Todd and the Todd-lers Thursdays #3

Thursday, 5 July 2012

Last week was "One Card Wonders Week" here at the Quarry in which I showed off the Rockies with which I have a single card.  Because of the sheer amount of one card wonder in the Todd and the Todd-lers era, I decided to show Part 2 this week.  For those of you that may have missed it, click here for Part 1.

Let's go ahead and finish out the One Card Wonders with the final dozen from the 2000-2005 era.

TODD-LER(S) OF THE WEEK

The One Card Wonders

Total Cards Owned = 1 each

Let's start off with the two biggest names on this list.  Kent Mercker is remembered as a Brave.  With Atlanta, he took part in two no hitters (1 solo), but he wasn't nearly as good for the Rockies.  He pitched in 58 games in relief for the 2002 Rockies.   His card is similar to the Sandy Alomar from last week in that I only have the gold parallel of the short printed 1st 100 from 2002 Topps Traded.  Turk Wendell is remembered more for his quirkiness than his pitching (although he wasn't that bad).  Wendell pitched 12 games for the 2004 Rockies to end his career.

Next up is a pair of solid workhorse relievers.  Mike Myers was a journeyman that was one of the best left-handed relievers in Rockies history.   He pitched in 151 games over two seasons and deserves more than one card in my collection.  Rick White was a bright spot in the bullpen for some really bad Pirates and Devil Rays teams in the late 90s before he joined the 2002 Rockies.  His spot dimmed quite a bit in Denver and he was released in mid-season after pitching in 41 games.  I do love that 2002 Topps card though with the excellent shadow behind him.

Now here are a pair of back up catching prospects that never really found their footing with the Rockies.  Adam Melhuse, pictured on this great 2002 Upper Deck card, played in 63 games with the 2000 and 2001 Rockies before finding a bit more success in Oakland.  He returned to the Rockies in 2008 for a quick 7 game stint.  Jorge Piedra is another one of those players in which I possess the parallel, but not the base card.  This one is from 2003 Topps Traded.  Piedra played in 142 games for the Rockies from 2004-2006.  He bounced around the minors for a few years after that, but never saw the big leagues again.

Next up is the final three position players in my collection.  Chris Richard, shown on a 2003 Topps Total card, had a couple of good years for the Orioles before joining the 2003 Rockies.  He only played in 19 games in Colorado before taking a six year break from the majors.  Elvis Pena, shown on a 2001 Fleer Triple Crown card, is from the shortstop hotbed of San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic.  He never panned out in the big leagues though and only played in 10 games for the 2000 Rockies.  Jason Romano, shown on a 2003 Fleer Tradition card, played in 18 games for the 2002 Rockies before bouncing around the majors with several other teams.

Javier Lopez began his career in Colorado by pitching in 142 games for the Rockies from 2003-2005.  He is still active in the bullpen for the Giants in 2012.  Over 12 seasons Kevin Jarvis pitched for 10 different franchises including two stints with the Rockies.  He pitched in 24 games in 2000 and 2 games in 2004 for Colorado.  Mike James was a decent middle reliever for the Angels and Cardinals before joining the 2002 Rockies.  He only pitched in 13 games in 2002 before his major league career ended.

I'll close this out with a pair of pitchers that you may have forgotten about, if you ever knew them in the first place.  Allan Simpson pitched in 34 games for the 2004 and 2005 Rockies before being traded to the Reds.  Cory Vance was a highly thought of pitching prospect that pitched in 11 games for the 2002 and 2003 Rockies before injuries ended his career prematurely. 


That concludes my look at my One Card Wonders.  Hopefully, I can add a handful more new guys to this list while removing some guys by getting more cards of them in the future.

Thanx for reading.

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Todd and the Todd-lers Thursdays #2

Thursday, 28 June 2012

I will continue on the one card wonders theme that I have been exploring this week with the members that debuted during the Todd and the Todd-lers era of 2000-2005.  Actually, I will be splitting this era in half with the first half (A-H) being shown this week, because there are a lot of players from this era that fall into my one card wonder category.  Part two featuring players (J-W) will appear next week.  I was going to separate them based on year, but the overwhelming majority of these players debuted between 2000-2002.  Since this is Todd and the Todd-lers Thursday, I will also show off a single theme with Todd Helton to start things off.  I have three Rockies cards of Todd Helton that show him in different non-Rockies uniforms, so in a way they are each one card wonders.

