Candy Cards

 Kids will be out tonight going after all of the free candy they can get.... socially distanced, of course.  

I looked through my collection to see how if I had cards from candy brands.  I didn't find as many as I thought I would.

M&M's had a set in 1987.  I should put a big red M on Ryno's helmet.

Milk Duds put pictures of players on their boxes in 1971.  I've got the cards of Billy and Ernie.  Getting the entire Cubs set is a wish of mine, but the cards can get a bit pricey.

Nestle had a few sets in the 80's and 90s and one more in 2002.

You can't tell by the front of the card, but this was given out by Twizzlers

That's all I could find.  I'm sure there must be other candy brands that I'm missing.  Anyone got one to add?

1986 Unocal Cubs Set

 I recently stumbled onto an oddball Cubs set that I had not seen before.  That's what I love about this hobby... just when you think you've got them all, you find a set you've never heard of or seen before.

The set was sponsored by Unocal and features 19 players on 8½" x 11" paper.  There is a huge action shot and a smaller portrait insert.

How the set was distributed is a mystery to me.  

The backs give a small clue because the write-ups are taken word for word from the Cubs media guide.  In fact, the font is the same too.  That leads me to speculate the the Cubs organization was involved in the production of the set.

The 1986 media guide and schedule list all of the team give-aways during the season and there is no mention of a set of pictures from Unocal.  Were they given away at the Cubs Convention?  Sold at the ballpark?  Did you get them with a fill-up at your Chicagoland Union 76 dealer?

The set includes all of the prominent players from the 1986 team, like Sandberg, Sutcliffe, Durham, and Smith.  Some lesser knows include Jay Baller, Ray Fontenot, and George Frazier.  There are three hall of famers (Sandberg, Smith, and Eckersley) and half of the '70s Dodger infield (Cey and Lopes).

Nico Hoerner Follows the Relics Rule

 I've added a Nico Hoerner relic card to my collection. 

This comes from the 2020 Diamond King set.  It's a dual relic.  Both pieces are from a home uniform, but the fabric pattern on each piece is different.  Could one be from a jersey and the other from pants?  Seems odd to me that the fabric is different.

I now have a nice round number of 90 different players that follow my relic collection rule - any player that has a relic card that shows them as a Cub in a year they played for the Cubs.

Arismendy Alcantara	Mike Fontenot	Gary Matthews, Jr.
Albert Almora	Dexter Fowler	Fred McGriff
Moises Alou	Kyuji Fujikawa	Bill Mueller
Adbert Alzolay	Kosuke Fukudome	Jose Nieves
Jake Arrieta	Nomar Garciaparra	Mike Olt
Javier Baez	Matt Garza	Corey Patterson
Darwin Barney	Mark Grace	Felix Pie
Francis Beltran	Mark Grudzielanek	Juan Pierre
David Bote	Jason Hammel	Mark Prior
Kris Bryant	Ian Happ	Aramis Ramirez
Damon Buford	Rich Harden	Anthony Rizzo
Marlon Byrd	Brendan Harris	Addison Russell
Jeimer Candelario	Kevin Hart	Jeff Samardzija
Victor Caratini	Jason Heyward	Kyle Schwarber
Andrew Cashner	Bobby Hill	Jorge Soler
Welington Castillo	Rich Hill	Alfonso Soriano
Starlin Castro	Nico Hoerner	Sammy Sosa
Aroldis Chapman	Todd Hundley	Geovany Soto
Hee Seop Choi	Brett Jackson	Matt Szczur
Tyler Colvin	Jacque Jones	Ryan Theriot
Willson Contreras	Eric Karros	Josh Vitters
Juan Cruz	David Kelton	Darryle Ward
Yu Darvish	Bryan LaHair	Todd Wellemeyer
Wade Davis	Junior Lake	Randy Wells
David DeJesus	Derrek Lee	Rondell White
Ryan Dempster	Jon Lester	Jerome Williams
Blake DeWitt	Ted Lilly	Kerry Wood
Jason Dubois	Kenny Lofton	Carlos Zambrano
Jim Edmonds	Greg Maddux	Ben Zobrist
Carl Edwards	Carlos Marmol	Julio Zuleta

2020 Attax Yu Darvish

 A couple of weeks ago I showed the lone Cub in the 2020 Attax base set, Nico Hoerner.  Topps was also putting out weekly booster packs.  Those cards haven't been easy to find.

