Sunday, November 29, 2009

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 5,827 Cubs cards from 21 different brands, all stored here



They are also cataloged in an Excel spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five of them. Here they are in the order selected.



Fleer 1993 #104 Steve Buechele He was one of many (too many) third basemen for the Cubs who played after Ron Santo and before Aramis Ramirez. For too long that was a revolving door position. Buechele actually had a pretty good season in 1993, hitting a career high .272 with 15 HRs. He also led all NL third basemen in fielding. But his season was marred by an achilles heel problem that put him on the DL in June and bothered him the rest of the season.



Pinnacle 1995 #373 Kevin Foster
A local guy from Evanston, Foster spend the 1995 season in the starting rotation and was 12-11 . He also led the team in strikeouts with 146. The good news...he led the league in something......the bad news....it was homeruns allowed....but the OK news, 25 of the 32 HRs he gave up were solo shots.



Upper Deck 1990 #660 Paul Assenmacher
Paul and his wicked curveball had a really nice season in 1990. Used mainly as a setup man, Assenmacher was 7-2 with a 2.80 ERA. When closer Mitch Williams got hurt, Assenmacher stepped into the closer role and ended up with 10 saves.



Topps 1966 #559 Roberto Pena
In 1965 Roberto Pena was the Cubs shortstop of the future. The future lasted until early June. The Cubs gave up on Pena, his erratic glove, and his anemic bat. He spent the rest of 1965 in the minors. He made the 1966 roster, but was sent back to AAA in late April and never played for the Cubs again.



Upper Deck 1991 #761 Heathcliff Slocumb
He made 52 appearances for the Cubs, all out of the bullpen. He became the first Cubs rookie right-handed pitcher to make more than 50 appearances since Bruce Sutter in 1976. He struggle in July and August (7.47 ERA) and was sent back to AAA, but was recalled in September and did much better (1.29 ERA).

7 comments:

  1. This is a weak fivesome. When Assenmacher is the star of the bunch, you need a new bunch.
    Sadly, Foster died a few months back.

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  2. Are the binders in the picture 1" binders?

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  3. Apparently, back then the Phillies were more than happy to scoop up a Cubs hand-me-down. Pena was the Phillies' AAA shortstop in 1967, and started almost every game for Philadelphia in 1968 after regular SS Bobby Wine was injured.

    After the season, the Phillies pawned him off to the Padres in the expansion draft.

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  4. John - remember these are the Cubs, it's hard not to have a page with five duds!

    Matt-Yep, they are 1" binders (except for the ones that Fleer and Donruss are in, those are 2").

    Jim-shows you how far the Phillies had sunk, to pick up Cubs scraps.

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  5. I have to ask....do you have each card scanned?

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  6. Houston - Not yet! I just scan them as I need them!

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  7. Ah. I'm thinking about doing that down the line.

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