Topps Cards That Should Have Been: The Last Expos

 

On the day that the result of a new collective bargaining agreement could either save or doom the season, I wanna take you all back to 2002. 

I'm not sure if a lot of people remember this, but in 2001, Bud Selig wanted to contract the league and eliminate the two lowest-drawing teams, which, in 2001, were the Montreal Expos and Minnesota Twins. After the city of Minnesota said 'like hell you will', the Expos, while saved for the moment, were still on the bubble. They were harmed by infuriating ownership practices [courtesy of Jeffrey Loria], a downturn in their core despite a productive trade deadline in 2002, and, of course, a market that couldn't be bothered. There were still Expos loyalists, but by 2002 they were far and few. 

The only thing that kept the Expos in the MLB was the renewed collective bargaining agreement, which kept the league at 30 and instead led the league to consider relocating the team. The CBA here is the reason we have the Nationals, and that this franchise eventually found a ring. Holding out on the players and fans, and their concerns, solves nothing. 

And so the Expos played two final seasons as the Expos. I call these the 'death nell' years because it was clear the MLB wanted them out of Montreal, and they even went so far as make them play home games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The writing was clearly on the wall for the team, and I consider these teams the end of the road for the team. Hell, in 2003 they were close to playoff contending when the MLB, who OWNED THE TEAM AT THAT POINT, basically locked their roster at 25 in September, essentially to ensure they wouldn't win NOW and draw in fans. That is not the sign of a prospering market.

So in this post, I'm including Expos that Topps left out in 2003 and 2004, because, unsurprisingly, by following the MLB narrative on the season, Topps must not have seen many true heroes worthy of making cards of in these seasons. 

Most confounding is Livan Hernandez, dealt to the Expos for nothing after bombing out of a job in San Francisco. Hernandez, the former 1997 World Series breakout, was the top WAR earner for the Expos in 2003, with a 15-10 record, a 320 ERA and 178 Ks in a full season of 33 starts. How the HELL do you just not make a card of that? He was clearly a standout by the time Update was happening? Why be so deliberate in erasing the narrative?

Similarly bafflingly, Topps didn't make a card of the Expos' starting catcher in these farewell seasons either. They made a Michael Barrett card in 2003, but he got traded to the Cubs midway through the year. Brian Schneider, meanwhile, became a steady backstop for the Expos. While he was around replacement level in 2003, hitting only .230, Schneider had a strong year in '04, with the third highest WAR on the team with 3.5, 112 hits and 49 RBIs in 132 games. He came off as reliable and trustworthy as a catcher, which is why the team would keep him on upon moving to Washington. 

Similarly absent from these sets was super-ute contact hero Jamey Carroll, known for scoring the last run in Expos history. Carroll was a defensive upgrade from Fernando Tatis at third in '03, playing 105 games and hitting .260. In '04 he'd be trapped behind Jose Vidro and Tony Batista for starting positions, but would be a bench bat extraordinaire, hitting .289 with 63 hits in 102 games. From here he'd fill a similar role with the Rockies. 

Also absent in both sets was relief specialist Luis Ayala, who was a very big piece of these late teams for the Expos. In 2003 he had 10 wins as a reliever, a 2.92 record and 46 Ks in 65 appearances, going for saves in 5. While not having as strong a W/L ratio in 2004, he'd be equally hard on opposing offenses, with a 2.69 ERA and 63 Ks in 81 appearances. Ayala would make the trip to Washington, and would eventually bop around the leagues as a solid cheap relief option. 

As for closing options during these seasons, I have to say that the Expos did pretty well both times. In 2003 they had Rocky Biddle, who came over from being a middle reliever with the White Sox, and, being thrust right into the ninth, notched 34 saves, despite some rocky numbers otherwise. He did get a Topps card in 2004, but by then he was struggling even more and had to vacate the ninth. Enter young whiz kid Chad Cordero, who would make the most of this promotion with a 2.94 ERA, 14 saves and a full 83 Ks over the course of the season. Of course, the Nats would lock him down as closer, he'd be a fearsome force and All-Star, and then would be injured far too young and never have a closing job again. 

