The Trading Post #45: Golden Rainbow Cards

If the trading partner for this Trading Post...post looks familiar, you'd be right. Mr. Jones from Golden Rainbow Cards was the subject of my prior trade post, sending over a few 2015 Rockies cards. Before that post even went up, he emailed me to say he found one of my Eight Men Out cards that he knew he had on hand but only found after the first PWE went out.

The particular card puts me a stone's throw away from completing a rainbow I've been working on.

2013 Topps Chasing History #CH-97 Troy Tulowitzki

So far, I've gotten the relic, gold holofoil, silver holfoil, and now the base card. All that's left is the mini. And there are no pesky 1/1 printing plates out there, so I'll truly have the rainbow once I manage to find that fifth card. I've never really gone after rainbows before, partially because I'm a completionist and those printing plates would drive me batty, and also because I'm not really a player collector.

Still, the Chasing History insert set might be my favorite from 2013, and it was the only insert set Topps selected for the Mini set that year. Fortunately, that card is quite affordable on eBay, but I might just see if it pops up via trade, which would mean I completed the whole rainbow solely via the generosity of my fellow bloggers.

And one interesting oddity about these particular cards is that they came to me in reverse order of scarcity. Sort of like a HR/3B/2B/1B cycle. Strange. I bet very few rainbows are built that way.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by for this quick one-card post. Don't forget to enter my contest before Friday night, and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones!

Post #100 and a giveaway!

Hard to believe that this is the one hundredth post of Infield Fly Rule. When I started this just under two years ago, I had no idea it would be so successful, and no idea that I'd have found so many awesome trading partners all over the country.

That averages out to about a post a week over that time, although if you look at my archives, it's a lot streakier than that. I have plenty of post ideas, and a couple stacks of trade posts and card show pickups from months ago. Ideas are there, but time, of course, is always at a premium. How Matt at Bob Walk The Plank has done six times as many posts in two fewer weeks is beyond me.

Anyway, since the human mind really enjoys nice, round numbers, I've been saving up some cards for an appropriately-themed giveaway.

1990 Upper Deck #100 Checklist 1-100

Checklists!

These could be found in most sets during the overproduction era, but they became few and far between as the years progressed. They evolved into insert cards rather than actual base cards, then to the back panel of factory set boxes, then disappeared altogether. Topps resurrected checklists a few years ago by combining them with highlight cards, but they're pretty tough to spot at a glance.

With websites like Beckett and BaseballCardPedia out there, printed checklists are less a necessity and more of a legacy item. Sort of like cabooses. But I know of more than a few collectors that love the things, and even more that lament their relative absence in today's collecting world.

But what could be better for a 100th-post contest than the once-crucial checklist? Upper Deck and Donruss both reserved their hundredth card numbers for checklists (as you can see above), while Topps just stuck them any old place. But Topps reserved those special card numbers for superstars, clearly showing us that the 100, 200, 300, etc... card number was an important spot.

So if you want to win a team bag full of checklists, just leave a comment below! I'll close the entry period at 11:59pm MST on Friday, November 27th and randomize to determine the winner.

I'm not the only one doing a giveaway right now, so if you're in the mood for some free cards (or if mine doesn't interest you), head over to Brad's Blog and help take some of his collection off his hands before his move. You also have a few hours left to enter Matt's contest at Bob Walk The Plank.

Good luck!

The Trading Post #44: Golden Rainbow Cards

In the last few weeks, I've experienced a small flurry of trading activity. The amount of snow we got in the Denver area earlier this week turned out to be a little more than a flurry (depending on which part of town you were in), but even in the wintry offseason, there are plenty of cards to write about.

Golden Rainbow Cards agreed to send a handful of Rockies from 2015 Topps in exchange for some Braves (which I still need to send), but these few cards significantly expanded my collection of 2015 parallels and inserts.

