Four!

 

The ol' blog has hit the four year mark. If you weren't with me back at the beginning, take a look at my first post. Doing the math from that day, I had 1702 (Topps) + 734 (Fleer) + 527 (Donruss) + 208 (Heritage) = 3171 Cubs cards. Today the total is 11,105. I guess I've been a little busy the past four years!

I've enjoyed sharing my growing collection with you over the past four years. It's gone by quickly.

One thing that I've recently realized is that many of the blogs that inspired me to start Wrigley Wax are either gone or have really slowed down. Wax Heaven, A Cardboard Problem, Bad Wax, Cardboard Gods, Dinged Corners, Project '62, Stale Gum, I Am Joe Collector, Voice of the Collector, White Sox Cards --- all slowed down considerably or stopped (although Mario at Wax Heaven has started up again!).

Others like bdj610's Topps Baseball Cards, Night Owl, Sports Cards Uncensored, Nachos Grande, and GarveyCeyRussellLopes have kept on blogging. And certainly many other blogs have come on the scene since 2009.

I guess the question would have to be---do bloggers have a certain shelf life? Is there a certain time when they'd run out of things to say or lose interest in the hobby?

If so, even after four years, I'm not there. Collecting drives my blogging, but blogging also drives my collecting---it looks like I've created a perpetual motion machine!

So, you can still expect to see something new pop up every day at 9:00 AM EST....and hopefully you'll read something that you won't consider a waste of two minutes of your day!

Thank you for reading and adding your comments.

I feel obligated to post some Cub card, so here is the most infamous Cub to wear #4,
Lee F*@%*# Elia

 

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 11,106 Cubs cards from 76 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1950s / 1960s: 1955 Bowman #242 Ernie Banks This is the second time in a row that the RNG has picked a card from the TV set and it picked a really nice one of Mr. Cub. Ernie looks so young in this picture taken at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. You can see that my card isn't in the greatest shape; most of the corners are dinged. After I win the lottery, this will be one of the first cards that I upgrade.

1970s: 1971 Fleer World Series #6 1908 The card says, "Ty Cobb's only good Series." Who cares??? He lost!! This was the Cubs last World Series win and Fleer gives us a picture of a member of the losing team. Boo!!!!

1980s: 1989 Team Issued #2 Vance Law These cards are actually unnumbered; the numbering used is the players uniform number that's listed on the front. Law was the third baseman on the surprising '89 team that won the division. His career peaked the previous season when he hit .293 and made the All Star team. He fell off in '89, his average losing almost 60 points.

 

1990s: 1994 Fleer Traded #110 Karl Rhodes Good 'ol Tuffy Rhodes...Opening Day Rhodes. He hit three homers on Opening Day 1994 off of Doc Gooden and a legend was born. Tuffy struggled the rest of the season, hitting only five more homers in another 94 games. After tanking in the '95 season he moved on to Japan where he became a true legend.

2000s: 2012 Topps Gold #580 Tony Campana It doesn't happen very often that the RNG pulls a card from the current season. Little Tony is that fly that keeps landing on you and when you swat at it, the bugger escapes and comes back to keep bothering you. He doesn't put up great numbers, but when he gets on base exciting things happen.




 

Cooperstown Fronts....Mistake Free!!

There aren't any logos, and the pictures are boring black and white, but at least they don't have any mistakes!

I found a Sportots seller that had the three other Cubs that I collect in the Cooperstown set, and they were only 18 cents apiece, so I grabbed all three.

A young Mr. Cub posing in the outfield somewhere

Ryno takes a cut at Olympic Stadium in Montreal (at least I'm about 98% sure that's Montreal)

The Hawk rips a drive at Wrigley.  The horizontal cards have a straight line across the top, making it a bit tougher to hide hat logos.  They hide the Cubs logos but the Rawlings insignia on his sleeve gets to stay!

Panini Has Some Knuckleheads, Too

We established in an earlier post that there were some knuckleheads writing at Upper Deck, knuckleheads that moved Billy Williams into the infield.

Apparently, Panini has them too.

Here is the back of Ryne Sandberg's 2012 Panini Cooperstown card

and below is a blown up version of the write up. Check your watch, and then start reading. See how many seconds it will take you to fine the screw-up.

So how long?

I asked Mrs. WW to look for the error on the card. Now granted, she's married to me and has had to endure a lot of Cubbyness over the years, but she doesn't have a head filled with Cubs minutia like I do.

It took her 15 seconds before she said, "South Siders??"

So what's more messed up...Upper Deck moving Billy Williams to first base or Panini moving the Cubs to the South Side??

