No Respect, No-Hitter

Alec Mills first reached the Big Leagues in 2016 and has been with the Chicago Cubs organization since 2017.  Despite this sustained tenure at the game's highest level, it took until 2020 for the righty to appear on a "mainstream" baseball card.  For what it's worth, the bespectacled moundsman did sneak onto the checklist of 2016 Onyx Authenticated Platinum Elite (phew, what a mouthful), which earned him an autograph hit and several different parallels.  However, one could hardly call the oft-forgotten, pre-rookie product mainstream; plus, no regular ol' base card for the everyman collector like me.  Other than that, your only option for an Alec Mills card prior to last year was team-issued minor league set breaks.  Topps, Panini, and - heck - not even Leaf would give this guy the time of day.

 

In all actuality, Alec was up-and-down (but mostly down) between the Majors and the minors most of that time and the former college walk-on was never anywhere near blue chip prospect status.  Still, you'd think that a young starting pitcher on the roster for a major market club that's highly sought after in the collectibles market (and coming off a World Series win, no less) coming up in an era that places a ridiculous premium on rookies and prospects would have at least slipped into a Bowman or Prizm product during that time.  Talk about no respect!

Then, this past year, things took an abrupt left turn.  Suddenly, Alec started to appear in the checklist for seemingly every baseball card set printed since the summer of 2020 began.  What changed? Why was this previously unknown force suddenly getting acknowledged by the powers that be at Topps & Panini?

Well, all he had to do was simply toss a no-hitter.  On the 13th of September, the unheralded fifth starter went out and confounded Milwaukee Brewers hitters on their home turf.  It was just the 15th start in Alec's Big League career and it took him "only" 114 pitches.  As a finesse pitcher without much velocity and that most often pitches to contact, I don't think anyone saw this coming from Alec.

 

Things changed for Alec after that whirlwind performance.  The breakout pitcher was suddenly good enough to be included in Heritage, Update, Chrome Update, the Living Set, Total, On-Demand, Road to Opening Day, and - as you can see above - Now.  If that's all it took to get some love, why didn't Alec just go out and pitch the 16th no-hit game in franchise history sooner?  Sheesh!

To be fair, a lot of the products on that list are online exclusive - thus, one can easily contest their merits as "mainstream." What was cannot argue, on the other hand, is that there was an absolute Alec Mills explosion in 2020.  I'd been trying to track down a pasteboard with his likeness since he was acquired via trade with the Royals in 2017 and found very little in terms of options.  Suddenly, I had more options than I knew what to do with.

 

 

Of course, that's not completely true - I knew which card was the pick of the litter for me.  You can probably guess which one I went with too, since it's the only card that has appeared in this blog post so far.

 

As a Cubs fan, a no-hitter has always been a hallowed event.  For most of my lifetime, the Lovable Losers hadn't been able to close the door on such a feat.  From Milt Pappas' shoulda-been perfect game in 1972 (long before I was even a concept) until Carlos Zambrano finally made it through all nine innings in 2008, I'd seen the boys in blue come frustratingly close on several occasions; but, they could never quite cross the finish line.  Thus, even though Jake Arrieta powered through two no-hitters on his own since that dry spell ended, such an event is still absolute must see TV to me.

That's all well and good, though the no-hitter itself wasn't the biggest reason why I wanted Mills' celebratory Now card for my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection.  This bit of baseball history had an extra special personal connection to me... and someone else:

This was the first no-hitter twirled by the Cubs in my newborn son's lifetime!  The little guy doesn't know how lucky he is - it took this team the first 19 years of my life to achieve this feat and it didn't even take them a full month of his to do the same!

 

My wife and I were out and about searching for caffeine (a regular occurrence in Row's early months) while listening to the game on the radio.  As things started getting interesting, we came home and I got to listen to Alec close out the ninth with my new best friend nestled on my lap.  As you can see in the image above, the kid - mouth agape - seemed almost more excited than I did!  I think all the noise and cheering is what stimulated the boy, though I choose to believe that he somehow knew something of significance was happening around him.  All in all, Alec Mill's no-hitter was the first special baseball moment that I was able to share with my son.

Rowan, the 20th time he's heard me ramble about this occurrence.

Admittedly, it's not exactly an enthralling story in and of itself - that being stated, it's something that I will absolutely never forget.  I cannot wait to regale him with the tale when he's older.  In the end, I'm kind of glad it took four years for me to fill Alec Mill's slot in my CATRC binders.  After all, I ended up with a trinket that holds much more significance to me than some unlicensed pajama Onyx oddity that would be forgotten almost as soon as it entered it's tome.

Thanks for the memory, Alec, and - finally - welcome to the Cubs All-Time Roster Collection.  Here's hoping you can build off your emergent 2020 season and help solidify the Cubs' Swiss cheese starting rotation in 2021!