Down the Classics Rabbit Hole

I recently showed the 2014 Classics card that I was given by Chad.  I also mentioned that Donruss put out a Classics set from 2001 through 2005.  That sent me down a Classics rabbit hole.  I ended up spending several hours chasing Classics.

I thought that I already had the Classics cards.  Turns out that I have the Classic cards (which were part of a trivia game), but not the Classics cards.  The "s" at the end makes a difference.

More digging revealed that I do have the 2004 Classics cards.  They were kept in my Donruss binder.  I got them over ten years ago, as I was getting back into collecting.  I think I assumed they were an insert with the regular Donruss set, not a stand-alone brand.

While I have the 2004 set, I was missing 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005.  The Trading Card Database gave me a nice team set listing for each year.  From there it was on to Sportlots, Ebay, and the Beckett Marketplace.  All of the cards from the sets were found and are now on their way.  I'll show each year's cards once I've got them all.

Eleven

Wrigley Wax went live for the first time eleven years ago today.  Here's a link to that debut post.  At the time I was reading lots of baseball card blogs, but I couldn't find a Cub-specific one.  I decided to start one and Wrigley Wax was born.

It's still here 4,059 posts later.

Since that first post...

....the Cubs collection has grown by nearly 10,000 cards

.... the Cubs collection has grown by nearly 200 brands (I had just Topps, Donruss, Fleer, and Heritage at the time)

....the Cubs had their worst three year span (2011-2013 - just 198 wins) in my life time

....the Cubs had their best four year span (2015-2018 - 387 wins) in over 100 years

....the Cubs won the World Series!

It has been a very interesting eleven years and I'm looking forward to the next eleven!

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 17,361 Cubs cards from 207 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1969 Jewel Jim Qualls Qualls and Don Young were the only rookies in the Jewel set.  

1980s: 1988 Star #5 Mark Grace  Look at all of those empty seats!

1990s: 1991 Star Home Run #105 Ryne Sandberg  The RNG picks two consecutive cards from Star.

2000s: 2008 Finest #110 Alfonso Soriano  Soriano had two stints on the DL in 2008 but still led the team with 29 homers

2010s: 2013 Team Issued GIveaway #71 Billy Williams  This card was on tickets to the game on September 3, 2013.  Billy consecutive games played streak ended at 1,117 on September 3, 1970.

2014 Panini Classics

Chad got me started, and Sportlots finished it up.

Classics was a Donruss brand from 2001 - 2005.  Panini brought the name back in 2014.  The set consists of 200 cards.  Players are both current and from the past.  The final 50 cards are all rookies.

 

These two came from Chad.  That's a nice pair of players.

 

 

The rebuilding Cubs didn't land any active player among the 150 in the set.  You'd think maybe Rizzo or Castro would have made it. Nope.

They did land one rookie...

... the less-than-spectacular Arismendy Alcantara.  Any time a set includes both Ernie Banks and Arismendy Alcantara, you have to think that the set is flawed!

Explaining the Andre Dawson Card

A few days ago I showed this 1992 Connex Baseball Enquirer card that came from reader Chad.

Dawson has a bat logo on his hat and is holding a bunch of bats.

The back of the card says this:

Here's what happened:
Dawson was called out on strikes by Joe West.  Andre did not like the call and showed his displeasure.... and then some.  Take a look



And there we have the reason for the bat on his hat and in his hands.

Twelve Days of Christmas, Baseball Card Style

The Twelve Days of Christmas are the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany. Of course you're familiar with the song. Here is my attempt at matching up the gifts from the twelve days of Christmas song with baseball cards

12 Drummers Drumming: Fleer 1982 Keith Drumright

11 Pipers Piping: Fritsch Negro League Stars Piper Davis

10 Lords Leaping: T206 Harry Lord

9 Ladies Dancing: 1994 Ted Williams Faye Dancer

8 Maids Milking: Upper Deck MInute Maid Park

7 Swans Swimming: Topps 1977 Craig Swan

6 Geese Laying: Score 1988 Goose Gossage

5 Golden Rings: Topps 1963 Jim Golden

4 Calling Birds: Donruss 1982 Doug Bird

3 French Hens: Topps 1971 Jim French

2 Turtle Doves: Bowman 2007 Dennis Dove

Partridge in a Pear Tree: Target Dodgers 1990 Jay Partridge

Merry Steve!

I knew this guy played a few games for the Cubs, and I knew that I just had to get a card of his. He played only three games for the Cubs in late April of 1986, and he was just one for nine, a crummy .111 batting average. As far as I can tell, this card from the Cubs team issued set is the only card that features him as a major leaguer, though he did play with the Reds in 1983 and the White Sox in 1984.

He didn't have much of a big league career, but once a year his cards will be here on Wrigley Wax

 

Merry Steve Christmas to all!

The Christmas Story According to St. Luke

If the networks can run A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph, and the Grinch every year, then  I think I can re-run this post every Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

From the Gospel according to St. Luke, the second chapter: 

In those days

Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire

world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So

also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of

because he belonged to the

and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the

to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. 

She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a

because there was no

for them in the inn. And there were

living out in the

nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at

An

of the

appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

May the simple, yet miraculous truth 

of the Christmas story 

touch your heart anew this year.

Peace,

Paul

Wrigley Wax

Two More From 2008 Topps Year In Review

I pride myself in having all of the Topps cards and base inserts.  Yet I have found more than once that my complete sets are not complete.

Thanks to reader Chad I discovered another checklist failure and he plugged the hole.

I had this card in my collection already.  It is from a 2008 Topps insert set called Year in Review.  It was the only one from the set in my collection.

 

Then these two arrive from Chad.  It turns out that Year in Review has three Cubs cards.  Now I've got them all and I didn't need to go to Sportlots to complete the set.

Thanks Chad!

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 17,359 Cubs cards from 203 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1972 MLB Ernie Banks  This picture is from 1972 and Mr. Cub was no longer an active player.  Instead, he was a coach on Leo Durocher's staff.

1980s: 1988 Dornuss Book #315 Paul Noce It looks like the regular 1988 Donruss cards, but it came from a book of cards that Donruss sold that year.

1990s: 1994 Stadium Club #287 Derrick May  Always nice photography in Stadium Club.  Looks like May will make the catch of an easy fly ball.

2000s: 2008 Upper Deck #98JJ Jacque Jones This is my relic for Jacque Jones and it barely follows my rules.  While it doesn't show him as a Cub, the card has a Cubs designation, so I went with it.

2010s: 2016 Gypsy Queen #89 Anthony Rizzo  Rizzo gets ready to take a rip.  He has two cards in 2016 GQ.  There is also a short print with a photo variation.