and then I found an Umpire on a 2018 Baseball Card

You don't see cards like this very often, any more. Oh, sure, we all love a Play @ The Plate card. And with each passing year, it seems like we get a few more, and they get better and better. I mean, could Stadium Club even be printed these days, without several such cards? Not that there is anything wrong with that!

And this is a really good card, which proves to be from Taylor Davis' actual first MLB start behind the plate on Sept. 14, 2017. A First Start Rookie Card. That's Jose Reyes coming in to score on a Double by Brandom Nimmo as Asdrubal Cabrera, the on-deck batter, gives some sort of heads-up sign about what's going on with the defense, probably a throw coming in to the Catcher, imminently. Which, unfortunately for the ultimate charm of this Rookie Card, Davis proceeds to drop, as Reyes remains Safe and Nimmo advances to 3rd.

In the 4th inning, veteran Alex Avila trotted out to replace Davis, an easy call for Maddon to make in a September game with 3 Catchers on his roster and the divisional standings to consider. As I write, there is very little chatter on the MLB blogs about Davis' future; he had only 5 At Bats in 2018, all in September as this card was being printed, and the entire business of Baseball doesn't much care for MLB debuts at 28 years old. His road to The Show started with being signed while playing in the independent Cape Cod League - you don't see players like that very often, any more.

His tiny footnote in Baseball history will also include a minor 'viral' video made in the minor leagues while with the Cubs AAA affiliate in Iowa, which is not that super exciting but probably didn't hurt the process of making the Topps RC checklist, either, when he had only 8 games and 13 AB (his 2017 totals) in MLB at the time final 2018 Update checklist cuts were made this year. Unless he once again gets The Call to Chicago as a 30 year old back-up Catcher with very little MLB experience, in the 2019 season, there is a very good chance this card will be a One-and-Done. At least for the S1+S2+Update Topps Set, as he was also on a 3-player Rookie Card in Heritage this year, and 21st Century 1&Done cards might need a fair bit of special rules to delineate.

And though all of that was basically interesting for me to figure out starting with just a baseball card of a player I have never heard of, and might also never hear of, ever again, none of that is why I am posting this card, as you already know from the title up there.

This post is because of this guy on the card:

Who I am quite sure is (in) famous Umpire Joe West, who has been an MLB Umpire for almost as long as I have loved baseball cards, and that's a pretty long time. He is 2nd All-Time in games "Umped", through 40 still Active seasons. I barely ever see MLB on the TV and I still know his face.

I wouldn't be totally surprised if Joe West has appeared on a baseball card before this one, though I mean that in the 'Cameo' sense, as here. He does have his own card in a couple oddball sets, and also in 2004 Bowman Heritage, the return of the TV Set, which included Umpires in the original 1955 edition. I don't own any of those cards, and have no plans to pick one up; you will have to click on over to see them somewhere on your own time. I like Umpires strictly as occasional cameos on my live action baseball cards, and have no wish to collect trading cards for them.

Finding any such cameos of any specific Ump would be a bit of random luck, and would be exceptionally unlikely in the 21st century and especially again in the 2010s, when Umpires have all but virtually disappeared from baseball cards.

Now a question is - Why?

It is speculated at times that Topps blurs out parts of the cards now, on purpose. Maybe they are afraid of making an individual fan completely recognizable, maybe they don't have a special side contract with the Managers, maybe they don't have a special side contract with the Umpires. Hold those theories, while we re-visit this Taylor Davis 2018 Topps Update #US229 RC

But I am not so sure those ideas are correct. I don't know what year the source photos that Topps uses switched from 20th century 'analog' to 21st century 'digital', but I think as time has passed both the photographer and also possibly the Topps baseball card constructor have a great deal of control over which parts of an image are in the most focus.

On this card, the Umpire's face is quite blurry, and he is not all that far from the well focused portion of the image, Taylor Davis's face inside his Catcher's mask. But Asdrubal Cabrera just beyond Home Plate is also fairly blurry, too. Did you know that was 12 year MLB veteran A. Cabrera in that picture, after his probably semi-regular semi-annual appearances in all your stacks of baseball cards? I didn't. I had to use the wonderful cheat sheet tools available on Baseball Reference to sort it out, using his Uniform #.

