O-P-C C-U-B-S

Despite the fact that Upper Deck had reruns on many of these cards, I went ahead and put together the O-Pee-Chee Cubs team set. There are 21 cards listed on the team checklist. About half feature a posed shot. I suppose this was to give them an old-time look. But the poses are a massive failure. Back in the day, the pictures were all taken at a ballpark. One of my quirky things is to try and figure out what stadium the picture was taken at. I can pretty much figure out any MLB park, and a few of the spring training sites. But these poses are all against a very boring background. I want baseball cards in baseball stadiums, not looking like its picture day at school (I wonder if the players all got the free black plastic comb?).

One old school feature these cards are missing is the miscut cards that were so common years ago. These are all perfectly centered, unlike their '70's counterparts. Apparently printing technology has dramatically improved over the past 30 years. That is a good thing.

Well, anyway, here they are in alphabetical order.



Team Checklist - I like that they used a picture of Wrigley Field. Too bad they didn't use a picture from 2008. This was taken in 2006 or 2007, since the bleachers are expanded, but the extra seats added past the Cubs dugout for 2008 aren't there. Still, in my biased opinion, this is the best looking baseball scene in MLB today.



Milton Bradley, with the old-school bat coming at you pose.



Ryan Dempster, gripping the ball against the seams. Hey Ryan, watch out for that dugout railing!



Kosuke Fukudome, ho hum, very boring



Joey Gathright, no longer with the Cubs.



Kevin Gregg, Unfortunately, still with the Cubs



Rich Harden, in action



Reed Johnson, showing off his stirrups. I wish he would pull them a little higher and show more stirrup and white sock. Do any of you also follow Uni Watch?



Derrek Lee, Looking good as usual.



Ted Lilly, our lone All-Star representative this year.



Carlos Marmol, who has forgotten how to throw strikes.



David Patton, a rule five pick who has to stay on the roster all season or go back to the Rockies. He hasn't been all that impressive, and he recently and conveniently got injured and went on the DL.



Aramis Ramirez, shown running, something he is not known for.



Jeff Samardzija, Spellcheck had been on the Des Moines shuttle this year, now in his second stint with the Cubs.



Alfonso Soriano, rounding the bases after a home run.



Geovany Soto, taking his lead.



Ryan Theriot, fininishing his slide into third that he started in UD Series I and continued with in Series II.



Luis Viscaino, no longer with the Cubs. This is the player they got for Jason Marquis, who now leads the NL in wins. Oops!



Carlos Zambrano





The two moment cards feature Zambrano at the All Star game (when the Cubs sent 8 players) and a July 31 win that kept the Cubs in first place. The patch on his hat tells me the Zambrano picture was really taken at the All Star game. The date on the second card in July 31 and on that date the Cubs crushed the Brewers 11-4 at Miller Park. The blue wall in the background matches Miller Park, so UD could actually have this one right.