The Base Vogey and a Mini Bobbing Head Card

 The author of cards as i see them and long-time trading partner of more than a decade, gcrl, sent me a PWE with the 2021 Topps Update Dan Vogelbach card. 

Bonus: two new to me Kerry Wood cards were included. 

The above one is from the 2000 Pacific Paramount set and it is heavy on the blue!

The one below is from an insert set I've never seen before: 1999 Upper Deck Choice Mini Bobbing Heads.

The checklist from this 30 card set is loaded with stars. How has this fun set eluded me for so long?

Thanks for the great PWE of cards, Jim. I'll have something out to you soon!

BWTP Makes Me Take Stock

 Bob Walk The Plank reached out recently and asked if I'd take on some 2021 Cubs. Well, that's kind of a silly question. The answer is, "I'll always take Cub cards!"

As of July 31st, the true question is, "Who are the 2021 Cubs?"

Let's start with the cards of players who qualify as current Cubs. 

Jason Heyward, Kyle Hendricks, Ian Happ, Alec Mills and omnipresent rookie Brailyn Marquez can still be labeled as Cubs. The only big name missing from this group would Willson Contreras. 

Count me as one of the collectors who enjoy team cards. I think Adbert Alzolay has some promise and I'm glad he'll get a full season's worth of innings this year to develop. 

Another Marquez card and two other potential pieces of the future in Christopher Morel and Ed Howard. 

Alright, time for those who have been shipped out. 

Jed Hoyer, the GM & president, tipped his hand about an impending teardown by trading Yu Darvish to the Padres last December.

Like Darvish, Billy Hamilton and Jason Kipnis never suited up for the Cubs in 2021. Austine Romine is currently on the 60-day IL.

Craig Kimbrel was sent to Chicago's southside. 

Javy Baez went to the Big Apple's NL squad. 

Kris Bryant will now be suiting up for the Giants. 

No Anthony Rizzo in this package, which is fine. His inclusion would have probably just prompted me to reach for a box of tissues. 

Thanks for the cards, BWTP!

Sigh. 

I've created a Google Sheet for all those Cub fans who want to keep track of these trades. It provides a great look at exactly who has been shipped out and what the talent return was. 

I'm still waiting to see some figures on what the payroll and projected roster currently looks like for 2022. I'm sure the front office will sign a few free agents over the winter, who they hope will perform well enough to flip at next July's deadline. I'm an invested fan with a curious mind after all. 

Full rebuild mode. Again. Double sigh. 

Thanks for reading and I hope your team took on MLB talent yesterday!

Waiting Out the Rain with Some Cardboard

 It seems like the weather in this country is really bizarre as of late. Last week there was talk about record high temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and hurricane Elsa was doing her thing in the southeast. Death Valley hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit over the weekend and here, in P-town, we're enduring a fourth straight day of rain. It's so humid and soggy out. Ugh. 

Thankfully the mail came early today and Nick, the generous and brilliant blogger, came to rescue me from my inevitable boredom with a wonderful padded mailer.

We'll start off with two of Chicago's best pitchers from the 1980's, Lee Smith and Rick Sutcliffe. I believe these are from the 1984 Wrigley Field promotional team set. 

The Ron Cey card is also from a Wrigley Field giveaway and I absolutely love food issued oddballs. Hello, Bill Buckner!

I have a mini collection of Glenn Beckert and both of these will slide right into the binder. The card on the left is from the 1969 Topps Milton Bradley game. Very unique and super cool!

Somehow this 2014 Panini Golden Age card of Gabby Hartnett flew under my radar when it was released. 

The All-Star game is tomorrow night, and it just so happens to be in Colorado this year.

I'm assuming this Lou Brock card was part of a five card giveaway set at the 1998 All-Star game in Denver. 

Big Daddy! Great nickname!

I don't think the holiday parallels are going away anytime soon. Of the three I think I like the 2020 design the best.

More parallels! Dexter is one of my favorites from the 2016  team and I think the orange border from Topps Big League complements Cubs cards nicely. 

A couple of "pre-rookie" cards of two of the Cubs more popular players, Kris Bryant and Kerry Wood. 

Maybe these two will become household names someday, too? It seems like Miguel Amaya has been talked about forever. Meanwhile, Ed Howard, who was drafted about a year ago, already has his second Bowman card. Crazy how the card world works. 

More 2021 Topps, but this time some Opening Day. I miss you, Yu!

Didn't Stadium Club just come out? And I already have some in hand? The blogosphere works in magical ways!  (And, it goes without saying that Nick is the best!)

Here are a couple more Stadium Club Cub shortstops to go along with the Baez from above. The Dunston card is an iconic one among Cub fans. 

I think I had about four Cubs cards released from this current year before this package. Now, 2021 inserts? Wow! 

I can always count on Nick to send some cards of the Shooter!  Woo-Hoo!

Shiny. Brooks. Kieschnick. Most excellent!  Both of these are dupes for the Kieschnick binder, but now I can fill a couple hole in the Cubs boxes. One of these has a good chance to make the Cubs FrankenSet as well. 

