The Trading Post #112: A Cracked Bat (Part 1: Topps)

I haven't run a pivot table on my Trading Post page to know for sure, but it sure seems like Julie of A Cracked Bat is my most frequent trading partner. The sheer number of cards she's sent me over the years is staggering, and that's not even mentioning the quality! Another one came my way late last year, and there were so many interesting cards that I had to give it my two-part Topps / Not Topps treatment. There were some familiar themes, but also quite a few cards that were new to my eyes.

1996 Topps Laser #106 Andres Galarraga

I don't think I've ever been as wowed by my first look at a single set than I was with Topps Laser. I've seen some of these before, first when they popped up in a medium flat-rate box I bought on eBay. It's a shame this set only lasted one year, because it took the idea of a die-cut to a whole new level. Yes, that design you see on the right really is laser-cut, and opens up a whole new world of design possibilities. It looks particularly striking when you hold it up to the light, especially against a snowy background.

It's rather fragile, and tends to catch the top of a 9-pocket page in numerous places all the way down. But it's worth it. You can even see how the edges are slightly charred in the cut area compared to the usual white paperboard of the rest of the card. Topps kept the light theme going on the back with a pair of "Spotlight Stats", mentioning that The Big Cat hit three homers in three consecutive innings on June 25th, 1995, and that he had a .321 career average as a Rockie, the best the team had seen to that point.

2017 Topps '87 Topps #87-196 Jeff Hoffman

I was only three years old in 1987, but I have to wonder if I was as much in awe when I opened my first pack of 1987 Topps. I was too young to remember, but those cards, and later some 1990 Fleer, occupied a prime spot in my desk drawer before I really started getting into the hobby and graduated to shoeboxes and binders. That early exposure to 1987 Topps is partially why I keep showing these 30th anniversary inserts. The silver seal and RC logo update the design into a more modern look, as does the Rockies logo itself, but it's still easily recognizable at a glance.

2017 Topps '87 Topps Silver Pack Chrome #87-NA Nolan Arenado

This one is still clearly the 1987 design, but it's shiny, glossy, and has a patterned background that wouldn't be out of place on Topps Tek. I had to do some research to figure out what this is, as the congratulatory note on the back doesn't give me any clues other than promoting the "2017 Topps Baseball Hobby Continuity Program".

Whatever that is.

Apparently, this is a 100-card Hobby-only flavor of the classic set. I haven't bought a hobby box of a current product in ages, so its good that I can rely on trading partners to discover things like this. And it's about the sharpest-ever photograph to appear on the 1987 design. I'm not sure if they all have the same pattern, but to me, it looks like a bunch of Chase logos stacked diagonally atop one another.

I can enjoy it for what it is; my only gripe is that the background obscures Coors Field behind Nolan Arenado, a five-time Gold Glove winner.

2015 Topps Tribute #36 Carlos Gonzalez

I have no idea where Julie gets all these high-end cards from Tribute and Museum Collection and such. But they find their way to me, and I get to see how Topps has arranged their gilded gold foil sets year after year. I can't quite tell what the subtle circular design is in the background, and there are some diamonds back there too behind still-a-free-agent CarGo. I know that no one buys these sets for the design; they go for the hits, but that's where my attention goes. And this is apparently not a hit according to the original buyer.

2014 Topps Triple Threads Gold #98 Troy Tulowitzki /99

This one is more of a hit, getting a /99 serial number. This excessively alliterative Troy Tulowitzki Topps Triple Threads card is a gold parallel, one of the rarer varieties of the many colored borders found in this set. It will go nicely with a relic from this exact set that Julie found for me in our previous trade.

Despite its thickness and rarity, I'm pretty sure that this is a zoomed-out version of Tulo's base card photo from 2014. For the kind of dough they charge for this set, I'd like to at least see a different photo. It is still nice to see the Rockies' 20th Anniversary patch again, which they wore in 2013. Their 25th Anniversary patch is ready to go for the upcoming season, showing that time continues to fly.

1999 Bowman Late Bloomers #LB4 Vinny Castilla

Topps decided in 1999 that they had enough of Metal Universe having the wild shiny silver background market all to themselves. When 1999 Bowman needed a 10-card insert set, they cranked the trippy background dial up to 11. I had a Santana CD that looked like this, but redder. And speaking of commemorative patches, Castilla's uniform has the 1998 All-Star Game patch, which was held at Coors Field. Castilla finished third in that year's Home Run Derby, and came in as a reserve in the game itself. He replaced soon-to-be Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, but went 0-2.

The set looks at players that took a little extra time to reach their prime form following their entry into the Majors. Trevor Hoffman needed eight seasons to reach his first All-Star Game (coincidentally, in 1998). Jim Thome took a while to develop, too. There are a lot of Hall of Famers in this small set, and hopefully Larry Walker will count himself among that group soon. I'm not so sure about some of the others, though. Mike Piazza and Andy Pettitte did pretty well right from the start. Jose Bautista and R.A. Dickey would be great candidates if Bowman brought back this set.

The card back for Vinny Castilla gives us a look at the 1987 draft, the year he first played in the Mexican League. Some of the players drafted that year were Ken Griffey, Jr., Jack McDowell, Todd Hundley, and Steve Finley.

2002 Topps Total Production #TP6 Todd Helton

Topps toned it down a bit, maybe to 7, when they made a similar insert set in 2002 Topps Total. Still just ten cards, again with lots of Hall of Famers, and a few more that should be. The card back describes one of the more interesting occurrences in an at bat, when batters foul off a series of consecutive pitches. Helton spoiled 11 straight pitches in a marathon 16-pitch at bat once, showing "extraordinary bat control for a power hitter", as Topps put it. Brett Gardner did something similar in the ALDS this year for the Yankees. It's one of the best examples of how a ballgame can suddenly turn into a chess match.