2015 Topps Gold #479 Carlos Gonzalez /2015

As they have for many years, Topps continued their run of gold parallels, with a print run matching the calendar year. I picked up most of the Rockies team set from my LCS in the same trip as that Mickey Mantle card, but CarGo was not present in the 5,000 count box I thumbed through.

2015 Topps Update Rainbow Foil #US315 Kyle Kendrick

I can't remember ever buying Topps Update at retail. I often end up with a lot of it, as it seems to make its way into discount boxes more quickly than any other product. Maybe Topps ought to number it sequentially with Series 1 and Series 2. Then it would feel like a continuation of the main set, rather than something separate that just doesn't grab my attention.

Regardless, this is my first look at a Rainbow Foil parallel. It's one of those products that has to catch the light just right, but it's nice to see the rainbow finish on such a regular-feeling card. I've been in this hobby long enough to associate the rainbow look with thick, expensive cards like Topps Finest and Topps Chrome parallels. And it is easier to spot than the rainbow foil parallels from 2014 Stadium Club, which was applied to the foil only, not the entire card.

2015 Topps Update Rookie Sensations #RS7 Troy Tulowitzki

Since I haven't paid much attention to Update, these Rookie Sensations cards are new to me. I first learned of their existence from all the ultra-glitter parallels that started appearing in posts about the $15 Topps Update discount box that everyone's been buying at Target. I haven't bought one of those yet, but I'm a sucker for shiny cards, so I just might.

I like the concept of this set. A lot. It has guys we haven't seen on a new card in a while, like Fernando Valenzuela and Livan Hernandez. And while it's only 25 cards, Topps did a pretty good job of selecting the best rookie seasons, maybe leaving out Vince Coleman and Mark Fidrych. Adding those two would get it up to 27, perfect for three 9-pocket pages, just how Night Owl likes.

It was just three cards, but Golden Rainbow made sure I stayed current on Topps' latest release and introduced me to one of the best insert sets of the year. Even better, he just reached out yesterday saying he had another Tulowitzki card to send me, one from my Eight Men Out list. And since the Rockies were such a bust in Nachos Grande's group break, I won the pity prize of a complete 2015 Allen & Ginter set (!), which should be in the mail soon.

Baseball season may be over, but baseball card season seems to be picking up a bit.

Mini Monday #2

Four total boxes of Topps Mini (three from 2014 and one from 2013), along with other various minis in my collection, means I'll have plenty of material to keep this theme going for a while. One-card posts go pretty quickly, perfect for preparing before a workday or on a Sunday night.

But I'm enjoying some vacation time today, and awaiting a blizzard that's been projected to hit the Denver area for a few days. The weather forecasters have had a tough time with this one, as I've seen snow forecasts ranging from a couple inches to a couple feet. Unsurprisingly, it'll likely end up somewhere in the middle of that range. Regardless, not having to drive home from work in that kind of weather makes for a great Monday.

2013 Topps Mini Black #450 Jay Bruce /5

And so do minis!

This black-bordered mini parallel is one of two I pulled from that box of 2013 Topps Mini, the other being Kyle Farnsworth. The low print run of Topps Mini as a whole means that the numbered parallels are quite rare, and these gorgeous black cards (which work particularly well with the red of the Reds) are numbered to a mere five copies.

Black borders are hit or miss. I was underwhelmed in 2007, preferring the white-bordered variant of Opening Day over the standard 2007 base set. And Bowman's years-long run of black cards that all looked the same didn't help either. But then you have legendary sets like 1971 Topps and cult favorites like 1992 Pinnacle.

Black borders work very well with 2013's "Sea Turtle" design, as the color coding stands out better on a black background than on white. Bruce's card itself is a reflection of the "strained athlete faces" theme that's been taking over their photography for a while, although at least's it's less of a close-up than a lot of the pitcher cards.

Of course, the Emerald parallels were my favorite of that year, and quite a bit easier to chase than a /5 set. But let's be honest. If you slap a #2 of 5 serial number on a card, I think we'd all be pretty happy with it, no matter the color.

