Chrome is Weird

Shiny and new and weird.

One of the things that fascinated me the most when I first came back to the world of baseball cards in the mid-aughts was the whole concept of a Chrome card. What would it look like? What would it be like to feel? And why would anyone in their right mind pay so much money for a pack of 3 or 4 cards?

If I remember correctly, the first Chrome card I ever owned was a 2006 Topps Chrome Skip Schumaker "rookie card", and it skewed my view just a bit. These things felt weirdly like a piece of glass to hold. They also tend to attract grease and dirt pretty easily! And here I was, last Saturday, plunking down $18 for a brand new blaster of this year's edition more or less to get a few trade bait cards I could flip. I won't make a habit of this, I promise.

The box began with a special 4-pack retail bonus full of sepia-toned refractors. I didn't do so well with these. In addition to Austin Jackson, I also found Mike Minor, Michael Cuddyer and Michael Taylor. Lots of Mikes, basically. In another pack, Brandon Crawford was a non-special refractor, just shining on his own.

I doubled up on Bryce Harper in the same pack, as you can see here. Are there any Nats traders out there, or did everyone throw their collections into the river after the Strasburg market took a critical dive?

This is a Prism refractor. It's not an X-Fractor. Don't get it twisted.

Here's a really nice shiny looking insert card of a guy I've never heard of. I am really glad the Jays went back to their more classic look.

Here's another refractor. The Mariners a sad lot.

Refractor Starlin says hello. I broke my "No Cubs" rule again, but mostly just to point out that Starlin has been terrible and also to complain because he's on one of my fantasy teams. Wah!

All of these cards are available, as well as the base cards I didn't even bother to mention. There were no Cardinals to be found.

A Brick of Heritage

Where do unwanted doubles go? To me, that's where.

The Topps Baseball Fanatic is one of those people as crazy as me that goes out and collects all of the Heritage every year. The thing is, for the past several years I've ended up with his (and others') hand-me-downs because I'm usually pretty slow out of the gate in collecting these sets. In any case, I know it's nice to have a place to stash your extras besides your own closet, so hopefully I've provided a good outlet for getting rid of junk over the years. Now, I should probably do something about my own junk...

The Fanatic sent over a brick's worth of cards from the most recent set, including Adam Wainwright #206 (for the collection - which means I still need a copy of his card for the set proper) and a guy by the name of Matt den Dekker. I didn't know such a player existed.

I'm usually shy about giving the Cubs any time on this blog, but Ernie is one of the all-time greats. Even though it's a totally made up design as far as I know, I am a fan of this year's Flashbacks look.

Since these cards came my way, I actually got my hands on a second Felix Hernandez SP from this set. Let me know if there's any interest out there, or for a big stack of Spring Cleaning Mariners for that matter.

The Topps Fanatic also sent over a couple of cards from last year's set. I'm now apparently finished with this set from 1 through 425, although I still need some inserts and a ton of SPs, of course. Of course.

Finally, let us not forget about good ol' 2007 Bowman Heritage, a set I've been working on somewhat in the background for years. I'll get it done one of these days. Joe Smith's so-called Rookie Card became my latest addition to this collection.

A First Base Problem

It's bigger than life.

Despite having a comfortable lead in their division, the best record overall in MLB and little friction to speak of, the Cardinals aren't completely steady. 1B is a power bat position in this league and it has been for a long time, but the Cardinals have had a Matt Adams-sized hole at the position ever since Big City, seen here on a 2015 Topps Finest on-card auto that I snagged from Listia, went down with a season-ending quad tear.

Mark Reynolds was signed in the offseason to play multiple positions and be a power bat off the bench, but he was thrust into the lineup full time when Adams went down. It hasn't been pretty. For some inexplicable reason, the Cardinals went out and traded one of their better prospects for the left-handed equivalent of Reynolds in Brandon Moss. Two guys who miss far more often that they make contact, whose power is more theoretical than actual at this point in their respective careers, does not make a whole first baseman. This is one of the most unsettling things to me as St. Louis heads down the final stretch of 50 or so games this year. Matt Holliday and Adam Wainwright's injuries may be more impactful, but trying to compete with the best teams out there in the playoffs without a respectable option at 1st is going to be really, really difficult.

Airbrushed Fridays: 2015 Bowman #141

I don't pick on Bowman often because the whole thing is one big Photoshop canvas.

Who is he? Nick Tropeano is a right handed starting pitcher that came up through the Astros system. He was Houston's 5th round pick in 2011. Last season was his rookie season, and he looked to be on track to be another piece of the dangerous Astros future.

How did he get here? And then he got traded. The Angels picked him up in the offseason in a trade involving Hank Conger. It was a backup catcher swap, basically, that Tropeano got caught up in. Tropeano has only made two appearances with the Anaheim team this year, both apparently spot starts given that they were months apart.

Repeat offender? No

Other versions of this card: 2015 Topps #31

Airbrushed Score: 9

Comments: Busted! This is what happens when you recycle photos. Both versions of the card also show you Tropeano's inverted W throwing motion, which is bad bad news for the elbows and other things and good good news for profiting health care companies and whoever trademarked the Tommy John surgery (Tommy John?) Maybe that's why the Astros gave him up and a backup catcher up for another backup catcher.

Heartbreaking Trade

I think I've used this title before, but I'm just going to go with it.

Longtime blogger, APTBNL founder and podcaster (what is?) Matt F showed off a card that I didn't even know that I needed, which became the starting point for a trade this past spring.