2017 Topps Chrome #27 Ian Desmond

This is just the second time Ian Desmond has appeared on this blog, and it's the first time for 2017 Topps Chrome. The curl this year is pretty minimal, which is always appreciated. Topps kept the traditional Chrome logo in the upper corner, and also included the Chrome word in the lower area of the banner, which is usually quite blank. The back tells us too, right below the card number.

2017 Topps Chrome Refractors #92 Trevor Story

There are refractors, of course, and in addition to the rainbow finish and helpful label on the back that tells us it's a refractor (thanks, Topps!), there's a pair of sort of spotlight shapes emanating from the catcher's area. I thought that made it some special variety (spotlight refractors?) but apparently that's there to give Topps an area to color when making colored parallels. Tough to do that without a border, I suppose. But it seems a bit pointless, sort of like building a tall building just to put a red light on top, as my dad used to say.

In addition to that welcome refractor label on the back, Topps tells us about Trevor Story's amazing rookie year, where he tied George Scott's record of hitting his first 10 home runs in just 21 games. "He's going to get called up to the next league!" as Drew Goodman, the TV play-by-play announcer put it during their home opener.

2014 Finest Sterling Refractors #TS-CG Carlos Gonzalez

More to come on Trevor Story shortly, but first, another one of Carlos Gonzalez. There is a Bowman Sterling, but most of us probably associate the Sterling name with Topps Finest. CarGo is one of 25 players to be found in this insert set, which is modeled after one of the themes found in the fractured 1996 Finest set. Luckily it's just an insert set this time around, as Topps mercifully abandoned the fractured set idea long ago.

It's a little different, more rounded perhaps, but the background pattern reminds me of that Arenado hobby card from earlier.

2017 Bowman Platinum #24 Trevor Story

As promised, back to Trevor Story. Julie's been doing a great job of keeping me informed of the state of Bowman Platinum (note to self: not Limited, not Premium). This is my first card from the 2017 iteration, even though I seem to recall this was pretty widely available in big-box stores as opposed to just hobby shops.

Bowman made this one pretty colorful and added a lot of angles and bold shapes in the background. It's a departure; usually the design tends to follow the font they use for that stylish "P". Lots of thin, curvy lines. This year, the background reminds me of Q*bert. The back recounts one of his successes in April 2016, and this time it wasn't even a home run. He hit a 9th-inning triple off of closer Brad Ziegler, leading the Rockies to a 5-2 road win on April 30th, 2016 over the Diamondbacks.

I'm always a fan of the Rockies beating the Diamondbacks.

2017 Topps Chrome Future Stars #FS-14 Trevor Story

We've had Future Stars cards for decades, but nothing quite like this. It's a cross between Opening Day Stars and a The More You Know commercial. It's extremely eye catching, and the color palette they use in the star has a real 1970s disco vibe. If 1972 Topps had insert cards, this would be a likely candidate.

I've collected enough Trevor Story cards by now to know that his 2017 releases can't say enough about his amazing start to the 2016 season. As this card tells us, he's the only player in MLB history to go yard (do we still say that?) in his first four big league games. I like having him on the team, and he'll be entering his third season in just over two months.

I guess I have to hand it to the Rockies for knowing what they were doing on the Tulowitzki trade. This is why I am a fan and not a front office guy.

2013 Bowman Chrome Cream of the Crop Mini Blue Wave Refractors #CC-CRO4 Jayson Aquino /250

I know next to nothing about Jayson Aquino other than what I just saw on Baseball Reference. He has bounced around various minor league organizations since 2010, but did progress to his MLB debut in 2016 for Baltimore. He started a couple games for them in 2017, so he's one of the few Bowman players to show up in the majors, albeit briefly so far.

There are a few other Rockies prospects listed on the back of this Blue Wave serial-numbered card with a way-too-long name, some who you may know from blog posts such as this one. David Dahl, Nolan Arenado, and Trevor Story are the #1-3 prospects, with the list being wrapped up by Kyle Parker, who was released by the organization in 2016.

2001 Topps Fusion #156 Larry Walker BB

Back to a name you'll recognize, Larry Walker, who has gone this whole post without an appearance. What you may not recognize is this set, and it's not actually Bowman's Best. Rather, it's Topps Fusion, a set that exposed collectors to five of Topps' premium brands in one shot. I've shown one on this blog before from Topps Gold Label. I probably have enough of these cards to cover the whole range, but haven't closely checked, nor am I certain I don't have a few misfiled in the 2001 binder.

This has a bit more texture than I'm used to seeing in Bowman's best. The thin lines within the outline of the "B" (the ones the scanner didn't pick up) are horizontal and close together, almost like a lenticular card. And it has a rainbow finish rather than just chromium. I don't know Bowman that well, but I assume the "Best Bets" lettering at the bottom is modeled after a subset of some kind.

1998 Bowman's Best #4 Dante Bichette

This is more what I'm used to seeing from the Bowman's Best brand. Lots of large, shiny, gold areas and a full-length photograph. Replace the gold with some blue and you're not too far off from 2000 Finest. I'll be honest, usually I'm so mesmerized by the gold arcs that I don't look too closely at the back. And the statistics that Bowman gives us here are unusual and insightful. Rather than the usual rows of stats for at bats, average, and doubles, this card gives us a lot of ratios. At bats per extra base hit (AB/XBH), Games per RBI (G/RBI) and several more. Mathematically, the lower, the better. In 1995 through 1997, Dante Bichette walked exactly as often as he hit a home run. And that math checks out; he had 97 homers and walks from 1995 to 1997. It's an interesting early attempt at Sabermetrics, and if you're not in the habit of looking at card backs, I encourage you to look a bit more closely.

