Another South Bend Cub With a Topps Cubs Card

 Here's a quick update to a post from a couple of weeks ago.

Luke Little was in 2024's series two, so he becomes the 13th player to have both a South Bend Cubs card and a Topps Cubs card.

2024 Cub #42

It has been almost three weeks since the Cubs added a new player to the roster.  That has to be a record for this season.  That's not to say that there weren't changes to the active roster over that time.  There were plenty.  But they involved players that had already been with the team and were sent down to Iowa.  The Chicago Iowa shuttle has been pretty active.

The new player is catcher Tomas Nido.  The Cubs picked him up off of the Met's scrap heap.  The team is looking for more production out of the backstop position.  Yan Gomes was just not doing that this year and was released.  Nido was acquired and played in Friday's game against, ironically, the Mets.

The 42 Cubs make up a nice 6x7 mosaic.  I've updated it to include the Topps card for any player that got one in series two instead of using my homemade cards.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 21,835 Cubs cards from 317 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1952 Topps #127 Paul Minner  I never noticed this before, but the "Chicago" lettering on his jersey was painted the wrong color.  It should be blue, not red.

1980s: 1987 Topps #177 Keith Moreland Moreland hit a career-high 27 homers in 1987.  It was also his last season with the Cubs.  He was traded to the Padres just before spring training in 1988.

1990s: 1996 Topps #426 Bobby Morris Only one of the four prospects on this card never made it to the majors and of course it was the Cub.  Morris never made it past AA.

2000s: 2002 Freshman Orientation #17 Francis Beltran  Beltran pitched in 11 games for the Cubs in 2002, so with this relic card he follows my collection rules.  Following the rules would be the only reason for me to have a relic of a player with a career ERA of 5.69.

2010s: 2010 Heritage #234 Jeff Samardzija  This is a pretty nasty looking card, Photoshopping in a fake background. 

Eighties Alphabetically - FBI Foods

 When I first saw the listing for an FBI set, I assumed with was put out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Several police departments have put out sets over the years, so why not the FBI too.

Instead, in 1981 and 1982, it was FBI Foods of Canada that partnered with MSA to put out disc sets.  The discs came two to a panel on the bottom of a Bantam drink box.  

Since the discs were on the bottom of the box, they are not easy to find in good condition.  I was able to buy a complete intact box to get the lone Cub in the 1982 set.

I didn't cut up the bottom into individual discs but left it whole.  I think that will help keep up the value of the panel.

There is one Cub in the 1981 set, Dave Kingman.  I have never seen a listing anywhere for his disc.  The picture is borrowed from the TCDB and the disc is on my most wanted list.

Series Two Me vs. Topps

 I created homemade cards for all of the 2024 Cubs, which means I had cards out before Topps did with several players in series two (it's not all of the series two players because many of them got cards in the factory set.

I'll give myself the win because I show him in a home uniform.  I also show him as a fielder instead of using the same boring pitching shots that Topps overuses.

I win because any card that shows the City Connect uniform is an automatic loser.

 

I win because I used an actual picture instead of a photoshop job and I have his position correct, too.

I'll take this one as I use a personality shot instead of a batting stance.

My card has him coming home after his first career home run.  How can you top that?

My card is an automatic winner because I went vertical instead of horizontal.

 

Another win for me as I show the home pinstripes against a beautiful blue sky while Topps does the the ugly CC uniform again.

 

My win again as I show the fun personality of Shota and Topps resorts to Photoshop.

Its another case of a non-pitching shot against the standard throwing picture.

I'll call this a tie as there are two decent looking pictures of Mastrobuoni being used.

 

I win because I did mine first! The two pictures look to be from the same game.   Topps cropped theirs a bit tighter.

2024 Series Two vs. Factory Set

 There were six players that have cards in the 2024 factory team set but not in series one.  The assumption is that they will have a cards in series two.  Did  they?  Are the cards from the two sets identical?

Let's find out...

 

 

 

 

Series two is on the left and the factory set is on the right.  The pictures are identical.  Oddly though, the Topps logo is in a different place on the two Madrigal and Tauchman cards.

 

These two cards were in the factory set but not in series two.  It makes sense for Mervis but not Leiter.  He's been in 32 games this season out of the bullpen.  I wonder why he was considered team set worthy but not good enough for series two?

2024 Series Two Cubs

 I picked up the series two Cubs last week and the seller shipped them promptly.  I bought the set on the 15th and it arrived on the 18th.  That's pretty quick to go from South Carolina to Michigan, so kudos to the USPS for that.

There are 16 Cubs cards, 15 players and one combo checklist card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Among them we have...

• 12 cards with home uniforms, though three of the twelve are the ugly City Connection version
• Four with road uniforms, split two and two between the grey and blue tops
• Only two with a horizontal orientation
• All of the players included are still in the Cubs organization, though Madrigal and Canario are in AAA and Tauchman is on the IL