A Look Inside 1991 Sports Educational

I wrote a post about this book in February.  Sports Educational was one of the many guides and magazines that included baseball cards.  

This one had one for Ryne Sandberg.  When I wrote the post I had just the card.  Since then I've acquired the entire book.  I was curious what the inside looked like.

Sports Educational put out workbooks like this for each of the four major sports.  The book contains a series of educational activities  The teacher in me wanted to see them.  How educational were they?  What grade level?

Here's the first two pages.  The listing of editions doesn't mention basketball, but there is a basketball workbook that has Magic Johnson on the cover.

Here's the table of contents and information about the author and editor, a husband and wife team.  Layton Revel went on to be the founder of the Center for Negro League Baseball Research.

These two pages tell you what the workbook is all about.  The basic concept is that you have been awarded a new MLB franchise and you have a number of activities to do to get your team up and running.

You start by getting a telegram from the commissioner.  Sorry, but in 1991 no one was getting telegrams.  It probably would have been a fax.

You have to pick your team location and name to get started... a little geography lesson.

More geography!

Time to do some math as you think about which players to add to your team.

These are some reading and writing activities as you work your way through the book.

I scanned just a sample of the pages, but I think you get the idea.  I'd peg this to be around a 4th - 6th grade book.  I know several other bloggers are in education.  Does that seem right?

From the looks of this I'd say the book was self-published by the Revels.  Today a teacher would make this on their computer and then offer it on Teachers Pay Teachers.

But that means you wouldn't get the baseball cards, so there's something to be said for the old-school paper version.

Looking Ahead to Heritage 2022

 I like to have a post that looks ahead to the next year once I finish showing all the current Heritage cards.  That's what I've got for today.

Topps went back to a very conservative design in 1973 after the funkadelic 1972 look.  I clearly remember my 11-year-old self being very happy that they did.  I probably bought twice as many cards in 1973 compared to the previous year.

The name, team, and position are all pretty basic.  The picture that goes along with the position changes for each position.  Topps also even went to the trouble of making both a right-handed and left-handed pitcher.

Here's my rendition of a 2022 Heritage card.  I hope I got the design correct and I hope the player I featured is still with the Cubs in 2022!

The Rest of the Heritage 2021 Cubs Inserts

 There are Cubs inserts in three sets that I had to pick up off of Ebay.  Each set has two Cubs and I finally received all six.

The candy lids are back.  Topps had a prototype set of at least 56 of these in 1972.  Billy Williams and Fergie Jenkins were in the set, but not Ron Santo.  Topps made up for that exclusion.  

It also looks like the Santo picture came from the same Shea Stadium shoot as the picture on his 1971 card.

Heritage also has a poster set based on the 1972 posters.  The original posters were not inserts but sold separately.  The 25-player set included both Billy Williams and Fergie Jenkins.

I've got the Billy poster in my player collection.  You can see how the old and new compare with one another.  The name font isn't very close to the original and look how much it was raised on the Heritage version.

 

Die-cuts are the final insert.  That was a pretty good idea based on the curved design of the 1972 cards.

Merrick Mint Signature Cards Cubs

 The 2004 Merrick Mint Signature quarters came with baseball cards, just like the first set.  The cards use the same picture that was on the quarters.  That means it the same picture for the six Cubs with cards in the first set, with one exception.  Nomar Garciaparra's picture was changed.

The set has a total of seventeen cards and I have fifteen of them.  Missing are cards for Todd Hollandsworth and LaTroy Hawkins.  I have saved Ebay searched for both of them and I just have to wait for one to pop up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merrick Mint Colorized Cubs Cards

On Saturday I showed all of the colorized Cubs quarters from Merrick.  They came from two different sets.  In addition to the coins, in both sets you also got cards.  Today I'll show the cards from the first set. 

The coins and cards came in a pack like this.  There were six Cubs on the checklist and thus far I've been able to find five of the six cards.

 

 

The cards aren't too bad looking, other than that goofy look on Greg Maddux's face.  You can see the Players Association logo in the upper left hand corner.  You can also tell that Merrick didn't have an MLB license.  The hatless and tightly cropped pictures mean no photoshopping was necessary.

I'm missing one card, Nomar Garciaparra.  I borrowed the card from the TCDB so you can see what it looks like.  Let me know if you ever find one!

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 19,214 Cubs cards from 284 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1917 Collins-McCarthy #40 Charles Deal My cards from this set are reprints.  The real deal for this Deal is over $2,000 in a PSA 6.  

1980s: 1989 BIg #60 Damon Berryhill Injuries limited his action with the 1989 Cubs, as they did throughout his career.  He batted .291 but saw action in just 91 games.

1990s: 1990 Panini #241 Mark Grace The Panini stickers from the early '90s didn't have very splashy designs, did they?

2000s: 2002 Topps #169 Jon Lieber  The picture on this card looks like it belongs in Heritage, not the base set.  There weren't too many posed shots by 2002.

2010s: 2012 Factory Team #CHC4 Ryan Dempster I always look forward to the Factory Team set as it gives me an early peek at some cards that weren't in series one.  I haven't heard anything about a 2021 version being released.  Anyone got any info on that?