Off Into The Sunset

The blogging community said goodbye to one of its best recently, but not before he threw a HUGE pack-ripping extravaganza and giveaway. I sent Wes, he of Jaybarkerfan's Junk/Rising Willingham/Area 40 fame, a little parting gift. I should not have been surprised when the most generous collector I know responded in kind.

Let's take a stroll through some of the Cubs goodness he sent my way.

 Per usual, Wes padded the numbers of my player collections. Above is my 922nd different Ryne Sandberg and 86th Cubs card of Brooks Kieschnick. Nice way to start!

Personally, I think we witnessed Panini's best rebooted Donruss design in 2018.

 It's simple and I really like the little wavy lines as a tribute to the 1984 design. I also believe the shininess Optic brings to the table adds a level of collectabilty to the brand.

Cubs rookie mojo!

 Baez proved me wrong last year by having a season I didn't think he was capable of. I'm crossing my fingers that this is the year Schwarber proves me right!

Rizzo gonna Rizzo.

As a fan, is there anything better when your team has a current player who epitomizes so much of what is right in MLB and the world today?

New Kris Bryant cards for the collection.

Honestly, I can count on one hand the number of Kris Bryant cards I have purchased, yet these two put me at 111 different Bryant cards in my binder. The generosity of the blogosphere knows no bounds.

ROCK SHOULDERS

It's a little known fact, but back in the day I was super-collecting two Cubs minor leaguers. ROCK SHOULDERS was one of them and the other guy was some dude named Dan Vogelbach. Maybe you have heard of him?

A few years ago much was made of Carl Edwards' slight frame, 6'3" and only 170 pounds, and how the Cubs were trying to get him to add weight.

His eyes in this photo . . . they seem to say, "I see you reaching for my cheeseburger."

Late 1980's Donruss!

Gracie and Mad Dog were two of the best to pass through Peoria on their way to stardom.

Pitchers who rake.

Believe it or not, I was a pitcher in high school who raked, 0.300+ average and 11 combined homers my junior and senior year. It didn't matter when I got to college as those numbers earned me three plate appearances in four years. lol

Mike Morgan's career spanned four different decades and he pitched for twelve different teams. He earned an All-Star appearance in 1991 with the Dodgers, but arguably his best year was with the 1992 Cubs.

 

Get a look at these numbers: 2.55 ERA, 16-8 W-L, 240 innings and only 14 homers given up, 1.17 WHIP. Mike Morgan put up those stellar numbers with a K/9 of only 4.6. The MLB average for K/9 in 2018 was 8.5. Wow, the game has changed.

DLee and Matt Stairs were two of my favorites from the previous decade.

  Stairs also played for twelve different teams during his career, and I'm sure he was a riot for all dozen of them.

I believe this one is a business card and/or advertising piece from Gypsy Oak, who is known for his baseball related artwork.

I'll add it to the Cub collection!

Oooooooh! Super-duper black parallel refractor mojo!

Matt Murton is one of Wrigley Field's fan favorites!

Vintage. Sweet, Vintage.

That is one well-loved Ernie Banks! And if you know me, then you know it'll be cherished in my collection!

The package finishes up with a couple of early 90s autos of Mike Bielecki and Shawon Dunston, Sr.

Bielecki and Dunston, were part of the magical 1989 Cubs team, which is my second favorite Cubs team of all time. You'd be correct if you guessed the 2016 team as the club at the top of the list. 

Wes, thank you for the remarkable package! It's been a pleasure, my friend!

Chronicling Some of the Best Blog Names

I love reading the baseball card blogs, because our community is chock full of wonderful writers and home to some very creative minds. The creativity isn't only on display within each post, but even some of the blog names are quite ingenious.

One of the blog names my mind really digs is Wrigley Wax, because it's about a guy who collectors "wax" of players who have called Wrigley home. "Cubs Cards" just doesn't have the same ring to it; thank goodness Paul was more inventive than that!

When I was growing up, anyone who had their own sports card was a hero of mine, so 2 by 3 Heroes would be in my list of Top 10 Best Blog Names, as well. It's a blog title I can relate to!

I love all things having to do with pirates and I enjoy a good play on words, so somewhere in the upper echelon we would undoubtedly find Bob Walk the Plank.  A couple other that employ some nice word play are Torren' up Cards and Schmidt Happens.

I can't forget about Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle, because the title has both "thy" and "argyle" in it. Those words, my friends, are the makings of one sweet title.

