Welcome back to The Rockie Trading Post. Tonight's special guest is a return trip from "phantom reader" Michael S. In case you missed our first trade,
here it is. In addition to collecting the dreaded Dodgers, Michael also collects Ryan Braun, Ichiro, Kurt Suzuki, and Ian Kinsler. Trade with him at
michaelspiegel83(at)yahoo(dot)com. This time around I sent him a 2006 Topps Gold Ichiro, the infamous Angel Berroa bat card, along with a small stack of others that I can't really remember. Here are the highlights of my newest Rockies.
Let's start off with a couple of great middle infield shots. The 1995 SP Championship Series Vinny Castilla is one of rare cards picturing both a Rockie and an Oakland Athletic (probably Henry Mercedes from 1993). One of my new favorite cards is this 1995 Upper Deck Walt Weiss that features him flying in from the Fortress of Solitude to save Lois Lane from the evil Canadian Army known as Les Expos (ed. note: Weiss probably just mid-dive and the writer loves Canada).
He is another of the 1995 Upper Deck Rockies capturing a moment of impact for underrated 4th outfielder Mike Kingery who had a respectable 10 year career as mostly a reserve. (ed. note: once again the writer does not care about WAR or what it means; he watches baseball, he doesn't just analyze the numbers) I liked Kingery even before there was a Rockies team. His 1987 Topps rookie is one of my favorites from that set. Travis Buckley is one of the many Rockies from the 1993 Topps set that never made it out of the minors.
A 2006 Topps Turkey Red Matt Holliday is up next. I preferred the Turkey Reds as a standalone set rather than an insert in the flagship set. Or at the very least they should have made the inserts first, then standalone sets rather than the way Topps handled the sets. A 2009 Upper Deck Dexter Fowler rookie is up next. A little far down the list for one of my favorite's rookie cards, but Fowler currently has more rookie cards than non-rookie cards (or so it seems). Nevertheless, I always appreciate a Fowler I don't have.
Getting the 2009 Topps Heritage Jeff Francis from Michael leaves me 3 away (Hawpe, Smith, Tulo SP) from the team set for the low series. Not bad considering I never bought one pack of 09 Heritage. I just didn't like the design of 1960 Topps, but I understand how it appeals to some. This 2010 Topps 206 Melvin Mora mini is my first of him as a Rockie. Within a week or so, I will be posting an update on my 2011 goal of collecting one Rockie card of every Rockie that ever played a game for the team.
The 2010 Bowman Draft Picks is 2010 3rd round pick shortstop Josh Rutledge. He made his debut for the short season Tri City Dust Devils and hit .128 in 11 games. It's just a small sample, so I am not reading too much into that, but it is a little concerning for a major college (Alabama) player to hit that low in short season A ball. Our Todd Helton card of the day is this 2005 Topps commemorating his winning the 2004 Gold Glove at first base. With Helton's offensive exploits at the forefront, it is sometimes easy to forget what a great defensive first baseman he is.
Rounding out our latest trade is this 2010 Topps Chrome Carlos Gonzalez. My newest not yet thought of million dollar idea/concept is a way to get the 2010 Topps Chrome to lose the damn warp. Wouldn't you buy that? The last card I am showing is a 2009 Topps 206 Garrett Atkins that Topps couldn't seem to decide if it is a horizontal or a vertical card, so they settled on both. It just looks odd.
Thanks again Michael for the trade and I am sure we will be doing it again. Once again email Michael at
michaelspiegel83(at)yahoo(dot)com for a trade with him or talk him into starting a card blog of his own like I am trying to. Well that just about wraps up this episode of The Rockie Trading Post. Tune in next time for Bookmarks from an Indians fan, it will make sense later. Until then, we are officially signed off.