Todd Helton

Total Cards Owned = 558

We start the journey with a 1995 SP Top Prospects card featuring the Asheville Tourists uniform.  This is the earliest Rockies Helton card that I possess, as of now.  The middle card features the uniform from the All Star Game that ruined All Star Games forever, the 2002 tie game that led to the silly home field advantage rule.  The final card is from the 2001 Twizzlers Big League Challenge, which was a skills contest helde before Spring Training that year.  I have absolutely no memory of this event, so I'm glad I have the card.

TODD-LER OF THE WEEK

The One Card Wonders (well half of them anyway)

Total cards owned = 1 each

The one set that probably come to mind when thinking of the 2000-2005 era is Topps Total.  That was the heyday of this almost universally missed set.  The inaugural 2002 edition provided me with 3 one card wonders.  Joe Davenport pitched in 7 games in 2001 and this is a true one cad wonder.  He is also a one card wonder for the White Sox, only appearing on 1999 Fleer Tradition Update in that uniform.  Mario Encarnacion played in 20 games for the 2001 Rockies after being acquired in a mid-season trade.  Unfortunately, he passed away in 2005.  Ross Gload has actually had a decent 10 year career in big league baseball.  He appeared in 26 games for the 2002 Rockies before moving to (slightly) more notoriety elsewhere.

Topps Total came out with three more years of wonderful sets and I got a single one card wonder from each of them.  The great thing about Topps Total is that it hit the flagship's three major weak spots: the back up catcher, the non-closing middle reliever, and non-rookie cup of coffee guys.  Bobby Estalella falls into the first category serving as the back up catcher in 2002-2003 for 84 games.  Adam Bernero fittingly is the middle category.  He pitched 47 games for the 2003-04 Rockies after being acquired from Detroit.  Alfredo Amezaga fits the last category, twice actually.  He had two different cup of coffee stints with the Rockies, in 2005 and in 2011, appearing in 22 games total.  This card goes along with his his first go-around.

Sometimes the one card wonder is a player that only got one quick taste of the majors and sometimes it is a veteran that only stayed for a short while .  These two cards symbolize the former.  Bubba Carpenter, shown on 2000 Bowman Draft, spent nine years in the Yankees minor league system before finally getting his lone chance at age 31 with the 2000 Rockies.  He lasted 15 games before moving on to Japan.  Tim Christman, shown on one of my least favorite sets ever 2001 Topps Fusion, was a somewhat highly-touted pitching prospect that had the injury bug.  He missed two complete minor league seasons, before getting his shot in the majors with the 2001 Rockies.  That shot lasted all of a single game and 2 innings total.  It's a shame, but he still made the bigs.

These two cards symbolize the latter category.  Jeff Frye, shown on a 2001 Topps card, spent several successful season with both Texas and Boston before arriving in Colorado.  He played a total of 37 games with the 2000 Rockies before moving on.  Sandy Alomar Jr., shown on a 2002 Topps Traded Gold card, had been a really good catcher on the 1990s Indians.  His 38 game stint with the 2002 Rockies probably began his transformation from star catcher into journeyman back up catcher.  As an aside, this card is a serial numbered gold card that is easier to acquire than the base card because Topps had the asinine idea to make the first 100 cards in 2002 Topps Traded short prints. 

Two more one card wonders that come from 2006 Upper Deck for a total of six from this one set.  Man, I really miss them as a full-fledged baseball card company.  Monopolies are never a good thing.  Anyway, Danny Ardoin is another example of the back up catcher with only one card.  He played in 115 combined games for the 2005-2006 Rockies.  David Cortes was a pretty good middle reliever for the 2005-2006 Rockies.  He pitched in 80 games and had a decent 4.17 ERA.  He went to the Mexican League for several years following the 2006 season.

This 2002 Donruss Rookies Mark Corey is interesting for one reason.  Mark Corey didn't join the Rockies until the last day of July, 2002 in the Jay Payton trade.  Until then he was a rookie pitcher for the Mets.  I guess this set didn't come out until very late 2002.  He pitched in 14 games for the Rockies before moving on to Pittsburgh.  Most people would incorrectly see this 2001 Fleer Platinum card as Josh Beckett's rookie card.  They would be wrong for two reasons.  One, Josh Beckett's true rookie card is in 1999 Fleer Tradition Update.  And two, this is a freaking Craig House card anyway.  House pitched in 16 games for the 2000 Rockies and, just like Jeff McCurry yesterday, was surpisingly born in Japan.  He qualified as the 17th Japanese-born player to hit the majors.



