Kerrys, Kris and Customs

Gavin, the legendary custom maker from the Baseball Card Breakdown blog, sent me a package this week. Man, and was it ever loaded with Cubs goodness!

Let's start off with the items not mentioned in the title. How about a purple freakin' ROCK SHOULDERS to get us going!

 

Yeah! What a way to start a mailer! Rock, a former Cubs farmhand, was sent to Texas in 2015 and last year he played in nine games for the Joliet Slammers of the independent Frontier League. Unfortunately, I think his time in professional baseball has just about come to a close.

Next up, another parallel:

Darwin is still kicking it in the big leagues, having played five different positions last year with Toronto. (You will win 100 baseball nerd points if you can name all five positions without looking it up. Bloggers named Wrigley Wax are not eligible to participate.)

Boom!  Bryant!

The card on the left is a product of the Padres All-Star Fan Fest and now it can join the one, which was already in my collection, on the right. I believe the one on the right is one of the originals which was part of an insert in a college program.

On to the Kerry portion of the program!

 Not sure about the design of this one . . . the P and 34 seem really out of place, but all cards of KW are welcome in my collection!

 This card was pretty neat and had a couple more Cubs on the reverse side which happily shocked me.

 

 Upper Deck Ultimate Signature is on the left and Topps Co-Signers is on the right. Neither have a legit signature on them, but both are serial numbered. Maybe they should have re-thought the names of those sets?

 And we have a patch!  Yes! This is my twentieth patch card of Kid K. I have eighteen in two pages, and one is in an extra thick top loader because it wouldn't fit in a page. This one starts a brand new one page. Excellent!

Of  the 485 card in my Kerry Wood collection, Gavin has gifted me a dozen of those. Thanks for taking the time to find ones I need for my binder!

And here come the Customs . . .

 I recognized this Kris Bryant and turned it over to find it's one of Gavin's customs. I must be remembering it from his blog. Man, he does such good work he had me fooled.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these two.

 I wish had about a dozen more of each, because I want to put copies in every Cubs binder I own!

 Did you know Bill Murray played for the Grays Harbor Loggers and is a career 0.500 hitter?  Neither did I until I read the back. Just fantastic!

Next up are a couple of sweet cards of Daniel Vogelbach:

 How awesome of a card is that?  Beautiful use of the horizontal layout AND it says, "The Vogelmonster" on the front. I'm grinning ear-to-ear right now!

 Gavin said he tried a couple of times to get this signed as a TTM, but to no avail. No matter, it's still going in the front page of my Vogelbach binder. Yes, I'm over 100 cards of The Vogelmonster and he has his own binder. Don't judge me!

I asked Gavin for a favor and he really responded. I needed a card marking Vogelbach's trade to Seattle.

 Vogelbach was sent to the Mariners in July for the guy who would ultimately throw the last pitch of the 2016 season. The above card is in the likeness of 2002 Fleer and is the bee's knees.

Gavin, thanks for the thoughtful package and all the time and effort you put into your customs. You've made me one happy collector of cardboard!

Oh, and for what it's worth, there's one custom from Gavin I haven't show yet. I think it deserves it's own post, which I'll put together when things slow down here on the blog.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Shrapnel, Glorious Shrapnel

Bob Walk the Plank and JBF just concluded their recent war of cardboard, and I must have gotten to close to the action, because I was hit with some shrapnel.

And . . . It. Was. Awesome.

Did you hear David Ross is writing a book? It's titled Teammate, and he'll make a profit just on the sales from middle-aged Cub fans, like myself, who have fallen for his charm. 

Per usual, Matt's mailings contain few cards, but what they lack in quantity they make up for in quality.

Oscar De La Cruz packs a plentiful punch of pitching potential and a curly-Q autograph. I saw this card the other day for the first time and I filled my Ebay watchlist with about a half-dozen different auctions hoping to pounce on one that didn't sell well. I guess I can go delete those now!

 Speaking of pitching potential:

 Edwards is no longer a prospect, but I still think he's some ways off from reaching his ceiling. 2017 will be his first full year on the 25-man roster and I'm expecting big things from him. This Bowman Sterling card is sweet looking in hand!

To this point I've shown two autos of guys, in the middle of their pitching motion, who don't really display what I would call "pitcher's face." You know what I'm talking about...  those max effort delivery guys who look beet red, with eyes bulging and teeth gnarling.

Cruz looks calm and Edwards is focused.

I give you Kerry Wood:

Serial numbered to 25, three colored patch, Wrigley Field in the background, and some fairly decent pitcher's face of my favorite pitcher of all time! This is my kind of shrapnel!

Thanks for the great cards, Matt! I just came down with a head cold and this was just the pick-me-up I needed!  (An aside: I don't get kids these days . . . I give them a decent education and they give me germs? Hmph.)

