Jorge Alfaro is a serious Dude

Sometimes, I become interested in a Baseball player solely because of their picture on their Baseball Picture Card. This is one of those times.

I never did get to see Jorge Alfaro play Baseball, live, on any of the numerous "screens" that permeate our daily existence now. That should have been easily do-able when he played in the media favorite NL East. But by the time I figured out this interest in seeing the man play the game of Baseball, he was already in the NL West, which basically doesn't exist when you live in the Middle West, unless you can watch MLB Network on a continuous loop, which, I, can not. Yet.

It all worked out in the end, however, as my Baseball Cards routinely help with such issues. I am only now finalizing the final homes of some cards received from COMC so many months ago, I forgot just when that was, and with a large new batch of cards waiting for me out there in WA. So, it was time...

The Card That Started It All

2020 Topps

That one seemed like a pretty unique Baseball Picture Card image; I can't even recall another example of "side eye" on a card. You really have to wonder just what his teammate must have done out on the diamond to earn this look from his Catcher. Though of course, maybe The Ump did it. But this one is definitely the card that brought Jorge Alfaro to my attention.

Not long after obtaining it, a bit of the perpetual chore of sorting another one of the 0-7 year old stacks of Baseball Cards permanently overpopulating the top of my card desk quickly had me stopping a stack thumb-through when I saw more Alfaro images. i.e. even before I read his name on the card. Once that happened a couple-three more times I did begin to deliberately watch for his cards in those stacks. 

Following are my finds, in simple sequential release order; any other way to do it would be anything but in-order-received, which I forgot, anyways...

2017 Topps Meijer purple parallel

(surely one of the worst designs, ever, for creating parallels, though bookended the year before and year after with 2 other strong contenders for that title)

2017 Heritage High Number

(whereas 1968 Topps cries out for a 'parallel' improvement on every single card)

2018 Stadium Club

I always enjoy Catcher-on-the-basepaths cards; one doesn't see too many of those and such cards could probably make a fun little side collection. I sometimes wonder if Catchers are less prone to being picked off a base, and/or actually less likely to generate a "CS" stat - Caught Stealing - than players from other positions, when compared to their sprint speed. Where's those analytics guys when I need one? 

I do have an enjoyable side collection of 'leading off' cards; perhaps one day this card will migrate to a new home.

2019 Big League

I will forever be disappointed with a simple design choice in the 2nd year of the Big League set; I liked everything about the set until the designers somehow created a pastel version of a tech-grey plastic Baseball pennant, like a mini black hole sucking all the color right out of the cards. Things improved the next year in the product, but that was a product no one could purchase, cuz, retail flippers changed it to an online only product. Perhaps some day I will revisit 2020 Big League, hope so.

As for Jorge up there at the plate, well, hitting is serious business as we all know, and he seemed to prefer remaining in focus on the concept, even when posed for a Baseball Card -

2020 Heritage

I love those cards from the rare cloudy day in Florida. Quite fitting for the theme at hand, here. And this is one of the better looks you will find, on real cardboard, at the Marlins' fantastic shoulder patch. Heritage is frequently quite good for showing those off. And it's a little stealthy given the automatic-via-software placement, but that is one heckuva signature. I might have to investigate those, further. Drag-drop that one a little to the right and down slightly, and this card would improve, muchly.

2021 Topps

Those teammates out there better get it together.

2021 Heritage

Another great Florida card. I quite like those; I just don't care for paging through 350 of them at a time, year after year after year, exactly same as year before, most of which refuse to let Florida (or Arizona) actually appear much. 

Card That Fell Off the Bubble

2018 Topps Update

I sooo wanted to include this card in this little project, but, alas, my collecting rules these days preclude mixing horizontals with verticals. So this card will have to wait its turn to appear in the always ever more wonderful Horizontal binder, with more examples of the Lurking Umpire, which is rather freaky on this particular piece of cardboard. Do you hear that Darth Vader breath on this one? I do. Run, Jorge, run. Or, is this card an out-take from some lurid Topps Attax set that was supposed to be called The Catcher With Three Arms?

The Final Piece of the Puzzle

2018 Topps Now

("El Oso" means "The Bear" in English).

Alas, no more Jorge Alfaro cards are being produced these days. Only a few appeared from his half season of work in San Diego, and none from his even briefer stints at the MLB level in Colorado, Boston, or another short stop in Washington this past September. One should never count a back-up Catcher out, however, until they themselves decide to move on. 

After the 2021 cards I found I did not feel any of his Padres cards matched this goofy little page of Baseball Cards, and Jorge languished in my "Players" box until I turned to the vast library of every-Baseball-Card-ever-made known to us as COMC, where I found the just exactly perfect image to wrap up this collection. Once you scroll through the entirety of Alfaro's Baseball Card oeuvre there, you will see plenty of more expected Baseball expressions, including sufficient happy ones as seen here. I do hope Señor Alfaro can continue his career en el Béisbol, perhaps at an academy back home in Colombia, or maybe re-climbing the coaching ladder to the Bigs with one of the 30 MLB minor league systems, as he laboriously did in the mid-10s, appearing in Topps Pro Debut for four years sequentially, possibly a record. Until such a never-say-never deal may appear some day, I will quite enjoy this particular entry in my Players Collection, courtesy of Baseball Cards.

The Result