As I said earlier this is just 50% of the one card wonders from the Todd and the Todd-lers era.  Next week I will be back with the exciting conclusion of this look at the Rockies short timers.  Thanx for reading.

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Wednesday Bombers #2

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Yesterday I showed the modern Rockies of which I have only one card in a Rockies uniform.  I have christened them "one card wonders" after the famous music term.  Today I will be showing the one card wonders that debuted during the Blake Street Bombers era.  Most of these will be the guys you have long since forgotten about, if you ever knew them in the first place.  However, there are a couple of grizzled veterans and notable names on this list as well.  Let's take a look at the 20th century Rockies.

BOMBERS PLAYER OF THE WEEK

The One Card Wonders

Total Cards Owned = 1 each

There are no Rockies that debuted in 1993 or 1994 on my one card wonder list, nor will there be according to my lists, so I'll start with 1995 debuts.  Jorge Brito, pictured on a 1995 Fleer Update card, was the first in a long line of "can't miss" prospect catchers.  They have all missed so far, but Brito did appear in 26 games for Colorado in 1995 and 1996.  One of the more notable names on this list is Craig Counsell, seen here on a 1996 Bowman.  He is remembered for being a Diamondback, a Brewer, and even a Marlin before being thought of as a Rockie, but he was a member of the very first Rockies draft class in 1992.  He made his major league debut for the Rox in 1995 and played a total of 4 games in Rockie purple before being traded to the Fish.

Moving onto 1996, we have a couple of oddity cards here.  Mike Farmer, the younger brother of Howard Farmer featured on Night Owl Cards yesterday, pitched in 7 games for the 1996 Rockies and never again in the big leagues.  The only card I have of him is this 1994 Upper Deck Minors in a Reading Phillies uniform, but he is listed as a Rockies Prospect so I consider it a Rockies card.  The other oddity is a bit different.  Mike DeJean is shown on a 2006 Upper Deck card.  The odd thing is that card showcases DeJean's 2nd less successful stint with the Rockies.  DeJean pitched in 264 games for the Rox with a stint from 1997-2000 and another from 2005-06.  You have to love the wonderful anonymity of middle relief.

Next up we have a pair of pitchers.  Jeff McCurry had his Rockies debut in 1997 and is shown on this 1998 Pacific Invincible Gems of the Diamond card.  He pitched 33 games in relief for the 1997 Rockies.  Fun fact about McCurry: Jeff was the 6th ever Japanese-born player to play in the majors.  I know the last name McCurry just gave that fact away.  Mark Brownson, shown on a 1999 Fleer Tradition card, made his Rockies debut in 1998.  He started 9 games for the Rockies in 1998-99 before ending his fledgling career in Philadelphia in 2000.

A pair of veterans that made their Rockies debut in 1998 are shown here.  First up is reliever Chuck McElroy shown here on a 1998 Pacific Online card.  An interesting factoid about McElroy is that he wore a different uniform number on each of the 9 big league teams he played for.  He was 23 for the Rockies.  Next up is speedy outfielder Curtis Goodwin.  The card in question is from the 1998 Score Rookies and Traded set, which featured mostly players that were neither rookies nor traded.  Goodwin also changed numbers for each of the 5 teams on which he played. 

The 2000 MLB Showdown set provides my collection with 3 one card wonders.  Kurt Abbott is one of those guys that SHOULD be on more than one oddball card for the Rockies.  He appeared in 138 games over two seasons and was the starting second baseman for much of the 1999 season, but this card is a true one card wonder for unknown reasons.  There is much less of an argument for Jeff Barry having more than one card.  He appeared in 89 games over the 1998 and 1999 seasons in his final major league stints.  Dave Veres pitched in 136 games for the Rockies in 1998 and 1999 mostly as the closer.  He is a one card wonder only because my collection in these years is severely lacking.  I will eventually end up with a couple dozen different Dave Veres cards, hopefully.

Finishing up the one card wonder for the Bombers era is two cards from the 2000 Pacific Crown Collection set.  One of the great things about Pacific was that they mostly focused on lesser known players of Hispanic descent that were overlooked by the bigger companies, such as these two.  Henry Blanco (English translation: Henry White) played in 88 games for the 1999 Rockies as the back up catcher.  He is still active in the big leagues with Arizona.  Juan Sosa (English translation: John Corked-Bat) played in 11 games for the 1999 Rockies mostly as a late inning defensive replacement.  He would only play 2 more games in the bigs, but lasted until 2006 in the minors.


