Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 14,376 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: 1965 Topps #149 Wayne Schurr  As a rookie in 1964 Schurr made 26 appearances out of the bullpen.  That was good enough to earn a spot in the 1965 Topps set.  It wasn't good enough to earn a spot on the 1965 Cubs. He spent the next two seasons in AAA and never made it back to the majors.

1980s: 1988 Team Issued Andre Dawson The Cubs gave out these cards on August 24, 1988.  The Cubs beat the Astros 3-2 on a walk off single by Vance Law.  Greg Maddux out-dueled Nolan Ryan.  Dawson was one for four.

1990s: 1995 Bowman #12 Jason Ryan He was a 9th round pick of the Cubs in the 1994 draft.  He had a very good 1995 season in A ball, posting a record of 11-5.  He would never do better than that and the Cubs traded him during the 1999 season.

2000s: 2001 Topps Chrome #607 Luis Montanez This card comes from the days when the Chrome set was made up of the entire flagship set.

2010s: 2012 Gypsy Queen mini #257 Ryne Sandberg Ryno on the run.

The Numbers Game Cubs

Each year the Allen and Ginter set contains a large insert set.  This year's is called "The Numbers Game."  The concept is built around the featured player's number.  

On the back of the card is a list of other players from the team to wear that number and other MLB stars that also wore the number.

The set has 100 cards.  With 30 MLB teams, there should be three or four players per team.  The Cubs totally busted that, with seven players included.  I'll go through the Cubs cards in numerical order.

#17 - Kris Bryant

Other Cubs Listed: Lon Warneke, Charlie Root, Guy Bush, Mark Grace

Player I most associate with the number: Mark Grace

Random thoughts: There was about a 50 year period between Root and Grace where #17 was worn by a bunch of mediocre players.  I wonder if Bryant will be the last Cub to wear it?

# 22 - Jason Heyward

Other Cubs Listed: Dizzy Dean, Bill Buckner, Mark Prior, Paul Popovich

Player I most associate with the number: Bill Buckner

Random thoughts: Addison Russell wore this number last year but gave it to Heyward when he was signed over the winter.  Class move by the rookie.

# 23 - Ryne Sandberg

Other Cubs Listed: Phil Cavarretta, Jim Tracey

Player I most associate with the number: Ryno and Carmen Fanzone

Random thoughts: It's a stretch to include Cavarretta on the list because he wore #44 from most of his career.  And Jim Tracey?  

# 26 - Billy Williams

Other Cubs Listed: Jimmy Fox, Moe Drabowsky

Player I most associate with the number: Billy Williams

Random thoughts: Topps included Billy - yea!   Topps reused a picture for the upteenth time - Boo!  A couple years after Billy was traded, the number was given to Larry Biittner.  It was the oddest thing to see someone else wear it.  I didn't like it at all.

# 34 - Jon Lester

Other Cubs Listed: Stan Hack, Frank Thomas, Cal Koonce, Steve Trout

Player I most associate with the number: Kerry Wood

Random thoughts: The Frank Thomas listed is the other Frank Thomas.  And how could Kerry Wood be left off the list?

# 44 - Anthony Rizzo

Other Cubs Listed: Phil Cavarretta, Burt Hooton, Dick Ruthven, Kyle Farnsworth

Player I most associate with the number: Anthony Rizzo

Random thoughts: Cavarretta is listed correctly here.  His number was unofficially retired, as no Cub wore it from when Cavarretta left in 1953 until Hooton used it in 1971.

# 49 - Jake Arrieta

Other Cubs Listed: Stan Hack, Kirby Higbe, Bill Hands, Jamie Moyer

Player I most associate with the number: Bill Hands

Random thoughts: Hack wore the number for just one season and shouldn't be on the list.  Carlos Marmol used it for eight season and should be on the list.

#1

I was very excited with this card from 2016 Allen and Ginter.

It's not anything with Jorge Soler.  Its not anything with the look of the card.

It's the back...specifically the number on the back.

Jorge Soler has card #1 in the set.

That doesn't happen for the Cubs very often.

In fact, in the flagship Topps set, a Cub has never had the first card.  I looked over the list I have of my 14,000+ Cubs cards for #1 cards.  I didn't find many.

Excluding small insert sets, I came up with just a dozen other cards that are the first in a set.  That seems like a really low number.  I have hundreds of sets, but just 12 have a Cub in the leadoff spot.

Mordecai Brown has the first card in the 1911 Turkey Red set.

Kelloggs put Bruce Sutter in the first slot in their 1979 set.

After his 1984 MVP season, Donruss gave the #1 spot to Ryne Sandberg.