I've pulled even rarer cards out of a Topps Mini box, but that's a story for another Mini Monday.

Infield Fly Rule has been quiet the last couple weeks. Perhaps I'm suffering from a baseball withdrawal that's always a little tough to push through after the World Series wraps up. But I do want to dedicate a little space to the recent news. Tommy Hanson, an MLB pitcher who last played in 2013, passed away recently. Like the late Darryl Kyle, he was far too young, although he enjoyed a successful, if short, career.

And of course the world's attention remains on Friday's events in Paris. I'm not sure what else to say other than an offer of sympathy to the French people. One of our own is a Frenchman, and I'm glad for his safety. As our President pointed out on Friday, America has counted France as an ally longer than any other nation, and in the wake of such tragedy, the outpouring of support from all over the world reminds us that the good guys vastly outnumber the bad.

And now we wait.

The end of the World Series is always a bittersweet moment. It marks the end of what's usually a pretty amazing month of baseball, filled with material we'll see on the highlight reel for years to come. A new champion is crowned, or a dynasty continues. Heroes and goats (and more goats) add their names to the history books.

But it also means that winter is coming, and that it's time to stare out the window and wait for spring.

So why not take a look at the best of a box of 2011 Opening Day, part of a giant order from Dave and Adam's Card World that arrived over a year ago? Maybe it'll take the sting out of the long stretch of Not Baseball before us.

2011 Topps Opening Day Blue #182 Troy Tulowitzki /2011

Who knew that when this box arrived, Troy Tulowitzki had less than a year remaining as a Rockie? While this card foreshadowed this year's ALCS, it's simply a great action shot from an interleague series in May 2010. I don't recognize that particular Royals player, but perhaps he's now in possession of his own World Series ring.

The Blue parallels found in Opening Day mark the lone appearance of foil in the set, which extends to the serial number on the back. Unlike flagship's gold parallels which have used black serial numbers for several years now, these Opening Day parallels kept the gold lettering.

It's just one little touch that makes me really like this brand.

2011 Topps Opening Day #60 Aroldis Chapman (RC)

Of course, the base cards lack foil, unusual for the past couple decades of Topps products until this year (not counting the retro sets, of course). I don't mind foil, although the scans sure come out great without it.

I am pretty sure that this photo of Chapman was taken in Coors Field. Of course he has his away jersey on, the third base seats are in shadow, typical for a a late summer day game at Coors Field (at least in the later innings when a guy like Chapman would be on the mound), and the red Sports Authority logo behind his left leg can be found on the Coors Field tarp cover, which is kept along the third base wall.

They're little details that require some detective work, but I'm confident in that conclusion.

2011 Topps Opening Day #174 Buster Posey

2011 really doesn't seem that long ago, but hard-throwing Aroldis Chapman has the Rookie Card logo on his card, and Posey a tiny, tiny Topps Rookie Cup in the upper right. These two are pretty much veterans now. Chapman and his Reds have made the postseason twice, and Posey's earned three rings and an MVP award since then.

Time flies, and always seems to be throttling up too.

2011 Topps Opening Day #96 James Shields

There's been lots of buzz about 2015 Update lately, and while I haven't picked any up yet, I've seen a few posts about sparkle variations.

If you look closely at Shields' card above, you won't find a sparkle. Only a little star in the Rays logo that looks just like one.

2011 Topps Opening Day #193 Trevor Cahill

A lot of these guys have moved teams since 2011. Cahill's been with the Diamondbacks, Braves, and Cubs in that short time. But Topps managed to get him in an A's throwback uniform, an outfit that wouldn't be out of place on the Jamaican track team.

2011 Topps Opening Day #123 Stephen Drew

Stephen Drew wears the pinstripes now, but I always liked this card of him rounding third at Wrigley. Unlike gritty guys like Mark Grace and Brad Miller, Drew wears batting gloves. His ungloved hands indicate that he was already on base when he had the opportunity to head home. It's a fairly leisurely trot from the looks of it, so I'm guessing he was RBI'd in this scenario, to verb a noun.