Thanks for joining me on this little trip through the lesser known players of the Bombers era.  Come back next week for more tales of the pre-humidor Rockies.  Thanx for reading.

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TuBalGo Tuesdays #2

Tuesday, 26 June 2012

In music terminology, there is a famous term known as the "one-hit wonder."  That is obviously when a singer or band has one major hit and then disappears forever.  Some of the one-hit wonders are more memorable than others, but if they made the charts once there is a record of them for music fans/historians in the future. 

My Rockies collection has something a bit similar that I am going to call the "one-card wonder."  Currently, there are 15 Rockies that debuted from 2006-Present that appear on a single card in my team collection.  Possibly there are others out there in most (but not all) cases, but for the time being these guys are one-card wonders in my collection.  Let's take a look.

TuBalGo PLAYER(S) OF THE WEEK

The One Card Wonders

Total Cards Owned = 1 each

The 2006 Upper Deck "never-ending" set provided me with 3 one card wonders.  Eli Marrero played 30 games with the Rockies in 2006 before being traded to the Mets for Kaz Matsui.  Miguel Ojeda played in 25 games at the beginning of the 2006 season before being sold to the Rangers in July of that year.  Well-traveled journeyman Jason Smith appeared in 49 games in 2006 before moving on as well.  The Miguel Ojeda card would probably qualify as the #1 card on a countdown of one card wonders.  What a great play-at-the-plate card.

 

The 2007 version of Topps '52 Rookies also gave me 3 one card wonders.  Sean Barker appeared in only 3 games in 2007, but he is still forever immortalized thanks to this set.  Edwin Bellorin appeared in 8 games over 3 seasons (2007-2009) as the emergency catcher for the Rockies.  Darren Clarke pitched in relief in 2 games during the 2007 season for Colorado.  A lot of people, including myself, did not like the '52 Rookies set, but without it these three guys would have never appeared on cardboard.  I'd like to see a Heritage Rookies set made each year in place of the minor league set, but that will probably never happen.

The 2007 Upper Deck set brought me 2 new veteran one card wonders.  LaTroy Hawkins pitched in 62 games for the Rockies in 2007 as one of his 9 stops (as of now) around the majors.  He is still pitching for the Angels at age 39 and could conceivably add to that total later on.  John Mabry appeared in 28 games for the 2007 Rockies.  Unlike Hawkins, this was Mabry's final stop in a 14 year major league career.

2008 sets added 2 veteran pitchers to my one card wonders.  2008 Topps Heritage High Numbers gave Glendon Rusch who pitched in 34 games over the 2008 and 2009 seasons to finish out his career.  2008 Topps Update showed Kip Wells who pitched in 15 games in the 2008 season for the Rox before being released and moving onto several more clubs.

The final "real" Upper Deck set in 2009 added two more pitchers to the one card wonders stack.  Jason Grilli fell into the category of successful middle reliever that Topps seems to be allergic to.  He pitched (somewhat successfully) in 73 games for Colorado over the 2008 and 2009 seasons before moving on.  He is currently in the Pirates bullpen.  Livan Hernandez pitched in 8 (very forgettable) games at the end of the 2008 season after getting picked up on waivers. Odd, but true, fact is that Hernandez and Grilli were traded for each other in 1999 in a Giants-Marlins deal.

2010 did not add a single one card wonder to my collection and 2011 only provided 1.  2011 Topps Heritage was the only set that featured 2011 offseason pickup Jose Lopez.  Lopez played (poorly) in 38 games for the Rockies in 2011 before being released.  He is currently on the Indians roster.

2012 has thus far given me two new one card wonders, although one will not be a single card for long.  The 2012 Rafael Betancourt is from the packaged team set, because I haven't picked up the Series 2 card yet, but for now he is a one card wonder.  As of today, Betancourt has pitched in 200 games over four seasons and has been a very productive reliever from day one with Colorado.  Tyler Chatwood, shown on 2012 Topps Heritage, made the Opening Day roster and pitched in 4 games before being sent to the minors for more seasoning. 



Betancourt has been the Rockies player I most wanted to get a card for the past two seasons, but he was a middle reliever and thus subject to Topps' allergy.  Now that he has a card, Matt Belisle becomes the Rockies I most want to see get a card.  He should have already had one considering he won 10 games in 2011, but once again the middle relief allergy strikes.

Thanx for reading.

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