2017 Topps Gypsy Queen #252a Nolan Arenado

There have been so many shiny cards in this post that I felt I had to at least give lip service to regular old cardboard. I've seen a bit of this year's set, but I don't like it as much as the 2016 or especially the 2015 designs. And I'm not quite sure what's going on with this photo. It's clearly in Petco Park, judging by all those Padres uniforms in the stands and the banner on the wall. But there are other MLB logos to be found, such as the Dodgers, Red Sox, and a couple others I can't quite tell. It's possibly from the 2016 All Star Game, which would make sense as to why so many different fans were in the seats. Confusingly, even though the Padres are an NL team, they played as the away team in that year's Midsummer Classic, which could explain why Arenado is wearing his road uniform.

Or maybe I'm overthinking it. Arenado would wear his road uniform every single other time he plays in Petco Park, and maybe there were a lot of casual fans that day. Los Angeles isn't a terribly long drive for that Dodgers fan.

2013 Topps Update Gold #US15 DJ LeMahieu /2013

Back in the friendly setting of Coors Field, we see DJ LeMahieu casually flipping the ball to Tulowitzki for a force out. I'm guessing that's the third out, as DJ looks quite calm, and Tulo isn't preparing to leap over an incoming baserunner while carefully avoiding stepping on the sea turtle. Let's see if I'm right.

I don't have a ton to go on here, but the out of town scoreboard in right field at Coors Field is one of the best sources of information if you're trying to date a card. From what I can see, it looks like the A's beat the Astros in Houston, 4-3. Even though this is a 2013 card, it's from Update, which is one of the few sets where the year matches the photo. Furthermore, DJ has that same 20th Anniversary patch that Tulo had on his Triple Threads card, dating this to sometime in 2013.

There were two occasions that year when the Astros lost at home by a score of 4-3 to the A's, and they were both in the same series. I narrowed it down to either July 22nd or July 24th, and the Rockies were at home both days. Either is possible, but I could only find a 4-6 forceout at second base on the 24th. So my official guess is that this photo is from when the Rockies beat the Marlins 2-1 on Wednesday, July 24th, 2013. And if that's correct, then this nonchalant toss was the final out of the game, retiring none other than Giancarlo Stanton who had just drawn a walk.

2001 Topps Limited #117 Brian Bohanon /3085

I know that LeMahieu card is limited to 2,013 copies, but what I don't know is how limited this "Limited Edition" 2001 card is. Beckett says 3,085, BaseballCardPedia says 3,905, and Topps said there would be a maximum of 5,000 copies of the Limited Factory Set available that year. So all I can assume is that it's roughly 50-100% as plentiful as that Topps Gold card. But it's probably harder to find. If I paid extra for a wood-packaged factory set, I wouldn't break it up.

I see 2001 Topps so infrequently. I'm not that familiar with it, and it doesn't show up via trade very often. This might be the first time that I truly noticed that there's a photograph on the back behind the stats table, a faded and zoomed version of the front photo. It also has the special red and green logo Topps designed for their 50th Anniversary on the back, something I see far less often than their 40th Anniversary logo on the famed 1991 set.

I'll be in my late 60s when Topps hits the century mark. I hope we're both still around by then.

2017 Topps Salute #S95 Nolan Arenado

And the last card of the day is from 2017 Topps Salute, a huge insert set that didn't especially impress me the first time I saw it. Now that I know it has a bit more character, I'm warming up to it. This doesn't just show Arenado in his Mother's Day pink-accented uniform. The back mentions his mom, Millie, as well. And it also has a bit to say about Nolan Arenado's work ethic. We're told that once upon a time, Nolan didn't run out a routine grounder. Perhaps not a huge deal if it's just a one-time thing, but Topps says that Arenado called his mom to apologize after the blunder.

I assume it goes without saying that his teammates and coaches got an apology, too. And that little story further cements him as my favorite player in the Majors. That's how you get to the Major Leagues. That's how you get to the All-Star Game. That's how you get to the playoffs. That's how you win five consecutive Gold Gloves. You hold yourself accountable to the people around you. I see too little of that in my professional career and in society at large. And when I do see it, I can do little else but to appreciate it, try to emulate it, and try to surround myself with it.

Maybe that's why I tend to sit on the third base side when I visit Coors Field.

Julie, thank you, as always, for a wonderful batch of Topps cards, and there is more to come on the non-Topps side of things.

The Trading Post #111: The Chronicles of Fuji

It was just about a year ago when I blogged about a previous trade sent by The Chronicles of Fuji. Some of the themes might repeat a little bit, but Fuji is always able to send interesting cards, each carefully placed inside a penny sleeve.

My goal is to catch up on trade posts by the time the Winter Olympics start, which is just a few weeks away. Spring Training won't be far behind that, and just beyond, the earliest-ever Opening Day on March 29th. You'll probably see a flurry of activity on this blog by then, especially since there are lots of sports on (my preferred writing backdrop), a snowstorm incoming to the Denver area, and a day off work on Monday.

2011 Topps Wal-Mart Black Border #139 Eric Young Jr.

Lots of free agents are also likely to have Monday off, and Eric Young, Jr. is on that list. There remains a huge number of unsigned free agents just a month away from when pitchers and catchers report to their spring homes in Arizona and Florida, many ranked much higher than Young. Carlos Gonzalez, for example, still doesn't have a team at the moment. Perhaps everyone's saving up for Bryce Harper next year, who's expected to sign a $400 million contract.

