Time for the annual niche post for myself checking in with players who attended the same high school as me.
The man of the year here as far as my collection is concerned is Trenton Brooks. After making his MLB debut with San Fransisco in 2024, in 2025 he became the first non-Giles brother to have played for the GHHS Eagles and then go on to achieve that childhood dream of playing for their hometown MLB squad (The San Diego Padres in this instance). Big congrats to Trenton for that! He's a good kid with whom I had a lovely TTM autograph success with years back. So happy for him.
But the bad news is his hot bat in Triple-A got doused by major league pitching, and he didn't find his groove at the plate in San Diego, coming up short in multiple high-leverage situations, and ultimately getting cut from the squad after batting .146 through 25 games. Ouch. Hopefully he gets another shot in 2026. [Update: He'll play overseas next year, having recently signed with the Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization (article). Wishing him the best in the KBO!]
But regardless of what happens with the rest of his career, he got Topps cards! I don't bother with current cards much today, as I keep plenty busy enough chasing refractors from 20+ years ago, but when a kid from my high school gets included in a national baseball card release, I get sucked into the Topps-But-Really-Fanatics world of collecting brand new cards.
So of course there's stuff to complain about (crap, so many parallels!) but also fun stuff to chase (wee, so many parallels!). The last time a Guy From Granite got a Topps card (or Bowman or Panini for that matter) was back in 2018 when Travis Taijeron had an rookie autograph in Chrome Update, but no base card. Semi deja vu, this summer when Trenton Brooks popped up in 2025 Topps Chrome with a rookie auto but no base card. Unfortunately for me, he's pictured as a SF Giant. But that didn't deter me from going after the rainbow.
I did pretty well, not counting 1/1s, all I'm missing are the true orange /25, both black /10s, and both red /5s. And the purposefully-damaged-in-the-mail card I alluded to in a post a while back was his black & white mini diamond parallel (unnumbered but somewhat tough, only available in "Hobby Delight" boxes of 2025 Topps Chrome), which I intend to upgrade at some point. At least one printing plate sold more than I was going to pay (and from China-- I shy away from international sellers these days, even excluding non-US sellers from most of my ebay searches now), so this isn't likely to ever get to 100%, but I'll keep an eye out (haven't seen the superfractor pop up yet) and try to fill out the rainbow as much as possible but won't overpay for the sake of it.
I was a little worried Trenton wouldn't get a base rookie card, but was glad to see him pop up on the 2025 Topps Update checklist as a member of the Padres. So now there's another rainbow for me to chase, and it's a card of my favorite team now, hitting that sweet "double bullseye" for me. And since this one is a non-auto (and since he didn't generate much rookie hype), this project shouldn't get too pricey. But I'm sure there are a bunch of dumb 1/1s in there that some seller will be tempted to list at a ridiculous price.
I broke my rule of not joining breaks by joining a 5-case player break that doesn't ship base, only parallels/variations. What did 5 cases net me? Just one single basic-bitch rainbow foil parallel, estimated value of a buck or two. And it arrived with a surface mark, so I'll probably want to upgrade it sometime. So yep, that reconfirms with me that I shouldn't waste my time/money in breaks.
But I've since been able to pick up a bunch of singles towards the rainbow, often for just 2 or 3 bucks a pop, though I've cracked double digits once or twice.
I'm still actively adding cards to this rainbow, so I'll have to do an update once I plateau with it.
While I'm undoubtedly a fan of shiny cards, my favorite of the bunch is probably the vintage stock parallel, with its de-foiled retro redesign.
I checked the photo on Getty, and turns out it's taken from his first (only) MLB home run, so that's kinda cool.
There's also a "golden mirror" variation with a pre-game photo, but it's a dumb edited photo from his Giants days, pretending to be a Padres card, so I haven't gone after it too hard yet, but I imagine I'll snag one eventually. [Update: yep, it's in the mail.]
But wait! There's now a 3rd Trenton Brooks Topps card on the market-- another auto-only offering. 2025 Topps Chrome Update has another rookie auto-- this one technically his "rookie debut" card with that date in small print on the front. So the bad news there is he's back in his Giants duds, and the ugly City Connect uniform at that, so I probably won't chase after it too hard-- none secured yet-- but I'm sure I'll pick up a few here and there. [Update: I've got a couple in-hand now, with another on the way.]
Again, expect an update on these three Trenton Brooks rainbows sometime in 2026 once the dust settles.
This might be my last gasp at modern cards for a while. I doubt Trenton will get additional mainstream cards, but who knows. As far as other active guys who went to Granite Hills, looks like Dillan Shrum called it a career after stalling out a couple years in AA and not seeing action in 2025. Best of luck to him in his post-ballplayer life.
Hey, writing this post alerted me to a 2025 draftee! Sweet, a new Guy From Granite to potentially add to my collection. Austin Smith is the latest former Eagle to turn pro, getting drafted in the 10th round by Toronto this past spring. Doesn't look like he has any cards yet, but I'll try to keep an eye out. That could be tricky because there's a different guy named Austin (N.) Smith who got cards in 2015, plus another active guy also named Austin (B.) Smith. Those guys are both pitchers, though.
The guy on my radar is outfielder Austin A. Smith, who held his own in Florida State League A-ball in 23 games after batting .353 in his last season at USD. Let's hope he's able to succeed Trenton Brooks as the next guy from my high school to crack the bigs.
That's it for this year. Thanks for reading!
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