2022 Topps Series 2 Cubs Inserts

 The Cubs are pretty thing in the inserts in series two.  The were shut out of Diamond Great Die-Cuts, Generation Now, Home Field Advantage, Home Run Challenge, No-Hit Club, Significant Statistics, Stars of MLB, and Sweet Shades.  

Stroman is the lone Cub in the 1987 Topps set.  

Ryno was the only Cubs in 50-card All Star set.

 

 

The Cubs were 4 for 100 with the Silver Pack set.

2022 Topps Series 2 Cubs Short-Print Variations

  Topps continues to crank out the photo variation cards.  I gave up on most of them a couple of years ago.  I have no more interest in the cards that have a different photo of the same player.  The only ones I now chase are the legend variations that replace a current player with a retired player.  There are two Cubs in series two.

Ernie Banks' card #490 was swapped for Nico Hoerner.  Yes, they are both shortstops, but Nico Hoerner is no Ernie Banks!

Wishful thinking on Topps' part has Nick Madrigal's #466 being replaced by Ryne Sandberg.  Again, same positions but definitely not the same player.

2022 Topps Series 2 Cubs

 My series two Cubs cards came while I was on vacation. 

The Cubs fared much better in series two, with twelve cards compared to the five in series one.  However, of the twelve, four of them are no longer with the team.

Series two has become a later release of series one and the update set is now series two.  It seems that the print deadlines keep getting moved further up.  At this point Topps should go back to releasing the entire set at once and make the update set a truly updated set.

Case in point: The Cubs signed Marcus Stroman on December 1.  He was included in the Cubs blister pack team set.  Yet he is not in series two.  How does that happen?

The team card shows a rare 2021 win celebration.

 

 

 

Noting too out of the ordinary with the seven players that are still on the team.

 

These are the four not with the Cubs.  Alzolay is on the 60 day IL, Davies and Thompson left as a free agents in November, and Deichmann was DFA'ed and is with Iowa. 

Three New Rule Followers

 I've picked up three new autograph collection rule followers.  All three have a certified autograph that shows them as a Cub in a season that they played for the Cubs.

 

Nick Madrigal and Alfonso Rivas were both included in Inception's Rookies and Emerging Stars set.  I think that is a stretch for both of them.

Marcus Stoman was on Gypsy Queen's checklist.  I'd imagine that he will have autographs in several other sets.  This is the blank name version, which is a really dumb idea.  You need the printed name to figure out the player since you can't tell by trying to read the autograph.

I'm now up to 147 different players that follow my rule.  I counted ten that are currently on the Cubs active roster.  I didn't think that there would have been that many.

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

Cubs Win!!

 We rode our bicycles 150 miles to see this game.  They better win!  

And they did, blowing out the Pirates 14-5.  Seven runs in the second inning meant it would be an easy night.  Keegan Thompson pitched six strong innings.

The ninth inning was interesting as the Pirates had a position player take the mound.  Second baseman Diego Castillo was very wild and the Cubs loaded the bases without a hit.  Alfonso Rivas then blasted a grand slam.  Cubs reliever Daniel Norris was awful in the bottom of the ninth, giving up four runs before finally ending the game.

We had nice seats in a fairly empty ballpark.  We head back for the Thursday afternoon wrap up.  Hopefully the result will be the same.

Out on Vacation

 

I'll be taking some time away from the blog for a week or so.  

Mrs. WW and I are off on another week long bicycle trip.  We're doing the Great Alleghany Passage again, the same trail we did two years ago.  We start in Cumberland, Maryland, and end up in Pittsburgh.  Coincidentally,  the Cubs will be in Pittsburgh when we get there. We have tickets for two games.  I may post something about the games.  Otherwise, see you in on the 27th. 

2022 Cub #44

 The 44th player has taken the field for the 2022 Cubs.

What a week for the Chicagoland native.  Pitcher Eric Stout was called up on Monday, pitched in games on Tuesday and Wednesday, and was designated for assignment on Thursday.

2020 Cubs Season Ticket Holders Set In Action Subset

 The In Action subset is the small of all the subsets, just two cards.

Topps go super lazy with this card.  They didn't use the 1972 font for Baez' name and instead used a pretty boring font instead.

They did much better with the 1982 version of In Action.

1976 O-Pee-Chee Cubs

 Set Size: O-Pee-Chee - 660, Topps 660  

Cubs in set: O-Pee-Chee - 25 , Topps - 25 

This is the last time that the OPC set was identical in size to the Topps set. 

O-Pee-Chee used a darker shaded cardboard, so their borders aren't as white as the Topps cards.  Otherwise, the fronts are identical.

The differences on the back are the usual bilingual differences.

The 1976 set is one of my favorites from the 1970s.  I love how the blue and red on the card matches the Cubs uniforms.  Most of the cards show the Cubs in their home uniforms too.