One of these cards is not like the others! Or is it?  Buckner and Sutcliffe are both from the O-Pee-Chee brand and with further inspection... 

Mon Dieu! So is Rick "Big Daddy" Rueschel! 

Thanks for the great assortment of cardboard Nick. Sorting cards is certainly a better alternative to watching the rain gauge slowly fill!

Have a great week and thanks for reading!

Snow Day Randomness, in Cards and Otherwise

 I'm not sure about you, but seeing as though there is a 2,000+ mile stretch of winter weather from deep in the heart of Texas extending to most of the original 13 colonies I'm going to assume you're ready for spring. I would definitely place myself in that lot. 

My school district is 1-to-1, which means each student has their own school provided Chromebook. With that being said part of me thought we had seen our last Snow Days. 

Last spring we were remote for the last nine weeks of the school year. So, naturally, I thought we would just have a remote day when Old Man Winter paid us a chilly visit. 

Enter Covid-19. Our state board of education gifted each school district five remote planning days for teachers. These days give us teacher folk a day's worth planning when a surprise arises, which can really be a blessing. Additionally these days are also non-attendance days for students, which I'm sure they also feel is a blessing! LOL 

I'm going to miss Yu!

Too much blowing snow? Well, kids, you take the day off and the teachers will use one of the banked remote planning days. 

It's not exactly a Snow Day so to speak, but I'm sure the kids aren't arguing with the decision. I'm sure someday down the road we'll all just go remote when the weather is all surly, but in the meantime I guess this is the plan. 

We'll have a "normal" school year again. We will. I'm staying positive! But, put me down in the column for "Normal can't come soon enough."

It's probably time to acknowledge the baseball cards inserted throughout my weather and school related ramblings. A big shoutout to Nick, of Dime Boxes lore, for his generous contribution to my player collections and Cubs collection in general. Nick always seems to have a stack of Cubs on the ready to head down I-55 at a moment's notice. Thanks, Nick!

Nick, myself, The Lost Collector, and Torren Up Cards are all celebrating our 10th blogging anniversary sometime this year. (I'm sure there's someone else I've forgotten. Sorry!) It's not 70 years, ala Topps, but it's still pretty impressive. 

This card came in the penny sleeve to the right. Wait, what? I don't think the photo of the front does it justice, because I took the picture head on. Here's a shot of the back at an angle. 

Trust me, this is not a "chrome" version of this 1962 Topps Ron Santo. I'm not sure where Nick finds these things, but his packages always find a way to surprise me. 

Here's another shocker for me. Kerry Wood and Rod Beck are two of my favorite pitchers of all time. I also love cards that show pitching grips. I actually have a folder dedicated to this little niche type of card. One of these cards is a first for my collection though. Behold:

This is my first Mother's Cookies card. This may not be a big deal for those of you who call the west coast home, but to find one of these in the midwest is pretty rare! Pure awesomeness! The card of "Shooter" goes straight to the binder!

Kellogh's 3-D Super Stars for the win!  I'm trying to decided which vintage set I'm next going to build. Currently I'm very much like a kindergartener who has walks into Baskin Robbins 31-flavors. Tooooo many great options! Kellogg's wasn't on my radar until Nick threw a Kong into the package.  Thanks, Nick!  It's like you just added Cookies N' Cream to the menu! 😄

Have you seen the new minor league structure? I'm digging the realignment, but I'm sorry it had to come at the expense of so many fanbases losing their MLB affiliation. A couple of former Midwest League teams are now homes to college prospect teams and one will try their luck at being an independent franchise. 

I'm glad the minor league players were given a bit of a raise to their annual wages, but in my opinion it's not enough. It's a start, but it's hardly above minimum wage when you break it down. 

What I'm most excited about is the idea that the South Bend Cubs will be visiting my local Peoria Chiefs at least once every season. When Covid is out of the equation I'm hoping it's two or three times a season. Plus, the Chiefs moved up slightly from Low-A to High-A. 

Also, the Iowa Cubs are coming east to play their away games. I could see myself taking a weekend in the summer to watch them play in Louisville or Indianapolis. I get excited just thinking about it... an actual road trip to watch baseball in person!

How about this Ernie Banks Dover reprint? Apparently Topps gave Dover "kind permission" to reprint the card. I'm not saying Topps isn't "kind" any longer, but I don't see anyway they grant an outside company this type of leniency in the future. 

Ooooh!  Brooks Kieschnick autograph mojo! Very cool indeed!  What do you think about that signature? I can make out maybe three letters, but he does a good job with the first letters and it's actually kind of pretty. The back end of "Kieschnick" actually reminds me of Ichiro's auto a bit. No?

Vogey Voges! That's my guy right there! I'm a little worried about his playing time in Milwaukee now the DH is off the table for 2021. MLB wanted the DH and the players association wanted the DH, but they couldn't agree on other matters so here we are. No DH. (It honestly makes me sick to my stomach thinking about the negotiating of the next CBA after this season.) 

Thanks again to Nick for a wonderful batch of cards and thanks to you, the readers, for listening to some of the randomness in my head. 

Stay warm out there!