Neither Eric Young, Jr. nor myself will be getting a $400 million payday anytime soon, but it's clear from this 2011 Topps parallel that he's much more acrobatic than I am. This is the Wal-Mart Black Border parallel, not to be confused with the Topps Black parallel, which were numbered to 60 copies and did not have the background blacked out.

Black borders have a tendency to chip, and this card is no different. But it's a great photo and is probably one of the best examples of this treatment in the 2011 Topps set. You can barely see the rest of the photo (the scan picks up more detail than you see in person), but you can tell that Young is executing a double play by leaping over a Giant in AT&T Park. I made it easy on myself to see what was really going on and just checked Young's 2011 base card. That's #48 on the Giants, better known as Pablo Sandoval.

If Kung Fu Panda were sliding into me while I was covering second, I'd also want to jump about this high.

1995 Topps Embossed Golden Idols #83 Dante Bichette

Black and Gold are my school colors. Not Missouri, not Purdue, not Army, but the University of Colorado. And Fuji sent me plenty of gold cards to follow up that black one from 2011, such as this parallel from 1995 Topps Embossed. This isn't the first time Fuji's sent me cards from this rarely-seen parallel set, so either he's gradually offloading parts of his collection to me, or he has a steady supply of mid-1990s Topps boxes.

This is somehow even more golden than Walt Weiss' card I got from Fuji last time, and I remain impressed by just how much texture Topps managed to get on this card. Usually this sort of stuff is confined to the front, but the back looks and feels just as much like a relief map as the front. No gold though, but there are some fun facts about Dante Bichette, such as that he hit the first-ever Rockies home run. That happened in their second-ever game, a losing affair at Shea Stadium on April 7th, 1993. In fact, it was the only run (and RBI) the Rockies scored, period, during that two-game set.

2009 Topps Gold Border #646 Chris Iannetta /2009

As you may have heard by now, Chris Iannetta is returning to the Rockies, increasing the accuracy of this 2009 card in one fell swoop. He's one of a relatively small number of free agents that have found a home in 2018, and I'm sure he'll quickly settle into a groove behind the plate again. In this photo, he's still wearing an old-style mask, choosing not to go for the hockey goalie variety. Either way, it seems quite rare to see such a complete example of a catcher in full gear on a baseball card. Chest protectors, masks, and mitts are quite common, but shin guards rarely make an appearance.

It was printed long after 1994, but I'm still drawn to Topps Gold. They were a bit more scarce in 2009, losing the gold foil on the front, but making up for it with a golden serial number on the back. This particular copy is numbered an even thousand out of 2,009.

2013 Topps Gold #613 Jhoulys Chacin /2013

They get ever-so-slightly more plentiful as the years carry on, but I'm sure it will be far into the distant future when the year matches the print run of 1994 Topps Gold cards. In 2013, the parallel set lost the gold foil on the serial number, just getting slightly raised black numbering. This is still an interesting number, 737 out of 2,013, matching the narrow-body aircraft that I flew on earlier this week on a quick business trip to Portland, Oregon.

Chacin is another free agent who's found a home in 2018, signing a two-year deal with the Brewers. He pitched a full season with San Diego last year, earning a respectable 13-10 record, just one win shy of his best year as a Rockie. Coincidentally, that happened in 2013.

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Dick Perez #9 Troy Tulowitzki

In the baseball card world, artist Dick Perez is synonymous with Donruss' long-running Diamond Kings subset. But Topps couldn't stand by and let his talents go to waste, bringing him on board to "provide exclusive hand-painted images of the Hall of Famers of tomorrow". I'm not sure what relationship, if any, Perez currently has with Topps, but this 2007 Sketch Card let the baseball card world know that he was still around.

There really is a 1/1 version of this Tulowitzki card out there, but this is (presumably) not it, despite the facsimile 1/1 artist signature on the front. It's a thick card, and extremely sturdy, reminding me of those blank inserts that the card companies put in packs to confound pack-searchers. The card doesn't really tell us anything about the Rockies shortstop, and much more about Perez and his artistic endeavors. But I have plenty of Tulo cards to offset that if I want more information.

1995 SP Special FX #34 Dante Bichette

I'm not sure whether I ever saw a box of Upper Deck SP for sale when it was actually on the shelves. Or if I did, I didn't pay any attention to it due to the price. Even if I had that kind of dough as a kid, I would have spent it on Topps Finest instead. But because I never pursued it, I missed out on these holographic cards that UD printed up in the mid-1990s. Fuji must have taken note of my headliner cards in our previous trade and kept the supply coming.

Upper Deck was satisfied enough with the holographic headshot on the front that they did not include their usual hologram diamond on the back. But it's still clearly a UD card, and uses color schemes that are similar to some of the subsets found in 1995 Collector's Choice.

2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary #276 Miguel Olivo

The base variety of Miguel Olivo's 2011 Topps card once made an appearance on this blog, when I was recounting my visit to Raley Field to catch a Triple-A Sacramento River Cats game. He played in the Mexican League last year, but he's probably seen the last of a Major League park as a player. Still, it was good to see him in a Triple-A park. Perhaps it's not quite as cool as Portland, but I got a similar vibe from Sacramento, which has a vibrant downtown adjacent to the river, spanned by some picturesque bridges.

The veteran catcher was still crushing home runs in 2011, though Topps was a year behind on his team. Olivo suited up for the Mariners that year and hit 19 homers, just four off his high mark of 23. Maybe the familiarity is because I saw him in that River Cats game, but I was surprised to learn that Olivo only played one season as a Rockie. It was just the right season to take part in Topps' 60th anniversary, meaning he got this extra-shiny Diamond parallel.

