Crosstown Classic: Trade Style

The Cubs won the Crosstown Classic this year against the White Sox, but when that's one of the first positives that come to mind that means it hasn't been a good year.  On a more personal level, I finally found someone to trade with who cheers for the team from the south side.  One of my collecting goals for 2013 can be crossed off the list!

I managed to scrounge up some 2011 Topps Kimball Champions card and some White Sox to send Jeff, of 2 by 3 Heroes, and here's a glimpse of what he sent my way:

2012 Bowman Chrome, the "not curly" kind.  My favorite!  Szczur is one of the great guys in all of sports and Dillon Maples is one of my favorite minor leaguers, even if he only pitched in rookie ball this year.

This next guy gets lost in the shuffle behind Javier Baez, Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant, and Albert Almora, but he's a top flight talent himself and plays the game hard.  I love the International Flag Parallels and will think long hard if this one will end up in my 2013 Bowman  FrankenSet or not.

Hey, a 1992 Topps Winners gold card!  Were these the first parallels in baseball card history?  I have a complete set tucked away downstairs.  The cards were fun to redeem back in the day!

 Trivia break: George Bell was one of three former MVPs that played for the Cubs in 1991.  Unfortunately, they were all on the wrong side of 30 when they played together and the team finished in fourth place.  Bleh.

Here are two players who were at the corners for the Cubs and really gave the Cubs something to cheer about. 

DLee was a really good guy and is now retired, while Aramis might be the only "big bat" that doesn't end the year on the DL (Weeks & Hart) or suspended (Braun) for the Brewers.   Nevertheless, I miss them both.  The Cubs offense this year was BAD.

I thought the Cubs had found their catcher of the future when this guy busted down the door in September of 2007.  He even wound up finishing 13th in the MVP voting in 2008.  Wow, things change so fast sometimes. Geo hasn't hit above 0.230 in the last three seasons!

These 2008 Upper Deck X cards have been consistently landing in my mailbox this year.  The sharp angles are a little much, but the red, white, and blue sure do look good with the Cubs and their home jerseys.

 Kid K!  I love me some Kerry Wood cards!  I already have these two in my collection.  But, that's okay.  I'm thinking I might do another project like my baseball card coffee table and Wood will figure to play a prominent role in my next attempt.

 Ah-hah!  I don't have this one: 2006 Upper Deck.

My 244th different Kerry Wood card.

 And look, my 686th different Ryne Sandberg card in the same trade package!  Nice!

 

I love the Bowman Heritage and this is the third different Upper Deck Artifacts card from 2006.

But oh my, what could have been! How many Cubs prospects have I collected just to see their careers fall short?  . . .  In this case, way short.

Here's one more prospect.  And hopefully this one will have a decent MLB career.

 Vitters struggled to stay healthy this year and rumor has it he will shift to the outfield next year.  I'm crossing my fingers that the switch of positions will help keep him injury free and more focused on his offense in 2014.  Cubs fans forget that he'll be just twenty-four years old next year.

Lastly, we'll wrap this one up with a couple of guys who wore our their welcome in Chicago. Again, it amazes me how the media is capable of vilifying a player.  Deserved or undeserved. 

 This is a great card of Sammy gazing at a well struck ball... perhaps, right before his famous hop?  Somehow, I think I have become the officially landing zone for all of Zambrano's relics.  In Big Z's twelve years as a Cub I didn't have one relic of his to call my own.  Now that he has been bouncing around the minor leagues for a year and is no longer affiliated with the Cubs organization I've managed to collected four of his relic cards.  Weird.  Just weird. 

This was a terrific with a very wide variety of Cubs goodness.  Thanks for the great trade, Jeff!