RTP #7 - Special Guest David from e rayhahn rayhahn

Welcome to the seventh episode of The Rockie Trading Post.  Today's special guest is David (aka Rhubarb_Runner) from e rayhahn rayhahn.  If you haven't met him, David is a big time Twins collector and is also an insect photographer (man I wish I had a really quirky side hobby like that).  We quickly agreed on a relatively small trade.  I sent him a Topps gold Jason Bartlett along with a few other Twins inserts and/or parallels.  In return I got these beauts.

First is Seth Smith (a name I would love to hear someone with a bad lisp say) from the monotonous set Moments and Milestones.  Next up is shiny goodness of Troy Tulowitzki.  If this card looks familiar you saw it here.  Since I have been slow to get my wantlists together, I have no problem getting a few dupes per package and they arrived on the same day.  This is NOT an invitation for a Bipping : )

But for now I LOVE GOLD!!!!!!

The first golden goody is 2010 Ubaldo All Star.  Who would've thought in the mid 90s that a dominant Colorado pitcher would starting the All Star Game?  I do fear that his days as a Rockie are numbered after the big extensions to Tulo and CarGo, but I will enjoy him while he is in purple.

Next is a 2009 Update Gold Matt Murton.  Murton didn't do much for the Rockies before being released.  However, he was involved in two memorable trades in the past.  He was part of the 4 team deal that sent Nomar Garciaparra out of Boston and he was part of the package the Cubs sent to the A's for Rich Harden.

Next up we have a 2001 Ultra Gold Medallion of two failed Rockies catcher prospects.  Melhuse actually had 2 different stints with the Rockies in 2000-01 and for a handful of games in 2008.  Petrick is quite possibly my least favorite Rockie of all time (but still ranks higher in my mind than my favorite Giant).  I tried him as my fantasy team catcher for three years in a row in the early 2000s thinking each year would be his breakout.  Alas, it never happened.

 

It wouldn't be an episode of the Rockie Trading Post without at least one Todd Helton card.  This is also a 2001 Ultra Gold Medallion.  I still believe and will to my dying day that Helton deserved the MVP in 2000.  Hell his OBP and SLG percentages were even better than "he who must not be named" from the San Francisco franchise.  And somehow he ended up 5th behind "winner" NAMELESS 2nd BASEMAN. 

Thanks again to David (or Rhubarb whichever you prefer) for the trade and for giving me a reason to reference Austin Powers.  Thank you also to the wonderful United States Postal Service for returning the package I sent for being 58 cents short on shipping.  I was understandably upset at the inefficiency of the government and the faultiness of the Automatic Postage Machine until I pulled a Twins jersey card in this box break and was able to include it in his package for free.  This is a first for TRTP a card traded for A Relic to be Named Later.  So until we see David again, this has been The Rockie Trading Post, hope you had fun.

The Cubicle of the Unique - Member #3 Benito Santiago

Before we induct the third member to the Cubicle of the Unique, I will share the winning image of our second inductee Walt Weiss.

For me it was 50-50 with this card or the 95 Topps back mentioning the John Fogerty classic "Centerfield," so I am content with this selection.  I have redesigned The Cube a little (and probably will again eventually).  You can see all inductees into The Cube here.  Thanks very much to our one voter, BA Benny, last time (cmon people it's just a comment).

In viewing the potential third inductees to The Cube, I noticed a small trend.  There will be quite a few catchers.  So why not add as our third member of the Cube one of the two newest candidates, a catcher and a baseball card icon.

Ladies and gentlemen, the third inductee into The Cubicle of the Unique.

Catcher

Benito Santiago

(sound of one hand clapping)

Benito (or Benny to Topps) Santiago had a 20 year career in the major leagues playing for 9 different teams.  He is probably most remembered for his time with the San Diego Padres winning 4 Silver Sluggers and 3 Gold Gloves in his 7 years there.  After his contract ran out in San Diego spent the rest of his career with one or two year stints on many clubs.  Santiago had a serious off season car accident in which he suffered a broken pelvis costing him most of the 1998 season in Toronto.  He had a slight career resurgence in San Francisco in the early 2000s before ending his major league career in 2005 with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Career Highlights

1987 N.L. Rookie of the Year

Set major league record for consecutive game hitting streak for rookies with 34 in 1987.

5 time N.L. All Star, 2 as a starter

2002 N.L.C.S. MVP with the Giants

Career Lowlights

Led the NL in catching errors 6 times and passed balls 3 times

Led the NL in Grounding into Double Plays in 1991

Linked to steroids in both the Mitchell Report and Game of Shadows during his Giants stint

Votes for Mr. Santiago's enshrinement plaque can be entered by just leaving a comment.  The candidates are shown above.  For me the winning image is a no-brainer, but I will go with the majority once again.  As always, your votes are both encouraged and appreciated.

Quick Group Break Plug

Make sure you head over to BABenny's Baseball Card Buffet and check out his group break.  BABenny will be opening approximately 15,945 packs (well maybe not THAT many but still a lot) for this break.  There are still a few good teams available like the Rays, Brewers, and Angels among others. 

Rockie Trading Post #6 - Special Guest Greg from Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle

Welcome to episode #6 of The Rockie Trading Post.  Today's special guest is Greg from Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle.  In case you haven't met Greg yet, he collects Dodgers, San Diego Chargers, Phoenix Suns, Anaheim Ducks and has several player collections from all sports.  Here is his recap of what I sent to him.  Here are a few highlights of what he sent me.

This is the key to the trade.  The card is absolutely gorgeous, but it does have one flaw.  The mini slides around inside the case.  It seems like Topps should have made the opening the exact size of the mini, but I still love it.