A blog about cardboard that sounds like a 1960's band? Coot Veal and the Vealtone's  . . . just awesome. 

Alliteration?  Yeah, that's covered, too: Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits


And heck, The Card Papoy would be in the top 10, because I have no idea what a Papoy is, and Kevin's choice of words has piqued my curiosity.

Of all the blogs, I think The Chronicles of Fuji is the best blog name out there. "The Chronicles of" is a great hook. It sounds mystical and legendary at the same time. Add "Fuji" into the mix and now it sounds somewhat mysterious, and maybe, just maybe, there are ninjas in involved. (For the record, the only thing that trumps a pirate in my book are ninjas.)

 Fuji sent me a package the other day that snuck up on me like a ninja, that is to say I wasn't expecting it. And although there weren't any ninjas associated with this package, that I know of, it's greatness was rivaled only by Fuji's blog's name. Yep. It was that good.

 

 It started off with a pair of Mark Prior jersey cards. Mark Prior, you may remember, was once the goods. I'm sure these cards were a hot commodity back in the day, especially the Bowman Sterling because it's numbered /199, and now they are welcomed additions to my Cubs relic collection.

Big Z and Fukudome!

 I love it when the jersey swatch matches the uniform on the card, so I will just assume the Zambrano artifact is from Carlos' pants. Right?

Kid K!  I've been the recipient of quite a few Kerry Wood relics as of late and I couldn't be happier about that!

The one above is a duplicate, but that's cool by me because it'll go into a pile for Wrigley Roster Jenga or another Cub fan. Cards for fellow team collectors can be quite scarce at times!

A partial stripe! 

This Fleer Tradition card from 2004 is from the same set as the Mark Prior card above. Yet, the two cards will go in separate places in my collection. The Prior goes to the relic box and the Wood will make its way to the Kerry Wood binder. 

Speaking of which, my Kerry Wood collection now stands at 489 unique cards. 

I decided to count this one even though I have it in the binder already. Why?  Well, the one Jaybarkerfan's Junk sent to me already was a white jersey with a blue stripe. This one is obviously not, which makes it a jersey parallel. Right?  . . . My collection, my rules.  489.  Firm.

A big thanks to Fuji for all the fabric in this package!  It was a great surprise from a blog with a really cool name. 😁

Happy Holidays to you all!

Oh, and I know some of you were gifted cards this holiday season. Maybe you have a new favorite card of 2016? If so, be sure to enter my contest. The rules are easy and the prize is a blaster of 2017 Topps flagship. Fourteen bloggers are in already, click here if you want to join the fun!

A Card of Metal from JBF

Jaybarkerfan's Junk dropped a nice little surprise on me before my trip to Texas last weekend, but I thought I would use it as the carrot in front of my nose to help me get through the twelve hour car drive back to P-town.  This was the right move. Wes' packages not only contain great cardboard mojo, but they can be very motivational, too!

Thanks, Bro!

As usual, there was a great array of cards in the package from Wes.  First we have some shiny chrome.  I thought the gold chrome would have a serial number on it, but I guess I was wrong. Can you believe LaTroy Hawkins is pitching in his twenty-first season?  And pitching fairly well I might add.

The Hawkins filled a gap in the FrankenSet!

A fine looking DLee and a framed Diamond King Nomar for the binder!

The Nomar is a new addition to the FrankenSet!

 Starting Lineup cards of Mark Grace.  Where does Wes find these types of cards?

Walton seemed like a one year wonder to me.  I'm hoping Logan Watkins can rehab his Achilles injury and become at least that in the future for the Cubs, if not more. 

The Walton is a new addition to the FrankenSet!

Here comes the mojo!  A dual bat relic of The Hawk from Topps Tribute numbered to 75. Nice!

 Javy is starting his rehab assignment soon. Maybe next week?  His cards are always welcome in my collection, especially cards from high end product of which I never purchase.

 I bought a metric ton of 2013 Bowman, but I never found the blue paper parallel of Baez. Awesome score!

Did I read somewhere that Topps is ditching the Bowman Platinum line?  Honestly, I think I'm okay with that decision.  They were nice to look at, but in my eye the market is flooded with sets. 

Here's the other die-cut card (Moises Alou) in the team bag and the lowest numbered card as well (ARam 24/25).

I'm guessing there are over 300 different "career win" cards in the set of Greg Maddux?  I hope I'm wrong on that guess, otherwise what a nightmare for a player collector!

More serial numbered goodness: Prior, Sosa, Angel Guzman (x2), Ronny Cedeno and Jason Smith.

