Done In By My Own Rules: Henry Rodriguez II

Thanks to my own rules, I've picked up a ridiculous autograph card.

My collection rule:  one card for any player that's had a certified autograph from a year they played for the Cubs and the card lists them as a Cub.

It's been a good rule until Panini came along.  Here's the silly card I picked up:

Its from 2013 Panini Prizm and its an autograph of Henry Rodriguez.

No, not this...

...Henry Rodriguez.  This guy I've heard of. This guy was good

I didn't know the card existed until it was pointed out to me by Matt from Once A Cub.

Heck, I didn't even remember that Henry Rodriguez II pitched for the Cubs last season.  He barely did, pitching four innings over five games in June and July.

But even four innings qualifies for my autograph rule.

I didn't have to break the bank for the card...my best offer of three bucks was accepted.

One last thought.

Why was there an autographed card of Henry Rodriguez made in the first place?  What was Panini thinking?  How many collectors have been clamoring for an autograph of a guy with career record of 5-7 with an ERA of 4.24?

That's a pretty low bar that Panini has set for certified autos.

2014 Darwin Barney OYO Toysports Figure

Since I already have the 2012 and 2013 versions of Darwin Barney's OYO figure, when I saw that a 2014 model was available, I picked one up.

I shouldn't have.

Here's the 2012 version, with Barney in a home uniform.

Last year they shifted him into a blue alternate uniform.

This year I figured they'd use the gray road uniform, the only uniform that hadn't been used.

Nope, it was back to the blue alternate.  They did make one difference, though.

 

Last year's version is on the left.  Look just below his neck, and you see a white shirt under the jersey.  This year's figure is on the right and that little white part is now blue.  They also added a white Cubs hat because the Cubs now have a white alternate hat.....NO THEY DON'T!... I have no idea why a white hat was included.

Kinda strange looking, isn't it.  I wonder if they made white hats for all the teams?

Finally, here is my Barney mini-army.

My guess is that this will be it for the Barney OYO collection.  Repeating the same figure, making up things that don't exist...who does OYO think that they are, Topps?

Topps Complete Set Prices 1969 - 2013

Here is my monthly look at Topps complete set prices for all the years in which I own a set, 1969 - 2013.  The prices are from Ebay sold listings taken on May 1.  The prices do not include shipping.

• Two really high-end 1969 sets were sold, both going for more than $2000.  That really bumped up the average for that set.
• Not too much action on the other years
• At least one set from 1986 - 1989 went for only 99 cents.
• One set of each year will cost you $6,655,69, and increase of about $300 over last month.

YEAR	May 1	April 9	March 1	12 Mo. Avg.
1969	$1,449.60	$1,233.71	$921.00	$1,004.79
1970	$776.00	$884.80	$933.18	$928.81
1971	$1,023.20	$1,010.00	$883.79	$773.60
1972	$1,279.60	$856.20	$916.93	$911.81
1973	$338.31	$319.79	$457.71	$384.42
1974	$216.20	$196.76	$243.62	$218.06
1975	$263.50	$523.99	$345.50	$294.63
1976	$180.20	$157.67	$164.99	$162.66
1977	$135.60	$150.42	$192.50	$150.10
1978	$100.92	$96.60	$113.51	$96.37
1979	$100.70	$133.30	$100.28	$86.71
1980	$70.40	$71.79	$99.67	$67.27
1981	$21.91	$28.51	$27.03	$27.28
1982	$33.00	$29.19	$44.01	$40.70
1983	$29.63	$29.59	$27.15	$34.58
1984	$14.40	$17.89	$22.00	$18.76
1985	$19.99	$16.24	$20.29	$23.65
1986	$9.49	$15.28	$11.94	$15.96
1987	$9.82	$12.34	$7.30	$9.60
1988	$6.39	$14.97	$5.55	$8.63
1989	$6.39	$10.24	$6.74	$8.00
1990	$10.10	$22.83	$13.00	$9.49
1991	$11.30	$7.78	$9.90	$8.45
1992	$10.29	$9.89	$13.54	$12.92
1993	$15.11	$23.29	$21.52	$19.74
1994	$17.61	$20.36	$19.20	$22.46
1995	$39.89	$24.29	$35.37	$33.29
1996	$19.38	$14.30	$28.37	$20.47
1997	$33.19	$28.02	$40.05	$42.87
1998	$38.51	$26.73	$34.79	$36.67
1999	$16.41	$24.49	$25.58	$22.60
2000	$20.39	$15.30	$29.79	$21.59
2001	$36.60	$36.30	$49.00	$43.86
2002	$39.20	$34.53	$51.60	$37.27
2003	$31.74	$28.70	$37.00	$36.49
2004	$28.36	$29.05	$32.62	$25.51
2005	$30.59	$27.55	$36.67	$30.40
2006	$29.45	$19.54	$31.30	$26.97
2007	$18.19	$14.89	$22.85	$22.01
2008	$29.80	$21.91	$33.51	$27.97
2009	$28.92	$38.55	$39.88	$34.55
2010	$28.57	$22.29	$15.96	$23.59
2011	$16.80	$19.40	$29.05	$23.91
2012	$20.05	$22.28	$23.02	$26.99
2013	$31.74	$40.11	$41.98	$38.36

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 12,322 Cubs cards from 88 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: Topps 1964 #469 Cubs Rookies Both of these guys did pitch for the 1964 Cubs, though not very well. Norman made eight appearances, including five starts, and was 0-4 with a 6.54 ERA. He stuck around with the Cubs organization until he was traded after the 1967 season. Sterling Slaughter has a great name, though it sounds more like a WWE name than a baseball name. He made 20 less than sterling appearances in 1964, going 2-4 with a 5.75 ERA. He spent the next three seasons in the minors and never made it back to the majors.