The card in question was not the lovely handled and cherished 1965 Topps World Series card you see at the top of the post. It was actually a piece from deep in the heart of the junk wax era, a 1989 Donruss All-Stars Pop-Up card. I have piles of oversized Ozzie Smith's of this ilk and I believe all of the regular cards from this particular set, but I hadn't seen the Whitey stand-up before. It's great.

Matt hit up a few more of my 10 Most Wanted needs, including this Izzy from the 2007 Allen & Ginter set. I wonder if there are any buyback Izzy cards in the current set. I put this card side by side with a 2015 model and they appear to be the exact same thickness, but I still believe something is weird about this year's set.

The long-hated 1988 Fleer Update Scott Terry card did not come off the 10 Most Wanted list, however. I needed this card, but it's actually the glossy factory set version instead of the... er... not glossy factory set version. This Terry was raised in a metal box, I believe.

Finally, it's the guy who somewhat questionably no-hit the Cardinals and the guy who sacrificed a rib for the good of the game (and his own comfort I'm sure.)

Thanks again to Heartbreaking Cards!

Ginter Thoughts (or, Things I Learned While Opening a Blaster)

These cards seem weird... off... are they thinner?

Every year it seems I'm less and less excited about the prospects of a new set of Topps Allen & Ginter World's Champions (sometimes known as Allen & Ginter's World's Champions). This revival brand is marking its tenth anniversary this year, and if you were paying attention the other day on Twitter you already saw some of my snap judgments. For example, I have no idea who this James Murray guy is. Apparently he's from some TV show (Impractical Jokers?) I'd never heard of. Bill Murray would have been great. Hell, I would have settled for Brian Doyle-Murray over this guy. Fortunately, The Dimwit is taking this unspecified piece of memorabilia off my hands.

Here are some other things I was feeling while opening my first blaster box of the year:

I actually like the big insert set for once. Every year, going back to before this set was bloated with more inserts than actual base cards, there was always one commonly present but often tough to complete large insert set, usually focused on the baseball players themselves. More often than not, the designs were tedious and the cards were difficult to distinguish from one another. This time around, it's just a tightly framed photo of a player supposedly making his major league debut, along with a little "this day in baseball history" on the back. This gave me a little something I hadn't seen before (or much of, anyway), which is Adrian Gonzalez in a Texas Rangers uniform.

Banshees are creepy whether or not they're screaming and wailing or just hanging out in a shroud on a so-called baseball card.

Short prints are hardly short prints. Sure, your mileage will vary when you step into the retail (6 cards per pack vs. the usual 8 for hobby) pool, but I pulled 25 non-SP base cards and 4 SP, or roughly 8.3% of the non-SP base set and 8% of the SP base set. As soon as they stuffed even more full sized inserts into this set, short prints a concept in name only. Not that I'm complaining, of course, but they may as well do away with the whole SP thing in general.

John Lackey knows how to smile. I had no idea.

The different colored borders this year threw me for a loop. Hopefully there aren't color-variations of certain cards. If so, I don't want to know.

This might be the worst A&G card of all time. Happy Anniversary! Now that you've read this, I regret to inform you that you've got polio.

I'm not really sure what to say about Puck. Whoever wrote the copy of the back of the card seemed rather disinterested as well. "A name for an elf or sprite, some have called him a fairy, hobgoblin or imp named Robin Goodfellow." (What?)

I like birds. But that isn't something I just learned.

Taiaha was the weapon of choice of the Maori people. This is good Ginter.

It's possible to look a little defeated when you've lost your Achilles tendon. This is Waino card #205.

I'll put up a want list some day. Hopefully I will be able to find some discounted stuff at the card show that's coming up in a week and a half.

Good Things, Small Packages, etc.

Keeping the envelope industry alive since 2008.

I couldn't resist as I found myself on the purchasing end of another card for my collection on Listia. This time, it was a Turkey Red Edmonds relic that I have had a hard time tracking down. My usual go-to for single cards, if I'm in the mood, is COMC who hasn't had this listed for awhile. Edmonds didn't actually have a base card in this set, from his final year in St. Louis, so it's also kind of an unusual one.

Some other folks that I actually have interacted with sent me cards in plain white envelopes recently, and I thought I'd take the time to cover them here. The Lost Collector sent me two more Edmonds cards to bring my unique total up to 486 now. Hopefully, I will remember to commemorate #500. I'd never seen either of these cards before, and they're both cheezily awesome.

At first, all you see is Big Mac...

There it is! This is the quintessential early '00s MLB credo right here. Just grip it and rip it, guys.

From deep in the heart of Cardinal Country came this insert from 2015 Topps, courtesy of Chris N. McGwire's recent re-entry into the Topps-o-sphere makes this an interesting pairing, with one man's tainted legacy (and somewhat lacking Hall of Fame stats) put along side the pristine Stan the Man. I don't think anyone at Topps thinks about these too hard.

Finally, good ol' P00PSH00TER, a frequent contest participant, sent along a pair of 1970 cards that were in pretty nice shape for this sort of thing. I don't think I've heard of Hilgendorf, who seems like he was just caught doing something awful here.

Dal Maxvill I know, but I'm mostly familiar with his time residing in the front office during some pretty lean years. Back then, we were all excited about Felix Jose. He was the GM when the team won two pennants in the '80s, but sometimes it's the bad stuff that sticks out.