It has been a long time since I've added a new program to my collection. My goal is one of each edition from 1982, the year the Cubs started selling game programs. For the longest time I've had all but four. One of the four was finally listed on Ebay, and now I'm down to needing three.
This is the third edition from 1984. I have no idea why it has been so scarce. The Cubs were in the thick of a pennant race and drawing huge crowds by the time this issue was being sold. There should be plenty of them out there. But this is the first time in a year that I saw one listed. Luckily for me there aren't any other collectors chasing this and I was the only bidder. I picked it up for the opening bid of $2.99.
The cover features Bowa and Sandberg and there's a nice article about them inside. However, my favorite article is this one...
... which talks about the Cubs wonderful new clubhouse. It was a priority of Dallas Green to upgrade the Cubs facilities and he spent $1 million to get the team a new clubhouse. The article quotes Green as saying the Cubs now have one of the best clubhouses in the major leagues.
By the time the Tribune sold the Cubs, the clubhouse was by far the worst in the major leagues. 1984's Taj Mahal became 2015's outhouse.
When the Cubs built a new clubhouse (which cost in the hundreds of million dollars) , the old one became batting cages. Expectations and needs of today's players are a whole lot different today than they were in 1984!
I'm now finished with 1984 and need just three more programs, one from 1990 and two from 1996.
I started college in Chicagoland in 1984. I'm sure I bought a few Cubs programs in that era. I remember the design.
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