2011 Topps Opening Day #204 Carlos Beltran

"Tatooine" cards are fairly uncommon, but they turn up from time to time. Top-down shots give the best opportunity to end up with one. In this well-timed photo, Beltran is ready to wallop one off a Diamondbacks pitcher. That's probably Miguel Montero behind the plate, who, like Beltran, isn't on the same team anymore. Montero's a Cub, Beltran's a Yankee, and both made the playoffs this year.

A quick side note, especially since Star Wars will soon begin its next chapter. From time to time, I run across articles which point out that finding an entire desert planet (which our all-dirt "Tatooine cards" refer to), or an ice planet, or a forest planet, or even a city planet is pretty unlikely, at least if you assume it can support life. It works very well on screen to establish location, but it's a bit simplistic when you consider how many ecosystems even our little blue planet has.

But that doesn't make Tatooine cards any less awesome.

2011 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-11 Junction Jack

Even the Mascots can have Tatooine cards. Fortunately, the lovable Orbit returned to the Astros a few years ago, one of the best recent transactions any team in the Majors has made. If nothing else you saw on Halloween gave you nightmares, Junction Jack just might.

2011 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-8 Dinger

If you've read this blog for a while, you know that I absolutely love Opening Day insert sets. Dinger usually makes an appearance in the Mascots set, and he's about to slingshot a free t-shirt to a lucky fan in the crowd.

Tougher than snagging a foul ball, if you ask me.

2011 Topps Opening Day Stars #ODS-8 Joey Votto

3D Opening Day Stars cards are a favorite of mine, and of the half-dozen or so in this box, I thought Votto's 3D image worked the best. Not that you can see that in the scan.

Votto absolutely lost it a couple months ago when he was ejected for arguing balls and strikes, which made for one of the better highlights of the final month of the regular season. I wouldn't mind seeing a card of that incident, or even a whole insert set of ejections. Picture it: Votto, most of the Royals pitching staff, Earl Weaver, Milton Bradley, etc.... It would be epic.

2011 Topps Opening Day Spot the Error #6 Ubaldo Jimenez

Though this insert set didn't last, Topps tried out a "what's wrong with this picture?" theme on ten cards. Both sides have copyright legalese and logos, so you can't really tell the front from the back, but one side contains an unedited picture, and the other a version with an alteration. Ubaldo Jimenez pitching atop a tiny patch of dirt is clearly the "error" here. A few are blatantly obvious, like Jose Bautista missing his bat, but some are pretty subtle, like a disembodied catchers mitt on the edge of a card being changed to a standard glove on David Ortiz's card, or Buster Posey's bat missing the knob.

Pinnacle used to run ads in Beckett along these lines, and they'd send you a redemption card if you wrote to them with a list of all the errors (and a SASE). That's how I got this Alex Rodriguez card, long before he gained notoriety and a season-long ban.

1995 Score Contest Redemption #AD1 Alex Rodriguez

Worth the price of a couple 32-cent stamps, if you ask me.

2011 Topps Opening Day Presidential First Pitch #PFP-9 John F. Kennedy

An insert set of Presidential first pitches is perfect for the Opening Day brand, predating this year's First Pitch insert set by a few years. This grainy photo of President Kennedy was taken before the 1962 All-Star game in Washington, D.C.

Presidents throwing the first pitch from the actual mound is a fairly recent development. For a long time, they simply stood up in the stands and fired a ball out. I'm sure the Secret Service is just wild about the new trend of having the Leader of the Free World® standing in the center of an open field.

2011 Topps Opening Day Presidential First Pitch #PFP-8 George W. Bush

But President Bush's appearance on the mound at Yankee Stadium for Game 3 of the 2001 World Series was one of the highlights of his political career, a moment that he described as "by far, the most nervous moment of my presidency."