 Shiny and sparkly!  Two of my favorite things! M-I-C . . . K-E-Y . . . M-O-U-S-E!

New addition to the FrankenSet!

 Gioskar Amaya has been toiling away in the low minors for the last few years, but not without good reason.  He recently switched positions from second base to catcher.  He could wind up being a nice right-handed complement to Kyle Schwarber one day.

 Kerry Wood! The Freshman Orientation card is a duplicate, but the other two are new to me . . . sort of.

 I say sort of, because I now have three different variations of card 12B from 1999 Topps Tek.  The card on the right features patter number nineteen.  NINETEEN!

 Topps Stars 'N Steel?  I've never heard of this set before, but I think I'm in love.  The card is actually made of metal AND it's shiny!  Holy Cow!

 I bet a box of these would weigh ten pounds!  I may have to do a little shopping to see if I can find a pack of these to open.

There you go, folks!  That's one team bag chocked full of Cubs goodness right there.  I compared the cards to my Cubs FrankenSet and four made the cut, with the LaTroy Hawkins card filling a gap.  Also, he gave me my 397th, 398th, and 399th different Kerry Wood cards!  In total, Wes has supplied me with 65 different cards of Mr. Wood over the years. How cool is that?

Thanks for the package, Wes!  I'm already working on a return package, but I've hit a speed bump trying to track down a P-town Chiefs card of @BringerOfRain20 for you.  I will find it! Wish me luck!

Introducing My Cubs FrankenSet

It's official: I have completely hashed through my entire collection and I'm ready to release the checklist for my Chicago Cubs FrankenSet.

Jaybarkerfan's Junk got me started on the idea when he sent the Wampa to attack me last fall.  It started as a binder with 10 pages completely filled (front and back) of Cubs cards placed in numerical order.  One hundred eighty cards in all, and there are probably a good hundred which still made the cut, but now the set is up to 671.

I know 671 is a different number, but I didn't know where to stop.  I knew I didn't want to stop mid page and I also knew that if I went too high the set would be dominated by Topps releases.  So, 671 it is!

I don't have too many rules for the FrankenSet, but here's what I do have:
1. The player can not be pictured in a non-Chicago Cubs affiliated uniform (minors are okay).
2. A player can not occupy more than one spot on a page.
3. No specific set may occupy more than one spot per page.

I've done well to follow #1 and #2, but I'm breaking #3 in some places.  Fleer used to place all the Cubs in a block on their checklists and I've had to dip into the Fleer well fairly often to fill some holes.

Here's page one, which is the way I try to start all of my Cubs binders.  Cubs stickers and logos!  Thanks to all who have sent me these!

Here's the first page of numbered cards: 1-9.

 It was really tough for ANY card to make the cut for the first 100 cards.  Think of how many sets have been produced!  Not every set has a checklist that reaches 300, but nearly all of them make it to triple digits.

You'll notice there is some nice variety there on the front page.  When in doubt I always took the off-brand and the bigger the name the better. I think the Cooperstown card of Harry Caray is my favorite on this page. A big thanks to Julie for that card!

There's a Sega-Gen card!  This is the first one that Zippy Zappy sent me and it is LOCKED in at number 222. It also doesn't hurt that Luis Valbuena is a personal favorite.

Cards 222-230

 Here's the first page missing a card: 231-239.

That blue chrome Eric Karros is a beauty, isn't it?  For the record, I have the Doug Dascenzo card in backwards because he's an outfielder who is pitching!

 Here's one of my homemade index cards to help keep track of the numbering. 

It's much easier locating a card with these "bookmarks" every fifty cards.  Oh, and there's that creepy Cubbie Bear from my last post.  Thanks, Jane!

The first card I'm missing is #233 and you can tell from the last picture I need #550 and #552.
In all I'm missing 32 out of the 671.  That's a 95.2% completion rate. Not bad.

The great thing about this project is even if I manage to fill all the slots I'll always be on the look out for upgrades.

For example, #556 is Will Ohman.  I am not an Ohman fan.  I thought he barked at the umpires too much and was too unreliable coming out of the pen.  I would love to throw Bobby Dernier, Matt Walbeck, or Mike Remlinger in that spot.  But that Will Ohman card is the only #556 in my collection.  So it goes.

So, with each trade package that comes in I'll inspect the cards to see if any of them can make the cut.  I've actually been doing this since December, but the set was still in its infancy back then.  The last huge package from JBF nearly killed the project!  It's time consuming but lots of fun in small doses.