An all-star with Montreal in 1994, Wil Cordero would be the Expos' starting 1st baseman in 2003. In 130 games, he'd hit .278 with 71 RBIs, his highest since his 72 in 1997, and 121 hits. A solid season, if marred by sliding defense. Topps, of course, would look the other way. 

In a post where there wouldn't be too many actual big pieces to document, you'd see a lot more ones like this one- Todd Zeile was traded by the Yankees to the Expos midyear, and as a backup 3rd baseman he hit .257 with 19 RBIs and 5 homers in 34 games. He'd essentially be starting by the end, which would pave the way for a decent year as position-warmer-for-David-Wright in 2004. 

As for the 2004 team, they had former Indians and Rangers backstop Einar Diaz as a backup. He was decent, hitting .223 in 55 games with above-average defense, but by this point Schneider was having the better season. 

I think it'd be pretty fitting if we ended on Terrmel Sledge. As the Expos' starting left-fielder he'd be adequate, hitting .169 with 107 hits, 62 RBIs and 15 homers. In Vladimir Guerrero's absence, Sledge was the true power bat of the outfield, and he was alright at that. The reason I'm ending with Sledge is that, upon the team's move to Washington, he would hit the Nationals' first ever home run. The ball was on display in Cooperstown for a bit, I think. One of those career trivia question guys, but still a great run with the Expos.

Part of me hopes baseball returns to Montreal someday. Part of me hopes there's a market for it. 

Topps Cards That Should Have Been: The Gregg Zaun Chronicles

 I don't know if you guys have been keeping track, but January I was doing these Topps Cards That Should Have Been posts in alphabetical order. Just a little challenge. Ah, let's see if I can do a Q name, so on, things like that.

So that should explain why I'm posting a ton of customs of switch-hitting backup catcher Gregg Zaun on the last day of January.

......look, it was either him or Todd Zeile.

Nevertheless, there is a lot of things to talk about regarding Gregg Zaun and Topps' gaps in documenting his career on cards. It may be a niche guy to include, but he played throughout the 2000s and was a reliable choice for catcher when other guys wouldn't do. 

As this project starts in 2000, we begin with Gregg Zaun's 2000 season in Kansas City. In 83 games he hits .274, and the starting gig is his for a bit.

Flash-forward to 2003:

Zaun spends 2002 in Houston backing up Brad Ausmus, which he continues to do for 2003, as he hits .217 in 59 games as backup. That doesn't seem to cut it for Houston, and they release him. 

Only for the Colorado Rockies, who need a solid backup option for Charles Johnson, to pick him up. Zaun does miles better with the Rox, hitting .261 with 3 homers in 15 games. 

Then, in 2004, Gregg Zaun figured out that the key to his longevity in the bigs would be playing in Canada. So he signed a minor league deal with the Expos, which would have been an opportunity to play in Montreal in their last season. However, the Expos had Brian Schneider, strike one, and they were going forward with Einar Diaz as a backup, strike two. Which means the Expos had no use for Gregg Zaun, and released him.

About a week into the season, the Toronto Blue Jays realized that their catching options, including Kevin Cash and Greg Myers, were too thin, and they went...not far, and got Gregg Zaun. Zaun quickly became the starting option in Toronto, hitting .269 in 107 games with a 2.3 WAR. Here, Zaun's scorching run in Toronto begins, and the Jays fans couldn't be any more here for it.

Topps, on the other hand, seems to miss the boat. No Zaun cards in Update, which is a foresight, even if it is a low-tier Jays team.

It becomes even more infuriating in 2005 when Gregg Zaun has his best season. Yeah, that's right. Out of all the hitters in Toronto in 2005, including Vernon Wells, Orlando Hudson, Eric Hinske, Alex Rios and Aaron Hill, you know who has the highest WAR? SWITCH-HITTING CATCHER GREGG ZAUN. He only hits .251 with 61 RBIs, but his defensive numbers are so impressive that it propels him to a 3.6 WAR. Which is huge. No longer the backup, Zaun has a beautiful year in Toronto, cements his status as a Canadian legend, and doesn't have to worry about moving around for a bit.