Topps can print images of Asdrubal Cabrera whenever and however it wants, on any card. The unfocused portion of this card does not totally seem deliberate to me, yet.

Nevertheless, that could still be true for Cowboy Joe's face there.

I have been leaning away from that theory, of Topps deliberately adding blurriness to get around extra contract hassles. There is also a chance that all those confusing blurs on cards these days is simply a side effect of how the source photo is made. Even if I had the free time to do it, I know I will never learn the intricacies of creating high quality photographs; I am strictly a pointer&shooter. My first digital camera, purchased well before my 'phone' included one, had a robust instruction manual that was a just about guaranteed sleep aid whenever I tried to absorb it.

So perhaps the original photographer (who turns out to be Jon Durr, with Getty Images) made his lenses spin just so, until he could see the whites of Taylor's eyes just exactly perfectly, and Click!

Or perhaps not.

In this closer-to-the-original digital image, Joe West is much easier to identify. Though I still doubt anyone not really, really well acquainted with 2017 New York Mets uniform #s and/or likely batting orders could have correctly ID'd Asdrubal Cabrera back there near the wall.

However -- Topps chose to crop this card down some, giving it their best shot to make it possible for us to recognize brand new Cubs back-up Catcher Taylor Davis, while also giving us a dramatic action Play @ The Plate baseball card.

Yet I am left with a continuing wonder if perhaps that cropping process inside Topps HQ, done to the digital image well after it was first recorded on an ultra high-end sports photographer's camera, might inevitably reduce the resolution on the other parts of the image that Topps doesn't really need, anyway. When after all what they do need is the visage of an MLB player for their own individual baseball card, not other players, fans, or an Umpire.

Here is another wrench in the zoom crops - reconsider the Rajai Davis card I posted yesterday -

-which is from a day game.

The Taylor Davis card, also from 2018 Update, is from a night game. I have noticed over the last couple years that the night cards arrive with a little more blur to everything beyond the player. Perhaps it is easier for the camera to keep good resolution of the objects farther and farther from the center of the focus point, in bright sunshine. On the other hand, Rajai's card is probably shot from much closer to Rajai than the distance to Taylor on that card. But in general, to me, the night cards have a little less resolution beyond the central player image. I think.

And I wonder how the printing process itself interacts with the possible sharpness around the edges of the card, as Jose Reyes's compression sleeve goes from a distinct Mets Orange in the original Getty Image, to a far less vivid kinda-reddish, sorta, color on the resulting baseball card.

However the digi-stuff is all working in practice, I still know Joe West is on my baseball card; and that is yet another reason for me to think there is no particular contractual proscription on that.

Although I still can't answer this basic Baseball Card Theory question definitively either way as Topps never seems to ask me to just come hang out at Topps HQ with my jaw agape while I ask trivial questions all day, I do hope to see more cards like this. The Umpire is a pretty key part of the game after all. And I also know there will be only one way for me to continue trying to answer it. I'll just have to keep collecting baseball cards.

More Favorite 2018s

Best Classic Baseball Card

I should have mentioned in my Card of the Year Post preceding this one, I picked a card somewhat the way Time Magazine picks the Person of the Year. That Angels Future Stars blast from the past Ohtani rookie is not my favorite card of 2018, not even close. I enjoyed pulling it and the thoughts it lead me to, in the 2018 baseball card hobby. But I enjoyed many 2018 baseball cards, as I always do. So here comes a whole bunch of them, and since I picked a Big League card to start, I'll roll some other faves from there first. I haven't finished that set (nor, with the abysmal state of retail collation, am I closer than about 85% on S1/S2/Update) yet, so I still might luck into some more choice ones if I can luck into some discounted packs as 2019 rolls along. I also didn't finish a set of the green bordered parallels that one could cut from the blaster boxes, so I might end up buying one online and ponying up for larger item shipping, which I hate - but I also appreciate, cuz it helps keep my baseball card spending under control, bigly. So here we go ->

Best Socks

Favorite Celebration Card

Normally, 'celebration' cards feature a bunch of team-mates on the card. They were a steady running insert set in Opening Day for several years as well. There is also no shortage of 'main set' (I will never warm to the term 'Flagship') Topps cards featuring a Pitcher celebrating a Win, usually a Closer, often with his Catcher.

