Here we are in the middle of winter, waiting 'til next year, and baseball news has made it to the front of most major media platforms. Sadly, it's for the passing of Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub.
I never got to shake Ernie Banks' hand and meet the legend in person, but that's more of a reflection on me and how I clam up around baseball celebrities than it is of Ernie. I'm sure he would have been able to loosen me up a bit with a firm handshake and his warm smile. But alas, I was more content to watch and take joy from how he interacted with others. I was within ear shot of Ernie on several different occasions and each time he was outgoing, warm, and he seemed to put an importance on making others smile. Ernie seemed just as eager to place a small child on his lap for a photo opportunity as he was to shake the hand of a life-long Cub fan.
He was a terrific ambassador for baseball, one of the most revered baseball talents ever, and he was a tremendous human being.
There's not much more I can say which hasn't already been said, so I'll allow people of greater notoriety than myself to offer their thoughts on Mr. Cub.
I'm in the middle of the second half of my high school basketball coaching gig and time is scarce, but that hasn't stopped me from jumping on the Twitter Machine and pulling a couple of my favorite photos.
Jason Motte was signed to pitch in high leverage situations this season AND provide veteran leadership for the Cubs' young bullpen. The picture below was taken at last weekend's Cubs Convention.
I'm not doubting his pitching prowess, but this picture certainly doesn't build my confidence in him guiding a bunch of early twenty-somethings to success. It looks like Joe Maddon may have his hands full.
You have probably heard that Wrigley Field's bleachers won't be finished until June. I guess left-field is scheduled to be completed in early May and it's right-field brethren will open up in late May.
care of @WrigleyBlog
Either way, Chicago winters are unpredictable and I'm not holding my breath. I do think the Cubstruction logo is clever though.
May I introduce to you Gus Warmsy McNapster. If you can think of a warm place to sleep you can bet he's already found it.
Somewhere underneath that heating blanket is my beautiful wife's lower half. Silly cat.
Lastly, I've been thinking about picking up a part-time and/or summer job. A new sports complex will be opening near my neighborhood late this spring and supposedly the management is looking to hire individuals who have coaching experience and know the games of softball and baseball. Hey, that's me!
I've already got my name in the applicant pool. Wish me luck!
Today we have a 16-card pack of 1990 Score against a 2014 Panini Classics, which weighs in at 8 cards.
This will be a 2-to-1 match scheduled for 8 rounds! . . . WHOA! Score has jumped the gun!
Score decided to forgo the customary glove tap before the match and instead delivers a sharp uppercut to Panini Classics with a Bob Gibson trivia insert! Whoooooa Nellie! What poor display of sportsmanship by Score! The arena is up for grabs and it's going to take some time to settle both corners of the ring down!
Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to cut to commercial and hope that when we return cooler heads will have prevailed.
Welcome back, folks. The Panini Classics corner has collected themselves and we're ready to start this match, officially this time.
Ding ding ding! An here we go!
Round 1
Panini Classics comes out from the corner swinging fiercely with a Jackie Robinson card. Score's Dan Pasqua and Matt Nokes are no match. Panini has evened the score, but the sense here in the arena is that things are just starting to heat up.
George Bell packs a wallop with his three silver sluggers awards, three all-star appearances, and an MVP award. Panini Classics unleashes its second Hall of Fame member in as many rounds. Wow, Classics has come out with its guns firing! Score, appearing a little dazed from the Robinson roundhouse, attempts to throw another punch, but its Gutterman doesn't even connect.
Updated score:
1990 Score = 1
'14 Classics = 2
Round 3
The smelling salts came out in Score's corner between rounds. It seems to have helped as a current Cub and a future Cub land to the body of Classics, which can only retaliate with a Jon Singleton. Perhaps Classics used all of its heavy artillery too early? Score has tied up the match!
Updated score:
1990 Score = 2
'14 Classics = 2
Round 4
It appears that both contestants are tiring here in the middle rounds. Oddibe McDowell and Bob Geren give the fans little to cheer about, and Panini can only offer up its own Yankee backstop in return.
From what we can see here in the booth it looks like the paying customers have more vigor in their step than the two in the ring. Let's see how the judges score this round... a draw! Ohhhhhhh my! The crowd is visibly displeased!
Panini Classics has found its second wind and deals a Hall of Fame punch with Jimmie Foxx before Score and can even thinking about unloading its Kirk McCaskill and Carmelo Martinez.
Score, realizing that time is ruining out, delivers a glancing blow with Eric Yielding, but then lands a hard right cross with Jack Morris and his awesome mustache. Panini stumbles a bit, wipes the fresh blood from its eye and reaches back . . . and . . . lands a Killer punch in Harmon Killebrew! A fourth member of the Hall of Fame!