After this season, Topps listens up and makes Gregg Zaun cards in flagship for the next 4 seasons. Zaun is the primary option at catcher for the Jays for the next few seasons, then in 2009 he signs with the Orioles to start. Only problem is that in 2009, the Orioles bring up a guy named Matt Wieters to play catcher, and Zaun's numbers aren't enough to stop him from usurping his playing time. So the O's trade him.

Thankfully they trade him to a decent team that needed catching options behind Dioner Navarro. So Gregg Zaun gets to compete with the Rays. Unfortunately, thanks to a dismal September, the Rays don't make the postseason. Zaun still hits .287 with 14 RBIs in 34 games. The trade happens after the Update cutoff, so no Topps card. In fact, Topps kind of checks out as far as Zaun is concerned.

In 2010, the Brewers sign Zaun to look over the two burgeoning catchers they have, George Kottaras and Jonathan Lucroy. Zaun's 39, he's clearly just doing this to play, not really worrying about numbers. He actually does fairly well, hitting .265 in 28 games. He's still a decent defender but he's...39. On May 20th, he gets injured, sits out the rest of the season...and it's not looking good for him as a defensive catcher. 

Zaun would try one more season, signing a minor league contract with the Padres in 2011. Just to see if anything was left in the tank. He tried his best, but he really couldn't find any of his former strength left, and retired out of camp. Dignified way to leave, but he did it on his own terms.

And he's been a Jays broadcaster ever since, which means, yes, Toronto has been very kind to him. For a guy who was thinking he'd be a backup in different cities, Gregg Zaun sure found a stationary home there, which is nice.

Topps Cards That Should Have Been: The Jason Varitek Chronicles

One of my goals with this project has been to right the various wrongs Topps has gone through with over the past 20 years, be it with omissions or contract issues or the like. One of the big ones that subsided right when I got into the hobby was that of Jason Varitek, the longtime Boston backstop.

From the beginning of his career until 2007, Jason Varitek did not have a contract with Topps, and therefore received absolutely zero Topps cards. The humanity. 

And let's be fair- for the first few years of his career, Varitek was a replacement-level catcher who got by on decent seasons, and he doesn't start truly tearing up the league until 2003, so it wasn't a huge loss til around then. But still, Topps not making any cards of the catcher of the Boston Red Sox is a big deal, and one that I had no choice but to rectify.

So, starting in 2001, here they are. In 2001, Varitek mostly backs up Scott Hatteberg but hits .293 in 51 games. 

2002 is Varitek's first season with a WAR over 2, as the catching gig is all but his thanks to him playing 132 games behind the plate, hitting .266 and notching 61 RBIs. Not pristine, but he's beginning to benefit from being on the Sox with Ramirez, Damon and Ortiz all at once.

2003 is the breakout year. Tek hits .273 with 25 homers, a career high for him, 85 RBIs, another career high, and his first ASG appearance. He also gets MVP votes, postseason playing time, and a stranglehold on the position . Here is where Topps starts really regretting not signing Varitek to a contract.

And they begin to regret it even more in 2004, another strong year for Varitek with a .296 average and 73 RBIs, one that would see him win his first of two World Series rings. Tek has 11 postseason RBIs for the Sox, and cements himself as a reliable, necessary presence in the Boston dugout. 

So...Topps can't even make a card for the catcher of the World Series champions. Awkward.

It gets worse. In 2005, Varitek has his most impressive season yet, getting a gold glove, a silver slugger, more MVP votes, a 70-RBI year AND...

His second ASG appearance, marked by a card that would have shown up in 2005 Topps Update. This would have been a cool one, too, as it represents a great RBI moment from that ASG. 

And in 2006, Varitek would wind things down with a .233 average in only 106 games thanks to an injury [Doug Mirabelli would be on hand to back up]. 

2007, he'd have a posed shot against the Sox's maroon background, and from then on Topps would be on top of things giving him flagship releases. Again, I wish they'd acted sooner, but there's a lot you can't control about Topps. 

Topps Cards That Should Have Been: The Salomon Torres Chronicles

 

More with Topps' vendetta against relievers.

From 2002 until 2008, Salomon Torres was one of the most consistent relievers in the NL Central, averaged a 3.61 ERA with 381 strikeouts and 57 saves, and was a middle relief rock for a market that was anything but consistent. 

