2020 Big League Cubs Inserts

The 2020 BIg League set includes five different insert sets: Ballpark Oddities, Defensive Wizards, Flipping Out, Roll Call, and Star Caricatures.  Cubs players made it into three of the five.

No surprise to see Baez in Defensive Wizards.  In fact, if it means anything, he is card #1 in the set.  His tag plays at second base are legendary.

Willson Contreras is in Flipping Out.

Baez make a second insert appearance, with this Star Caricatures card.

2020 Big League Cubs

Topps Big League is a set that is supposed to appeal to younger collectors because of its simple design and affordable price.  I like the simple design because it reminds me of what baseball cards used to look like.

The set has 300 cards and seven Cubs were included.

 

 

 

2020 Series Two Turkey Red Cubs

The Turkey Red insert set continues in series two.  The odd thing with series two is that the cards have the exact same numbering as series one.  When you look as the backs of cards from each series, you cannot tell one from the other.

Here's another numbering oddity... the Cubs in series one have numbers 19-22 (plus #41) while the series two cards are #23-27.  When you looks at the cards in the binder, the Cubs are consecutive #19-27 (and 41).  Did Topps do that on purpose or was it just an interesting coincidence?

Here are the series two Turkey Red Cubs...

 

 

I really like the look of the Ernie Banks card.

Bye Bye Robel

I saw on Sunday that the Reds claimed Robel Garcia from the Cubs through waivers.

That means that the guy who had cards in 2020 Topps, Bowman, Gypsy Queen, Total, 1985 Topps insert, and the Silver Pack insert set played a total of 0 games for the Cubs.

It also means I wasted five bucks on a losing gamble.  I picked up this autograph card in case he played for the Cubs in 2020.  If he did get into a game that would added him to my certified autograph collection.

My only hope now is that it's not too late for Topps to remove him from any upcoming sets.  They've already given him too many cards.

Perfect Timing!

Well the timing for this was perfect, coming on the heels of his dominating Opening Day performance.

It took just six years for Kyle Hendricks to finally have a certified autograph showing his with the Cubs.  You would have thought that after his lights out year in 2016, when he posted a league-best ERA of 2.13, that Topps or Panini would have issued an autograph card of him.

Nope.

Not in 2017, 2018, or 2019 either.

Finally, in 2020, we have autograph cards of Hendricks.  He as a card in the 2020 Topps Archives set and Diamond Kings.  I prefer the licensed Archives card over the unlicensed Diamond Kings.  My wallet, however, likes the unlicensed better.

Since he's appeared in a game for the 2020 Cubs (and what a game it was), that makes this card a rule-follower for me... certified, showing him as a Cub in a year he played for the Cubs.

He is the 140th Cubs player to follow my rules.  The others are...

Terry Adams	Matt Garza	Angel Pagan
Arismendy Alcantara	Leo Gomez	Bob Patterson
Albert Almora	Tom Gorzelanny	Eric Patterson
Moises Alou	Kevin Gregg	Corey Patterson
Adbert Alzolay	Angel Guzman	David Patton
Jake Arrieta	Jason Hammel	Carlos Pena
Javier Baez	Todd Haney	Billy Petrick
Darwin Barney	Ian Happ	Felix Pie
Francis Beltran	Brendan Harris	Lou Piniella
David Bote	Kevin Hart	Mark Prior
Milton Bradley	Kyle Hendricks	Brooks Raley
Roosevelt Brown	Jose Hernandez	Aramis Ramirez
Kris Bryant	Jason Heyward	Anthony Rizzo
Scott Bullett	Bobby Hill	Henry Rodriguez
Freddie Bynum	Rich Hill	Henry Rodriguez
Marlon Byrd	Nico Hoerner	Chris Rusin
Jeimer Candelario	Micah Hoffpauir	Addison Russell
Victor Caratini	Cesar Izturis	Jeff Samardzija
Andrew Cashner	Brett Jackson	Rey Sanchez
Larry Cassian	Reed Johnson	Ryne Sandberg
Frank Castillo	Jacque Jones	Kyle Schwarber
Welington Castillo	Matt Karchner	Scott Servais
Starlin Castro	David Kelton	Jorge Soler
Ronny Cedeno	Brooks Kieschnick	Alfonso Soriano
Rocky Cherry	Bryan LaHair	Sammy Sosa
Matt Clement	Tommy LaStella	Geovany Soto
Steve Clevenger	Junior Lake	Steve Smyth
Buck Coats	Derrek Lee	Matt Szczur
Tyler Colvin	Jon Leiber	Ryan Theriot
Willson Contreras	Jon Lester	Ozzie Timmons
Juan Cruz	Cole Liniak	Steve Trachsel
Yu Darvish	Greg Maddux	Duane Underwood
Wade Davis	Dave Magadan	Jermaine Van Buren
Blake DeWitt	Dillon Maples	Josh Vitters
Rafael Dolis	Carlos Marmol	Todd Walker
Scott Downs	Sean Marshall	Todd Wellemeyer
Jason Dubuois	Scott Moore	Randy Wells
Carl Edwards	Matt Murton	Turk Wendell
Kyle Farnsworth	Rod Myers	Jerome Williams
Mike Fontenot	Thomas Neal	Kerry Wood
Kevin Foster	Roberto Novoa	Travis Wood
Dexter Fowler	James Norwood	Michael Wuertz
Kyuji Fujikawa	Will Ohman	Carlos Zambrano
Kosuke Fukudome	Augie Ojeda	Rob Zastryzny
Sam Fuld	Mike Olt	Ben Zobrist
Sean Gallagher	Ryan O'Malley	Julio Zuleta
Nomar Garciaparra	Kevin Orie

