Rockies Throwback, 06/03 Edition

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been a regular customer at Big League Cards here in Orlando. I've almost completely wiped them out of Rockies and Cal Jr. cards in this two week span and have decided to start doing a bi/tri-weekly Rockies Throwback post. First theme's first...

'98 Fleer Metal Universe... and a subsequent recurring trend.

I snagged a couple of these Metal Universe cards last week and have forgotten how awesome/extremely absurd/ridiculously amazing this set was.

We'll start with a Todd Helton gem from his rookie season of 1997:




'98 Fleer Metal Universe

The scanner doesn't do this 'metal' card justice as these cards are closer to the chrome trend of Fleer Ultra, etc. than anything else, but it pictures 'The Toddfather' staring down a ball destined for Dinger's head (see below) as he runs up the first base line... ON THE MOON! Who other than Sir Helton can pull of this stunt? I also wasn't fully aware of how long Todd has been rockin' his good-luck necklace until I really check out this card. This is also the first card I've seen that actually has him listed as anything other than first base. In case you can't read the position on the card, they have him listed at 'First Base/Outfield'. It's hard to imagine him chasing down fly balls, but Helton played 13 games in Left and 2 in Right during his rookie season.



Another Metal Universe find from the same series that I picked up was that of Vinny Castilla as he enjoys the beautiful scenery of the Rocky Mountains:




'98 Fleer Metal Universe

When I noted the humor of this card, I started realizing there were quite a few Rox pictured in or near mountain landscapes.




'93 Score

Ahh, baseball in Colorado. As Rodney Dangerfield would say, "No respect, I tell ya!" I wasn't around for the Jerald Clark days in Denver, but he wasn't exactly either. Despite a .282 avg and 13 dingers in 140 games with the Rox in '93, he quickly exited stage left only to return for 36 games with Minnesota two years later. However, the first result Google returned upon searching his name was a little surprising to say the least. At least it looks like he's doing well for himself.

Unfortunately, not many of the commons in my Rockies box are graced with the beauty surrounding the Mile High City, but I did find one more that I consider close enough:




'93 Topps

The background in this shot behind ol' Rico 'Which is Longer... the Mullet or Chest Hair' Suave here could be any number of places. I like to think of it as Red Rocks Park, but it's just as likely that this was taken during spring training in Arizona. He never broke out of the minors in the Rockies system, but ended up playing 34 games [again] with Minnesota across the '93 and '94 seasons.

That's it for now, but I'm working on a tribute to one of the greatest players in the Rockies system whose phenomenal start in the bigs was cut short due to circumstances outside of his control.

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.