2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary #141 Ubaldo Jimenez

Ubaldo Jimenez was one of Olivo's battery mates in 2010, and Olivo had the distinction of catching the first and only Rockies no-hitter. Jimenez was on the hill that day, however Topps did not pick that feat to honor with a checklist card in the 2011 set. Yes, this is a checklist card, and the shiny background steals your attention away from the small, gray print above the name banner, which says "Most single-season wins in franchise history".

Without a doubt, this is the shiniest checklist card in my entire collection, but I didn't even realize it was one until I flipped it over and saw the red background. Olivo's card has purple color coding, but this fits in with the general look of the Topps set. Topps has done it this way for most of the decade, but I find myself slightly annoyed year after year at how difficult it is to spot these checklists.

Jimenez' 19 wins in 2010 remains a Rockies season record. No Rockie has ever cracked the 20-win mark, but there's always next year!

2006 Topps Chrome Rookie Logos #CRC46 Manuel Corpas

He's not a household name in Denver, but Manuel (Manny) Corpas was the Rockies closer during their 2007 pennant-winning season. He notched five saves in the Rockies' seven wins in the NLDS and NLCS that year, and deserves more credit than he's generally given. Topps saw potential greatness in him, including him in 2006's Chrome Rookie Logos set, and this arrived to me still sealed in a cellophane wrapper.

I have no idea about the provenance of this card. Presumably it was an insert of some kind in Topps Chrome, or perhaps in a team set, but neither Beckett nor BaseballCardPedia have anything to say about the 50-card set. Regardless, it's in great shape, and has a nice /599 serial number on the back. I'm just not sure precisely where to file it.

1995 Stadium Club Virtual Reality #163 Mike Kingery

Another six weeks in the 1994 season would not have netted outfielder Mike Kingery any additional home runs, at least according to the Topps Virtual Reality computer's projections. He got several more doubles, but only two more RBIs. He wasn't a leadoff hitter, so I do have to question the plausibility of some of these computer-generated stats.

Frankly, this is a weird set. I collected it when it was new and opened plenty of packs. But despite what should be a familiar set to me, it remains quite an enigma. For one thing, I could never figure out the pattern in 1995 Stadium Club that determined whether a card got gold or silver foil. The base cards all seem to be gold. but the Virtual Reality cards can be either gold foil or silver, like this one. I've seen this partial parallel set since it came out, and Fuji sent me some last time. But it remains a curiosity. Not to mention the inserts and subsets that burst their way into my knowledge base after decades of dormancy.

1995 Flair Infield Power #4 Andres Galarraga

At least when a 1995 card is unfamiliar to me, like this Galarraga insert or Bichette's SP card above, it makes sense when I didn't actually collect it. The Dr. Who-esque wormhole on 1995 Flair Infield Power cards reminds me of Topps' more recent Power Players insert set, just a bit more muted. Fuji sent me one of those, too.

Fleer tells us that Galarraga's nickname is "The Cat", which is incomplete, to the best of my knowledge. He was always referred to as "The Big Cat" as best I can remember. But sometimes even nicknames have nicknames. The card also mentions his distinctive open batting stance, suggested to him by his old hitting coach in St. Louis, Don Baylor. I recall seeing some Galarraga cards of him as a Cardinal, but I didn't know that he and Baylor had a history before they both joined the expansion Rockies.

2010 Topps 2020 #T14 Ubaldo Jimenez

I know I've seen this set before. There are definitely some in my collection, but I believe this is the first time it's appeared on the blog. Surprisingly, this 3D lenticular insert set is not found in packs of Opening Day, but rather flagship boxes of Topps 2010. They turned the crystal ball forward ten years to guess at who might be top players in 2020. There are some sure things in this set, like Clayton Kershaw and Andrew McCutchen, but some that have virtually no shot at showing up for the 2020 All-Star game, like Tommy Hanson, Gordon Beckham, and well, probably Ubaldo Jimenez.

If you're interested in working on this set, you just have a couple years left to do it easily. By the time 2020 rolls around, you'll have to dig pretty deep into Google's search results if you search for "Topps 2020".

Fuji, I hope we're still trading in 2020, especially if you keep sending me cards like this!

The Trading Post #110: Summer of '74

If you're not following Summer of '74, a newcomer to the blog community, head on over and take a look. Matt and I have already swapped cards once, and a 1994 Topps-focused post he did in October caught my eye. He showed a bunch of base cards from an unopened box of Series 2, and offered the one-per-pack Topps Gold parallels, which I happily claimed. It and its 1993 predecessor were the first parallel sets I chased, and I enjoy them just as much today.

There's lots of mid-1990s Topps goodness to be found over on Matt's blog, including Tuesday's post about 1995 Topps. There were lots of clouds involved. But in 1994, before the strike, Topps was still sticking with pretty traditional photographs. They dabbled with images on the back in 1992 and 1993, with stadiums and headshots, respectively. But in 1994, they finally followed Upper Deck's lead and gave us action shots on the back, too.

1994 Topps Gold #669 Tim Wakefield

Tim Wakefield's front image in 1994 Topps is more interesting than the back. Before he began his long tenure with the Red Sox, he spent two seasons on the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's an unfamiliar uniform, because Wakefield was getting lots of national exposure when the Red Sox were regularly appearing in high-profile playoff series, often against the Yankees. And he's known for more than just giving up the Aaron Boone home run. He took the victory in Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, a 14-inning marathon that kept the Red Sox alive and enabled them to finally break their curse.