If you think you can help, then please check out my list in the tool bar at the top.  If lists aren't your thing, then no worries, just send me Cubs anyways!

Cards I Used to Own (a gcrl inspired post)

gcrl had a nice post this morning about the cards he used to own and his feelings about them.  he has challenged the blogosphere to reminisce about cardboard past and it sounds like a fun exercise.  as an added bonus, i will pretend my caps lock and shift keys are broken in typical gcrl style. 

part 1: the big money cards

i buy a fair amount of wax and occasionally i'll pull down a nice hit.

this yu darvish 2012 topps archives autograph is probably the best hit i've personally ripped from a pack.

 

the card itself still has decent value, but i struck while the iron was hot and sold it on ebay.  i used the money to invest in more baseball cards of the chicago cubs variety.  no regrets whatsoever.

(aside note: it's actually pretty difficult to not use capital letters when typing. trying to do this consistently would drive me mad; my backspace keep is getting a workout!)

remember when topps had us all digging for diamonds back in 2011?

i flipped tony plush for three figures on ebay; looking at current ebay prices it seems that these cards have held there value nicely.  i thought about keeping the card at one point, but then decided it was silly to have a diamond embedded in a card.  besides, it wasn't a cub.  i like the laundry tags and buttons, because they're from the actually jerseys themselves, but the diamond really just doesn't fit in my mind's eye.

next up is a card i recently sent to jaybarkerfan's junk, and i'm quite happy i did.

i won this eddie mathews autograph card by participating in a sportlots.com contest about five years ago or so. the sportlots people would pick a card in their database and then give out clues for users to find it.  it was during the summer months when i won the mathews card and i was at a huge advantage because i could scour the internet for hours looking through stats and facts to help me win.  what else does a teacher have to do during the summer?

anyway, the card never really had a home in my collection, but it was a certified auto of a hall of famer so i figured it would make for some good trade bait down the road.  pairing the card with first edition of sports illustrated made for one heckuva of a return trade package!

the last card i'll add to this section is a keeper.

watching kris bryant autographs on ebay has been a guilty pleasure of mine the last few months, but no longer!

(it's been so long since i redeemed a card i completely forgot about the red hot rookie of mike minor)

chris, from nachos grande, pulled the 2015 topps archives redemption for me!  let the waiting game begin, which you may have seen on the right side bar. 

part 2: the sentimental

the last card for this post is by far my favorite of the bunch.  actually, it may be my favorite card in my collection.  that is not meant to be a slight on any of the cards that i may have received from you, my blogging brethren, through trades and the like.

but like many of you, i was a card collecting kid, went on hiatus for a decade or more and then came back to the hobby.  this card takes me back to the days before adulthood.

this card was part of my very first peoria chiefs team set.  i loved that set, had it in a binder, and had every player's name and face committed to memory.  eleven year old me was an autograph hound and back then i had no trouble collecting autographs, but i was only after the players.  a card with pete and harry didn't really draw my interest.

some time in the early 1990's my family attended a cubs game at wrigley field.  i'm still not sure how he did it, but my dad was able to secure a brief moment of time with harry caray.  my dad had the card with him and harry's pen reads, "holy cow! harry caray".   every cub fan knew of harry caray.  i was so stoked.

it didn't strike me until much later to ask pete vonachen, the "father of minor league baseball", for his autograph. 

fast forward a good ten years or so . . . i was still single, but i had started my career, and i was attending peoria chiefs baseball games at a huge clip.  my sister, who was an intern for the chiefs, would help score my friend and i tickets.  we would usually go down to the park, have a couple of adult beverages, look at the talent (on and off the field) and then finish the evening in downtown p-town.  sometime during the summer of 2002, when i briefly entered the hobby long enough to discover topps total, i asked pete for his autograph. i would always say "hi" to pete on the concourse.  even though i was just another fan to him, he was one of those people who i have always held in very high regard: he brought baseball and managed to keep the game i love in peoria!

it's hard to top a card which has ties to myself as a young collector, my dad, the cubs, the chiefs, and pete & harry.

zippy zappy posted the other evening about his top ten cards and which ones he would take to the grave with him.  the kris bryant auto?  meh.  i'm mostly just excited because i didn't think i would ever have the opportunity to own one.  i am a card collector on a budget afterall.   the pete & harry card?  YEP!

shoot.  i almost made it the whole post without using any capital letters.  :)   

thanks for reading!