no uppercase letters in this post

the old garvey cey russell lopes blog in its heyday would churn out more than a post a day, and I don't think you'll find one capital letter in all of those posts. jim's blog was one of the first baseball card blogs I found back in the day, and to honor it you won't find any uppercase letters here either.

jim has since moved on to other blogging projects such as frankendodger, which ran its course back in august, and cards as i see them, which seems to be jim's new posting ground. even if new posts aren't going up jim still keeps things pretty up-to-date on the gcrl blog, as evident by his trade tracker:

 see? there i am at the bottom! actually, i had to edit his list of outgoing packages because it was way to long for a single screen capture to take in at once.

i believe, if i'm not mistaken, that i sent jim a few cards during this month's great cardboard purge. if not, jim, please let me know! regardless, here's a note and some cards he sent my way via a stuffed pwe:

my cubs knocked his dodgers out of the playoffs and he seems cool with it. i'm writing this post sunday morning and the cubs are still alive, but if they fall to the indians i'll be much of the same mind. twenty-nine teams are going to fall short of their goal this year and i feel it's silly to harbor ill will against the one that comes home with the prize. the cubs are built for the long haul and if they don't do it this year, they'll have another crack at it.

oddly enough, here's a card that seems a little confused about whether it's a cubs card or a dodgers card.

 luckily the dodgers' grays aren't much different than the cubs' road uniforms. for the purposes of my collection i'm calling it a cubs card!

here's a fun card:

 corky miller and sammy sosa on a "grudge match" card? interesting.

i don't know that corky miller and sammy sosa have ever had a beef with one another, but i do know sammy was caught using a corked bat in june of 2003. well, there you go, that was good enough for topps.

hall of famers always make for an excellent pwe inclusion!

 the 1988 score template is one of my favorites to use when i made cards for my high school baseball team last spring through the rookies app.

carl edwards, jr., seems like a fun guy. i have high hopes for him filling the 7th or 8th inning bullpen role next year for the cubs. here's more evidence of carl being a fun guy:

this photo was taken from my seat at wrigley during the on-field celebration after the cubs clinched the pennant. it's really hard to tell, but that's carl running around the outfield using the "w flag" as a cape!  here's a better one i swiped from the daily herald:

lastly, jim included some conlon cards for my set build.

a kiki cuyler for my cubs collection!

unfortunately, these are all duplicates, but that's on me because i think it was difficult to distinguish between my wants and my needs. i've corrected this issue and now i am only listing the needs in the google docs file.

jim, thanks for the pwe and good luck with your new blog!

A Purposeful PWE

A couple of months ago I put together an order through sportlots.com to knock out the remaining cards from the 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends set. If I recall correctly I was missing about a dozen cards and after the order I was still missing one, because the seller mistakenly pulled the wrong Chipper Jones card for me. Bummer.

This card has been sitting in a want list all by its lonesome since that time until yesterday. Mark, from My Best Friend collects Chipper Jones, sent me a power packed PWE. I'm not sure if this is a duplicate from Mark's best friend, as his blog name would suggest, or maybe it's from Mark's collection. Regardless, it completes the set for me and I'm feeling a great sense of accomplishment this morning because of it, even if it wasn't of my own doing.

The second card in the PWE was a 1959 Topps card, which are pretty scarce in my collection.

According to the back of the card, Elmer Singleton sported a 0.00 ERA in 1958. I will add that if he hadn't been injured he would have lead the NL in ERA. (Sorry, Joe Buck's man crush of Clayton Kershaw during the NLDS is still firmly rooted in my mind.)

The importance of this card is in its number, #548, which fills a hole in my Cubs FrankenSet. Only four vacancies remain and once those are filled I'll only be looking to update the cards in the folder. The MIA cards are #627, #651, #653 and #661.

Thanks for the PWE, Mark!  I've prepared a few cards for you and they'll go out tomorrow!

Go Cubs, Go!

More than a Pedestrian Lineup

Chris, the author of The (Pedestrian) Collector, sent me an e-mail regarding some cards I was looking to unload. In return he sent me a nice stash of Cubs goodness for my troubles.  Actually, it was a win-win for yours truly as I was able to gain some space in my card closet AND I received new Cubs cards. Isn't life grand?

This package leads off with some Cubs checklists from the 1996 Fleer set.

 

I love cards like this because I try to fill all nine pockets in the first page of every binder with nine different cards of the Cubs logo. I have plenty of Fleer stickers from the 80s, but these are new to my collection and will certainly stand out!

These two cards very easily could have started the post, but they fit nicely in the two slot.

The Kerry Wood card is the 477th is my KW player collection and the Ryne Sandberg, from 1997 Topps Finest, is 817th in my Ryno player collection.

In the three hole we find a 2004 Topps Fan Favorites card of Don Kessinger. I have a modest collection of the slick fielding shortstop and this card will give it a nice little boost.

 Batting cleanup is a quartet of heavy hitters: Soriano, Alou, Sosa, and DLee.

In the five hole we find a player who could very well find himself there someday in the future for the Cubs: Jeimer Candelario.

