Sunday, April 6, 2014

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 12,256 Cubs cards from 87 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.


1900s - 1970s: 1977 Topps #634 Big League Brothers  I had a post about the Reuschel brothers waaay back when I just started the blog.  A couple odd things with the card...why is Rick wearing a batting helmet?  Why are the names switched around?  Rick had the best year of his career in 1977 (20-10, 2.79 ERA) while big brother Paul was not very good (5-6, 4.37 ERA)


1980s: 1984 Nestles #99 Craig Lefferts  Lefferts never pitched for the '84 Cubs.  He was traded to the Padres over the winter as part of a three team swap. The big acquisition for the Cubs  was Scott Sanderson coming from Montreal.  For the Padres in 1984 Lefferts worked out of the pen 62 times, going 2-3 with a nice 2.13 ERA.  He also picked up two wins against the Cubs in the NLDS while Sanderson gave up three runs in four innings of his only start.


1990s: 1990 Score # 196 Paul Kilgus  Kilgus was one of five Rangers who came to the Cubs in the trade that sent Rafael Palmeiro (and two other Cubs including Jamie Moyer) to Texas.  He was really bad in 1989 (6-10, 4.39 ERA) and the Cubs traded him to the Blue Jays after the season.


2000s: 2007 Donruss Elite College Ties Auto #9 Darwin Barney I think this is the first time the RNG pulled a card from the Barney collection, and it pulled an odd one.  Its a dual autograph card, but as you can see, on the top is says "No Autograph."  Did Barney not get his stickers returned to Donruss on time?


2010s: 2010 Pro Debut #127 Chris Archer  The Cubs picked up Archer from the Indians in the Mark DeRosa trade and in 2010 Archer was outstanding.   Between A and AA he went 15-3 with a 2.34 ERA.  After putting together that impressive record, he was traded to Tampa in the Matt Garza trade.  He recently signed a eight year contract with the Rays worth almost $44 million.

1 comment:

  1. Love the Reuschels but they look more like a couple of plumbers than pitchers.

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