Team Issued Cubs Sets: 1982

This set is a biggie. It comes from the Cubs first baseball card day in 1982. And it also contains the very first card of Ryne Sandberg as a major league player.

The cards were passed out at Wrigley Field on Baseball Card Day, August 20. A Friday afternoon crowd of 18,110 saw the Cubs top the Padres 3-2. In that era, that would have been considered a decent crowd. Hard to imagine today the Cubs drawing only 18,000 on a Friday in August.

The sponsor of the cards was the seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster.



Their logo is on the back of the card. The cards are also a quarter inch narrower than a standard card, though they are the same 3 1/2 inch height.

There are 28 cards in the set, including a team picture (but no floating heads). Most of the cards feature action shots at Wrigley Field. The player's name is printed on the bottom, but otherwise they are pretty plain looking. The back is also plain, with just the players' stats and the Red Lobster logo.

It's reported that only 15,000 of these were printed, so that, along with the only 1982 Ryne Sandberg card from anyone makes the set tough to find and tough on the wallet. But, I got it anyway!

One more thing about the Sandberg card: it shows him playing at third base, the position he covered his rookie season. All of the 1983 Sandberg cards (Topps, Donruss, and Fleer), with pictures taken in 1982, show him batting. So that make this the only card ever that shows him as a third baseman.

I'll start with the only one most of you care to see, and then give you the rest: