Today I've got the 2005 Topps Cracker Jack Cubs set. These cards are based on the 1915 Cracker Jack cards and follow the same template as the original, player in front of a brick wall with a red sky. The complete set consisted of 240 cards and ten of them featured Cubs players.
Jeromy Burnitz, who spent one season with the Cubs as a replacement for Sammy Sosa.
Derrek Lee, who would have his career year in 2005
Greg Maddux
Sean Marshall, I forgot that he has been around with the Cubs for this long.
Corey Patterson, by this time was know as Korey with a K. Lots of K's
Mark Prior had two cards in the set as he was still seen as a top pitcher in the league. Let Mark Prior be a warning to the Nationals and all the money they spent on Stephen Strasburg. I hope they have better luck than the Cubs did. Of course they don't have Dusty the arm-wrecker.
Aramis Ramirez, with Sammy gone, Aramis and Derrek Lee were now the power and RBI guys.
Kerry Wood, the injury bug was now biting Kerry Wood big time; maybe for Wood it was the injury termite!
Carlos Zambrano, now beginning to establish himself as the ace of the staff since he was the only guy who could stay healthy.
The aribrushed stay hot, extending their lead over the hatless.
#275 - Vic Davillio Vic was with the Indians before coming to the Angels in 1968, as you probably figured from the picture. He hit .289 for the Angels and they thought they were set in center field. They weren't. He was hitting .155 when the Angels sent him to the Cardinals during the '69 season. #276 - Gary Wagner Here is another pitcher who had his career extended because of expansion. In 1969 his ERA for the Phillies was 7.91, which was good enough to get him traded to the Red Sox. In Boston he "improved" to a 6.06 ERA. He lasted one more season with the Red Sox before being released. #277 - Rod Hendricks I never heard him referred to as "Rod." It was either Elrod or Ellie. He was a 27 year old rookie for the Orioles in '68 and became their regular catcher in 1969. By 1972 he was hitting under .200 and so that means....you get traded to the Cubs....and hit .116. In the off-season he was traded back to the Orioles. A few years later he was sent to the Yankees in a deal that included nine players. When he became a free agent he was back to the Orioles a third time and finished his career in Baltimore. #278 - Gary Geiger It looks like Geiger is in a Braves uniform, a team he played for in 1966 and 1967. He was out of the majors in 1968, but returned with the Astros in 1969, hitting .224 in 93 games. I would add him to the list of players helped because of expansion. He played 5 more games in 1970 before being released. #279 - Roger Nelson Roger is looking good in that White Sox uniform. I like the stripes on the stirrups. "Spider" started 29 games for the Royals in 1969 and went 7-13 with a respectable 3.31 ERA. #280 - Alex Johnson Don't be fooled by Alex's red hat...its not a Red's hat, but instead in a Phillies cap. He's got the Phillies home jersey on and the red seats in the background confirm this picture was taken at Connie Mack Stadium. Johnson last played for the Phillies in 1965, making this a pretty old photo. He had a good year in 1968, hitting .312, fourth best in the league. He followed that up with a .315 average in 1969, which was good enough to get him traded after the season. #281 - Ted Kubiak The KC on Ted's hat was airbrushed away. He hit .249 in part time duty for the A's in 1969. #282 - Pat Jarvis We have a shot of Pat in one of the standard pitcher poses at spring training. Jarvis went 13-11 for the division-winning Braves in 1969. He started game 3 of the NLCS against the Mets, but lasted on 4 1/3 innings and was tagged for 6 runs and the Mets finished their sweep of the Braves. #283 - Sandy Alomar The pinstriped jersey might lead you to believe he is in a White Sox uniform, but no, its a Met's top. By 1969 Alomar was with his third team in four seasons. And half-way through '69, the Sox sent him to the Angels, where he had the best years of his career. His boys had much better careers than dad.
Overall Set Totals (player cards only) Hall of Famers - 18 Hatless - 61 Airbrush - 64 Cubs (includes past, present, or future) - 44
Spangler was at the end of his career when he came to the Cubs in 1967. In fact, he spent parts of '66 and '67 in the minor leagues before his arrival in Chicago. By 1969, he was just about finished, with his average dropping 60 points from 1968. He started 52 games in right field, but never really did much. In 1970 he was a player-coach for the Cubs and would be with the team on and off until leaving for good in 1974.
The airbrushed cards stage a big rally today and take the lead over the hatless by one.
#266 - Dodger Rookies Both Hutton and Foster would have lengthy major league careers. Hutton got into 16 games with the Dodgers in 1969 while Foster was 3-9 with a 4.38 ERA. Foster must be wearing the cap of a minor league team, because at this point in his career the Dodger organization was the only one he had been in. #267 - Vicente Romo He was coming off a great 1968, putting up a 1.62 ERA out of the pen. He got the 1969 season off with a 1-1 record before being traded to the Red Sox in the Ken Harrelson trade. He finished the year putting up a 7-9 record in Boston. #268 - Al Spangler. Al gets his own post tomorrow #269 - Al Weis The light hitting infielder came to the Mets from the White Sox in December of 1967 (he's pictured in a White Sox home uniform). He hit a couple homers in 1969 that killed the Cubs, so I am done taking about this bum!