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 18,284 Cubs cards from 252 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1973 Hall of Fame Postcard Monte Irvin  He played his final MLB season with the Cubs, and that gets him into my collection.

1980s: 1988 Score #26 Ryne Sandberg This comes from the Score premiere set, which featured a rainbow of colored borders.  Ryno was one of five Cubs with purple

1990s: 1991 Stadium Club #247 Joe Girardi  Another premiere set, this time Topps entry into the premium card market with Stadium Club.

2000s: 2000 MVP #46 Joe Girardi  The RNG likes Joe Girardi much more than Theo Epstein, which is why Joe is managing the Phillies and not the Cubs.

2010s: 2015 Topps All Star Access #14 Anthony Rizzo Rizzo started the 2015 game as the NL's designated hitter.  He went 0-2, grounding out to first and flying out to center.

First Place!

Ladies and gentlemen, your first place Chicago Cubs!

Kyle Hendricks was amazing last night.... only three hits allowed, no walks, nine strikeouts, a complete game shutout.  Home runs by Ian Happ and Anthony Rizzo provide all the scoring in the 3-0 win over the Brewers.

One down, 59 to go!

2020 Series Two WARriors of the Diamond and Topps 2030

The second series has a couple of insert sets that are new to 2020.

WARriors of the Diamond delves into the Wins Above Replacement stat.  In Ernie Banks' 1959 MVP season he had a WAR of 10.2, which is currently the 6th best all time among shortstops.

Also new to series two is Topps 2030.  The concept of the set is to project where the players would be in ten years, 2030.  If they continue the career pace that they are on, Baez would pass the 450 HR mark in 2030 while Bryant would be at 400.

 

2020 Topps Series Two 1985 Inserts

Yesterday was the base set and today we'll get started with the 1985 inserts.  We have three different insert sets that use the 1985 design.

Javier Baez is the only Cub player among the 50 cards in the base set.

 

 

Three Cubs are in the All-Stars.  Ryno had an All-Star card in the actual 1985 set that looks...

...like this.

The silver packs contain chrome refractor 1985 cards and three of them are Cubs.

 

The scanner really makes the colors pop.

2020 Topps Series 2 Cubs

It's been nearly a month since Series Two was released and I've finally got my Cubs cards.  Of course if I can wait nearly four months for the season to start, waiting one month for cards is nothing!

Making the wait a little easier is the fact that of the nine Cubs cards, five have already been seen in either Opening Day or the Factory Team set.

Card's we've already seen include...

 

 

 

Bryant, Contreras, Darvish, Happ, and Heyward.

Making their 2020 debut are...

 

 

...Caratini, Chatwood, and Wick.

The last Cubs card is another checklist...

... celebrating a walk-off win on a Kris Bryant home run.  In case you're having a sense of deja vu, there was a similar checklist card...

... in series one.

2020 Topps Total Wave 4 Cubs

...and the Waves keep crashing in!

Wave 4 includes four more Cubs.

 

 

 

 Another Robel Garcia sighting!!  UUUUgggghhhh!  And the guy isn't even in the big league camp.  Instead, he's working out with the lower level guys in South Bend.

Please, Topps, no more cards of Robel Garcia!!