Don't forget to get in on my Favorite Card Contest!

I Traded Him Anything

Trade Me Anything X is taking place somewhere deep within the frozen tundra of Wisconsin. I sent "anything" to Thorzul and he graciously filled my SASE with two nice cards.

I needed the Rizzo for my player collection. The Blake Snell card?  Well, I am a prospector at heart and Snell sure does a have a bountiful amount of potential in that left arm or his. So, why not?

That's it for tonight. I still have a couple of packages sitting on my desk I've yet to crack open. If you've sent me something recently just know that it'll be on the blog before too long.  😁

Thanks for reading and stay warm!

My Blaster of Cubs Came Today!

I pre-ordered the 25-card limited edition 2016 World Series Champions Chicago Cubs boxed set about five weeks back. Today it arrived in my mailbox and although I have other packages lined up to blog about you're going to get the boxed set tonight. And, you're going to like it! (Or, you've already moved on at this point wondering, "When is this guy going to get off this Cubs kick?")

Here we go!  It's picture heavy, so buckle in!

 The set came in a blaster sized box and it came with a blaster sized prize tag, which I was more than willing to pay.

 Here's the reverse side of the box, which I'll place on display somewhere in the man cave. Kudos to the art department at Topps.

 Another side of the box boasts magical postseason moments. Magical? Debatable. Memorable? Heck yeah!

Here's my four favorite cards and the their magical moments.

 I still can't believe Schwarber was able to come back from an ACL tear AND actually get his timing back enough to be a threat in the lineup. What a story!

 Sometimes you need a little luck to win the big ones and this would qualify!

 I like this card because it reminds of how crazy Wrigleyville was during the postseason. It was electric when I was there during the NLCS.

 I've mentioned this before, but the local boy did good!

Six of the seven games of the World Series were featured on the backs of these magical moments cards, with the only omission being Game 4.  The first fifteen cards in the checklist had backs similar to this one.

 The Indians won Game 1, but there was plenty of talk about Schwarber.

 The Cubs evened up the series in Game 2.

 Losing 1-0 in the World Series is tough. I was just on the edge of my seat waiting for that one deep fly to the bleachers . . . it never came.

 Down 3 games to 1, Bryant's big hit got things rolling in Game 5.

Six RBI's in Game 6 by a shortstop who turns twenty-three next month. Yes, the future is bright.

I thought for sure the Cubs were going to win Game 7 when Ross hit his solo shot in the 6th inning. I wound up being right, but not before a roller coaster last three innings.

The last ten cards in the set look slightly different than the ones above. First, the Cubs logo is back and the World Series logo has been relocated off the corner piping.  The backs of the cards have all of the player's career stats.

Baez, Russell, Bryant, Rizzo, Contreras, Zobrist, Schwarber, Lester, Arrieta, and Chapman get the solo card treatment.

I'm very disappointed that Kyle Hendricks, Mike Montgomery and Carl Edwards were left off the checklist entirely. Those three arms were relied on pretty heavily during the World Series. For the record, Dexter Fowler was given a magical moments card for his lead-off homer in Game 7.

World Series Championships don't come around that often, and even if there are more in near future for the Cubs, the first one after a 108 year long drought will be the one that I celebrate and day dream about the most. Flipping through a binder with these card in pages will make sure of that.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to enter my new contest about your favorite card of 2016!

Contest - Favorite Card of 2016

Yeah, it cost more than I wanted to pay. But pay, I did.

Grandpa Rossy was my favorite Cub the last couple of years  and he played pretty well in his final season when given the opportunity. It will be difficult for the 2017 Cubs to replace this fun-loving leader.

 This is David Ross' first certified autograph in the last decade, with the only other I'm aware of being back in 2004 as a member of Team USA.

The fact that Ross commemorates the 2016 World Series Game 7 victory with a nice inscription on the front makes it even better. Thus, making it easily my favorite card made in 2016.

Here's the details on the contest:
1. Must be one card produced in 2016.
2. It does not have to be baseball related and may even be from a non-sport set.
3. It should be a card you have in your collection, but I'm a softie and will count your admission even if it isn't.
4. Make a quick blog post about your favorite card.
5. Reply in the comments section of this post with a link to your post before January 9th, 2017. (Some of you may find a new favorite during the holiday season!)
That's it!  Pretty simple contest, but I think it will be fun to see everyone's favorite of 2016.  So...

Heads up!
6. I will summarize all entries in one blog post.  (I will pilfer pictures from your post and use them here.)

The Prize!
7. I will place all entrants into random.org and perform three randomizations. The winner (#1 slot) will receive a blaster of 2017 Topps S1 when it is released AND the person who winds up in the last place slot will also receive a prize, which is yet to be determined. Yes, even the last place person is a winner.

Now, get to posting!