One More Billy Williams Archives Card

I thought I was done with the Billy Williams 2017 archives parallels. All that's left is the black 1/1 version.

Or so I thought.

In addition to the parallels, there are also SPs of some of the cards.

This is the blackless version. That means that it didn't get any black ink.  The autograph is missing and some of the colors look a little faded due to a lack of black.

 

You can see the difference when looking at the base and blackless side by side.

More Series Two Inserts

I'm not finished yet, but we're getting close!

 

These are from the Home Run Derby set.  Dawson won the derby in his MVP season of 1987.  Sandberg won it as the home town hero when the All Star game was held at Wrigley Field in 1990.  Notice the low homer total for each of them.  The format was different back then.

 

I'm a loyal American, but how necessary is it that there be an Independence Day set?  Actually, how necessary is it that there are funky uniforms and hats on Independence Day (and Mother's Day and Father's Day and Memorial Day...)

2017 Cub #36

Last week the 36th player suited up for the 2017 Cubs.  Mark Zagunis was called up from Iowa as Kyle Schwarber went down (which is a story for another day).  Zagunis was a third round pick for the Cubs in 2014.  He was drafted as a catcher, but like Schwarber, moved to the outfield.  He's made a steady but unspectacular climb through the Cubs system.  I'm sure his stay with the Cubs won't be for very long.

I had a hard time finding a decent picture to use for a card.  Most of what is out there is from spring training or Iowa.  I wanted to use a picture from his time with the Cubs, so I had to cheat a little.  I took a screen capture from his debut game on June 22.  The resolution suffered when I blew up the picture to fit on the card.  I'll keep what I've got until I can find a better picture.  For now, this is from his very first MLB at bat, in which he hit into a fielders choice and got an RBI.

Here's a look at all 36 of the 2017 Cubs:

Series Two First Pitch

I'm pretty much ready for First Pitch to take a break.  There were five more Cubs in the second series, to go along with seven from series one.  Twelve First Pitch cards total is more than the cards of actual Cubs players from series two.  That is messed up.

 

 

 

 

Series Two Salute

There are seven Cubs cards among the 100 series two Salute cards.

Some featured players that weren't in series one's Salute

 

It's nice to see Fergie included, but man, what an ugly look on his face.

The other five cards are repeat players.  Was that necessary?

 

Bryant and Rizzo have spring training cards.  Why do we need to salute spring training?

Russell is taking a curtain call on April 11, 2016, the Cubs home opener.  He hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to give the Cubs a 5-3 lead.

These last two are totally unnecessary. They're throwback jersey cards, though both Rizzo and Russell had throwback cards in the first series

 

At least Russell's second card...

 

....shows a different uniform.

Look at the two Rizzo cards...

 

...same uniform, almost the same picture.  What was the point of the second card?

 

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 14,962 Cubs cards from 121 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1967 Dexter Press Glenn Beckert   All of the pictures in the Dexter Press set seem to have been taken in the exact same spot at the the Cubs spring training home in Scottsdale.  See the catcher just to the right of the Cubby bear patch on Beckert's shoulder?   He's in nine of the other eleven cards in the set. 

1980s: 1988 Revco #2 Andre Dawson This card is from the one and only set that Revco issued.  Interesting Cubs / Revco connection... the drug store chain filed for bankruptcy in 1988 and was bought by Sam Zell.  Zell later bought the Tribune Corporation, and with it, came the Cubs.

1990s: 1993 Topps Rockies #373 Mike Morgan  This is from a parallel set Topps issued in 1993, one with the Rockies inaugural season logo, the other for the Marlins.

2000s: 2008 Baseball Heroes #37 Kosuke Fukudome The card mentions Fukudome's MLB debut in 2008.  He hit a ninth inning home run to send the game into extra innings.  The Cubs went on to lose the game anyway.  That seems to sum up Fukudome's career....looks good but the end result was not good.

2010s: 2013 Team Issued #65 Scott Sanderson  Home game #65 was on the 21st of August and Sanderson wore #21.  The Cubs played the Nationals, the former Expos, and Sanderson also pitched for the Expos.

Series Two 1987

The Series Two added another 100 cards to the 1987 set.  This version of 1987 is divided into two parts, All Star and Rookies

 

 

 

 

The Cubs netted five All Stars.  It's nice to see Maddux as a Cub and not a Brave.  Ryno now has two cards in the 1987 set.  He had just one card in the original 1987 Topps set.

As for Rookies, there was just one Cub..

...the 2017 ever-present Rob Zastryzny.

Series Two Inserts

The number of Cubs inserts from series two is off the charts...there are 28 different cards (compared to ten base cards).  It continues to amaze me just how many insert sets Topps cranks out.

Right now I've got 21 of the 28.  The ones I'm missing were retail exclusives, which Brentandbecca doesn't get.   I've ordered the others off of Sportlots and Ebay and I hope to have them soon.

With the 21 I have in hand,  I'm going to break them up among several posts.  Today I'll start with a couple new sets.

Arrieta and Bryant are in the 20 card Major League Milestones sets.  Kudos to Topps for using pictures from the game on the card.  It is almost like these are Topps Now Lite cards.

The Cubs have only one memorable event among the 50 in the Memorable Moments set.  But boy was it memorable!  This is Anthony Rizzo after he caught the throw from Kris Bryant for the final out in Game 7.

2017 Series Two Cubs

My series two shipment from Brentandbecca has arrived!

There are ten Cubs in the base set of series two.  I knew what each of the cards would look like (except for Rob Zastryzny) because the nine were in the factory team set.

Were there any differences?

Just one, Anthony Rizzo.  His series two card is horizontal, different from the factory team set's vertical version.

I was hopeful that the series two cards of Jon Jay and Koji Uehara would be different from the factory set's photoshopped cards.

 

I was disappointed.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, the card for rookie Rob Zastryzny, who is showing up in way more sets that he should be.