Sunday, October 9, 2011

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 9,318 Cubs cards from 59 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.



1900s - 1960s: Tip Top Bread 1947 #89 Harry Lowrey Peanuts Lowrey was listed on this card as an outfielder, and in the first four seasons of his career, thats what he was. But in 1947 he was switched to third base, playing 91 games there among the 115 games he played in '47. It was pretty much a one year experiment, and he returned to the outfield for the rest of his career. And his nickname? An uncle hung it on him because as a child, he was pretty small, "no bigger than a peanut."



1970s: Topps 1971 #726 Paul Popovich
He was one of my favorite Cubs as a kid, not because he was any good, but because he has the same first name as me. Popovich was the Cubs all purpose utility infielder. In 1971 he played in 89 games. He hit only .217, but he wasn't on the roster for his bat; it was his glove that made his career. The highlight of the season was his first career grand slam, hit off of the Dodgers Cardinals' Jerry Reuss at Wrigley on September 11.



1980s: Leaf 1987 #128 Shawon Dunston
The Cubs strong-armed shortstop had his 1987 season cut short by a broken finger suffered in June. That kept him out of the lineup for two months. For the season he hit .246 with 5 HRs and 22 RBIs.



1990s: Score 1990 #73 Vance Law
Score gave Law a card in 1990, but it was for the wrong team. He was released by the Cubs in January, 1990 after his average plummeted, going from .293 in 1988 to .235 in 1989. He spent the 1990 season in Japan playing for the Chunichi Dragons.



2000s: Bowman 2000 #389 Tony Schrager
I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable Cubs fan, but I must admit that I absolutely never heard of this guy. He was a 6th round draft choice of the Cubs in 1998. He spent the 1999 season in Low-A ball, hitting .270 with 16 HRs for the Lansing Lugnuts. Promoted to high-A in 2000, his average dropped 40 points. He made it as high as AAA, but was out of baseball after the 2006 season.



2 comments:

  1. Normally I'd let this go, but it's the Dodgers. Reuss didn't play for the Dodgers until 1979.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry about that, your right. It was against the Cardinals. I'll fix the post, too.

    ReplyDelete