However, you probably never knew that for five of those years because A.) Torres was a middle reliever and B.) Torres played for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Topps would mostly shrug through issuing Pirates cards every year of their mediocrity in the mid-2000s. A lot of Pirates that'd show up in Topps sets in this period were educated guesses. Sure, maybe this veteran will have a good season there, maybe this rookie. Meanwhile, people like Nate McLouth and Ryan Doumit didn't get cards as Pirates until they were about to be traded, essentially. And people who deserved them, like Salomon Torres, got none in flagship. 

Heck, pulling a card of Torres' in 2004 Total was how I learned he'd hung on as a Pirate to begin with. I knew Torres from being a high-profile rookie in the mid-90s, making the cover of 1994 Stadium Club Series 3, and being a highly-touted Dominican prospect that didn't pan out in SF. So he bopped around the leagues, sat out for 3 years, had a comeback in Korea and starting in 2002 was a mainstay in the Pirates bullpen.

2003 was the first Torres year I could get images from. This season Torres was still being partially utilized as a starter but eventually moved to the bullpen, where his ERA would even out to 3.20 in 25 appearances. From here, the Bucs knew what to do with Salomon Torres.

In 2004, Torres raised his productivity, pitching in 84 games with a 2.64 ERA. His 2.3 WAR that season would be a career high. 

2005 was similar- 2.76 ERA in 76 appearances, and still one of the better performers on the team. 

In 2006 Torres pitches in a league-high 94 games, and gets a 3.28 ERA with 72 strikeouts. The league is recognizing Torres' versatility and consistency, even if Topps won't. 

And in 2007, Torres powers down a bit with a 5.47 ERA in 56 games. Though in the past two seasons he's accumulated 24 saves, he's still a middle reliever and his 2007 struggles seem to point to the end of his era in Pittsburgh. 

After the 2007 season, he's traded to Milwaukee for a pair of prospects. Milwaukee rewards Torres by giving him the closing gig and letting him save 28 games with a 3.49 ERA. Topps rewards Torres by finally, FINALLY including a base card of his in Update. I think it's very telling that they waited until he joined a team that was A.) playoff-contending and B.) not the Pirates in order to do this, but thankfully they gave him the final sendoff he needed. 

Topps Cards That Should Have Been: The Fernando Rodney Chronicles

Fernando Rodney may have been one of the most important relievers of the first 20 years of the 21st century. He may not have had the flashiest stats or the most saves, but his career spanned years and teams that people wouldn't even predict they would. 

2003 would have been the first season he could have gotten a Topps card, so I won't be sad that they didn't cause he was...just a lowly reliever for one of the worst Tigers teams of all time. He averaged a 6.04 ERA his first two seasons, over 47 appearances. He wasn't handed the ninth quite yet, and that'd take a few more years of people like Ugueth Urbina and Todd Jones closing games in Detroit, but he was beginning to be plugged in more and more.

2004 he sits out the year with an injury, which also explains why he doesn't have a card in 2005 Topps:

Rodney's 2005 season is a breakout year for him in the Tigers bullpen; In 39 games he posted 42 Ks and a 2.86 ERA, complete with 9 saves. The closing gig isn't his yet, and won't be until late 2006, but he's still trusted. 

'06 and '07, he gets Topps cards. In 2007 he doesn't close games thanks to Todd Jones, and mostly doesn't do much more than middle relief...

Which explains, I guess, why Topps didn't bother making a base card of his in 2008. Gotta admit, this move even surprised me as a young collector. I'd thought Fernando Rodney was a necessary relief inclusion, even in 2008, before he really took off. I was very confused. Rodney's 2008 was a step back in the right direction, saving 13 games even with a 4.91 ERA. 

From 2009, Topps doesn't miss a beat. They make flagship cards of him in Detroit, Anaheim, Tampa and Seattle, even in his waning Ms years. From 2012 to 2014 he saves 133 games, and it's absolutely huge, but he can't sustain the magic.

By the end of 2015, the Mariners give up on him in favor of Tom Wilhelmsen. So they deal him to the Cubs at the waiver deadline, which means Topps won't get to see the...very odd sight of Fernando Rodney as a Cub. This is incredibly odd. In 14 games in middle relief, Rodney had an 0.75 ERA and 15 Ks. Plus, he got to COMPETE for the first time in a while. He did well in early rungs of the playoffs but got beat up by the Mets in the NLCS. 

By 2016, Topps still wasn't convinced that Rodney was back, even if the end of the 2015 was at least worth a card. So they shrugged and missed out on Rodney's LAST ALL-STAR STINT. Yes, they got it in Update, but they had cards of him on the Marlins, which he showed up in for the ASG. Forgetting, of course, that his INSANE 0.31 ERA with the Padres was the thing that got Rodney there in the first place. In 28 games, Rodney had 33 Ks and 17 saves. These were the final indicators to Topps that Rodney was finally worth making cards of again. 

From 2017 to 2019, Topps would be pretty prompt with Rodney issues. D-Backs, Twins, A's...all good.

Yet the final stop on Rodney's journey, and the one that gained him that coveted World Series ring, went completely ignored by Topps. Yes, Fernando Rodney was a trusted relief option for the 2019 Nationals, pitching in 38 games with a 4.05 ERA and 35 Ks, and getting some postseason playing time as well. It was a great season to go out on, despite Rodney not officially throwing in the towel until the dust had settled on the 2020 season. I just wish Topps had produced a card of it, rather than making me finally branch out into customizing the relatively-tricky 2019 design. 

Still, Fernando Rodney had a long, prosperous career, marked by so many Topps cards that DID happen, that it should be a compliment to him that Topps missed so many times.
 

Topps Cards That Should Have Been: The Hideki Matsui Chronicles

If I were collecting in 2003, I'd be miffed.

Hideki Matsui, one of the most fearsome sluggers in Japanese league history, signs with my team, the New York Yankees, and Topps doesn't sign him to a deal. Upper Deck, Donruss and Fleer all do. But Topps, the most important card retailer in the business, can't court Matsui to a deal. So in 2003, while Upper Deck, Donruss and Fleer are producing tons of rookie cards of the slugger, Topps is just...shrugging. Going 'how about Jose Contreras?' 

It always pisses me off when Topps can't sign someone to a card-producing deal, because I'm a Topps-reliant collector, and I like seeing everybody in a Topps set and using that as my base for that player's year. And if they're not gonna do cards of, oh I dunno, THE MOST IMPORTANT JAPANESE EXPORT OF 2003, then what's the point?

So yes. Hideki Matsui makes it to New York in '03, and immediately hits the ground running, hitting .287 with 106 RBIs and 179 hits. He makes an all-star team, plays all 162 games, plays in a World Series, and loses Rookie of the Year to Angel Berroa for some strange reason.If Topps were to have put a Matsui rookie card in flagship, it would have looked like that- a shot of Matsui fielding specifically for card companies to have an action shot. That would have been enough for us. 

2004 is another strong year for the hitter affectionately referred to as Godzilla- he hits a career-high 31 homers, hits .298 with 108 RBIs, makes ANOTHER All-Star team, and finishes the season with a 5.0 WAR, higher than all Yankees that aren't A-Rod. Topps once again isn't making cards of Matsui this year, which is sucky, but UD, Donruss and Fleer all still do.

In 2005, Matsui FINALLY signs a contract with Topps, and from '05 until 2010, Matsui has tons of Topps cards, remains a solid MLB hitter and wins a World Series. 

Then, in 2011...the contract runs out. And Matsui and Topps don't agree on a new deal. Which means, for the last two years of Matsui's career...NO ONE is making cards of him. 

While Matsui's final two seasons aren't to the caliber of his Yankee years...we could have at least had SOMETHING. Anything. Like...2011, Matsui plays 141 games with the Oakland Athletics, in a starting role. He hits .251 with 72 RBIs and 130 hits. Not great, but he's still one of the chief figures of the A's season, and a Topps card of him would have made sense. Of course, no contract, no cards. So we suffer.

In 2012, Matsui doesn't sign with a team until one desperately needs him, and in late April he signs with the Rays. In 34 games, he hits .147 with only 7 RBIs. Clearly, his best days are behind him, and he retires after the season. And, again, Topps could have made a cool final tribute of Matsui, but it doesn't happen. 