2011 Topps Opening Day Stadium Lights #UL-3 Robinson Cano

You saw a card from the Stadium Lights set long ago on this blog, but I like it so much that I thought I'd bring it back. There's a slight texture on the front, and on this one in particular, one of the best examples of the (new) Yankee Stadium facade ever to grace a baseball card. And that's saying something, since it appeared as a background on a ton of cards in the '60s and '70s.

Cano's new home in Seattle is a bit less iconic. For me, it would be hard to top wearing the pinstripes under the lights in the Bronx. Cano's had that experience, as has President Bush (in an honorary sense, anyway), for that matter.

2011 Topps Opening Day Autographs #ODA-JG Justin Germano (AU)

There was a "hit" in this box, a sticker autograph of Justin Germano. Don't know much about him, other than he played for a whole slew of teams in nine years, amassing a 10-30 lifetime record.

Ouch.

2011 Topps Opening Day Superstar Celebrations #SC-14 David Wright

Germano's stats pale in comparison to some of the Mets stars, especially David Wright, who was the hit in my 2013 Opening Day box from this same Dave & Adam's order.

Though the Mets came out on the losing end this year, Wright played his part and hit a few over the wall during the Postseason. His cardmate Johan Santana has been plagued by injuries for most of this decade, and it's unclear whether he'll ever be able to make it back to the Majors. Whatever happens to his career, he did earn the distinction of being the only Met to pitch a no-hitter.

He hopes to return in 2016, but I guess we'll have to wait until Opening Day to find out. April 3rd. The clock is ticking.

Mini Monday #1

I'm debuting a new theme on Infield Fly Rule today, called Mini Monday.

Feel free to hashtag that.

I definitely do not have the same appreciation of MMMIIINNIIIISSS!!! as Night Owl, but after acquiring a fair number of inserts and a few boxes of Topps Mini Online Exclusive, I should have enough material to run this theme from time to time. Not necessarily weekly, but definitely when the inspiration strikes.

Topps ran a sale last year for three boxes of 2014 Topps Mini for around $50, which definitely grabbed my interest. As scarce as this product is (even the base cards only have a few thousand copies), I jumped at the chance, thinking I might pull a few rare cards.

2014 Topps Mini #378  Ryan Zimmerman

2014 Topps Mini The Future Is Now  #FNM-50 Bryce Harper

The base minis are a complete parallel set, so you've likely seen these before. However, The Future Is Now inserts have a different checklist than their full-size counterparts, and are seeded 1:4 packs. Other than relics, autographs, and colored parallels, this is the only true insert set to be found in 2014 Topps Mini.

After opening and sorting all three boxes (some time ago, to be honest), I had an extra copy of each lying around. While these are the originals from my collection, today the two extras went to a Nationals fan that I work with, who moved to Colorado from our D.C.-area office a few years ago.

With guys like Harper and Zimmerman, the Nationals have a playoff-caliber team, though they missed out on the 2015 festivities. The management was pretty lacking this year, so we can expect they'll turn things around next year now that Matt Williams has been let go.

On another note, today was a big, big outgoing mail day for Infield Fly Rule. If you reside in one of the following ZIP Codes, you can expect something from me within a week!

21921
26554
27314
33511
45067
48005
60586
75201
76063
76380
76522
91320
95503

Happy #MiniMonday to you all, and enjoy the World Series! Whether you're pulling for the Mets, Royals, or neither, you won't want to miss the last few games of 2015.

Antique Mall Mystery Pack: Astros

Despite having Dallas Keuchel and his angular beard, the Houston Astros were no match for the Kansas City Royals and their pennant-winning late-inning magic.

Serves them right for moving to the American league. Although they wouldn't have had a chance this year if they stayed in the NL Central, what with the Cardinals, Pirates, and Cubs going 1-2-3 in that division. The AL West has three teams that have never won a World Series, and their most recent was the Angels squeaking by the Giants in 2002.

