What's Old is New: Studio 2001

After a two year hiatus due to bankruptcy, the Donruss brand name returned to the baseball card scene in 2001. And with its return came the return of Studio. There were only 150 cards in the set and a mere four of them were Cubs. Two of the players were rookies, and two were veterans.

The card design looked very much like the 1993 design, shown below



Both featured an embroidered team logo in the background. You would think that with two years to come up with a design they could have come up with something original!

I'll start with the two rookies. Both cards are numbered to 700. My Frese card is 418/700 and the Patterson is 679/700. The Nate Frese card was one of the more expensive Cubs of all of the Studio cards. I hate that I have to pay so much for a no-name guy.



Nate Frese spent seven seasons in the Cubs farm system but never made it to the majors. In fact, it looks like he barely made it in the minors. The most games he played in a season was 117. It appears as if he was a utility man in the minors. I wonder why Studio decided he would get a card?



In 2001 Corey Patterson was the crown jewel of the Cubs system. He was our center fielder and leadoff man of the future. He had speed and power, he could do it all. Yeah, right.

The two featured vets were the two biggest names on the team.



Sammy Sosa was still at the top of his game. In 2000 he won the NL HR title with 50, the third consecutive season he hit at least 50. In 2001 he smacked 64 HRs, becoming the first player in MLB history to have four consecutive seasons of 50 or more homers. He also led the NL in RBI's with 160 and finished second in MVP voting to Barry Bonds (who hit 73 HR that season).



Kerry Wood had a nice year in 2001, going 12-6. And the season had to be considered a success because he had only one trip to the disabled list!