This card is more of a brief, in-game vignette, most likely of Velasquez celebrating a single out as he returns to the top of the mound. This may or may not even be seen while watching a TV broadcast of a game. Since I rarely have a chance to do that, I depend on my baseball cards to help me "watch" baseball, and this card comes through for me.

Best Frame Break

It's a 'pizza cake', as my Spanglish speaking friends say, to have the bat break the frame. I like more creative efforts at such.

Favorite Bubble Gum Card

Salvy is one of those players who always seems to get good cards. And one of those players I probably follow and root for a little bit more largely because of that. Each passing window of likely trading in MLB, I am increasingly amazed that the Royals don't join the Rebuild Parade and flip him for 3 cards just released in Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects. I somewhat hope they do, largely because he has already achieved what he can achieve in Kansas City, as a perpetual All-Star and the 1-1 record in the World Series, with the heartbreaking loss and the perfect, there's-always-next-year redemption victory. Though perhaps his final achievement will be as a beloved, single franchise player that is so incredibly rare in the 21st century MLB. Let's just hope that if that becomes true, and it does seem likely sometimes, he doesn't fall off the cliff as sadly as his teammate out there in left field.

I think I have now probably definitely accumulated a permanent set of 9 Salvador Perez cards to keep in a binder page, if I could only find time to assemble them altogether (y'all will be the first to know). But this card makes me feel like it might have to be the first such true "Player Collection" page that will have to feature 2 cards in every slot, for a more robust 18 cards. And I was darn glad to find this card, because the only other Bubble Gum Card I can recall this year was for Manny Machado, who will make it onto the Bubble Gum Card binder page, again, but I hardly want one of his cards to make a 'Best Of' anything.

Favorite Card From Another Sport

You didn't think I would really stray from my love of baseball cards, did you?

Other Most Hated Card

No, I really do love that Mookie Betts card up there - 'Other' is cuz I also had to go negative in that Rookies post just previous to this one. There are probably other cards I really really didn't like this year, but not too many. And I would hardly want to rank them.

But this card seriously made me mad. I like 1977 Topps. That was the first year I started to pay attention to cards from the Detroit Tigers, because that was the first summer I lived in Michigan. This should be the perfect combo of retro design and team fandom, just for ... me.

And not only had I never even seen _any_ Hal Newhouser card before, nor even knew any even existed, this is a pretty darn good color photograph of a 1940s baseball player - you don't see those very much.

I will be keeping this card, and putting it in my Tigers binder. I might even pick up extra copies of it, given that any random "base" card now is considered to have essentially zero value, and nearly only one cost, really - shipping. And with those extra copies I will practice and practice my horrifying baseball card altering skills and color in that insanely stupid use of the color white in that yellow pennant, where we are supposed to read the word "Pitcher", but of course, we can't. And eventually some certain pen and some certain careful bit of penmanship will fix this card right up to be just exactly perfect, and the original, un-altered white-on-yellow FAIL of a baseball card will go straight into the circular file.

Most Puzzling Photo Selection

Maybe it is a good thing that A.J. Minter has a couple other 'base' RC logo cards to call his "Rookie" home later in his career, which looks promising. And maybe his seeming antagonistic pose on his '18 Heritage High Numbers RC explains this photo selection - perhaps he fought with the Topps photog that day in late February last year.

But I can't recall a live MLB action photo baseball card quite like this one. I never care for a picture of a player's butt, save for _maybe_some of the most dramatic action shots. This shot, snapped near the end of A.J.'s delivery of a pitch, somehow conveys the opposite of impending baseball action motion. It is weirdly sleepy. 

At least we do get to see his face in profile, not totally uncommon on an action shot from live baseball. And I do think there has probably been a baseball card printed in the past featuring a player with his eyes closed. But I can't say I can specifically recall one.

