Sixties Saturday - 1963 Topps

 We've moved on to 1963 as I work my way though all of my Cubs sets of the 1960s.  

The 1963 set is disappointing because it has just two Cubs player in the home uniform.  There are also six hatless players.  It is not one of my favorites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wrapping Up the 2022 Cubs

 The Cubs 2022 season wrapped up on Wednesday with a win, their 74th, against 88 losses.  Oddly, it is the first time since the advent of the 162 game season in 1962 that they finished with 74 wins.

They showed some definite improved after the All Star break, posting a record of 39-31.  It was a better record than four teams that are in the post-season.  Their starting pitching was especially good, with the third best ERA since the break.  That is reason for cautious optimism.

There were 64 players that took the field in Cubbie blue this year, five fewer than last year's MLB record.  In fact, there were three teams that fielded more players than the Cubs (Pirates, Reds, and Angels) and the 68 Pirates were one short of the Cubs record.

The Cubs did tie a record by sending 42 different pitchers to the mound, so at least there is that.

I put together a GIF showing the cards of all 64 of the 2022 Cubs.  Just eight of the cards were made by Topps.  I had to create the other 56.  How crazy is that, only12½% of the Cubs players this year have an actual Topps card.  Hopefully that percentage will change when the Update set comes out.

Patrick Wisdom Follows the Rule!

 I've added another certified autograph to my collection.

This Patrick Wisdom card comes from 2022 Topps Chrome.  With all the home runs he hit last year you would have thought that Topps would have been all over him.  But he has not been in very few insert sets with even fewer autographs.

His card gives me certified autographs of 148 Cubs players that have a certified auto showing them as a Cub and released in a season that they played for the Cubs.

Twelve of those are currently with the Cubs.  I also need to add Seiya Suzuki, who has autos in this year's Prizm set.  I am waiting for the price of those to come down before I get one, however.

Terry Adams	Carl Edwards	Junior Lake	Henry Rodriguez
Arismendy Alcantara	Kyle Farnsworth	Derrek Lee	Aramis Ramirez
Albert Almora	Mike Fontenot	Jon Leiber	Henry Rodriguez
Moises Alou	Kevin Foster	Jon Lester	Chris Rusin
Adbert Alzolay	Dexter Fowler	Cole Liniak	Addison Russell
Jake Arrieta	Kyuji Fujikawa	Greg Maddux	Jeff Samardzija
Javier Baez	Kosuke Fukudome	Nick Madrigal	Rey Sanchez
Darwin Barney	Sam Fuld	Dave Magadan	Ryne Sandberg
Francis Beltran	Sean Gallagher	Dillon Maples	Kyle Schwarber
David Bote	Nomar Garciaparra	Carlos Marmol	Scott Servais
Milton Bradley	Matt Garza	Sean Marshall	Jorge Soler
Roosevelt Brown	Leo Gomez	Alec Mills	Alfonso Soriano
Kris Bryant	Tom Gorzelanny	Scott Moore	Sammy Sosa
Scott Bullett	Kevin Gregg	Matt Murton	Geovany Soto
Freddie Bynum	Angel Guzman	Rod Myers	Steve Smyth
Marlon Byrd	Jason Hammel	Thomas Neal	Marcus Stroman
Jeimer Candelario	Todd Haney	James Norwood	Matt Szczur
Victor Caratini	Ian Happ	Roberto Novoa	Ryan Theriot
Andrew Cashner	Brendan Harris	Will Ohman	Keegan Thompson
Larry Cassian	Kevin Hart	Augie Ojeda	Ozzie Timmons
Frank Castillo	Kyle Hendricks	Mike Olt	Steve Trachsel
Welington Castillo	Jason Heyward	Ryan O'Malley	Duane Underwood
Starlin Castro	Jose Hernandez	Kevin Orie	Jermaine Van Buren
Ronny Cedeno	Bobby Hill	Angel Pagan	Josh Vitters
Rocky Cherry	Rich Hill	Bob Patterson	Todd Walker
Matt Clement	Nico Hoerner	Eric Patterson	Todd Wellemeyer
Steve Clevenger	Micah Hoffpauir	Corey Patterson	Randy Wells
Buck Coats	Cesar Izturis	David Patton	Turk Wendell
Tyler Colvin	Brett Jackson	Joc Pederson	Jerome Williams
Willson Contreras	Reed Johnson	Carlos Pena	Patrick Wisdom
Juan Cruz	Jacque Jones	Billy Petrick	Kerry Wood
Yu Darvish	Matt Karchner	Felix Pie	Travis Wood
Wade Davis	David Kelton	Lou Piniella	Michael Wuertz
Blake DeWitt	Brooks Kieschnick	Mark Prior	Carlos Zambrano
Rafael Dolis	Craig Kimbrel	Brooks Raley	Rob Zastryzny
Scott Downs	Bryan LaHair	Alfonso Rivas	Ben Zobrist
Jason Dubuois	Tommy LaStella	Anthony Rizzo	Julio Zuleta

2022 Cubs #62-64

I'm back!

We had another nice couple of weeks at Camp Arcadia and then a nice visit with #2 son and his wife in Austin, Texas.

The Cubs made a few more roster additions while I was away and now their player total is up to 64.  It looks like that is where it will end, so no new record this year.

Adbert Alzolay came off the disabled list on September 17 and has made a few appearances.  He's looked good in three of them and was hit hard in two.  His card comes from Topps series two.

Esteban Quiroz is a 30-year-old rookie, making his MLB debut on September 17.  He's played in 12 games and has a batting average of .286.

The Cubs drafted Jared Young in 2017 and he began his major league career on September 16.  He was sent back to Iowa when they had just one game left.  He drove to Des Moines and hit a home run in that final game.

The 64 Cubs made up a perfect 8 x 8 mosaic.

Five Random Cubs Cards

 I've got 20,695 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: 1962 Topps #47 Bob Will  In his shot Will looks more like an accountant than a ballplayer.

1980s: 1988 Topps Stickers Stickerback #11 Shawon Dunston  Dunston is one player that always looks cool on his cards.  He was a very photogenic player. 

1990s: 1990 Donruss #223 Andre Dawson  The guy had a pretty intimidating stance.  Wide and lean, he was ready to mash the ball.

2000s: 2004 Fleer #345 Eric Karros  He didn't play for the 2004 Cubs. He became a free agent after the 2003 season and went to Oakland.

2010s: 2013 Archives #71 Darwin Barney How nice of the RNG to finish up today with a Darwin Barney card. This is his base card from 2013 Archives.  I have several parallels of this in the player collection

Sixties Saturday - 1962 Post

 Post issued their second set in 1962 and it has the same number of players as in 1961, 200.

There are ten Cubs cards.  Seven of the ten players were also in the 1961 set.  And sadly, five of those seven saw Post using the same picture as in 1961.  What a bummer that Post did such a Topps thing.