#270 - Mickey Lolich This is a nice looking card of the 1968 World Series MVP. He was the winning pitcher in games 2, 5, and 7, all complete games, and gave up only just 5 runs in 27 innings. He kept up the strong work in 1969 winning 19 games. #271 - Larry Stahl Stahl was drafted by the Padres from the Mets. He was a part-time outfielder without much pop in his bat, hitting .198 for San Diego in 168 at bats. Cubs fans know him as the pinch hitter who took three borderline pitches to coax a walk from Milt Pappas and ruin Pappas' bid for a perfect game in the top of the ninth of a game in September, 1972. #272 - Ed Stroud This is another player on the page in a White Sox uniform, as the Senators got him in a trade in June of 1967. He got in to 123 games for Washington in 1969 and hit .252. #273 - Ron Willis The righty pitched out of the pen for the Cardinals and made appearances in both the '67 and '68 World Series. 1969 was his last signifcant season and he was sold to the Astros in August. He was so unimpressive that the Astros gave him back to the Cardinals in November. #274 - Clyde King 1969 was King's first as a manager after having served as pitching coach for the Reds and Pirates (he's shown in a Pirate's uniform). He got off to a great start, as the '69 Giants went 90-72 and finished second. But that was his best year as a skipper, and in 1970 he was fired. He managed parts of seasons with the Braves and Yankees, but never managed a full season.
Overall Set Totals (player cards only) Hall of Famers - 18 Hatless - 59 Airbrush - 60 Cubs (includes past, present, or future) - 43
I've had my set for about a week now and recently spent some time browsing through all the cards. I set the following aside because they each had something that you don't usually see on baseball cards.
#625 - Jim Thome If this was the 1960's or early '70's, you would have seen this all the time. But now, you very rarely see a hatless player. The hatless Thome gives this card a kind of Heritage look to it.
#501 - Jeff Suppan When is the last time you saw a sliding mat on a card? Has there ever been one before? Obviously this was taken at spring training.
#409 - Jesse Chavez If you look behind Jesse, you see parked cars. The only cards that I can think of with cars in them are ones that show the cartoon car on the left field wall of ATT Park.
#184 - Bobby Parnell Bobby is shown in a Mets home uniform. Check the guy at second base; he is wearing a different top. So why are teammates wearing different jerseys? Has anyone ever seen that in a spring training game? I haven't.
#368 - Trevor Hoffman This card's back has the oddity. Look at the club names listed year by year. For some reason, 2003 is listed as San Diego instead of Padres. That's a pretty strange inconsistency. I wonder why the proofreader or editor never caught it. Or maybe it is a mistake to assume that Topps has someone proofread the cards before they're printed.
So I guess that means the other 655 are ok...or has anyone else noticed something unusual on a card? Post 'em if you got 'em.
I have 5,452 Cubs cards from 17 different brands. A random number generator picked five of them. Here they are in the order selected.
Stadium Club 1993 #531 Sammy Sosa In 1993 Sammy hadn't yet become Sammy! He had just finished his first season with the Cubs and was injured for a big part of it. We still weren't convinced that he would turn out to be much more that a hot dog. 1993 started his transformation to a power hitter. I wonder how he did it?? He hit 33 home runs and also stole 36 bases. Score 1988 #223 Dave Martinez We've got a card from Topps first set coming up and this card from Score's first set. Martinez spent only part of 1988 in Chicago before being shipped north of the border to the Expos in July. The rumor is that he was traded because he was messing around with Ryne Sandberg's wife. Leaf 2004 #115 Juan Cruz We see Cruz making a pitch at Wrigley in the early spring. He had a great fastball and not much else. I think the Cubs got tired of him trying to do something with his fastball because they traded him to the Braves during spring training 2004. At the time I thought it was a really poor move, but Cruz was just as erratic with the other four teams he bounced around with. Topps 1951 #41 Johnny Schmitz This is one of five Cubs featured in Topps first baseball release. The card is a red back. Schmitz was a two time All-Star in the late 40's, but by 1951 he must have worn his arm out. He pitched in only 8 games for the Cubs before being traded to the Dodgers on June 15. Leaf 1991 #268 Danny Jackson Two cards from Leaf in one week. This card shows Jackson making a pitch in spring training, 1991. The Cubs signed him as a free agent in the off season to a three year contract. He was a real bust with the Cubs, going 1-5 with a 6.75 ERA. All that for $2,625,000. Ouch!
Actually, a better name for today's post would be Older Topps, Not Quite As Old Topps: Ernie Banks. Today, I morphed Mr. Cub.
We start with Ernie's rookie card. The one I own is from Topp's reprint set. His actual 1954 rookie card would be my Holy Grail. While there are plenty available, I just haven't been able to pull the trigger and spend what it would take to get one (we're talking hundreds of dollars). Right now I'm content with the reprint.
Ernie broke in with the Cubs at the tail end of 1953, getting in to 10 games and hitting 2 home runs. Topps considered him good enough to include in the 1954 set, one of only 11 Cubs. In this case, Topps knew what they were doing.
This would be Ernie's last card, from 1971. Based on the look on his face, it doesn't seem that Mr. Cub has lost any of his enthusiasm for the game. By this time, he had lost his knees and hit bat, but he was and still is Mr. Cub. Let's play two!!
