Unretired

I'm always a little late to the party when it comes to new releases. But yes, I have obtained a pack of 2017 Topps Series 1 at my local Target by now, and there's plenty to discuss.

2017 Topps #290 Shin-Soo Choo

I've played quite a bit more than my share of Diablo and SimCity, so this isometric set (my official suggestion for what to call this set) doesn't look that odd to me. The team logos are a bit oddly squished, but it's a whole lot closer to a full-bleed design than last year's smoke design. That team logo is a bit distorted, but at least it's not getting chopped off like last year's.

The photos are as sharp as ever, so much so that we get a fairly good look at the tattoo on Shin-Soo Choo's right forearm, and excellent color reproduction of those red batting gloves and blue batting helmet.

2017 Topps #7 Gary Sanchez

Last year's runner-up for the AL Rookie of the Year award looks like he's in the post-swing phase of one of his many home runs. Or at least a long fly ball. He has a tattoo as well, and what seem like pretty thick pinstripes. And even though he finished second in Rookie of the Year voting, he did get selected for the catcher's position on the 2017 Topps All-Rookie Team, so Topps slotted that trophy logo on the right.

2017 Topps #7 Gary Sanchez (Reverse)

Lest we forget that Topps is the only licensed card manufacturer out there, Topps also includes the team logo on this heavily color-coded back, in smaller but non-distorted format.

Much has been said about the card backs, primarily the shift to a very Donruss-like five lines of statistics. Sanchez is young enough that we still get his full MLB record, but that format does chop off his early Minor League experience. For a player like Choo, we're missing over half his career. Of course, many of us shifted long ago to checking baseball-reference.com, a treasure trove of statistics that just recently got a refreshed design.

A further illustration of society's shift to digital is the display of each player's social media handles, if they happen to have one. Choo doesn't, so Topps just put the #TOPPSBASEBALL hashtag on there. But this card helpfully informs me of the @elgarysanchez account on Instagram.

My favorite so far is Mike Moustakas' Instagram handle, @MooseTacos8.

Sharp-eyed readers will notice another change this year, as this is the first time since Mickey Mantle's uniform number was "retired" from Topps sets that a current player got a card #7. Mantle himself had a few card #7s since his death, but Topps decided to unretire it for 2017. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Mickey Mantle is synonymous with postwar baseball card collecting, and his death at just 63 led Topps to honor his memory via their set numbering, if only for a couple decades.

But if they're going to start using Card #7 again, at least it's still of a Yankee.

2017 Topps #265A Charlie Blackmon

Charlie Blackmon was the lone Rockie I pulled in this 12-card pack, but a few others have already started to make their way to me via trade. It's great to see a Coors Field card so early into the 2017 baseball card cycle, and it looks like this one was against the San Diego Padres. That's more empty seats than I like to see at Coors Field, but maybe he's leading off the 1st inning and everyone is still obtaining their nachos and beers. Personally, I hate missing the first pitch, but the sections at Coors Field take a couple innings or so to really fill up.

The back of this card is very purple, which pretty closely approximates the new shade of purple the Rockies are rolling out for 2017. Topps may have just guessed correctly, but I wonder if they had advance notice of this change when designing this year's set.

2017 Topps First Pitch #FP-5 Deshauna Barber

The First Pitch insert set is back, which still pretty closely approximates the main set's design. This was one of two insert cards in the pack, showing Miss USA winner Deshauna Barber tossing out the first pitch for the Nationals last summer. Other celebrities to be found in this set include Stephen Colbert, John Goodman, Joan Jett, and William Shatner.

A lot of bloggers and collectors have criticized the sharp angular elements that make up the bottom portion of the card, saying that some of the photo is getting cut off. And yes, it does have the potential to get in the way of an action shot like a slide, double play, ground ball, bunt, etc..., but for the types of photos Topps has selected for this set, it works pretty well. At least it's nothing like the 2008 set, where the Topps logo bump intruded into the headroom of most photos. Having a design element like that on the bottom mostly just obscures pant legs, knee-high socks, and shin guards.

Although when Miss USA is the subject of the card, that is a bit of a disappointment.