Ahh well, I'll knock off the negative waves now. Let's dig how beautiful these Rolling Stones water slide baseball cards can be, and check out some righteous and hopeful ones...

Best Home Run Card

We always gets lots of Home Run cards. Hitters admiring their latest moon shot is common. Hitters clearly on a Home Run trot can be seen on baseball cards. Hitters mobbed at Home Plate after a walk-off Homer are not unknown. Topps even immortalized one of the more immortal Bat Flips of all-time in 2016 Series One. I'm not sure if that one was previously against the Unwritten Rules of Baseball Cards. And this card makes me wonder along those lines too. Is this against the Unwritten Rules? I know if this particular bit of live game action was shown on replay, I would be cracking up. And maybe if Brian McCann played on the other team, trouble would be a-brewing by the time Khris rounded 3rd base. I mean, it's like you can almost hear him thinking here - "Man, did I hit that thing a mile, or what?"

Light, Camera, Action

This card speaks to me to. It sounds just like one of the sound effects on the near-30 year old Pinball machine 'Comet' - except it says "Ride the Water Slide" instead of the ferris wheel. That's because all the lines on this dramatic (to me) card lead me to a quick trip down the slide with my inflated Blue Jay water toy and it's sidekick the Canadian maple leaf. Or something.

Normally I would prefer lines that all converge up to the top of the card, or the side. But this card is not a downer. It is a Twilight card, from a late afternoon game, with the crowd now in shadow but the players still lit up. I always like those, though some sets never even cough one up these days. And nearly every strong line in the image is parallel, or close to it. The uniform leg stripe, the shadow line on the cap, Louie Saints' arms, a key bit of the RC logo, even what we can see of the overly lit player behind Mr. Saints ... all those lines lead us right to the iconic slide with it's pleasing cool blue on a warm sunny day, down the little dip, and boop, on to the next one -

Favorite Team Card

Favorite Team Card? Who does that? This card is, lighting wise, the near opposite of the previous card, even though they both include a section of the stadium now fading into shadow. I don't know who the main player is who seems to have just done some kind of Walk-Off magic. Nor do I care.

But somehow, the photographer managed to make this look like a live action shot from the 1960s, with a basic warmth captured even while the players are well-lit. It looks Analog, rather than Digital, like so many cards do these days; almost painterly-esque, even. 

And you can tell the Real Fans, the ones who come see a losing team, anyway, and sit in a sea of empty seats, like on so many cards these days - the Real Fans came to the game that day, and they are standing, and cheering, even way up there in the cheap seats! Baseball!

Favorite Yankees Card

Favorite Yankees Card? Who does _that_? I don't even like the Yankees. But I like this card. It probably looks best, in-hand, if you can bring yourself to hold onto something that has no monetary value, and is connected to the New York Yankees. Maybe I should have called it my Favorite Pinstripes Card. Oh dear, I feel a new side-collection trope coming, we'd best move along.

Favorite Tigers Card

Perhaps baseball cards are a touch less fun when your team is going for the League Lead in losses, lately. Or, perhaps they actually help ameliorate all the blah-blahs that come with losing 4 days a week. This year there were only a handful of cards of Tigers who will actually still be around the next time they have a chance at posting a winning season, which definitely is highly unlikely for 2019. I will be taking a look, right here with you, at the Tigers Topps results for 2018 soon. Jeimer Candelario will probably never be an All-Star, but it does look like at least there will be one corner on the field with a little continuity for a couple seasons, unlike most of the other 7 fielding positions.

Best Card Back

Now, another endearing Tigers blog selected this card as their 2018 Card of the Year, so you can check out the front over there. Hicks hadn't even reached 100 AB in MLB and was back in the minors  in July of 2017, so it wasn't surprising he didn't make the cut for '17 Update. But this year, he did.

