3 x 2 = First Time In History

 The Cubs outfielders did something yesterday that has never been done before in big league play, ever.  No outfield trio has ever each hit two home runs in the same game until Schwarber, Happ, and Heyward each went yard twice.  The Cubs clobbered the Reds 10-1 and the six home runs accounted for all ten of the Cubs runs.

 

Left fielder Kyle Schwarber a solo shot in the fourth inning and a grand slam in the ninth,

 

Ian Happ played center field and hit his homers in the fifth and seventh.

  

Right fielder Jason Heyward belted solo shots in the fourth and sixth inning.

Five Random Cubs Cards

 I've got 18,377 Cubs cards from 256 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1909 T206 Solly Hofman  Hofman was the Cubs main utility player, getting action in every position except pitcher and catcher.  He finally became a regular in 1909.  

1980s: 1989 Big #170 Ty Griffin A big bust with a Big card.  Griffin was the Cubs #! pick in the 1988 draft, 9th overall.  He never made it past AA.

1990s: 1990 Star Nova #141 Ryne Sandberg  Looks like Ryno is taking infield practice before an early season game at Wrigley.

2000s: 2004 Leaf #246 Felix Sanchez Sanchez pitched in just three games above the AA level, with the 2003 Cubs.  He went back to AA in 2004 and was out of organized ball after 2005.

2010s: 2010 National Chicle #96 Derrek Lee  D-Lee looking ready for his time at the plate.

2003 Kanebo Cubs - the 2003 Edition

Kanebo's second set in 2003 used the Topps 2003 design, with one change.  The border color was switched from blue to teal.  The backs of the Kanebo cards again differed significantly from the Topps backs.

The 2003 design set was much larger than Kanebo's 2002 version, going from 54 cards to 110.  There of the 110 are Cubs.

 

Alou, Sosa, and Wood were three of the bigger names on the 2003 Cubs, so kudos to Kanebo for these Cubs.

2003 Kanebo Cubs - The 2002 Editions

 I'll have the Kanebo Cubs to show over the next two days.

Kanebo is a Japanese company and I've never heard of them.  I guess that they are a cosmetics company.  That seems like an odd match for baseball cards.

Whatever they sell, they combined with Topps to produce two different sets of cards in 2003.

The first set has 54 cards.  The fronts mimic the 2002 Topps design while the backs have some uniquely Japanese features.  Just one Cub, Sammy Sosa, was in the set.

You can see how the back does not look the same as the regular 2002 cards.  And now I now what "Cubs" looks like in Japanese.

Cubs = カブス

Turn Back the Clock Ernie Banks

 

Topps issued this card on May 12, fifty years to the day when Ernie joined the 500 home run club.  The card had a print run of 677.  That ranks 14th out of the 143 print runs that were listed when I scheduled this post.  That's better than I thought it would be.  I guess there are more Mr. Cub fans out there.

First Disc in a While

 I was hot and heavy into the MSA discs a few months ago.  I've had nothing since.  It wasn't due to a burn out or a lack of interest.  It was a lack of product.  The only discs missing from my collection are the ones that are rarely listed anywhere and are nearly impossible to find.

I have several saved eBay searches for the missing discs and I got a hit a couple weeks ago.  A 1979 Wiffle Manny Trillo was listed.  It was priced reasonably and I hit the BIN.

The 1979 discs came on the Wiffle Ball's box and had to be had cut off of the box, which explains the odd shape of mine.

There are five Cubs in the set and I now have two of them.  I'm still on the hunt for Bill Buckner, Jose Cardenal, and Dave Kingman.

2020 Topps Total Wave 6 Cubs

 Another wave has rolled in and three more Cubs were added.

 

No big names among the three.  The Winkler picture is from spring training.  Look at all the empty seats.  Get used to seeing them because next year's cards will feature this year's empty stadiums.

2020 Topps Chrome Cubs

 There are eight Cubs among the 200 players in the 2020 Topps Chrome.  A couple of big names were skipped - Yu Darvish and Willson Contreras.  And yes, horrors, Robel Garcia was included.

 

 

 

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 18,373 Cubs cards from 256 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1969 Jewel Paul Popovich Acquired by the Cubs in a mid-June trade, Popovich's picture was issued in the last week of Jewel's promotion, the week of September 5. All four of the players featured that week have hatless pictures. All sixteen of the other players in the set are wearing hats.

1980s: 1982 Team Issued #48 Dickie Noles Noles was one of the many players that Dallas Green picked up from the Phillies. 

1990s: 1990 Topps TV #37 Bob Bafia Bafia is one of several players in the TV set who have just this one card in my collection.  He never made it to the majors.

2000s: 2002 Topps Chrome #385 Fred McGriff The weird position of the Cubs logo on this card makes it look like both of his hands are empty.

2010s: 2015 Donruss #37 Jorge Soler  Soler is the only player in team history to wear #68.

1986 All-Star Game Program Cubs

 The 1986 program was the last to include the paper cards of the nominated players.  The backs of the cards were changed too, to nothing.  On the backs are either other players or random articles and ads from the book.

Ten Cubs were included, the starting eight position players and two pitchers

 

 

 

 

 

1985 All-Star Game Program Cubs

 The Cubs won their division in 1984, which boosted the number of Cubs in the 1985 program.  All eight of the starting position players plus three pitchers were included.  This year marks the most Cubs in the run of the set.