1985 Fun Food Cubs

I've got an oddball today, the Cubs set from the 1985 Fun Foods buttons set.

Right off the bat things get confusing.  The pins have a copyright of 1984 and that is how most are listed on Ebay.  But the Standard Catalog lists the set as a 1985 release.  I'm going with 1985 since the set includes stats on the back from the 1984 season.

The set consists of 133 buttons / pins.  They are the same small size (1.25" diameter) as the pins put out by Kellys, Sunoco, and MLBPA in the late '60s.  You could buy the pins in packs of three pins.  Complete sets were also available at hobby shops.

I've tried to find out more about the company that made these, Fun Foods.  According the to the boxes, Fun Foods was based out of Little Silver, New Jersey.  A Google search of Fun Foods Little Silver turned up nothing.  It's like the company never existed.  Anyone from the east have any knowledge of Fun Foods?

As far as the Cubs in the set, they pretty much nailed it.  Nine Cubs were included.  Only one of the starting position players was left out, Keith Moreland.  The other seven made it... Gary Matthews, Bobby Dernier, Ron Cey, Larry Bowa, Ryne Sandberg, Leon Durham, and Jody Davis.  The other two Cubs were pitchers Rick Sutcliffe and Lee Smith.

 

 

 

 

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 14,056 Cubs cards from 108 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1960 Fleer #40 Joe Tinker This comes from one of Fleer's first baseball releases.  Since Topps had the current players under contract, Fleer went with old-timers.

1980s: 1987 Fleer #572 Scott Sanderson  The righty was having shoulder issues and wasn't very good.  He spent time in '87 as both a starter and reliever.

1990s: 1995 Fleer #413 Shawon Dunston After battling injuries for three seasons, Dunston had a decent year in 1995.  He played in 127 games and batted .296.  He became a free agent after the season and signed with the Giants. 

2000s: 2001 Bowman #230 Luiz Montanez  The RNG's Fleer streak ended at three, as we move on to a Bowman card.  Luis Montanez was the Cubs #1 pick in the 2000 draft and gets a card in the 2001 Bowman set.  After six seasons in the Cubs chain he became a free agent and was signed by the Orioles.  He made his big league debut in 2008.  After three seasons with Baltimore, he was re-signed by the Cubs and spent part of the 2011 season in Chicago.

2010s: 2010 T206 #173 Aramis Ramirez The modern Topps version of the T206 set was thankfully, short lived.

A Perfect Darwin Barney Card

I've never been much into the whole card-grading thing (I've cracked open the case any time I've bought a graded card).  But I decide to start looking into graded Darwin Barney cards.

This is the first one I picked up.  Its his rookie card and it is a perfect 10 - gem mint.  According to the PSA population report, there are just six perfect 10 2011 Barney cards.  I'm sure that it has such a low pop because, well, who bothers to get 2011 cards of Darwin Barney graded?

If perfect 10 cards from his other years of Topps base become available, I may try to get them.  Right now there aren't any on Ebay.  Again, who bothers to get Darwin Barney cards graded?  But who knows?

Baseball-reference.com is Wrong!!

I've found an error at Baseball-reference.com!

The site has become a bible of sorts for any baseball fan. It sure has made research easier for me and all bloggers.  But I found an odd mistake that is Cubs related and is repeated multiple times.

Here are the standings of the National League after games played on May 10, 1979, according to Baseball-reference.  It shows that the Cubs are in fourth place, 6½ games back, with a record of 13-12

Now look at the Tribune from May 11, 1979, which has  the standings as of the previous day, May 10.

The Cubs are seven games back, and 12-12.

So what gives?

Looks at the results for the day, which follow the standings.

The Cubs played the Reds on May 10 and the game was suspended because of darkness after nine innings.

The game was resumed the next time the Reds came to Wrigley, in late July.  The Cubs would eventually win the game in 18 innings on July 23.

Baseball-reference put the game in the Cubs win column as of May 10, hence their 13-12 record.  But in 1979, of course no one in May knew how the game would turn out.  So from May 10 - July 23, Baseball reference credits the Cubs with one more win than they actually had.

The same thing happens every time the Cubs had a game suspended because of darkness.  Here's an article from Bleedcubbieblue that chronicles some of the suspended because of darkness games.

And each time it happened, the Cubs record on Baseball-reference gets off by a game until the suspended game was eventually finished.  According to official baseball rules, Baseball-reference is technically correct; all stats from a suspended game are applied to the day the game started.

But since no one had a crystal ball and knew how the suspended games would turn out, I consider the newspapers correct and baseball-reference wrong.

So be careful using the site if you want to see where the Cubs were in the standings anytime in the 70s throught 1988.  You might  be off by a game.

First 2012 Heritage Barney No Position in Two Years

After over two years of being invisible on Ebay, a 2012 Darwin Barney Heritage No Position variation card surfaced.  It had the ridiculous BIN price of $275.  I've been tracking the card on Ebay since it was released and the average price of the previous 36 that were sold was $86.

But I guess there were some anxious Heritage collectors that wanted the card because it was sold less than two days after being listed.  The seller didn't get his BIN, but a pretty larger Best Offer was accepted:

The card went for $175!  Heritage collectors are a serious bunch!

The previous to copies sold on Ebay, in December of 2013 and February, 2014 went for $27.95 and $24.  Where were those Heritage collectors two years ago?

If you are curious, the screen shot comes from the website www.watchcount.com  The site lets you find the final price of any item sold by Best Offer.  Its a pretty nifty little tool.

Spring Fever Cubs 2016

I'm writing this post after spending an hour outside dealing with a driveway covered in three to four inches of wet, sloppy, heavy snow.  The temperature is now dropping and the wet driveway is turning into a skating rink.

Spring can't get here soon enough.

The mailman did bring a little spring to me - Spring Fever.

This is the fourth year that Topps has had their Spring Fever promotion. The deal - bring in some wrappers from the base set to your local hobby shop and trade them in for a pack of Spring Fever cards.

I don't buy packs and I don't have a local hobby shop.

I do have Ebay and I have five new Spring Fever Cubs cards.  For the Cubs to land five of the 50 spots on the checklist is amazing.  Two years ago not a single Cub was on the list.  That's quite a turnaround.

The five are big names...Arrieta, Bryant, Heyward (making his first cardboard appearance as a Cub), Rizzo, and Schwarber.

 

 

 

 

My only complaint with the cards is this...in a set called Spring Fever, why on Earth is there...

a SNOW STORM!  Snow is the last thing I want to see!!!

1977 Jewel Cubs Week 4

Its the end of the line for the 1977 Jewel picture giveaway.

Its the end of the line for the 1977 Chicago Cubs.

The Cubs were in free fall.  By the time these pictures were available, August 11, the Cubs were four games back of the Phillies. A week later they were nine games out.  It was not pretty.

Jose Cardenal still had the big fro going, but that was about it.  He was a part-time player in 1977, appearing in just 100 games.  Same goes for George Mitterwald.  He too played in just 100 games. Neither did much and both were traded after the season.

This was Mike Krukow's rookie season.  He spent the entire season in the rotation and put up mediocre numbers, 8-14 with an ERA of 4.40

Bobby Murcer game to the Cubs from the Giants when the Cubs front office was "encouraged" by Mr. Wrigley to get rid of Bill Madlock.  They ended up paying Murcer more that what Madlock was looking for.  It was bad, dumb trade.