full bleed printing, and fairly limited stats on the back to accommodate all that photography.

It was so novel, and it remains my favorite Donruss set, even if I don't get to know Jeffrey Hammonds' middle name. He finished midpack in Rookie of the Year voting in 1994, and even spent a season as a Rockie.

Though I'm not much for "collecting goals" like I've seen across the cardsphere this week, the satisfaction of completing a set never seems to get old, especially when a generous family member helps you along your way. Thanks, Mom, and Happy New Year!