This Tulo was the first I had seen of 2010 Chrome.  I had read others' complaints about them, but I just wrote it off.  But man, those things are bendy, horrible QC.  I don't have my Rockies in a binder yet.  Do the Chrome cards look okay in pages?

Here we have a design I had never seen and a player I had never seen.  Cameron never played for the Rockies in the majors, but he got a base set rookie card.   That's 2003 for ya.  The CarGo, believe it or not, was the first of his cards I acquired for my Rockie collection.  It won't be the last though, I think he will be on 199 different cards this year and I want them all.

Ah interesting picture time.  Leskanic has the look of a guy leaving the bar at 3AM, but that card has so much goodness in it.  Specifically, the congratulations on the scoreboard for the first postseaon appearance.  The Bichette is just a great photo even if it was taken at Candlestick.

This is an example of a good set design and a bad set design.  The 1997 Ultra is probably one of my 5 favorite designs of all time (hey, new post idea well not new but new for me).  The 1995 Fleer Update is one of the ugliest sets I have ever seen.  Whoever thought putting height and weight on the front was a good idea hopefully was fired immediately.

Greg also helped me with a few of my overproduction era Donruss sets.  A couple of each of 89 and 91.  He also sent me a stack of 25 1990 Donruss that was a gamble because I haven't even made a want list for myself yet.  He did pretty good for me.  I needed 16 of them including Mr. Foley there.


Thanks again Greg for the trade.  Check out his blog here and we are in the process of making Greg a returning guest on TRTP.  Tune in tomorrow for another exciting (well, hopefully interesting at least) episode of The Rockie Trading Post, I will be featuring a trade with some golden goodness.  Until then, we are officially signed off.

RTP #5 - Special Guest Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life!

Welcome to the fifth episode of The Rockie Trading Post.  Today's special guest is Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life!.  For those of you that haven't had the pleasure of trading with Bo, he is a major set collector.  All that he is attempting to collect is definitely a challenge, but I hope my trade package and others from the community helps him out.  I sent him a 300 count box of mostly overproduction era dupes from many different sets.  In return he sent me help for a couple of sets and random Rockies.  Here are the highlights.

You may asking why I am featuring a reliever in a Dodgers uniform as the first card of this trade.  Simple because I learned the most from this card.  Seanez never played for the Rockies after being acquired for Jody Reed during the expansion draft, but he did have a surprisingly long career.  I was real surprised that his career lasted until 2008 with 4! different stints with San Diego.

Here we one of four 1995 Collector's Choice SE's that Bo sent.  We have a Charlie Hayes with an awesome face mask.  That is just a sweet card with the blue foil border, the mask, the bunting in the background.  The 1996 Topps is probably my least favorite Topps base design of the 90s.

AWESOME MULLET ALERT!  The third card in this trio of Rockies from the mid 1990s is Greg Harris and his mullet.  Actually I think mullet is an understatement for that hair.  We have to come up with a nickname for his hairstyle.

One of the two sets Bo helped me out with is 1993 Topps.  He sent me approximately 100 cards to bring me within 27 of knocking this set out (I am SLOWLY getting set wantlists together) .  I'll show off a few of the more interesting ones.

The Kirby Puckett is probably one of the more memorable (whether you love it or hate it) cards of this set.  I also like the Detroit Tigers cards of this year because a lot of them featured throwback uniforms.

This is Tim Wakefield's rookie set.  I haven't fully checked, but he has to be one of the last remaining active players from this set.  There are 14 manager cards featuring one NL and one AL manager.  This one features the great Don Baylor, Colorado's first manager.

In series 2 the first cards of the expansion picks of the Rockies and Marlins were depicted against some odd backgrounds.  The Tatum card would have worked 5 years later as the background for a DBacks pick, but Denver isn't a desert!  Andy Ashby is photoed in what appeared to be Greg Brady's bedroom.  Finally, we have Mr. Marlin Jeff Conine apparently chosen away from the Roman Gladiators.

The 1993 card I wanted to show is Sam Militello.  Why am I showing off a card of another over-hyped failed Yankees pitching prospect?  To rub salt in the wounds of Yankee fans?  Partially, but I was more interested in what it appeared Mr. Militello was saying to the camera.  Look closely, here I'll help.

That's right, Topps caught him (probably unintentionally) flipping the bird.  Just a couple of years after the Billy Ripken mess at Fleer and the Paul Gibson crotch scratching at Score, I wonder if Topps considered airbrushing the finger away.

Next we have 1988 Donruss, Bo sent me 50 or so to bring this set within 1! of finally being complete.  I was going to show off the best photos that I got, but there weren't any in 1988 Donruss, so I figured I'd go with a trio of great 80s players.  For fun, try and guess which card I still need from this set.

 

Finally we have these two.  Bo emailed me near the end of our trade with a few extra cards that he just got listed by set and card number.  I asked him to add the one 1980 Topps and one insert sight unseen.  I didn't even look up who they were, I just wanted a little surprise.  SURPRISE, they are both Yankees.  Oh well, I like the Gamble and he will the starter card for my 1980 Topps set.  The Hernandez I am going to ship off to a Yankee collector.

Thanks again Bo for the trade and also make sure you check out his blog for interesting cards such as this.  On Monday, I received 5 different trade packages from generous bloggers and readers, so the next few episodes of TRTP will be coming fast and furious.  Each trader will get their own post because I believe that if you take your time and money to ship out needed cards to me you deserve and will get FULL recognition.  So until next time, this is The Rockie Trading Post signing off.