1980s: 1989 Fleer #420 Doug Dascenzo  Doug Dascenzo was the 1980s version of Tony Campana....short, fast, and not much of a hitter.  His 1990 season was split between Iowa (111 games) and the Cubs (47 games).  The card lists his weight as 160 pounds.  Lil' Dougie barely hit his weight with the Cubs; his average was only .165.

1990s: 1990 Fleer #37 Greg Maddux  Another card from Fleer, one year later.  After winning 18 and 19 games the previous two seasons, Maddux tailed off a bit in 1990, going 15-15.  He did, however, win his first gold glove, starting a streak that would see him win 18 of the next 19.

2000s: 2002 Topps Total #112 Julio Zuleta  Julio is swinging a big bat on this card.  The Cubs brass didn't think his bat was that big...he was designated for assignment at the end of spring training in 2002 and spent the year at Iowa.  He had a big AAA bat, hitting .293 with 31 HRs and 104 RBIs.  The Cubs brass still weren't impressed and Zuleta left Iowa after the season as a free agent.

2010s: 2013 Bowman #17 Starlin Castro The random number generator is teasing me with a card from last year's Bowman while I wait from my 2014 Cubs set to be delivered from this year's just released set.

Ernie Banks Gypsy Queen Collection

I have a player collection of five different Cubs, but Ernie Banks was the only one of the five in this year's Gypsy Queen.  Because I only had one player to chase, I decided to get a few of Mr Cub's GQ parallels.

I ended up with four.

This is my favorite...the blue framed card.  The blue frame and blue uniform have such a nice look together.

The white frame card, a Target exclusive, looks too plain for me.

As far as the minis go, I was able to get the two that were not 1/1s

 

...the sepia /50  and black /199.

Though not mentioned on the sell sheets, there are also red mini version out there that are /99.  I'm hoping to be able to get the Banks version, but so far haven't had any luck.

Billy's Autograph and Who Else??

Here is post #3 of my recent Billy Williams autographs.

But first...

In 1984 the Cubs made the post-season for the first time since 1945.  The whipped the Padres in games 1 and 2 of the NLCS at Wrigley.  One more win and they were off to face the Tigers in the World Series.

Of course that one win never came.  The Padres swept the last three, in part because of that #%&&#@ Steve Garvey.  With apologies to Night Owl and GCRL,  I was never a big Garvey fan during his time with the Dodgers...he seemed to phoney and full of himself for me...a pretty boy, not a ball player.  His NLCS performance cemented my dislike for the guy.

So take a look at my Billy autograph..

...Billy and #%&&#@ Steve Garvey.

This is a postmarked postcard from the day that Steve Garvey broke Billy's NL consecutive games streak.  I guess it was a nice touch on the Padre's part to have Billy at the game.  The Cubs had a big celebration when Billy set the record, but I don't think they brought in Stan Musial, who's record he broke.

I've been hemming and hawing about getting the postcard for a while. But once I picked up the Perez Steele autos, I figured what the heck and went after this one.

I'm glad I got it, but I still can't stand  #%&&#@ Steve Garvey!

Perez Steele Billy Autographs

I've got three more Billy Autographs today, none on baseball cards.

But they are on cards....post cards.

In 2010 I picked up the Cubs that were included in the Perez Steele postcard collection.  Billy Williams was among the players.

Since then I've seen several auctions that have autographed version of the card.  I got interested in getting one after I got the signed Hall of Fame postcard.  So I did an ebay search and found not only the Perez Steele card, but a second version from a 1989 set called Celebration.  The two cards were done in the same style but featured different pictures.

I went after both...

..and got em!  The top card is the regular version and the bottom is from Celebration. Since they are postcards, they're much bigger than a baseball card.  My thought is to some day have these matted and framed.  I think they'd look great either in my office at school or on the wall of the WW World Headquarters.

Two signed Billy Williams cards are good, but three are even better.

In 1990 there was another Perez card set, this one called Great Moments.  Billy was great moment #69 and when I saw the card, I knew I needed it too.

This one has a design that mimics the original Turkey Red design.  It's also not the standard baseball card size.  In fact its even bigger than a postcard.  This measures 5.75" x 8"

Here's what it looks like compared to a regular baseball card.  It dwarfs the card.

These are very welcomed additions to my collection.

Tomorrow I'll have one more Billy autograph, and it has something on it I never ever thought I want or get.