In 2017, Topps signs a contract to produce cards of Matsui as a legend. He also signs with Panini, because nyah. Matsui has been on cards ever since. And yet Topps will probably never rewrite the years they missed with Matsui, because....I dunno, money or something. 

Topps Cards That Should Have Been: The Ron Gant Chronicles

Ron Gant, from 1987 until 2000, played for entirely teams with red in their uniforms. Nothing but red teams. The Braves, then the Reds, then the Cardinals, then the Phillies, and finally the Angels. Talk about consistency.

Yet because the two-time all-star slugger was traded to the Angels midway through the 2000 season, and because he wasn't as relevant as other mid-2000 trade deadline acquisitions like Curt Schilling, Topps didn't include an Angels card of Gant in their 2000 traded set. 

To be perfectly honest, the Topps consumers of 2000 weren't missing much. While Gant hit 20 homers with Philadelphia for the first half of the season, he only hit 6 in 34 games in Anaheim, hitting .232 with only 19 hits. It was the end of Ron Gant's reign as a relevant, competitive slugger in the MLB.

Yet Gant's career continued for 3 more seasons with teams that did not include the color red. He would split 2001 between the Rockies and A's, with the former being depicted by Topps and the latter not having enough photo evidence for me to do so. He would also spend 2002 with the Padres, and had something of a comeback year with 18 homers and a 1.9 WAR. 

And for his last trick...

Ron Gant would return to Oakland for his final season in 2003, as another one of Billy Beane's sabermetric-friendly tricks to continue the A's good luck. Gant's time in Oakland wouldn't work as well as people like David Justice and Ricardo Rincon in 2002, as he'd only hit .146 in 17 games, at the very least hitting the final one of his 321 home runs. 

It was a trailed-off ending to a career that started with such a bang in Atlanta, and it would have been cool if Topps had put a more formal cap on it. But, again, that's what I'm here for.

Topps Cards That Should Have Been: The Jeff Conine Chronicles

Jeff Conine won two rings with the same team, 6 years apart, two teams in between, and they were the club's only WS wins to date. 

I dunno, I'm no Tim Kurkjian, but I think that's pretty cool. 

Jeff Conine was best known not just for his Marlins year, being one of the first true Marlins heroes and all, but for batting directly before Cal Ripken in the Orioles lineup during the last few years of Ripken's career. When I saw the O's play in 2001, I got excited when Conine got up, because that meant Cal was up next. And Conine was pretty damn good with the O's too, with some solid contact seasons. 

In 2003, Conine spends most of the year with Baltimore, but after the trade deadline, and after Topps has finalized their Traded/Rookies checklist, the O's ship Conine to Miami for Denny Bautista, in a minor waiver deal that gives the Marlins one of their marquee stars back right before they're about to absolutely dominate the postseason.

The deal works like gangbusters for Conine. Conine hits .353 throughout the entire 2003 postseason, with 22 hits, 5 RBIs and a home run. He helps the fish win their second World Series, then rides out the rest of the deal with the Marlins, spending two more years there and splitting after it runs out in 2005. 

Conine then does the same thing he did the last time he was a free agent- he signs with the Orioles.

Granted, this is a late-career Conine with a last-place O's team, so he's doing this mostly as a victory lap. It's most curious to me that Topps didn't do a flagship card of him with the O's, as he's basically their starting first baseman that year, hitting .265 with 103 hits in 114 games.Yes, his positive WAR days are over, but he's a nice lineup asset for the O's in a season where nothing seems to be coming together for them.

Topps does depict Conine as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2006 Update, and as a member of the Cincinnati Reds in 2007 Topps. Both stints are relatively uneventful. However, the Reds trade Conine one last time, also past the trade deadline, leaving us with a rather odd sight in 2007:

That's right. Jeff Conine, the Marlins and Orioles hero, played for the New York Mets. And Topps never got around to putting that on a card. The nerve.

His Mets tenure is pretty boilerplate, honestly. 21 games, a .195 average, 8 hits. Not much going on for Mr. Marlin out of his own tank. He retires after the 2007 season, signs a one-day contract to retire as a Marlin in '08, continues to make occasional appearances in Miami, and is now waiting for his son Griffin to make his debut as a member of, you guessed it, the Miami Marlins [and I'd like to thank Jonathan Villar for making that serendipity happen]. 

