Five Random Cubs Cards

 I've got 20,689 Cubs cards from 304 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1978 Grand Slam #74 Harry Lowery Grand Slam actually stuck out with this card as they misspelled his last name.  It is Lowrey, not Lowery.  And more fans know him by his nickname, Peanuts, than by his given name of Harry.

1980s: 1989 Score #321 Calvin Schiraldi He was converted to a starter in 1988, but went back to the bullpen in 1989.  He made 54 relief appearances in 1989 before being traded to the Padres at the end of August.

1990s: 1993 Topps #101 Jim Bullinger This card shows the only thing I remember about Jim Bullinger - the weird way he wore his stirrups.  In a era when players were trying to show the thinnest stirrup stripe possible, Bullinger went the opposite way.  He wore his so that the stripe was as small as possible.

2000s: 2002 40 Man #611 Roosevelt Brown Upper Deck's 40 Man set was their answer to Topps Total.  Brown was included in both of the 2002 sets.

2010s: 2016 World Series Box #WS10 Kris Bryant In Game Six, Bryant hit a two out homer in the first inning to give the Cubs an early lead, and they went on to win 9-3.

Sixties Saturday - 1960 Fleer

 The 1960 Fller set doesn't give us a look at the 1960 Cubs.  Instead we get a look at the Cubs from the past, going all the way back to the 1870s and Cap Anson.  The cards don't list a player with a specific team, so the team sets can be designated however you'd like.  I believe I used the team set listed on Teamsets4U.  The TCDB has a different list and some day I may add a few more of these.

2009 O-Pee-Chee Insert Set Cubs

 As they did in 2008, Upper Deck issued an O-Pee-Chee insert set in 2009.  And again they used a Topps design as their inspiration, this time using 1975. They weren't bold enough to make an exact copy of the design, but what they came up with was clearly based on Topps 1975.

The set consists of 50 cards and there were three Cubs among the 50.

 

Better Make Four

 

I saw this picture of Bob Odenkirk throwing out the first pitch at the Cubs game on Monday.  I knew right away that I'd have to make this into a Topps 2022 card.

However, I couldn't decide who's name should be on the card.  Bob?  Jimmy? Saul? Gene?  So I made one of each.

Bob Odenkirk, position A for Actor

Jimmy McGill, position L for Lawyer, though I also thought of making his position C for Con man

Saul Goodman, position L for Lawyer

Gene Takavic, position M for Manager

Went to Another South Bend Cubs Game

 Mrs. WW and I went to another South Bend Cubs game last Sunday.  This time the game took almost as long as an MLB game, but there was a good reason... the two teams combined for 25 runs.  After being held scoreless in the first inning, the Cubs score in each of the next seven.  They hit home runs in six consecutive innings.  And by scoring a run in the 8th inning, they took the lead 13-12 and held on for the win.

While at the game, a certain blogger had a message put up on the scoreboard...

... isn't that sweet!

2022 Cub #50

 

Pitcher Erich Uelmen was added to the roster over the All-Star break.  The 26-year-old rookie made his MLB debut in the 9th inning on Friday.  It was a pretty low-pressure situation as the Cubs held a 15-1 lead at the time.  He retired the first two batters before giving up a solo home run.  He then recorded the final out of the inning with his first career strikeout.

2008 O-Pee-Chee Insert Set Cubs

Today's set was the rebirth of O-Pee-Chee, compliments of Upper Deck.  UD bought the brand name and included an O-Pee-Chee insert set of 50 cards in their 2008 set.  It was the first OPC baseball set in 24 years. The design was a 1969 Topps knock-off.  

Two Cubs were included.

 

Five Random Cubs Cards

 I've got 20,688 Cubs cards from 304 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1960 Topps #433 Irv Noren  He is the last of five players named Irv to play in the major leagues, though Irving Falu pitched from 2012-2014

1980s: 1987 Conlon #40 Charley Grimm The red C on his blue hat in a black and white picture doesn't show up very well.  It almost looks like the logo was airbrushed out.

1990s: 1991 Toys Я Us #10 Mike Harkey The junk wax era was so messed up that even Toys Я Us had a rookie set.

2000s: 2005 Upper Deck #455 Greg Maddux  Pretty easy call here for Upper Deck to include Maddux in the Bound for Glory subset.

2010s: 2019 Allen & Ginter #371 Yu Darvish  Remember the good old days when the Cubs spent lots of money to build a winning team?

Sixties Saturday - 1960 Leaf

 in 1960, Leaf put out their first baseball set in eleven.  This one came out in competition with Topps.  To avoid legal trouble, the packs didn't have gum, but instead, a marble.  Really, a marble!

I don't think those packs stacked up very well in a box.

The checklist consists of 144 cards issued in two series.  The second series, #73-144, are scarce.  There are eleven Cubs in the set, including seven in the second series.  Only a couple of the second series were priced pretty high.  I decided to treat myself.

The cards themselves are very plain looking.  They have a black and white picture, and the player's name, position, and team are printed in black.  There is no color.

Also missing from the set is the Cubs biggest star in 1960, Ernie Banks.  I'm guessing that there were several star players that Leaf couldn't sign.

1994 O-Pee-Chee Cubs

It has been a while since I've done an O-Pee-Chee set.

The 1994 O-Pee-Chee set was it's last baseball set as an independent company.  The set has 270 cards and was released only in Canada. The set was limited to 2,500 cases.  There were 36 packs per box, 15 cards per pack and 24 boxes per case.  That makes a total of 32,400,000 total cards.  That doesn't seem to make the set very limited, does it?

As they started doing the previous year, the set has its own unique design.  OPC was no longer using the Topps design.  Eight Cubs were included in the swan song set.