All I've Got of Him: Dexter Fowler

Dexter Fowler seems like a really good guy.  His teammates seem to like him a lot.  When he was re-signed by the Cubs during spring training and then made a surprise appearance at camp, the reaction of the players showed how happy they were to have him back.

He's a pretty good player too.  When he got on, the Cubs seemed to do well.  And hitting a home run to open game seven of the World Series was awesome.

It looks like he'll be gone to free agency again this winter and I doubt he'll go without offers like he did last winter.  The Cubs will miss his lead-off bat and his presence in the clubhouse.

Fowler wrote an interesting article for The Players Tribune.  After reading it I think you'll appreciate Dexter, too.

My Dexter card total is 15 cards.  I'm sure that there may have been more if he had signed with the Cubs over the winter instead of at spring training.  I'm guessing that there may only be a few more (like from the World Series set Topps is putting out) before he ends up with another team.

Green Billy

2016 Topps Tribute has several parallels and I've picked up the green version of Billy Williams' card.

As you can see, these are /99.  There are also purple, red, and black versions of the card.  Unfortunately, there is no blue version.  I always prefer blue because of the way they match the Cubs uniform.  The green.just doesn't look good with a blue team.

Another Rule Following Relic

I've added another rule-following relic, though it's a bit of a rule-bender, too.

My relic rule is that I want to have one relic card for any Cub player that has a relic card that shows them as a Cub during a season they played for the Cubs.

Here's my latest:

Ben Zobrist, World Series MVP, certainly played for the Cubs in 2016 and this card is from 2016.  Things get a little dicey with the "shows them as a Cub" part. He's a Cub but he looks like a Padre.  Plus, the relic is not your usual Cubbie blue or white with a blue pinstripe.  Instead it's Padre poop brown.

Technically this meets the rule and that makes it player #77 in the collection.  I do have hopes, though, that a better Zobrist relic will appear in 2017.

Topps MUST Make a Card Like This (But Probably Won't)

My favorite moment of the World Series was the final out.  A dribbler was hit to Kris Bryant.  He charged the ball to make the play and had an amazing smile on his face.  He knew that he was going to be a World Series winner as soon as he picked up the ball and threw it to first.  He looked like a kid getting ready to open presents on Christmas morning, with that big anticipation smile.

It was a great moment.  It was a moment that should be on a baseball card.

Topps doesn't have staff photographers any more.  All the images on their cards come from Getty Images.  I went to the Getty site, hoping to find a shot with smiling Kris.

Alas, there were no pictures of him smiling as he fielded the ball.  No Getty Image picture means no Topps card.  There are several of him smiling and celebrating after the out was made.  But those are too cliche.

The best I could do is use a screen shot from the Fox broadcast.  With that, I made this:

That grin is from just as he is about to reach down for the ball.  It's a great look.  I wish I could find a picture with better resolution, but I guess that this will have to do.

A smile that knows that 108 years of frustration are about to disappear...awesome!

..And Now We Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Program....The 2016 Update Cubs Inserts

What a week!  Actually, what a few weeks!

But with the Series won and the season over, its time to get back to my regular postings.

Update arrived during the playoffs and while I had a short post with the regular cards, I haven't yet shown the inserts.

 

 Two of the 20 players on the 500 HR Futures Club were Cubs.  I really don't see either of these two making it to 500, but Topps and I can dream.  I think Kris Bryant has the best chance of any current Cub to make it to 500, but Topps left him out.

Bryant and Rizzo got All Star Access cards, though Addison Russell is prominently featured on Rizzo's card.

 

These Fire cards are kid of cool looking and including these two was a wise decision.

  

There weren't any Cubs cards in First Pitch from series on or series two, but two made it in Update.

 

 

The Rookies set has 20 cards and was available in packs only from Walmart and Target.  The Walmart card is on the left, Target is on the right.

 

A blatant commercial for Franklin.  I don't recall another insert set that was a commercial.  Zobrist is the only Cub among the 20 cards.

After A Long Wait, Finally

That seems to be my theme lately.

This isn't a post about the World Series.  But another long wait has ended, though not nearly as long a a life-time wait.

A year and a half ago I was working on the Fleer cloth patches from the late '60s and early '70s.  The Cubs sticker has three different versions.

I've had these two for a while, which are the first and third version.  The second version has the same logo as the top but the dark blue like the bottom.  It was no where to be found until an auction popped up with patches of four teams included the missing Cubs.

I was the only bidder so I ended up with patches for the Angels, Dodgers, Royals, and...

...this.

And the long wait almost went longer.  The tracking for the package showed it would be delivered on Tuesday.  It was listed as "Out for Delivery."  When I got home from work, there was no package in the mailbox.

The tracking still showed the next day as "Out for Delivery" and again, no package.  After waiting all this time, would be hopes be crushed?

No!  On Thursday I got home to a package.  It was time to celebrate!

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 14,494 Cubs cards from 109 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1968 Topps #202 Adolfo Phillips The 1968 season was his last as a full-time player.  His average dropped 27 points from 1967 and hit RBI total went from 70 to 33.  

1980s: 1988 Star #65 Andre Dawson Some of the Star cards and nice action shots.  Others were pretty boring, like this one of Andre being interviewed.

1990s: 1997 Score #319 Robin Jennings  He spent most of the '97 season in Iowa.  His time with the Cubs was limited to just nine games as a September call-up.

2000s: 2007 Just Rookies Gold #5 Darwin Barney This is college Barney, playing for Oregon State.

2010s: 2015 Topps Stickers #219 Luis Valbuena  Seems like so long ago that he was the Cubs third baseman.  Theo traded him before the 2015 season because Kris Bryant was going to be taking over.  Valbuena for Dexter Fowler turned out to be a pretty good deal.