Sunday, March 29, 2015

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 13,467 Cubs cards from 104 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades. 


1900s - 1970s: 1971 Dells Today's Cubs Billy Williams  The picture on this card looks for be from spring training, 1970.  Billy is wearing a 1969 road uniform, but back then teams typically wore the previous season's uniform in spring training and didn't break out the new duds until opening day.


1980s: 1984 Donruss #289 Lee Smith  Donruss gives us a nice portrait shot of the Cubs closer.  Smith finished second in the league in saves with 33.  But he lost game four of the NLCS by giving up a walk-off homer to Steve Garvey, so consider the season a bust!


1990s: 1995 Upper Deck Traded #459 Jamie Navarro  The righty had probably the best year of his career in 1995. The Cubs picked him up as a free agent before the season and were hoping for a mid-rotation innings eater.  They ended up with an ace-for-the-season.  He went 14-6 with an ERA of 3.28.


2000s: 2007 Opening Day #179 Scott Moore  Moore was less.  He spent the first half of the season in AAA, played in a few July games for the Cubs, and then was traded to the Orioles in late August.


2010s: 2011 Topps Traded #115 Kerry Wood The prodigal returns!  Kerry Wood came back to the Cubs as a free agent for the 2011 season.  The deal got its start as Wood and GM Jim Hendry spoke at Ron Santo's funeral in December.  I never noticed this on the card before, but if you look down the line at the other player's hats, one of them is wearing a Ron Santo 10 hat.

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