The fans are rallying for Classics now and it seems as though we'll need a major change of events for Score to recover.
.
Updated score:
1990 Score = 2.5
'14 Classics = 4.5
Round 7
Panini Classics tries to end the match early with a fifth member of the Copperstown museum in Rod Carew. Score delivers a valiant attempt at a comeback with Tim Raines and Moses. Yet, not even Moses is enough for Score to get back on the board.
Updated score:
1990 Score = 2.5
'14 Classics =5.5
Round 8
Panini saves its insert for last and lands an Ichiro punch with the force of a lumberjack. Score stumbles and gives a quick series of Todd Stottlemyre fastball-like jabs to the mid section in retaliation. . . . Score, knowing it can't let this match come down to a judge's decision reaches back for one last haymaker . . . A card commemorating Bo Jackson's lead-off homer from the '89 All-Star game off of a Rick Reuschel sinker!
Panini Classics body absorbs the blow, staggers, and regains balance as the bell to end the round and match rings.
Whoa Nellie, what a match!
The Final Score:
1990 Score = 3.5
'14 Classics = 5.5
Panini holds on to win behind the strength of five cards featuring members of the Hall of Fame. The Bo Jackson All-Star card was a nice unexpected score though!
Thanks for tuning into another edition of Pack Wars. And remember folks, plunder the lox.
In my last post I showed off the haul blog reader David sent me. It was a great collection of Cubs from the early 90s to present day and was flush in autos, relics, prospects, and parallels. Simply a great package overall.
David doesn't have a blog, but he has what sounds like ambitious tastes. For instance, he has completed the 2014 Topps Chrome set, and the refractor set, and xfractor set, AND he is working on the orange, blue, and purple sets as well. Holy Cow!
Another one of his big projects is an autographed 1989 Topps set. I did have one card to contribute, a Mark Grace.
His wife is also into cards and she's working the 2014 Heritage set and the Heritage Minors set. How lucky of a man is he?
I'm working on a return trade package for David, but I'm after the two cards which top his most wanted list:
1. Chubby Cox. Yep, you read that correctly. His name is Chubby Cox.
Such a great card I had to add the picture to the post a second time!
I think it's pretty obvious why he needs a copy of this card. Well, because anyone who was ever a teenage boy needs a copy of this card. Right?
Here's a nice little blog post which gives a bit more of a description of Chubby's career: click here.
and...
2. Andrew McKirahan, 2012 Peoria Chiefs, stadium giveaway team set edition.
I have the McKirahan card on the right, but that card is from the team set that can be bought from the team store. That is not the card he's looking for. David actually attended some Peoria Chiefs games back in 2012 and has the entire set autographed except for the McKirahan set, because his set was shorted the card. He wants to try to track down the card for a TTM to complete his autographed set. Unfortunately, the guy on the blogosphere who lives in Peoria has struck out so far. Argh! The card he needs looks like the design on the left.
Any help out there? Bueller? Bueller? Hit me up at mrcoach00 at yahoo dot com if you have any leads on either card!
That's like music to my ears! Over winter break a gentleman by the name of David, a blog-less resident of the 49th state, contacted me and proclaimed that his Cubs cards were "sitting in a box in the dark."
Well, David... let me tell you, these cards are going every which way in my collection, but all are appreciated! Let's take a look at what was passed on to Waiting 'til Next Year headquarters.
I have a Brooks Kieschnick collection, which I will store in a database someday, and this card is now the centerpiece. Kieschnick was drafted by the Cubs in '93 and this card was produced in 1992 and boasts of Brooks' summer exploits in the Alaska League and Hawaii tourney. Simply awesome!
Here's some more that are heading straight to the player collection binders:
Woo-Hoo! The Vogelmonster! Excellent!
A couple of new Javy Baez cards. I'm a big fan of the minor league Heritage sets, but I must say the shiny Bowman throwback is my favorite of the two.
I'm calling it now: these two, Kris Bryant and Jorge Soler, will both finish in the top 5 for NL Rookie of the Year in 2015. Not coincidentally, they are both binder guys as well!
A legend of P-town and an all around good guy: Jim Thome. I've been waiting for the price of this card to come down in price in my neck of the woods, but now I don't have to wait any longer!
I have the Stadium Club card already, but it's been filed away in the Castro section of my Cubs binder. This one is up for a spot in my new Cubs FrankenSet. (Mental note: show off FrankSet to blogosphere.) The Diamond King is pretty sweet, and I still say Panini is doing a pretty good job of hiding the fact they don't have a license.
Minnnnnnnnniiiiiiiis! Woo-Hoo! The framed Garza will go my relic/auto box, but the other three will find their places in Castro and Rizzo sections of the Cubs binder.