Topps Cards That Should Have Been: The Rod Beck Chronicles

I think we've been wasting time comparing Craig Kimbrel to Trevor Hoffman when we really should be comparing him to Rod Beck.

I mean, swap out Huntsville for Van Nuys, and a slightly lower average saves-per-season, and Rod Beck's first decade of MLB service looks quite similar to Kimbrel's. Both big-game closers with insane consistency and intimidation that peters off spontaneously. And right now, we're in the 'early 2000s in Boston' portion of Kimbrel's career. A great market [Chicago], a golden opportunity, and nothing's coming together. 

Rod Beck, though, had more drastic troubles, with less of a sharp cutoff. He was struggling in Chicago in 1999 before a trade to Boston gave him a crack at a ninth-inning gig, which he did much better with. In a full season for the Sox in 2000, he did much better, with a 3.10 ERA in 34 games. Only problem was he didn't have a chance at the closing gig- Derek Lowe, of all people, closed 41 games for the Sox that year, in Boston's attempt to fill the bullpen with starters [Wakefield also relieved that year] and fill the rotation with people like Pete Schourek and Ramon Martinez [note to self, he didn't have a 2000 Topps card with the Sox]. 

Beck wasn't the officially designated closer in 2001, and only notched 6 saves for the Sox, but he did have a fuller, more relied-upon season as a middle reliever, appeared in 68 games and had a 3.90 ERA with 63 Ks, which is a different season for the man who's usually responsible for 50 saves, but one that was more indicative of where relief pitching was going in the following seasons. 

In 2002, the year Topps actually decides to make a card of him, those numbskulls, Rod Beck required Tommy John surgery, and sat out the entire year. The Sox moved on, getting Ugueth Urbina to pitch the ninth, with 40 saves as well. Beck would be a free agent for 2003, and it would take a lot to get someone to sign him, even for a minor league deal.

One of Beck's former teams decided to bite, though. The Chicago Cubs, with whom Beck notched a career high 51 saves in 1998, took a chance on Shooter, signing him to a minor league deal. The Cubs went into Spring Training with both Joe Borowski and Antonio Alfonseca looking at the closing gig, so a rehabilitated Beck would be facing sharp competition. Despite some decent showings in March, Beck doesn't make the team, spends two months in Iowa living in a motor home and becoming friends with all the fans, and he's released in May. Topps doesn't make a card of this Cubs tenure, but if they had a mind, they would have made one for Series 1. 

So Beck is a free agent once again...but only for a few days, as another California team, much like the Giants whom he came up with, needed help in the ninth.

The San Diego Padres signed Rod Beck with the sole intention of giving him the ninth inning and letting him close again. They had no one willing to hold the job for more than 4 saves, Trevor Hoffman was out for the season, and Beck was a tested solution. In 36 games, Beck held a 1.78 ERA with 32 strikeouts and 20 saves. For a last place team, Beck was a steady constant with more than enough in the tank to keep them from completely falling apart. These were the last great numbers of Beck's career, and proof that he could still perform post-Tommy-John.

 The Padres re-signed Beck for the 2004 season, but things would be different. Trevor Hoffman would be healthy, and would deliver 41 saves. The bullpen itself was sturdier, with great performances from Scott Linebrink, Akinori Otsuka and Antonio Osuna. Rod Beck had much less of a place in this much better team, and in 26 games his ERA ballooned to 6.38, with more NL East offenses getting to him than ever before. It was a disappointing, heartbreaking finale to Beck's career, made even more heartbreaking by Beck's passing three years later.

The other stark difference between Rod Beck and Craig Kimbrel is that Topps has always been behind Kimbrel, no matter where he went and no matter how dire his ERA looked. It is a mindset that Topps had never previously adopted with relievers, even leaving late-career moves from Rich Gossage, John Franco and Jesse Orosco out of their sets entirely. I'm not sure if Kimbrel's going to bounce back, but because he'll be doing so in 2021, rather than 2003, maybe the card companies will be more there for him than they were for Beck back in the day.