Five Random Cubs Cards

I've added several smaller oddball sets, so now I've got 6,781 Cubs cards from 30 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.



1950's/1960's Topps 1953 #157 Bob Addis OK class, raise your hand if you have ever heard of Bob Addis. Hmmm, no one is raising their hand. I wouldn't be raising mine either. After part-time duty with the Braves in 1950 and 1951, Addis came to the Cubs and had an acceptable season, hitting .295 in 93 games. But he played in only 10 game in 1953 before he was part of a whopper of a trade.

Check this out: On June 4, the Cubs sent Bob Addis, Toby Atwell, George Freese, Gene Hermanski, Bob Schultz, Preston Ward and $150,000 to the Pirates for Joe Garagiola, Ralph Kiner, George Metkovich and Howie Pollet. That's six players and a ton of cash for four players. And how did Addis do with the Pirates? Not too well. He was released only nine days after the trade and never played in the majors again.



1970's Topps 1978 #585 Woodie Fryman This card has one of Topps' lousy airbrush jobs. The Cubs picked up the 38-year-old Fryman from the Reds after the 1977 season, hence the airbrushed card. He spent only two months in Chicago, going 2-4 in 13 games, nine of which he started. His ERA was 5.17. It looked like he was done, and he was traded to the Expos on June 9th. How did Woodie do with Montreal? Well, he pitched until he was 43, mostly out of the bullpen, and his ERA was usually below 3.00. Apparently Woodie was not done!



1980's Fleer 1986 #383 Rick Sutcliffe Why is Sutcliffe hatless? Did the photographer think he was going to be traded? In 1986, Sutcliffe was still recovering from shoulder problems and he was bad, really bad. How does 5-14 with a 4.64 ERA sound. It sounds bad to me! But I'm glad the Cubs didn't trade him because in 1987 he won a league-high 18 games.



1990's Score 1993 #73 Mike Morgan He joined the Cubs as a free agent for the 1992 season and was 16-8. A nice pick up, right? Wrong! He tanked in both '93 and '94, with records of 10-15 and 2-10.



2000's Bowman 2009 #31 Rich Harden The picture on this card had to be taken during Harden's one and only spring training with the Cubs, in 2009. The glass-armed Harden was 9-9 for the Cubs in 2009 and the team decided to not bother re-signing him.