Again, patience prevails. I didn't buy any Archives this year, but they are slowlyfinding their way to me. I'm not sure how the Cubs' faithful feel about me having Fujikawa and Fergie in the same binder, but that's the way I roll.
Lastly, the camouflage Welly is the last guy who go into the binders. I hope he stays there, but my gut says he'll be traded before opening day, and then I'll have a decision to make on his place in my collection. The Cubs went and acquired not one, but two catchers this off season. Arrrrrrrgh.
Well, that does it for binder representation. Let's move on to parallels and serial numbered! Above we have a D-Lee numbered to 250. Below a Sean Marshall numbered to 99.
The team leaders card isn't a parallel, but the horizontal format fits well with the Marshall card above. An A-Ram auto! The first in my collection, what a score! The Soriano relic has a horizontal blue stripe AND it is dirty as a car after cruising on the country back roads.
The League Standouts was some Fleer's better work from the early 90's in my opinion. And, who can forget skinny Sammy Sosa? I'm a Dillon Maples super collector, which once again just proves that I can't pick prospects worth a darn. If Maples is lucky he'll have half the career Rich Hill did. By the way, the Hill card is see-through, thus the "Clear Path to Greatness" name for the insert series.
What a great selection of cards overall. Last, but not least, we have a Power Players parallel of The Shark. I can't believe he plays for the White Sox now. Good grief. He's going to own the Cubs in the Crosstown Classic this summer... I just know it.
David, you may say these cards weren't doing much for you, but they have totally brightened up my January. Thank you your generosity! Please tune into my next post where I ask the blogosphere for a little help on a return package for David.
I've been back to school/work for a little over a week now, but sometimes it's nice to reflect on the good times to help get one through another rough winter.
swiped from weather.com
No, my winter hasn't been as hellacious as the picture above, but I feel like I'm still suffering from the effects of last winter, which was quite trying.
So, my wife and I made for Texas over the recent winter break via my new-ish Mazda CX-5. It was my first long road trip with the new vehicle and it was pretty smooth. Lots of miles on the highways for sure, but 75mph speed limits, $1.95 gas, and beautiful company made the 1,978 mile round trip actually go pretty fast.
While in Texas we spent a few days with our friends Jeff and Nichole. They own season tickets to the Chicago Cubs, but they live in Waco. It is, what it is... which is to say not convenient for them.
Jeff gave me a couple of items from the past season and both have found places in the man room.
If you couldn't tell, the above shot is picture of my new Kerry Wood lawn gnome. Heck yeah! No man room be without a lawn gnome of your favorite team!
The other item was a nice key chain with some authenticated Wrigley Field infield dirt. It's pretty cool if I do say so myself.
While in Texas we enjoyed some tasty barbecue. Mmmm... the Rusty Star is now the top BBQ restaurant on my list. Don't get me wrong, the BBQ was good, but they also had homemade pie! Man, do I love me some pie!
We took a trip down to Austin and while we were there we ate at restaurant that had a special sauce to complement their edamame.
They called it "angry sauce". The flavor was okay, but as lover of all things spicy I thought the name was pretty creative.
One night in Waco we watched The Interview and another night we played Cards Against Humanity? Holy cow that's a fun game, but one that I am not very good at.
One more photo to show off. Some major universities have live mascots and Baylor University is no different.
Here's a shot of the two Baylor Bears sleeping the day away in their plush on-campus habitat. Nice, very nice.
Overall, it was a relaxing trip to visit friends and create some memories. Woo-Hoo! Now, bring on the spring!
I found a Nomar Garciaparra card on Listia last month and I was pretty excited. Nomar is one of my binder guys.
The card came pretty quickly and it had a note attached.
I like the personal touch of this seller and I'm crossing my fingers that Tony is right. Hopefully 2015 will be a fun and competitive year for my boys in blue!
About a week ago defgav, from the ingenious Baseball Card Breakdown, threw out a contest of sorts. I'm not really interested in the contest portion so much, but I think this game of Wallet Card will provide for some quick and easy blog posts randomly through the year.
I picked a card of my favorite player from the first set I ever attempted to complete from packs.
Yep, the illustrious 1988 Topps card of Ryne Sandberg. And wait for it... it actually gets better... this card is made of real cardboard! I'm not sure how much the card will wear over the course of a year, because
1) it fits perfectly in one of the pockets in my wallet and 2) it normally resides in the console of my car and not on my person.
Swiped from www.vibe-it.net
It's not like I have a Costanza wallet, but it does mess with my back when I sit on the confounded thing for long periods of time. So, it sits in the console until I need it and then it goes back. (Oh, and yes, I always keep the doors to my car locked, because of the lowest common denominator and all.)
So, look for '88 Topps Sandberg posts during 2015. If the card holds up it may find a permanent home in my wallet.
