Leap Day

This happens every four years.

This happened every 108 years.  I'd rather it happen a little more often, like Leap Day.  Once every four years would be fine with me.

2016 + 4 = 2020

2020 Topps Cubs Inserts - Decades Next

The insert set Decades Next is a companion to the Decades Best, as Topps tries to guess who will be the best from the 2020s.  There are 30 cards in the set, but just one Cub.

It's way to early to see if Nico Hoerner will make it.  He looked decent after his call-up last September.  There have been plenty of players that looked good in September and never played that good again.  I hope Hoerner isn't one of them.

The Missing Decades Best

Yesterday I showed the Cubs cards included in the Decades Best insert set.  Two decades, the 1960s and the 2000s, did not include any Cubs.

I can't let that go, so I created a Cubs card for the missing decades.

Billy Williams gets a card for his consecutive games played streak during the 1960s.  From September 22, 1963 through the end of the decade, Billy played in every single Cubs game.

For the 2000s I went with Derrek Lee and his 2005 season.  He led the league in hitting, hits, doubles, runs created, and slugging.  He was second in home runs and seventh in RBIs.  He was a pretty good batter!

2020 Topps Cubs Inserts - Decades Best

The Decades Best insert set is something new.  There are 100 cards that highlight players and teams from each of the decades of the Topps era, from the 1950s to the 2010s.

 Cubs players or teams landed in all of the decades except the 1960s and the 2000s.

 

Mr. Cub gets two cards from the 1950s, one each for his back-to-back MVP seasons of 1958 and 1959/

Fergie gets a card for being one of the best pitchers of the 1970s.  Too bad that Topps used a picture from the 1980s.  I wonder if anyone there was even aware that he was with the Cubs in 1982 and 1983?

Ryno was one of the best batters in the 1980s.  He put up offensive numbers by a second baseman that hadn't been seen in a long time.

Sammy was one of the best batters and an award winner in the 1990s.  

 

From the 2010s we get the World Series winners (P-Town Tom--- you'll need to get that card for your World Series binder) and the 2016 MVP.  

2020 Topps Cubs Inserts - 1985 Topps

Here's the first of the insert sets from series one that have Cubs cards, the 1985 cards.

I still do get why Topps keeps doing this.  Heritage is for using the past designs.  Why do we need this insert set or Archives?

This is what the the cards looked like in 1985.  

 

Here's the 1985 and 2020 cards side by side.  As always, the modern version is not an exact copy of the original.  The biggest difference that I noticed is the Cubs logo.  The smaller logo and white space on the 2020 card are a downgrade for me.

The inserts set has 100 cards and seven are Cubs. That's a lot of cards. In addition to the Sandberg card, we get...

 

 

 

...four stars and two rookies.  Looks like the designated rookies for the Cubs this year are Robel Garcia and Nico Hoerner.

One nice thing Topps did with the checklist is that the cards are numbered in team alphabetical order.  The lists starts with the Angels (Anaheim) and then continues with Arizona, Atlanta, Baltimore, and so on.  The Cubs are cards 24-29.  

The system continues until card #92, when a Dodger was slipped in at #92.  A few cards later Nico Hoerner in #95, surrounded by to Tampa Bay Rays.  I wonder which Rays player got dropped?

Topps 2020 Series One Base Cubs

Let's Celebrate!  My Series One shipment from Brentandbecca  has arrived!

I'll be posing the contents over the next week.  Today I start with the flashship Cubs.  There are fifteen Cubs cards among the 350.  I'm happy with that number, considering the mediocre season the team had in 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

More than half of the big Cubs names are included.  Series One brings cards for Almora, Baez, Hendricks, Kimbrel, Lester, Quintana, Rizzo, and Schwarber.  I assume that we'll get cards from Bryant, Contreras, and Heyward in series two.

 

 

In addition to the biggies, we get some lessers such as Adbert Alzolay, David Bote, Robel Garcia, Nico Hoerner, and Danny Holtzen.  It's been a while since the Cubs had four rookie cards in the first series.

The final card is the checklist that shows a walk off home run hit by Kyle Schwarber on July 16.  Even better, the Cubs were wearing 1969 throwbacks and we get a few looks at the classic Cub shoulder patch.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 17,750 Cubs cards from 213 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1963 Exhibits Billy Williams Stats on Back This card comes from the player collection.  Billy looks really young here.  His signature is also very readable,

1980s: 1988 Fleer Glossy #415 Andre Dawson  Shots like this one give you a good idea as to just how crowned the field was at Wrigley.  Look how much of the bottom of the leg of the ballboy is covered.  

The crown was removed and a new drainage system was installed after the 2007 season.

1990s: 1990 Upper Deck #153 Mitch Williams I could tolerate the Wild Thing when the Cubs were winning in 1989.  When he and the team went bad the next year, he and his 1-8 record were just annoying.

2000s: 2009 Goudey #42 Carlos Zambrano  .... and speaking of tolerable when winning, but annoying when not....

2010s: 2015 Heritage Minors #172 Jen-Ho Tseng  Tseng made it to the majors briefly in 2017 and 2018.  He pitched 8 innings and gave up 8 runs.  

2005 Bowman Heritage "Minis"

Today's post is a near-rerun of yesterday... Bowman Heritage had actual-sized Bowman cards in the 2005 set that they also referred to as "mini."

This time they are the actual 1952 size - 2 1/16" x 3 1/8".