2017 Topps MLB Awards #MVP-1 Mike Trout

Most Valuable Player Mike Trout showed up as the second insert card, part of the MLB Awards insert set. The numbering is a little confusing, as Trout has card #MVP-1. Cards with the other award winners, like Manager of the Year have an "MOY-" prefix, even though they share the same design and are considered part of the same set. Trout has finished at least 2nd in MVP voting every year since 2012, and 2017 looks to be no different. But with the 11th pick in my upcoming Fantasy Baseball draft, there's no way I'll end up with him.

I'm not especially wild about the design. The background is a fairly boring light gray, and the large colored banners are sort of the Hulk version of the diagonal stripe that contained the logo in last year's main set.

2017 Topps Now #NNO Mike Trout

This Topps Now card wasn't included in the pack, but rather sent to me via snail mail from Topps. Mike Trout just can't be avoided when you're talking about baseball these days, so who better to use to preview the 2017 Topps Now design? An upward slant design on the lower portion of the card is similar to the Topps base set, but this has a little bit of a shallower angle and is partially transparent.

I'll go ahead and assume that all Topps Now customers from 2016 got a copy of this, likely the same group of collectors that received the 2016 year-in-review card. It's a preview of what's to come on a daily basis throughout the 2017 season, but it's also a coupon for 25% off a Topps Now Opening Day team set. I'll probably be hanging on to my $50 (or rather, $37.50), but the coupon code is SPRING25, if you're so inclined to add to your collection.

2017 Topps #72 Chicago Cubs

But even bigger than Mike Trout's MVP performance last year, the biggest story came from the Chicago Cubs, who finally ended their 108-year championship drought. Their team card of course mentions that, and pictures some of their players returning to the dugout after one of their 103 wins. One of the fans is happy to Fly The W, and they're probably singing that infectious Go Cubs Go song. There are certainly no shortage of Cubs fans in this photo, except for the one woman in front sporting a Padres shirt.

The Padres only visited Wrigley once in 2016, and the Padres took two out of three. I was going to date this card to May 10th, 2016, until I realized that Aroldis Champan, who appears on this card, wasn't a Cub yet. So I don't know when this is from.

But I do know that Spring Training is finally underway, and the Cubs are on the MLB Network as I write this. It's been a long winter, but exhibition games are happening, the World Baseball Classic is coming up in early March, and Opening Day isn't far behind.

Baseball's back.

I'll see your war hammer, and I'll raise you an elf!

I've had a lot going on the past couple of weeks. Summer (or at least late spring) has finally arrived in Colorado. On Saturday, I went to my first Rockies game of the year, a 10-5 loss to the Giants. Although the Rockies took the lead in the 7th on a Carlos Gonzalez home run to straightaway center, the Rockies bullpen played their usual role, blowing the lead before even retiring a batter in the 8th.

My Fantasy team seems to have turned a corner, with Greinke working his way to a decent record, and Mookie Betts crushing numerous home runs over a non-numerous series of games.

And oh yeah, I bought a new car. First time I've ever owned a car built in the current decade. A few days before, as part of a birthday present my family chipped in on in March, I got to drive a Ferrari for an hour in the foothills outside Denver. A bit anticlimactic to go buy a Mazda after that, but if anyone in your area offers cars like that for a quick, guided rental, it's well worth it, especially if you can find a Groupon.

With all that new stuff, surprise baseball cards from my girlfriend are still a common fixture, and she brought home a partial box of 2015 Allen & Ginter from a hobby shop that also sells coins and comic books. We had a bit of a pack war, and she definitely saw the appeal in cracking into a sealed pack of cards, especially A&G, a set that is well-known for more than just baseball.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Ancient Armory #AA-8 War Hammer

They pick some quite obscure things for insert sets, including battle gear from the days before mechanized warfare. The war hammer, quite a lethal-looking tool, is perfect for smashing through armor when a sword would likely just bounce off. When I pulled that card from the Ancient Armory insert set and showed it to my girlfriend, she responded with a quip that just had to be the title of this post.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Menagerie of the Mind #MM-2 Elf

And she used this card to do it. Elves can be found in the Menagerie of the Mind insert set, along with other mythological beings like fairies, trolls, centaurs, and a creature called a bunyip.

You learn something new every day.