Yu Darvish has a card in the first week's booster pack but it had a print run of just 216.  I didn't think I'd see one, but last week a card was finally listed.  It was a BIN at a reasonable price so I grabbed it.

I have no idea what the number mean but I'll assume that they are good.

I still have one more booster pack Cub to get.  Reliever Jeremy Jeffress was in the week 6 pack.  It has a print run of just 118, so I really have my doubts about seeing one.

2020 Gold Label Cubs

 Gold Label came out a few weeks ago and Topps used their typical Gold Label format.  The set has 100 cards on the checklist and there are three classes of each card.  Class one is the base set while classes two and three get progressively more scarce.

I collect the cards from class one, which has five Cubs.

 

 

Yes, that last card is Robel Garcia.  He was included while worthier Cubs like Javier Baez and Yu Darvish were left out.  Maybe, hopefully, this is the last of Garcia.

A New Darwin Barney Card

 

I picked up this card recently for the Darwin Barney collection.  I've seen it for a while but thought it was over-priced.  Two weeks ago the seller listed in with a best offer.  I offered him two bucks and he accepted

The card is 3" x 5" and printed on photo paper.  The card origin is a bit of a mystery.  The back is blank, giving no clues.  The seller said it was from a set sold at Wrigley Field.  Based on some of the other similar cards I found, it is from either 2013 or 2014.  

There is nothing in the media guilde about these and nothing in the Trading Card Database, either.  Anyone got any info on this set?

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 18,555 Cubs cards from 257 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1961 Topps #551 George Altman The 1961 set is one of my favorites because many of the pictures, including this one, were taken at Wrigley Field.  Altman led the Cubs in batting and RBIs in 1961 and hit a home run at the All Star game.

1980s: 1988 Donruss #539 Greg Maddux The 1988 season was Maddux' first full big-league season.  He was 15-3 at the All-Star break and finished the year 18-8.  He was the NL Pitcher of the Month in June and became the youngest Cub All Star.  Here's the craziest stat:  in his eight losses, the Cubs scored no more than two runs while he was in the game.

1990s: 1993 Topps #265 Andre Dawson Gold  The 1993 set has several parallels (Gold, Rockies, Marlins) and for some reason, I was all in on them.

2000s: 2001 Topps Chrome #656 Kerry Wood Golden Moments  This definitely was a golden moment, one of the best-pitched games in the history of baseball.

2010s: 2013 Topps Chrome #158 Anthony Rizzo This is just one of three Cubs cards in the 2013 Chrome set as the Theo rebuild was in full swing in 2013.

Topps Heritage Without Logos

 Let's go back to the bizarro world where Panini has the MLB exclusive and Topps has to go logoless.  I've already done the base set.  Today I'll explore Heritage.

I'd have to assume that Topps would still do Heritage.  After all, they have their original designs to work with.  This year's Heritage used the 1971 design.  To go logoless, they'd have to change the top of the card, using the city name instead of the team name.  Otherwise, no modifications are needed.

I made two cards and I used the actual pictures from real 2020 Heritage cards.  In both cases, I only needed to remove the logo from the hat. No other logos were visible.  

I also made a Heritage logo for the hats.  It's the Heritage logo, but I kept just the H.  I didn't think the full logo would look good.  It would have been too long.

I'd still buy Heritage with no logos.  How about you??

Fixed Some More Unlicensed Cards

 Panini isn't the only unlicensed brand.  The late 80s and early 90s were filled with cards that had only the MLBPA license.  I fixed six to give you an idea of how a hat with a logo looks more like a baseball card.

 

 

These are cards from 1992 Diet Pepsi, 1985 General Mills, 1989 Holsum, 1986 Jays Potato Chips, 1987 Kraft, and 1993 Metz Bakery.  For me, the look of the blank hats is like finger nails on a chalk board -- annoying beyond belief.

I had to play with a couple of the logos to get them in Cubs colors of blue and red, so that they'd seem a bit more natural looking.  

 

 

My favorites are the General Mills and Metz Bakery.  Their logos look like they belong on a MLB hat.