2020 Cubs Season Ticket Holder Topps Set

 I had no idea.

Apparently, in 2021 the Cubs offered a 50-card set as a gift to season ticket holders.  Topps made the cards, which have a copyright date of 2020.

I saw a set on Ebay while doing a Cubs team set search.  I don't know why this hasn't shown up on any previous searches.  I paid more than usual for a set of 50 cards, but it seems like a nice odd-ball set to add to the collection.  Plus, I have more (most... all) of the Cubs team-issued sets, so leaving a hole in the collection isn't really an option.

The set has 50 cards that use Topps designs from past years.  In fact, the fifty cards use fifty different designs.  Not once did they use two from the same year.  I'll have a post later that shows the designs year by year.

The Cubs and Topps did get a bit cheap and lazy.  Cheap, because the cards are printed on a flimsy stock, not the usual card stock.  Cheap too because the cards are all printed without any of the shiny foil printing used on sets from the past twenty or so years.

Lazy, because the backs of the cards don't have the usual information.

The 50 cards are divided into several subsets and I'll be showing the cards by subset.

Today's subset consists of the first 15 cards and is made up of players from the 2020 team.  The cards are shown in numerical order, #1-15.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How sad is is that two years later, nearly 2/3 of the players are not with the Cubs any longer.

2022 Cubs #43

 

On Saturday, Caleb Kilian made his major league debut for the Cubs.  That makes him the 43rd players to appear in a game for the 2022 Cubs.

Kilian was a major piece obtained by the Cubs from the Giants for Kris Bryant.  If his debut is an indication of his potential, the Cubs would be the winner of that deal.

He went five innings, striking out six.  He went through the Cardinals order 1-2-3 in each of the first three innings.  The fourth inning was rough as he gave up three runs, but he recovered in the fifth inning, his last.

Five Random Cubs Cards

 I've got 20,650 Cubs cards from 304 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1978 SSPC Mick Kelleher  He was the Cub go-to utility guy in 1978.  He played in 68 games and came to the plate 106 times.

1980s: 1988 Topps Stickers #56 Andre Dawson The Hawk in getting ready in the on deck circle, donut on bat.

1990s: 1991 Leaf #520 Bob Scanlan I  wonder what Scanlan did to get the grass stain on his knee?

2000s: 2006 Topps Traded #282 Carlos Zambrano All-Star Zambrano made the All-Star team for the second time in 2006, but didn't pitch in the game.  He led the league in wins with 16 and also won the Silver Slugger.

2010s: 2012 Factory Team Set #CHC14 David DeJesus  His card is unique because you don't often see two players from the same team in the same set wearing the same number.

70s Saturday - 1970s Fleer Cloth Patches

 The Fleer cloth patches from the 1970s gives us to see how the Cubs logo evolved over the decade.  You'll see the blue circle get wider and the UBS grows too and shifts to the right.

2022 Diamond King Cubs

 Panini puts out a complete set called Diamond Kings, not be be confused with the Diamond King cards that are in the Donruss set.

The set has 100 base cards and another 100 short prints.  Seems like a blatant ripoff to me when half of the set is short-printed. Luckily for me, the Cubs are bad and only one card was a short-print.  Look over the six Cubs and guess the short print.

 

 

 

You know the Cubs are bad when they get just six cards among the 200 and three of the six are retired players.

And if you guessed the short-print was Greg Deichmann, you were correct.  Looks like both Topps and Panini have jumped on the Deichmann bandwagon.  Too bad the Cubs jumped off in spring training.

2022 Gypsy Queen Cubs Insert

 Gypsy Queen does not typically have many insert sets.  This year there are just two. Gem Minis is Cubless.

Nick Madrigal is included in the See in the Future set.  These are die cuts, which I always like.

2022 Gyspy Queen Cubs

 The 2022 edition of Gypsy Queen was released a couple of weeks ago.  The set, as usual, has 300 cards plus another 20 short prints.  This year's design seems to be going for the look of some sort of fortune telling machine.  Is that the Gypsy connection? 

There are eight Cubs cards in the set and I have all of them below.

 

 

 

 

Ernie Banks is one of the 20 short prints that feature hall of famers.

It looks like Greg Deichmann will be this year's Brailyn Marquez... the worthless rookie to be included in most sets.  And as long as we are talking about Brailyn Marquez, why on earth is he included in the set?  Surely they could have included Patrick Wisdom, or Frank Schwindel, or Ian Happ, or Kyle Hendricks.  

Please do tell me that Topps is going to include Marquez in everything again this year... No More Marquez!!