I've offered my proofreading services to Topps, but they've yet to take me up on the offer. I'll put it out there to my friends at Panini, too---I'd be more than happy to look over any Cubs products you make, to ensure you don't make yourselves look like fools.

Emial me

Yes, I know that I just made a mistake---do you think any card manufacturer would have caught the mistake, too??

2007 SP Legendary Cuts Cubs

The good news from the Legendary Cuts 2007 set:  It was the same size as 2006, 200 cards

The bad news:  HALF the set, 100 cards, were short prints.

The even worse news: Almost all of the short print cards are of players that also have a card in the base set.

What that means, for the most part, is that the set is really only 100 cards and there are two cards of most players.

With only 100 cards, the number of Cubs shrunk down to only four, and three of the four also have a short print....dumb, dumb, dumb!

Here are the four base cards

 

 

A quick question on the team logos....why is Hartnett's different?  He gets just the plain C, though  when he was playing the Cubs used a wishbone C.  Plus, the logo on Ernie and Billy's card was never used during their playing days.  When they played, the blue circle was much skinnier.

Now for the three short prints.

They are all numbered /550.  Ernie and Fergie cards have a different picture than what's on the base card, but Billy has the same one.

A No Autograph Autograph Card

The title leave you confused?  Puzzled?

Well, allow me to explain.

Darwin Barney was included in 2007 Donruss Elite Extra Edition set.  He was coming off a great career at Oregon State and had just been drafted by the Cubs.

First off is the has a base card.

Then, along with OSU teammate Mitch Canham, he's included in the College Ties insert set. 

This is a shiny gold foil carded numbered to 500.

There's also a green foil card /1500.

The two were also paired on a jersey card, again numbered to 500.

Then, we get to the autograph card.  It's also numbered, though only to 100.  Here's part of the back...

....which states that...

....it includes authentic autographs personally signed by Darwin Barney and Mitch Canham.

Now, take a look at the front...

....and only one autograph, Cahahm's.  Barney's sticker should be on the top of the card, but instead it says....

....No Autograph!

My very first No Autograph Autograph card!

According to this page on the Panini website, they tried but could never get Barney to sign.  The site also specifically mentions this card, and that it will have a "No Autograph" stamp on it.  Barney was also supposed to have a couple redemption cards in the set, but had to be replaced.

I wonder what happened?  It doesn't seem like Barney to stiff them.  Was he promised something that Panini didn't deliver?  He signed a boatload of cards for USA baseball around the same time.  Was he exclusive to them?

For whatever the reason, I end up with a no autograph card and an autograph of a catcher that spent most of 2012 with Long Island in the independent Atlantic League.

Merry Steve!

I knew this guy played a few games for the Cubs, and I knew that I just had to get a card of his. He played only three games for the Cubs in late April of 1986, and he was just one for nine, a crummy .111 batting average. As far as I can tell, this card from the Cubs team issued set is the only card that features him as a major leaguer, though he did play with the Reds in 1983 and the White Sox in 1984.

He didn't have much of a big league career, but once a year his card will be here on Wrigley Wax

Merry Steve Christmas to all!

The Christmas Story According To Luke

If the networks can run A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph, and the Grinch every year, then  I think I can re-run this post every Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

From the Gospel according to St. Luke, the second chapter: 

In those days

Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire

world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So

also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of

because he belonged to the

and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the

to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. 

She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a

because there was no

for them in the inn. And there were

living out in the

nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at

An

of the

appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

May the simple, yet miraculous truth 

of the Christmas story 

touch your heart anew this year.

Peace,

Paul

Wrigley Wax

Added a Few Oddballs

I picked up a few oddballs for the player collections recently.  Take a look:

They're nice looking cards, but I have no idea where they came from.  Here is a peek at one of the backs:

They're obviously from 1990, but that's about all I can get.  They must be unlicensed, which may explain why any information about the publisher is missing.

But they're glossy, have nice color pictures, and fit nicely into the player collections.

Billy Williams 1972 O-Pee-Chee

Sorry, but it's another Billy Williams post today!

I was able to add both of the 1972 OPC cards recently.

Up first,

the base card.  It's identical to the Topps version.  The back is bilingual.

My card was a bit off-centered, but that's ok with me.

He also had an In Action card.

taking a swing at Candlestick Park.

The back puzzled me, though. Take a look....

....No French!  I wonder why?  Obviously, there is a lot of text there, and to put both languages on the card would not be easy.  The font would have to be pretty small.   I assumed that OPC didn't have any choice, though.

Well, I have a choice and I choose to go bilingual.

The only problem---my two years of high school French were a long time ago.  I relied on Google Translate, and I have no idea how accurate this is.  Anyone parlez vous francais that can help?