2016 Topps Stickers Cubs

Topps is using their tried and true formula for this year's stickers; nine players and a team logo per team.  Its the same thing they've done since re-introducing stickers in 2011.

These must have a fairly early print deadline because Starlin Castro is in the Cubs set and Jason Heyward is with the Cardinals.  It's interesting that some sets can be changed on the fly (Heritage has both Castro and Heyward with their correct team) while the stickers are stuck with out-of-place players.

The Cubs set includes all the players you think it should...Arrieta, Bryant, Lester, Rizzo, Russell, Schwarber, Soler...and Hammel??

 

 

 

 

The team logo cards are again twofers, with the Cubs and Sox sharing a sheet.  It's the fourth year in a row the two Chicago teams are on the same sticker.  All four times the Sox logo has been on top.  

That needs to be changed.  

2016 Opening Day Inserts

This is crazy.  The Cubs had almost as many insert cards (7) as regular cards (8) with 2016 Opening Day.

Clark was included in the mascot set.  The Cubs have done a nice job with him.  Sticking to their word, he doesn't do anything on the field during games.  His role is to keep the kids happy.  I'm assuming someday that Clark will get a girl partner named Addisyn.

Two Cubs made the Superstar Celebrations.... Jake Arrieta is celebrating the Cubs NLDS series win over the Cardinals.  Bryant's getting dumped on after hitting a walk-off homer against the Indians on August 24

Alternate reality highlights the Cubs blue alternate uniform.  I'm not a fan of these.  Give me the pinstripes and grays.

What a surprise, Kris Bryant is on another inserts. This one is Opening Day Stars.  

John Lackey doesn't have a regular card in Opening Day, but he is in Striking Distance.  He needs 13 starts to reach 400.  The picture is a Photoshop job.

Kyle Schwarber is a Heavy Hitter.  What, no Kris Bryant??

2016 Opening Day Cubs

The Cubs snagged eight spots on the 2016 Opening Day checklist, which comes in a little more than average.

As usual, the Opening Day cards are foil-less versions of the base cards. Five of the eight Cubs have cards in series one, so their Opening Day card is a re-run.  The other three (Edwards, Rondon, and Russell) should be in series two, so Opening Day gives us a heads-up as to what to expect.

 

 

 

BOOM! Nailed It First TIme Out!!

I saw on the message boards and a few blogs that Topps and Walmart have teamed up with a set of cards that come in Walmart's Marketside Pizza.  As far as I can tell, this is the first time Topps has teamed up with a food company since the Quaker Oats cards of 1986.  That's a 30 year famine.

When Mrs. WW went shopping on Saturday, I gave her an assignment...look for the baseball version of Marketside pizza.  I wasn't expecting much since things seem to come slowly to Sturgis.

But lookie at what she brought home.  This stuff isn't Vito and Nick's, but then Vito doesn't give out baseball cards.  She told me there were three boxes in the store, and she kinda went back and forth before grabbing this one.

I opened the box and under the pizza was a foil wrapper....the cards.  There are five cards in the pack...

   

....a coupon card (that's the front and back)...

....a Topps bunt card, and three player cards.

Like the title of the post says, we nailed it!

 

These two, well, who cares?  OK, Yankee and Rockie fans care, but I don't.

This is what I care about....

 

Kris Bryant!  I thought that I'd have to eat a lot of mediocre pizza or pay a high price on Ebay for this.  Instead, Mrs. WW grabbed it first try!

Are there other Cubs in the set?  Don't know.  In fact, I haven't seen a checklist yet.  If there are more Cubs, I'm sending Mrs. WW out again...or maybe I'll send her to Vegas instead.  She's on a roll!

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 14,140 Cubs cards from 108 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1963 Topps Peel Off Ken Hubbs  Topps was really on the ball as the 1962 Rookie of the Year was included in this 1963 insert.