And though I often think Topps is barely paying attention to the Detroit Tigers, this card back shows me they were. Because in a long long season of lowlights for my favorite team, John Hicks supplied my favorite Tigers play of 2018. Oh, Kevin Cash, you want to play some Nu Baseball and shift hard against this sluggish Catcher/FirstBaseman? Ok, says Ron Gardenhire, hold my iPad and watch this. Here is a Fan Shot view of the action, from the stands:

And here is a full game re-cap with the key details leading off to this fun play from Fox Sports Detroit, with the radio call from Dan Dickerson and Jim Price nicely subbed in for the critical moment (the way I heard it live); 1:25 is a good starting point for the tl;dw generation:

Apologies on the blockage there, though it can be watched on any other webpage, but not this one. Brilliant customer relations here, MLB. :(

Favorite Unknown Rookie to root for in 2019

In baseball, everyone likes the players with 3 names. Usually. And in baseball cards, everyone likes the players with 3 positions. Because you just don't see that on baseball cards. So this was a no-brainer selection. Now if only there was anywhere within an hour's drive that would fix me some falafel for dinner. Sorry, Isiah, I just couldn't resist. Bring your promising 1.6 Rookie WAR on out of spring training this year, and make us some glorious new 3B/2B/C baseball cards.

Best Rookie Card

Though I am nowhere close to owning all of the "Key Rookie Cards" of 2018, as if an entire season of baseball cards revolved around just 10 cards, nor will I ever be, most likely, I knew when I pulled this one it would be the Best of 2018. And everyone likes a Pitcher who can hit a Home Run. In the playoffs.

I like the Woodruff card because of the photo used on this object -

which obviously was the gensis of this iconic part of my life -

So whenever I pull a card that comes pretty darn close to this image, it's a keeper. I set them aside, and someday I will run a little side-by-side comparison on which card comes the closest to it. Brandon Woodruff 2018 Topps #179 RC could well be among the leaders, at this point.

Look Ma, No Feet!

Ahh, just chillin' after servin' up my latest meatball. Nah, I don't need the pitching mound, I'ma goin' for a ride on the water slide here.

Most Focused Card

I first pulled this card in Opening Day, and liked it then. It stayed the same in Series 2, but Thames appears ready to slug another Homer in Topps Chrome.

Thames is not looking at the photographer. He is not looking at you. He is focused on the incoming ball, which just landed in his glove - but before he has been able to re-focus his eyes to his next body motions needed to play the game of baseball. There are probably lots of cards in the 2010s that well capture a baseball player intent on his craft. But few of them can match this intriguing photo of a split second that has only just now flown past us.

Best Stadium Card

Best Stadium Lights Card

Only Stadium Lights card? Possibly. Probably.

Whoever shoots photos from the field in Atlanta, well, Topps needs to buy more photos from them. It's the 70s now Topps, it's time. Put the Stadium back on the baseball cards. Pretty please?

Most Revealing Card

You try plying your trade outdoors nearly year-round all your life. You carry a franchise on your back and generate most of it's All-Time leader statistics, all while all the retired people you live amidst would rather root for their old team, back up north, and paid attendance makes the construction of a 2nd level of seating in your stadium nearly superfluous. You try fighting the 2 titans of the AL East for your whole career, watching any talented teammate inevitably leave your clubhouse in hopes that they bring back in exchange a perfect combo of hot young players who can knock one of the titans off the top spot, someday, but inevitably also have to be traded to just try, try again. You gaze into the future of five more years of the baseball standings equivalent of Groundhog Day, and wonder if your career will always be this way. You, too, would end up with some well earned Crows Feet around your eyes, and the first hints of grey in your hair, in your early 30s.

Topps could have easily made this decidedly non-action shot another one of their unique short, or super-short printed 'Photo Variations'. The vast bulk of these sets are composed of true action shots, snapped during live baseball play. But some of the photos are not. Only some, in a given set, and I think a few more of them may have crept in to my 2018 baseball cards than normal. And I think they are mainly given to long-time Veterans, and in the Complete Set now, a bit of a true Topps salute in solid baseball card tradition, rather than yet another insert card not everyone really wants. 

The last card I set aside from 2018, which will surely make my annual Nicest Nine for 2018 Topps, or whatever I finally nickname the series for blog posting use, well this card and player needs no introduction, once again, as in a previous post.

Pawing through a stack of 2018 Topps Series One, any true baseball fan will stop, and reflect a little, and remember, when they see all the action on every card suddenly come to a stop, on this card. And that is what baseball cards are all about.