Candelario got a cup of coffee this year and has taken some nice developmental strides the past year.  It made more sense a few years ago during the rebuild, but for some reason I'm still attracted to Bowman Chrome prospects of Cubs players even though there's little chance they'll unseat Bryant, Baez, Russell, Contreras or Schwarber.

Batting sixth we have a pair of Cubs from my childhood. Shawon Dunston had a cannon of an arm and so did Mitch Williams. 

Mark Grace saved a bunch of errant throws from Dunston and made him look good. My mom thought Wild Thing's tight pants made him look good. (True story: my mom had a small collection of Mitch Williams baseball cards in the early 1990s.)

A pitcher batting seventh?  Well, I don't have much of a choice, because it's nothing but hurlers from here on out. 

 I liked Juan Cruz' raw stuff. Simply stated: He was filthy. But what I like more is this card design because of the large number in the background. I wish card companies would put a little more emphasis on the player's number.

Big Z and Messiah Mark occupy the eighth spot: 

 Nicknames and players from over a decade ago. Boy, does time fly.

And, warming up in the bullpen, we have an excellent Topps Opening day insert card of John Lackey.

Lackey is tonight's starting pitcher in Game #4 of The World Series, a game which the Cubs must find a way to win to have any chance of beating the Indians in series. Hopefully, the captured photo is similar to how we'll see Lackey exiting tonight's ballgame, which would be preferable to him walking from the found, head down, mumbling not-so-sweet nothings to himself on the way to the dugout.  One can hope!

Chris, thank you for reaching out and starting this trade. We'll have to do it again sometime!

Go Cubs, Go!

Trading for Karma

A little while ago I sent Daniel, from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop, a couple of Dback cards in attempt to buy some good karma for my Cubs.

The night he received the cards Miguel Montero, a former Diamondback, hit a pinch hit grand slam to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead in the NLCS over the Dodgers.  Here's a link to Daniel's post and the note I sent him:

Yesterday I got a nice little return PWE from Arizona and a note:

Nice, very nice.

Here's to hoping this PWE brings Addison Russell and the Cubs some good luck!  I know who I'm picking to make a difference in tonight's ballgame.

For the record, I sent out 36 packages and a handful of PWEs this month. If the Cubs manage to make history I won't be shy about asking Theo for part of the postseason bonus.

Thanks for the Addy, Daniel!  And Go Cubs, Go!

Playing Catch Up

I never thought my blogging efforts would be stymied by playoff baseball, but that's the case. I have had two trade packages sitting on my desk for more than a week now and one of them is still sealed. If you know my habits, then you would know how unheard of that is!

In my neck of the woods everyone wants to talk Cubs baseball while waiting for the next game.

Though I'm not sure I understand the snide comments and backhanded compliments from all the Cardinal fans in my building. Some of the Cub fans I work with can be jerks, but I've always been supportive and friendly to those who choose to wear red rather than blue.

Treat others how you want to be treated.  You know?

Regardless, it's been a bunch of fun for me, personally, but I think I'll welcome a slower November. But, that won't stop me from watching every second and wishing for the stars.

I have a little time now, before heading back to school to support the volleyball team, so I thought I would knock out a trade post.

All of these cards come from JayP, who is the author of Cards My Mother Didn't Throw Out.

It's a return package from a Topps National Baseball Card Day Paul Goldschmidt card and some Diamondbacks I sent his way.

This guy is unreal. Period.

Anytime Cubs find their way to my mailbox I'm a happy collector.

 Go Cubs, Go!

Thanks for the cards, JayP!

Whirlwind of a Weekend

I was able to secure tickets the Cubs game Saturday night.  Yes, that one. Game #6 of the NLCS. I had every intention of watching the game from home while nibbling at my finger nails, but the baseball gods sometimes smile favorably down upon me. This was one of those times.

I took lots of pictures, but this was my favorite!

Kyle Hendicks pitched a gem. Rizzo and Contreras hit homers.  There was much laughter, cheering and high fives for everyone throughout the game and at times the noise of the crowd was deafening.

Outside Wrigley after the 8th inning.

It was the biggest party I have ever been to and I'll it's a night I'll always remember. Thanks to all of those who sent me texts or messaged me on Twitter. It was really nice to share the evening with so many through social media!

 I hope the Cubs can #FlyTheW four more times this year!  Go Cubs, Go!

A FrankenSet PWE

Mark, whose Best Friend Collects Chipper Jones, sent me a five card PWE the other day. It takes a special day at the plate to go 5-for-5, but that's just what this special blogger did.

All five of the cards filled a vacancy within my Cubs FrankenSet. I now only need to track down cards for five empty pockets within the pages of one of my favorite binders.

 Hector Cruz seems to be quite happy about being added to the set!

 I'm happy to add a Hall of Famer in Andre Dawson!

 Fun fact of the day: Jimmie Hall once hit 30+ homers for Minnesota.

 Chuck McElroy was one of my favorite lefties back in the day.

 Rick Stelmaszek is a new one to me. Is it me, or does that "C" on the hat look a little off? Rick fills a hole, but I don't think he'll put up much of a fight if another Cub with #338 enters the collection.

That's what is great about the FrankenSet . . . it's always evolving!

Thanks for the PWE, Mark!  I really appreciate it!