These particular elves look like something out of a 1970s BBC production, and while the card mentions their current relation to Santa's workshop and the cookie factory, their roots can be found in Norse paganism. Their alleged immortality, found in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, is also alluded to.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Great Scott #GS-7 Continental Drift

This next set uses Doc Brown's catchphrase from Back To The Future to highlight some important scientific discoveries over the past century or so, including X-rays, DNA, and the Polio vaccine, right up to current endeavors like the Large Hadron Collider. It's rather amazing to think of all we've discovered in the last century. Of course we know that the sun's at the center of the solar system, and we figured that out over 400 years ago. But continental drift, the existence of other galaxies, and the discovery of Pluto are surprisingly recent.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #302 Fall of the Berlin Wall

Even more astonishing are the changes in geopolitics in my lifetime alone. The reunification of Germany had yet to occur when I was born, the USSR hadn't yet fragmented into countless breakaway republics, and the developed European economies each had their own currencies. The invasion of Kuwait and the first Gulf War are the first newsworthy world events that I can remember, and I would have been about six then.

If you're interested in this era of history, Bridge of Spies is worth seeing, although Tom Hanks is so A-List that it's become hard to see him as anyone besides Tom Hanks. For all I know, he'll be in an A&G set before too long.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini First Ladies #FIRST-23 Edith Roosevelt

The last time I wrote about 2015 Allen & Ginter, I remarked about how underrepresented women are in this set. The First Ladies insert set makes up for that a bit. Yes, that's a mini, but it's not the Mrs. Roosevelt that first comes to mind. Rather, she's Edith Roosevelt, wife of Teddy, serving in the role from 1901 to 1909. Edith was actually Teddy's second wife, as he became a widower in 1884. Perhaps you've seen his diary entry from that day, a day on which both his mother and wife passed away. Tragic, yes, but that didn't stop him from ascending to a two-term presidency, nor from having his likeness carved into Mount Rushmore.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #143 Mike Zunino

Despite all this scattered randomness found in the inserts, Allen & Ginter is still first and foremost a baseball set. Though he's at the Triple-A level right now after three seasons in the Bigs, all that catcher's gear makes for one of the more interesting photos in the set. And when I say "all that catcher's gear," really I'm just referring to the mask and mitt. He might have shin guards on, but no chest protector, so it's probably just a warm-up shot.

I still can't quite get over how A&G insists on spelling everything out, like writing a check. His slugging percentage is Three Hundred Eighty Three, though he just has Two triples to his name.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #23 Johnny Cueto

One aspect of baseball that was very, very different in the late 19th-century, when this brand got its start, is how little players moved around. Since this photo of Cueto as a Red just a year ago, he's pitched for the Kansas City Royals (and earned a World Series ring), and in 2016, he has an excellent 8-1 record with the San Francisco Giants, with one of those Ws coming just a few days ago against the Rockies. More on that series later, but the Rockies didn't do much to help their spot in the standings over the holiday weekend.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Starting Points #SP-87 Adrian Beltre

This is from the only Baseball-themed insert set found in 2015 packs, and it's rather astonishing to be reminded that Adrian Beltre is currently in his 19th season. He and Elvis Andrus have been up to all sorts of antics for years, but he was once just a green rookie like everyone else.

His debut came on June 24th, 1998, and as the back of this card tells us, Randy Johnson whiffed a dozen Padres that day, and Jeff Bagwell hit two home runs in a pre-humidor Coors Field. However, the card neglects to mention that those 5 RBIs were not enough to beat the Rockies.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Starting Points #SP-76 Buster Posey

Buster Posey's two home runs on Saturday, however, were indeed enough to sink the Rockies. His start came in 2009, just before the Giants started their every-other-year championship run, and they're up by a nice 4.5 game margin atop the NL West right now. Posey's 6-RBI performance on Saturday was a career high for him, and while the outcome wasn't what I'd hoped, at least I got a great view of Buster's homers, plus lots of quality time with my sister.

Posey hasn't been in the league nearly as long as Beltre, but already he has three World Series rings, plus his broken leg in 2011 is basically the reason why the rules for sliding into home plate changed. He's definitely an influential player, and he can add his name to the long list of San Francisco Giants whom I've seen hit a home run in person.

Plus, he sort of looks like an elf.

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.