I've been watching a lot of sports documentaries this off-season, including many episodes of ESPN's 30 for 30. The other night, I saw the Four Days in October episode, chronicling that improbable comeback that the Red Sox made while being down 3-0 to the defending pennant winners. Wakefield didn't have a huge role to play that year, but he won his ring nonetheless. He is, on the other hand, a prime figure in the Knuckleball documentary, his signature pitch. I feel that Topps' photography on this card is appropriate, the slow shutter speed blurring Wakefield's hand and the ball, adding to the mystery and unpredictability of the knuckleball pitch.

1994 Topps Gold #625 Charlie Hough

Charlie Hough threw it too, and we can see the grip much more clearly. It's another unfamiliar uniform, as he spent most of his career with the Dodgers and Rangers, squeezed onto the back in the tiniest of fonts. But he was a Marlin in 1993 and 1994, their equivalent of Bryn Smith, another veteran hurler who kicked off the Rockies' inaugural home opener. As I've said before, I know many other fans never knew of this period in Hough's career, but given when I started collecting, seeing him in the Marlins' early turquoise colors looks a lot more normal to me than to longtime Dodgers and Rangers fans.

Sadly, this was Hough's final Topps card. The shrunken 1995 set didn't have room for him, let alone another line in his career that spanned a quarter-century. It's a sunset card and an unfamiliar uniform all wrapped up in one, along with a highly unusual pitch that only two current players use.

1994 Topps Gold #460 Orel Hershiser

Orel Hershiser had a much more conventional pitching style, and thanks to 1989 Donruss, we know he can juggle. He could actually hit, too, earning the elusive pitcher's Silver Slugger award in 1993. The sentence on the back tells us he was near the .404 Major League record for batting average by a pitcher before settling at a still-impressive .356. His 1988 season has a lot of red on it, the same year he pitched a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings. That helped his season statistics climb as high as 23 wins, 15 complete games, and 8 shutouts, on his way to the NL Cy Young award, not to mention a World Series ring. Surprisingly, none of these players are in the Hall of Fame, but Hough and Hershiser had a decent shot.

By the way, if Topps did then what they do now, just giving us five years of stats, Hershiser's amazing 1988 season would have scrolled off the screen by the time his 1994 card was printed.

1994 Topps Gold #470 Rafael Palmeiro

Rafael Palmeiro holds the dubious distinction of being the first All-Star MLB player suspended for using steroids. Yet, at 53, he's talking about making a comeback. If it does happen, I hope it ends up being more than just a publicity stunt. But it would be interesting to see such a giant gap in his statistics if he gets a 2019 Topps card.

As you can see, these Topps Gold cards didn't survive almost 25 years in a pack unscathed. Most are fine, but a handful, like this one, show clear signs of being stuck together. It's not too bad, and Matt told me as much when we were talking specifics. It's clear enough that it's possible to see the number 22 on his right batting glove, meaning he might have borrowed it from teammate Will Clark. But it looks like he's wearing the same one on the card back in a home jersey, and I doubt he made a regular thing of it. The Cuban superstar could surely afford his own batting accessories.

1994 Topps Gold #612 Jim Thome

About the only sure-fire Hall of Famer in this illustrious group so far is Jim Thome. His 612 home runs are likely to buy him a ticket into Cooperstown any day now. But in 1994, he had yet to play a full season, and was just getting his career going. The back of this moderately damaged card still has minor league stats going back to 1989, and mentions his 1993 MVP award in the Triple-A International League. 

Coincidentally, just like Palmeiro, Jim Thome wore #25 for most of his career. And his batting gloves match.

1994 Topps Gold #690 Mo Vaughn

I can't think of Mo Vaughn without remembering him tackling George Bell as he charged Aaron Sele on the mound. Sele was clearly throwing at Bell, who was having none of it. But as he, um, went to the mound to have a word with the opposing pitcher, in comes Mo Vaughn like a Mack truck and body slams Bell like a bowling pin.

Tempers were hot in 1993. That clip took place just a month or so after the legendary Nolan Ryan / Robin Ventura brawl, and I clearly remember the benches clearing not once, but twice at my first Major League game on June 15th, 1993 between the Rockies and Dodgers.

Years later, during another Dodgers visit to Denver, none other than Jeff Kent was hit by a pitch and both teams rapidly ended up on the field. That game, July 4th, 2005 was a fireworks game, and I'm sure that many fans in attendance just wanted the extra-innings affair to conclude so their kids could see the pyrotechnics. I enjoyed that part, sure, but I'm sure I was in the minority of fans who were excited about those final two nail-biting innings.

1994 Topps Gold #397 Tim Salmon

I haven't said much about the design. 1994 Topps never climbs very high on the Topps set countdowns, but it always holds a special place in my heart. Lots of people seem not to like the home plate shape that makes up the photo frame, but it reminds me of the baseline frames that UD frequently used in their first few sets. And it gives us that lovely patch of green at the bottom, set behind the player's name in a script font. In Topps Gold, that's much easier to read in 1994 than in 1993. And once in a while, the Topps Rookie Cup graces a card with its presence.

Tim Salmon was the 1993 American League Rookie of the Year, sharing the honor with Mike Piazza on the NL side. The first fishy Angels star hit a couple more home runs in 1993 than noted slugger Mo Vaughn. And one fateful day that year, he'd play a game in Baltimore.

1994 Topps Gold #477 Arthur Rhodes

Arthur Rhodes was the starter for the Baltimore Orioles on April 17, 1993. The Rockies and Marlins were just infants, but elsewhere in the league, Rhodes had faced the Angels before, early in his 20-year career that lasted until 2011. Tim Salmon was getting his first taste of the Big Leagues, nearly being nabbed by the lefty on a pickoff attempt, but making it to second on an error. He'd walk twice that day, first in the third, and again in the ninth by the late Todd Frohwirth. Following the Orioles' third error of that day, Salmon made it to third base, which brought up the the Angels' own third baseman, Rene Gonzalez.