1980s: 1982 Fleer #594 Steve Dillard  The light-hitting utility infielder wasn't even on the 1982 Cubs.  After hitting just .218 in 1981, the Cubs released him.  He moved across town to the White Sox in 1982 but spent most of the year in AAA.  A September call-up was his only big league time in '82 and it was the end of his MLB service.

1990s: 1993 Conlon #898 Danny Taylor   Until I bought the Conlon cards, I had never heard of Danny Taylor.  Anyone else know about him?  He had a nine year big league career, mostly as an extra outfielder.  The 1930 season, shown on the card, was his first full year in the majors.  He played in 74 games and hit a decent .283.

2000s: 2006 Upper Deck #94 Jerry Hairston Hairston came to the Cubs in 2005 from the Orioles as part of the Sammy Sosa trade...a big name trade.  In May of 2006 he was sent to the Rangers in the Phil Nevin trade....not a big name trade.

2010s: 2014 Gypsy Queen Mini #111 Ernie Banks This is the quintessential Ernie Banks for me.  The picture is from spring training 1969 and Ernie has a great smile.  I hope Topps and his estate can come to an agreement so they can make more cards of him.

The 2014 Topps Darwin Barney Super Rainbow

As I mentioned yesterday, I now have 26 different versions of Darwin Barney's 2014 Topps card.

Here's the rundown:

1. Base
2. Clear 8/10
3. Blank back 1/1
4. No Foil
5. Power Player
6. First Edition
7. Opening Day
8. Opening Day blank back 1/1
9. Factory Team set
10. PInk 33/50
11. Black 04/63
12. Camo 60/99
13. Orange 137/199
14. Gold 1385/2014
15. Red Foil 
16. Blue
17. Red
18. Green
19. Purple
20. Yellow
21. Opening Day Blue 0395/2014
22. Mini
23. Mini Platinum 1/1
24. Mini black 1/5
25. Mini Gold 15/25
26. Mini Pink 58/63

Missing yet would be the printing plates from the base set, Opening Day, and mini and a platinum from the base set.  These MIA cards are all 1/1.  If one ever pops up on Ebay I'll probably watch the auction and set a snipe, but my chances are going to be pretty slim.  As things stand right now I've already got three 1/1s.  I'm pretty satisfied with that.

Here's a look at all 26 cards.  They're in the same order as my list above.

And a GIF to see them all at once:

2014 Topps Clear Acetate Darwin Barney

Prompt work by both the seller and the post office have given me the chance to finally hold a 2014 Topps Darwin Barney clear acetate card.

The cards a bit thicker than I was anticipating.  I was thinking it would be on a more flimsy acetate, kinda like the film used on an overhead projector.  But it isn't flimsy at all.  It plenty sturdy,

I was also a bit unsure on the scanning process...so I scanned it twice.

This was done with the scanner top open, so I get a nice black background.

The second can was with a white background.  This looks almost like a regular card.  I'm going to keep the black background scan for my files.

The back of the card also was a curiosity for me.  I knew that it couldn't have a regular card back because of the clear parts.  So..

...this is the back with a black background and this....

...is what it looks like with a white background.

The back gives us a left handed version of Darwin Barney.   I would have really loved seeing this when I was a kid because in little league I was a left handed second baseman.

The card is my 26th version of the 2014 Topps Darwin Barney and most likely is my last.  I'll have something on all 26 cards tomorrow.

2011 Topps Attax Cubs

Here's the final edition of Attax.

The biggest different would be that the border has changed from a white cloud to a dark cloud.

Dark could would be appropriate for the 2011 Cubs.  They were not very good, finishing 71-91 and in fifth place.

The lousy team is apparent by the stars on the cards.  Look in the bottom right hand corner for them.  The Cubs team set was made up of:
5 Stars - 1 - Matt Garza
4 Stars - 2 - Starlin Castro, Carlos Zambrano
3 Stars - 6 - Marlon Byrd, Carlos Marmol,  Carlos Pena, Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano, Geovany Soto
2 Stars - 2 - Tyler Colvin, Kosuke Fukudome
1 Star - 0

The team was pretty heavy with three stars guys; mediocre guys.