So did Leaf, thought its cards were exact twins to the Donruss set.

Mark Grace's rookie campaigned landed as the leadoff to the 1988 Donruss Rookies set.

K-Mart did the same with Grace in 1989.

Ryno was the first kid in 1992.

Upper Deck gave heralded rookie Mark Prior the top spot in their 2002 set.  

It wasn't until 2003 Finest that Sammy was first in a set.  You would have thought that some time in 1999, 2000, or 2001 he would have been given the honor.

 

Kosuke Fukudome got to top slot twice in 2009, in SP Authentics and Finest.  He's the least-deserving Cub to get a #1.

Kris Bryant, with all the hype surrounding him, got the #1 card in last year's Pro Debut.

And that's it.

Allen & Ginter Cubs 2016

A big box arrived yesterday from Arkansas!  I've got my 2016 Allen and Ginter cards.

As far as design, well, it's Ginter.  You pretty much know what you are going to get.  Thick cardboard...check.  White background with a fancy border?  Check.  Watercolor-like cloud behind the player?  Check once again. The 2016 cards have all the usual design elements.

And the number of Cubs?  The complete set is 350 cards, but you have to subtract the 44 "champions."  Of the remaining 306 cards, there are 14 Cubs.  That's about four cards above what there should be.

And let's get it out of the way now.....yes, Topps did include Carl Edwards.

 

Two Hall of Fame Cubs made the base set, too.

The most glaring absence of active players is Jon Lester.  As I mentioned a couple of days ago, he had relic cards but no base cards.  Also missing is Javier Baez, who was last year's Carl Edwards.  It would have been nice to see either Kyle Hendricks or Miguel Montero included, but I guess that would be getting a bit greedy.

Here are the other eleven Ginter Cubs:

 

 

 

 

 

I've got several more Ginter-related posts coming...stay tuned.

That Was A Failed Experiment

Theo has been pretty good at picking up pitchers off the scrap heap and turning them into an asset.  Jake Arrieta would be the best example.

Brian Matusz would be the worst.

The Cubs picked him up in early June after he was released by the Braves, who had just picked him up a few days early from the Orioles.  Three organizations in a matter of days is not a good sign.

After making a few starts in Iowa, the Cubs brought him up to make a start on Sunday.  The idea was to occasionally add a sixth starter to the rotation, giving the five main guys an extra day off.

It's a nice idea, but Matusz clearly isn't the right guy.  He gave up six runs in three innings.  The next day the Cubs designated him for assignment.  The Brian Matusz era is over.

Spending one day with the team means that we won't ever see a card that shows him as a Cub.  What a tragedy, that his glorious 18.00 ERA won't be immortalized on cardboard.

Consider it cyber-immortalized.

2016 Ginter #2, 3, & 4

The three other mini relics arrived yesterday.  Each came from a different seller, and each arrived quickly.

Jon Lester has a card in both the full sized and mini relic sets, but not the base set.  Odd.

Rizzo looks deep in thought, contemplating life.

Russell looks puzzled.

It seems like Ginter is becoming the "Don't look straight at the camera" set.  I may have to look into that a bit further when the full set arrives.

With all four of the 2016 mini relics, I now have all 43 of the Cubs relics from the start of Allen & Ginter in 2006.  Some of the players are duplicated in a particular year because there was both a jersey and bat version.  I do limit myself to just one jersey version, though.  I pass if there is both a home and away version.

Take a look a the tile.  You'll notice how things got nuts in 2010 and 2011, with 13 and 10 relics from those two years.  That's more than half the entire collection from two years.

2016 Ginter #1

My first 2016 Allen and Ginter card has arrived.

I'm still waiting on my main stash, coming from Brentandbecca.  From him I bought the complete set, Cubs team set, Cubs inserts, and the full sized relics.

Full sized relics are fairly new to Ginter.  For the first several years the relics came in framed mini cards. They look really nice and they are the reason that I've gotten all the Cubs relics from the start.

But for the past couple years Topps has had full sized relics and made the framed minis more scarce.  This year the minis fall just two per case.  When I heard that I figured that they would be too expensive for me and I decided to skip them.

Just for kicks, I decided to check the Ebay prices of the four Cubs minis.  Lo and behold they weren't very pricey at all.  So I went for it.  I was able to pick up the Rizzo, Russell, and Lester minis for less than six bucks each.  I thought that was very reasonable.

Three out of four for a good price, but there was still one more, Kris Bryant.  His card would break the bank.

But it didn't.  I won this for $8.50.  That's quite a bargain in my opinion.  The seller is also in Michigan, so the card came in just three days.

Good price + quick shipping = happy collector!