Friday, January 31, 2020

2006 Bowman Heritage Cubs

Bowman Heritage 2001 - Bowman 1948
Bowman Heritage 2002 - Bowman 1954
Bowman Heritage 2003 - Bowman 1956 prototypes
Bowman Heritage 2004 - Bowman 1955
Bowman Heritage 2005 - Bowman 1951
Bowman Heritage 2006 - Bowman 1949

The 2006 Bowman Heritage set is based on the 1949 Bowman cards, as Topps continued to jump around,  The design was as simple as you can get... a player against a colored background and a white border around the card.

But Topps wasn't totally faithful to that design because the originals...


.... were almost square in shape, measuring 2 1/16" by 2 1/2".  The Heritage cards are the standard 2½" x 3½".  None of the Bowman designs were today's dimensions, but they were fairly close and you can't really tell the difference between them and the Heritage.


It's pretty obvious with 1949 / 2006

The base set consists of 300 cards, of which 50 were short prints.  There was also another 100 insert-type cards that were prospects, which mimics what Topps does with the regular Bowman set.

Below are the eleven Cubs in the base set.  Good luck again identifying many of them...

 

 

 

 

 


Did you notice a very young looking Rich Hill?  He's the only player in the group that is still active.  

The Cubs had a very poor showing among the 100 prospects, with just one prospect.  You are a super fan if you can name him.


Any guesses?  I'll bet you are wrong!

He was drafted by the Cubs in the 3rd round of the 2005 draft.  He ended up with three different organizations and peaked with eight games in AAA ball.

It is...
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         v
Mark Holliman!

Thursday, January 30, 2020

2005 Bowman Heritage

The scattered approach to Bowman Heritage continued in 2005 as they used the 1951 design.   Here's what was used so far:
Bowman Heritage 2001 - Bowman 1948
Bowman Heritage 2002 - Bowman 1954
Bowman Heritage 2003 - Bowman 1956 prototypes
Bowman Heritage 2004 - Bowman 1955
Bowman Heritage 2005 - Bowman 1951
There isn't any sort of consistency or pattern.  Topps just seems to randomly pick a Bowman year for the Heritage design.

The 2005 set has 350 cards with the last 50 being short-printed.  The Cubs have ten veterans and four rookies / prospects,

 

 

 

 

 

 



Wednesday, January 29, 2020

2020 Topps Series One Cubs Checklist

Topps released the checklist for 2020 Series One a few days ago.  I've had a chance to look it over and here are a few thoughts...


  • The Cubs have a decent number of cards in the base set - 15.  
  • Four of the fifteen Cubs are rookies, and two of them, Danny Hultzen and Robel Garcia, seem to be stretches.  
  • Javier Baez got a very prominent card number, 300.
  • The number of Cubs inserts that I'll chase is double the number of base cards.  I've got 30 of them to grab
  • Why does Topps continue to put out insert sets that use the designs of cards from the '80s?  Can't we just wait for Heritage to get there?
  • Retired Cubs with insert cards include Ernie Banks, Fergie Jenkins, Ryne Sandberg, and Sammy Sosa.  Billy Williams got left out.
  • Turkey Red is back and that is news that I like.  It's last appearance was in 2014.
  • I've got my order in with Brentandbecca and I just have to patiently wait for the cards to arrive.  I will also have to get a few of the retail-only inserts from Ebay or Sportlots.
  • Release date is Monday, February 3

Here's the list of Cubs cards I'm getting...


Base Set
26 Kyle Hendricks
37 Albert Almora
51 Anthony Rizzo
70 Nico Hoerner RC
103 Danny Hultzen RC
119 Kyle Schwarber
139 Jose Quintana
177 Craig Kimbrel
283 Robel Garcia RC
300 Javier Baez
306 Jon Lester
311 David Bote
325 Like Father, Like Son
338 Chicago Cubs – Team Card
340 Adbert Alzolay RC

1985 Topps Baseball
85-24 Anthony Rizzo
85-25 Kris Bryant
85-26 Kyle Schwarber
85-27 Ryne Sandberg
85-28 Willson Contreras
85-29 Robel Garcia
85-95 Nico Hoerner

Decade's Best
DB-2 Ernie Banks
DB-3 Ernie Banks
DB-34 Fergie Jenkins
DB-43 Ryne Sandberg
DB-53 Sammy Sosa
DB-65 Sammy Sosa
DB-83 Chicago Cubs
DB-94 Kris Bryant

Decade's Next
DN-22 Nico Hoerner

Home Run Challenge
HRC-7 Javier Baez
HRC-8 Kris Bryant
HRC-9 Anthony Rizzo

Topps Choice
TC-16 Kris Bryant
TC-25 Ryne Sandberg

Turkey Red
TR-19 Willson Contreras
TR-20 Javier Baez
TR-21 Kris Bryant
TR-22 Kyle Schwarber
TR-41 Nico Hoerner

Silver Packs 1985 Chrome
85C-6 Nico Hoerner
85C-8 Kris Bryant
85C-9 Ryne Sandberg
85C-47 Robel Garcia

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Brock as a Cub

Last week I showed the 2005 Donruss Classics Cubs and the one Cub legend in the set was Lou Brock.


P-Town Tom commented, "Lou Brock as a Cub in a modern day set. I don't think that happens very often."  I thought I'd do some digging to see how many cards I have that show Brock with the Cubs.

 

 

These are from his playing days, the Topps cards from 1962 - 1964 and a 1964 coin.


This is the Classics card that I showed last week.  But how many other Brock as a Cub cards do I have?  I've got six more.


TCMA's 1981 Stars of the '60s has Brock with the Cubs.


A year later, TCMA again has has Brock as a Cub, this time in the Superstars set.


Upper Deck's Masterpieces set had a two year run and in the 2008 version, they included this card of Brock with the Cubs.  It looks like they used the same picture as in TCMA's 1981 card.

 


Finally, three different times in the past ten years Topps included reprints of Brock's rookie card in insert sets.  We have 2010's Cards Your Mom Threw Out, Berger's Best for 2016, and last year's Iconic Card Reprints.

I suppose I enjoy seeing cards like this as much as a Phillies fan likes cards that show Ryne Sandberg in a Phillies uniform, which is never.  Reminders of a bad trade are never a good thing.

Monday, January 27, 2020

2004 Bowman Heritage Cubs

The 2004 edition of Bowman Heritage used the most popular original Bowman designs, the 1955 TV set.  Not only was it a TV set, but it was a color TV set.  That would have been a very expensive item in 1955.  Networks didn't convert completely to color programming until the mid-1960s.

A quirk of the original Bowman series was the color of the TV set. The first 64 cards featured a lighter-colored television and the Heritage set did the same thing. 

While the 1955 set has 320 cards, the Heritage set included 351, including 51 short-prints.  There are fifteen Cubs in the set.  Four of the cards have the lighter TV set and just two of the cards (Garciaparra and Sosa) were short-printed.