With Salmon at third and Gary Gaetti at second, Rene Gonzales hit one weakly toward the third base side.

1994 Topps Gold #664 Jeff Tackett

And that resulted in a play at the plate. Salmon was out, but the Angels still had the lead, and they'd hold on in the bottom of the ninth to win it.

Gary Gaetti was on third base when all this was happening, and he had his own play at the plate card in 1993 Topps. The Angels were playing lots of small ball in this era, apparently. There were seven stolen bases in this game, over half by Chad Curtis. They were then known as the California Angels, but they had a brand new logo for the 1993 season. Also visible on Jeff Tackett's left sleeve is a small commemorative patch, marking the year the Orioles hosted the All-Star Game in their shiny new retro park, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Topps must have been really proud of this card. In the 1993 factory set, they included a 9-card pack of 1994 preproduction cards. The colors were a little different, and as I recall they changed one photograph selection, but it's more or less accurate. In that set, you could find major stars like Nolan Ryan, Kenny Lofton, Juan Gonzalez, and also this Jeff Tackett card. The official version added his 1993 stats, and removed the Studio-like paragraph about Jeff's hobbies and family, replacing it with the inning he pitched in Detroit on August 11th, 1993, and his cameo in the movie Dave, which Topps tells us was a TV show.

TV shows and movies have been elevated to a similar plane in 2018, but in 1993, not so much.

Also, Tackett seems to have grown an inch in the 1993-94 offseason. His preproduction card had him at only 6'1".

1994 Topps Gold #586 Brent Gates

There were a few other cards that caught my eye, like this one showing a post-hustle Brent Gates giving a forearm bump to a fellow teammate. There's a tiny Minnesota Twins cameo in the lower right, but I can't tell who that is, nor the recipient of said forearm bump. That might be a coach or batboy on the left, and Gates may have just slid into home, which could identify the unknown Twin as catcher Brian Harper.

The green patch that's already on 1994 Topps goes particularly well with the A's color coding. Some of the color choices are a little odd, like yellow for the Red Sox lettering. But the green and yellow works well, even if the shades are ever so slightly different from the actual photo.

1994 Topps Gold #784 Gabe White / Rondell White

I often had a tough time deciding where to put these two-player cards when alphabetizing them by team. Would I use the player on the right or left? Was that consistent with the top or bottom on the card back? What if the right and left varied from front to back? Would a featured Rockie take precedence even if he was in a less-preferred location? Four-player cards were even harder. These were all very important decisions to make when organizing my first-ever factory set.

These cards are now quite rare, so it doesn't come up as much. And every so often, I go through my old factory sets and organize them by the players who ended up making more of an impact. Rey Ordonez over three guys you've never heard of. That sort of thing.

But I always appreciated this Expos card for giving me two guys with the last name "White". Either way, it would fit. Gabe White had an 11-year career, including two as a Rockie, and his only postseason appearance was with the 2003 Yankees. Rondell White had an even longer career at 15 years, making it to the postseason twice, and the All-Star Game once, in 2003. During that Midsummer Classic on the South Side of Chicago, he pinch hit for Barry Bonds and promptly grounded into a double play on the first pitch he saw from Mark Mulder.

1994 Topps Gold #155 Todd Stottlemyre

Last up is Todd Stottlemyre, a Blue Jays pitcher that was one of the first American League players I saw on TV. There was no interleague play in 1993, my first year watching the sport. So other than that All-Star Game in Baltimore, where the announcers bantered about nothing while Andres Galarraga had the first-ever Rockies All-Star at bat (and was flirting with a .400 average), I didn't really see any American League play until the postseason. A couple names stick out in particular, Wilson Alvarez and Todd Stottlemyre. Their two teams battled it out for the AL pennant that year, with the Blue Jays beating the White Sox. I probably didn't see Game 1 or Game 2, as Game 1 was on a school night, and Game 2 was a Wednesday day game. Early in 4th grade, I was unlikely to see either of those.

But Wilson Alvarez started Friday night's Game 3, and Stottlemyre in Game 4 the next day. It was likely my first taste of AL baseball, the Designated Hitter, and names I'd only seen on the occasional card instead of on TV regularly. It was also the only World Series I'd see until 1995 for obvious reasons. Todd Stottlemyre started Game 4 of the 1993 World Series, but thanks to a 15-14 roller coaster, did not remain the pitcher of record for long. By now, though, we all know that Joe Carter came through with a historic home run in Game 6, helping Stottlemyre and the rest of his Blue Jay teammates earn their second ring in as many years.

Thanks to Matt for sharing these 1994 parallels! Clearly this set is a special one to me. To a card collector, there's nothing quite like your first factory set, and more broadly, to a baseball fan, there's nothing quite like your first season.

The Trading Post #109: Cards My Mom Didn't Throw Out

I barely even have to go to card shows anymore. Between Nick, my de facto proxy at The National, and JayP, of Cards My Mom Didn't Throw Out, I basically have the pick of the litter of all the goodies my fellow bloggers dig up. In late November, Jared offered up for trade a selection he found at a recent show, and I bit.

He was much more proactive than I was in rapidly blogging about his side of the trade, but this post is better late than never. In return for a Todd Helton insert card from 2001 Stadium Club Diamond pearls, one of the sticker sets I've run across, I claimed a nice selection of late-'90s see-through cards, and a couple others thrown in for good measure.

1997 E-X2000 #15 Frank Thomas

My mom never threw out any of my cards; in fact she's been instrumental in adding to my collection. But even if she had engaged in a unilateral parental reduction of my collection, I'm sure she'd have let cards like this stick around.

