A Couple More Jewish Major Leaguer Cards

The two Cubs cards from the 2014 Jewish Major Leaguers set arrived yesterday. They came from Teamsets4u.  I haven't used him in a while, but when you're looking for oddball team sets, he's a great resource.

It's an interesting assortment of cards.  John Grabow spend 2½ years with the Cubs, working out of the pen.  Ken Holtzman's cap, well,  I'm not sure what makes it card worthy.  Holtzman had a card in the original set.  His hat needed to be updated, apparently.

Let me take care of a couple things from Thursday's post.  

There was a question about how the cards were distributed.  They were sold by the American Jewish Historical Society.   It was a direct-order sale, nothing retail.  

The first set also had gold and silver parallels sets that could be purchased separately.  

Someone asked what the backs looked like, so here...

is the back of a card from the 2003 set.

The Other Topps Magazine Cubs

Reader Chad got me started with the Topps Magazine Cubs cards, sending me two.  There were two other Cubs and I was able to pick them up from the Beckett Marketplace.

 

These are from 1990, the set's first year.  I really like the Sandberg card, with the posed shot in front of the ivy.  I'm not as excited by the card design.  The weird border and pinking shears look don't do it for me.  On Walton's card, the J is far away from the other letters, making him look like EROME WALTON.

Here's a look at all four of the Topps Magazine Cubs, from 1990 - 1992

Box #3 From Chad Part 2

Here's the last of the goodies from reader Chad.  Again he's giving me a set I hadn't seen before..... the Jewish Major Leaguers set.

 

 

 

 

This first batch of cards is from the initial release in 2003.  The 149-card set was produced by the American Jewish Historical Society.  They went all-out and got both MLB and Players Association licenses and was printed by Fleer  There were 15,000 sets printed.  It was a fundraiser for the organization and the cards were not sold in stores.

The number of Cubs in the set is up for debate.  Block, Cohen, Holtzman, and Mayer are definites.  Amaro and Franklin are iffy.  Amaro is shown in a Cub uniform.  The picture was taken by long-time Chicago photographer George Brace.  The problem is that Amaro never played for the Cubs.  He was never even in the Cubs system.  So what gives?

My guess is that the picture is from time when mid-eighties when Ruben Amaro, Senior, was a Cubs coach.  I'm thinking that Dad brought Junior to work and Junior suited up.  Brace then snapped a picture.

Micah Franklin never played for the Cubs either.  He was in the organization of five other teams and did see big league action with the Cardinals.  Later he played with Iowa, the Cubs AAA team.  That is what is shown in the picture, the Iowa Cubs.

 

The first of several update sets was issued in 2005.  Two Cubs were included.  Block had recently died, hence the In Memorium card.

The 2007 set has one Cub, sort of.  There was some debate at the time as to Kling's ethnicity.  The AJHS concluded that he was not Jewish.

 

The next update came in 2008 and it has two definite Cubs and one sort-of.  The Greenberg picture is the same one used on his 2005 card but by 2008 he was no longer in the Cubs system.

More updates came in 2009, 2010, and 2014.  I'm working on getting those cards, but thanks to Chad, I've got all of the earlier sets covered.

Box #3 From Chad Part 1

The third box of goodies from Chad is my favorite.  So much so that I'm splitting the box into two posts.  Most of the cards in this box are cards that I've never seen before.  Plus, the ones I have seen are cards I really like.  It was all good stuff!

Up first are these Kimball Champion cards from 2011.  This insert set ended up with a checklist of 150 cards and five were Cubs.  The cards are cigarette-sized cards.  I really liked the look of them.  I thought it was a great looking insert.  Usually when Topps comes up with a winner they beat it to death.  Not with Kimball.  It was a one and done.

These four are new to me.  They are made by Barry Colla Productions and were designed as bookmarks, measuring in at 2½" x 5".  These are all four Cubs among the 120 bookmarks in the set.

 

These two tie in nicely with some recent sets I've been collecting, namely cards from magazines.  They come from Topps Magazine.  The Scott card is from 1991 and Dawson's card comes from 1992.  Topps jumped into the magazine game in the early '90s, trying to match some of the other card magazines and price guides.  Since the other guys had cards, Topps added them too. In addition to these two, there are also two more Cubs from 1990 and I have them ordered.

Thank you Chad for getting helping me add two more brands to my collection!

Box #2 from Chad

Box #2 from Santa Chad was an eclectic assortment.

 

Bust Brooks Kieschnick in all his glory....

....a shiny card of another bust...

.... some Sammy and...

... and Kerry...

... and Grace.  There were cards in...

...Español and Français.

He even tossed in...

... an autograph and a relic.

Merci Señor Chad!

Santa = Chad

If you are nice Santa brings you presents.

If I am nice, reader Chad sends me cards.  I, apparently was nice this year because as he has for the past several years, loyal reader Chad sent me a box of Cubbie cards.

Thank you Chad!!

This year's package included three plastic boxes stuffed with cards.  Today I'll take a look at the box on the left.

It was full of Bowman bounty, with cards from 2006 through 2014.

Some of the players have made it to the show...

 

 

 

 

 

 

There seems to be more busts than players among them.  I guess that's the way it goes with most Bowman prospects.  Some day I'll have to do an analysis of the prospects over the years to see just how success they were.

Whether the prospects are successful or not doesn't really matter.  What is important is that Chad was successful - he sent me some great cards!!

Box #2 is on for tomorrow.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 16,193 Cubs cards from 136 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1976 TCMA 1938 Cubs Coaker Triplett  Coaker was a 26-year-old rookie on the 1938 Cubs.  He played in just 12 games, but that was enough for TCMA to include him in the set.  Those 12 games were his only as a Cub.  He was with the Cardinals and Phillies from 1941 - 1945.  

1980s: 1989 Upper Deck #63 Jamie Moyer Though Upper Deck has him with the Cubs, Moyer was traded to the Rangers before the 1989 season, a part of the Palmeiro - Mitch Williams deal.

1990s: 1992 Cracker Jack Series 1 #7 Lance Dickson  Trust me, this is the Cracker Jack card. which was a mini version of the '92 Donruss set.

2000s: 2006 Bowman #198 Mark Prior  Bowman still had thoughts that Prior was a star pitcher.  Prior's arm had other ideas.  He was 1-6 with an ERA over 7 and finished.

2010s: 2017 Topps Salute #USS50 Anthony Rizzo The Cubs were celebrating their World Series championship on April 10, wearing their gold uniforms for the occasion.  Rizzo hit a two-out single to knock home the winning run as the Cubs topped the Dodgers 3-2.