It's taken years, but I'm finally starting to get used to Houston playing in the American League. This year's All-Star Game and Postseason did a lot to cement that. But all these cards are from the Astros NL days, some even before there was such a thing as a Central division.

1994 Triple Play #29 Darryl Kile

This 1994 card is caught in the middle between the Astros' Shell Oil-colored uniforms and a major logo change. The late Darryl Kile, who threw a no-hitter toward the end of the 1993 season, is seen here on the value-priced Donruss Triple Play brand.

Especially as a kid, I always thought the transparent block letters at the bottom made for an innovative touch.

1994 Triple Play #22 Craig Biggio

Call me crazy, but I think that design starts to break down the more letters there are in the player's last name. Tall letters getting squished just looks a little strange. But this was probably my first-ever look at the new Astros logo in 1994.

1993 Donruss #504 Joe Boever

These Mystery Packs seem to be getting less and less interesting as I work my way through the pile. There's nothing that special in 1993 Donruss by itself, other than it marks the year that they finally made significant changes to the card backs after over a decade in business.

Also, I can't recall seeing a 1993 Donruss card in better condition. The gloss and color reproduction are almost perfect. I'd even consider getting it graded if I knew who the heck Joe Boever was. His stats say he had a 4-11 record in 1989 for the Braves without ever starting a game. You have to blow an awful lot of saves to earn a record like that.

1993 Pinnacle #423 Doug Drabek

Doug Drabek was much more reliable, although he didn't have a great 1993. Still, he was only a couple years removed from winning the Cy Young award as a Pirate. His son, Kyle, made the majors too, although he's only appeared in a handful of games in recent years. Griffeys, Alous, and Boones are hard to come by.

1991 Bowman #563 Andujar Cedeno

Early Bowman sets had more than a few pictures like this. It could have been taken outside any high school gym anywhere in North America. Unlike many Bowman card subjects, Cedeno did have a Major League career, but everyone has to start somewhere. Maybe if modern Bowman sets had cards featuring Colin Powell or Bobby Thomson, I'd be more interested in the brand.

1992 Topps #12 Luis Gonzalez

This may look like your run-of-the-mill Topps base set, but 1992 represents a major turning point. While the photography doesn't stack up to 1991, this marks the first flagship set that Topps printed on all-white paper stock. They also took advantage of the card back's landscape orientation and included a wide-angle image of the player's home stadium.

1992 bridged the old and the new, but also included longtime trademarks like the Topps Rookie Cup. Gonzalez proved worthy of the award, driving in the winning run in the 2001 World Series.

Not sure that one will ever stop hurting. After 9/11 and the heroics of countless New Yorkers, the Yankees should have won that year, and came oh-so-close. Yankees fans can still know heartbreak, despite 27 World Series titles.

There, I said it.

1993 Upper Deck #294 Casey Candaele

Of course, the Yankees have nothing on the Cubs, and Casey Candaele has pretty much nothing to do with the Cubs, other than having a baseball card who shows him at Wrigley Field, with the Steve Bartman section visible in the background. Leave it to the greatness of 1993 Upper Deck to show us that section a decade in advance.

1992 Donruss Coke Ryan #14 Nolan Ryan/1980 HA

Lots of players go their whole career without ever winning a World Series, let alone playing in one. Nolan Ryan took care of that very early in his career with the 1969 "Miracle Mets", but never appeared in one after that, despite all those wins, all those strikeouts, all those no hitters, and all those oddball baseball cards.

One thing is sure, though it won't be the Cubs, one of the teams that made it to the Fall Classic will win their first World Series in many years. I was hoping to see a Cubs/Blue Jays World Series, but it turns out we got the opposite. A team that won because of the infamous Bill Buckner error versus a team that probably wouldn't have won if there were replay review in 1985.

Time will tell.

There is one fun fact, though. This World Series between the Mets and Royals marks the first-ever between two expansion teams.

Up next: The San Francisco Giants.