Cards with transparent areas really force you to hold them in your hand to fully appreciate them. Displaying them in a binder, or even scanning them flush against a white background, lets so much of whatever's behind it peek through. But when you hold them up to a source of light, or even something brightly colored, the magic happens. On this one, we see a picturesque partly-cloudy sunset behind the Big Hurt.

Unlike many see-through cards that usually just have a white silhouette of the front image on the back, Fleer gave us a not-quite-perfect mirror image of Thomas. His lower legs are cropped in favor of a few stats, but if you break out the magnifying glass, you'll see a couple differences. The small R on his right sleeve has been removed, and the "5" on the back of his batting helmet is a mirror image, despite the rest of his insignia and uniform patches being adjusted manually to look the same front and back. Fleer really did a pretty good job with it, but it is a little confusing to look at.

The see-through area of the card isn't your standard acetate. It's thinner than the rest of the card, allowing Thomas and the frame to be raised relative to the see-through part, which is much smoother on the front than the back. It's really an eye-catching card, and I haven't even mentioned the gold foil or rainbow foilboard yet.

2000 Ultra Swing Kings #8 Sammy Sosa

When I saw this Sosa card on JayP's blog, I didn't even realize it was acetate. And you can't tell from the scan, but trust me, it is. I like my '90s inserts like everyone else, but this was a pleasant surprise. Slammin' Sammy Sosa gets a nice action shot on the front, superimposed over the Swing Kings name of the set arranged in a crossword pattern. It's one of the simplest designs I've ever seen on an acetate card, toning it way, way down from the pattern-heavy Topps Tek.

On the back, Fleer made good use of the white silhouette of Sosa, placing the Cubs logo on his head, various fine print around his thighs, and a fun paragraph on his torso area, a sort of ode to Sosa and his ability to hit home run balls out of Wrigley field. "Free souvenirs for all!" They also ingeniously used the reverse of the blue Fleer logo to place the card number. It's as clean a design as you'll see, which makes me wonder how well some of Fleer's more boring white-background sets would fare in a clear format.

1998 E-X2001 #79 Larry Walker

If E-X2000 was a 1997 set, then why not make E-X2001 in 1998? Perhaps it was done to settle the hotly-contested debate over whether 2000 or 2001 was the turn of the millennium. Also up for debate is whether Larry Walker belongs in the Hall of Fame. Enough people seem to think so (myself included) that he's not dropping off the ballot, but that can only go on for so long. What isn't questioned is that 1997 was Walker's best season, the year in which he won the NL MVP award. Those league-leading stats are all over the back, as is the mirror image of all that gold lettering on the right. There's even a glimpse of 1997's Jackie Robinson 50th Anniversary patch on his right sleeve.

Looking at this card edge-on, it's easy to see that it's constructed in layers. The shiny silver area and Walker's photo are on the top layer, the purple and gold seem to be on the clear middle layer, and finally the card back has to be the bottom. Of course, I'm leaving this intact, but if I had piles of these lying around, I'd be interested in doing a little destructive geology.

1998 Pinnacle Plus Lasting Memories #27 Larry Walker

This wasn't one of the cards offered, but JayP threw in another 1998 Larry Walker card. This is fully opaque, but there is a wavy die cut on the right side and has a similar layout to the E-X2001 card. The photo is the same front and back, but it's more muted and ghostly on the back, like he's evaporating into those fluffy clouds.

I'm not sure exactly when Pinnacle released this card, as it gives us an accurate rundown of Walker's 1997 stats, and a few other tidbits like his 30/30 club appearance and then-record 493-foot homer. However, there's no mention of the actual MVP award he earned with all that performance. The card is correct in saying that "Larry won't forget 1997." And clearly, neither will his fans.

2008 Upper Deck X Xponential #X-JA Jason Bay

I miss Jason Bay. The Canadian got off to a great start in Pittsburgh, and helped out my mid-2000s Fantasy baseball teams quite a bit. But by the time he signed his big contract with the Mets, injuries and underperformance crept in. It's too bad he didn't have a few more years in the big leagues.

In 2008, though, things were going fine. Upper Deck put the 2004 NL Rookie of the Year in their Xponential insert set (along with Ken Griffey, Jr.), both of whom were still active in 2008, even though that doesn't really seem that long ago. Josh Beckett apparently had a better year, getting the X-JB card number, forcing Jason Bay's card to use the first two letters of his first name. But eiher way, there's lots of texture in this design, especially on the black ridged area of the X.

Out of idle curiosity, did anyone ever print an "X Marks the Spot" insert set or subset? Seems like that would have happened by now.

One other thing I noticed is the yellow patch on Bay's jersey. It has the words "Pittsburgh 250", commemorating 250 years of the city of Pittsburgh. The Penguins NHL team wore a similar patch that year. That would take the city way back to 1758, in case you didn't want to do the subtraction. An insert set like Xponential calls for at least a little math.

2008 Upper Deck X Signatures #JN Josh Newman (AU)

Wrapping things up is an autograph of Josh Newman, which was a total surprise! It's from the same Upper Deck X set that gave us Jason Bay's card. Other than the obvious Hall of Famers, I haven't heard of most of the players in autograph section of the checklist. I have a handful of Josh Newman cards here and there, but he only played in 14 Major League games, 10 as a Rockie. He finished his short career with an extremely high 8.15 ERA, and some of that was in Kansas City. Unfortunately, making it in the Majors is anything but a sure thing. At least it's a reasonably legible autograph, which is something that many players can't claim.

I had some idea of what I was getting with this trade, but there was a bit more shininess and a bit more transparency than I had expected. Thanks to JayP for the trade, and good luck with more of those Diamond Pearls!