Sixties Saturday - 1966 Topps Rub-Offs

 Today's set is an insert from the 1966 Topps set, Rub-Offs.  This is another insert that is not the easiest to collect.  When kids got the Rub-Offs, the rubbed them off.  That was fine for the kids of 1966, but not so good for collectors 50+ years later.

The set has 100 players plus pennants for each team.  There are five Cubs because 100 ÷ 20 teams = five players and back then Topps did things much more evenly among the teams.  You'll notice that most of my rub-offs have centering issues.  I went the budget route when buying.  Some day I can upgrade.

 

 

I Am Mr. Cub!

 It a big day today as the blog turns 14.  For Cub fans, 14 is a pretty important number as it is the number worn by Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks.

It was 14 years ago today, December 30, 2008, that my first post went live.  Since then, another 5,113 posts have gone up.

I usually celebrate my birthday by showing all the Cubs that wore the number that corresponds with the blog's age.  I'm not going to do that today.  First, there weren't that many Cubs that have worn 14.  And secondly, most of the players besides Ernie that wore it did so in the pre-Topps era.  I don't have cards of most of them.

Instead, it will be all Ernie Banks.  First, a few cards that show the number 14.

 

 

 

And now, ALL of my Ernie Banks cards, all 608!

2023 Cubs Calendar

Saying goodbye to 2022 means saying hello to a new edition of the Cubs calendar.

As usual, the Turner calendar has a very early print deadline.  They've added a disclaimer that says "All featured players are under contract at time of printing."  By the time the new year begins, there are several that are not.

Right now 1/3 of the players shown are no longer with the Cubs.  The top row is January through March, Happ and Hendrick still Cubs, Heyward is not.

In the second row we have just Adbert Alzolay sill with the team while Rafael Ortega and Frank Schwindel are gone.

Row three is July to September, Alec Mills is off the roster while Marcus Stroman and Nick Madrigal remain.,

Finally, the bottom row, which has the last three months, features all current Cubs.  How about that!

We'll see how many remain by the time we switch over to the 2024 calendar.  If you're curious about the 2022 calendar,  in January it already had three ex-Cubs.  Today, just four of the twelve are still on the team.

2022 Heritage High Number Cubs Clubhouse Collection

 Heritage is one of the few sets from which I collect the Cubs relic cards.  I like that Topps has been consistent with the relics.  They have been "Clubhouse Collection" since the start in 2001.  

The high numbers set added three more and I finally have all three.

These three are in addition to...

... the two that came in the initial release, making five for the year.

The three new ones make a total of 90 Cubs Clubhouse Collection cards over the 22 years of Heritage.

Here's how the number of Cubs cards has varied over the years. 

0 cards - 2001, 2007, 2011, 2014 

1 card - 2005, 2006 

2 cards - 2002, 2003, 2004, 2013, 2015 

4 cards - 2008, 2010, 2012 

5 cards - 2009, 2022

6 cards - 2016,

8 cards - 2018

10 cards - 2017, 2019 

11 cards - 2020, 2021

The vertical years were 2008, 2009, 2017, and 2020.  The horizontal tile has cards from 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022. 

Only One More Program To Go!

 I started collecting Cubs game programs a couple of year ago.  The collection starts in 1982, when the new Tribune ownership began selling game programs in addition to the traditional scorecard.  Over the years there were from two to four programs for each season.  That changed in 2010 when the large programs were replaced by smaller Scorecard Extras that were issued monthly.  

My collection consists of all the programs from 1982 through 2009, and just one of the monthly issues from each 2010 - 2019.  There were no programs in 2020 since there were no fans at the games.  Any type of game program disappeared post-pandemic.  I also have a program sold at each post-season series.

This is the 2015 NLDS program, my most recent addition.  It has not been easy to add.  Over the past two years I've only seen it listed on eBay twice.  Once, a couple of months ago, one showed up at a fairly high BIN price.  I decided to wait a little to see if the price would drop.  Instead, the program was sold.  Luckily, another was listed soon afterwards at a more reasonable price. I pounced on it.

I'm now down to needed just one more to complete my collection.  The missing program is the first issued in 1990.  I have never seen one listed.  I have no idea what the cover looks like.  I'll just keep waiting until one shows up.

Five Random Cubs Cards

 Welcome to a special Monday edition of Five Random Cubs Cards.  I usually run this on Sunday, but had to push this week's edition back by a day because Christmas fell on a Sunday.

I've got 20,893 Cubs cards from 308 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1979 Hostess #27 Bill Buckner  The man looks ready to wobble his way to another .300 season.

1980s: 1984 Jewel Foods Steve Trout  Of the four different Jewel sets, the photography in the 1984 set is the worst of all.  Good thing this was the last Jewel set.

1990s: 1998 Bowman #213 Kerry Wood  He looks really young on this card.  Was this from 1997 spring training?  If so, then Wood was 19 years old.

2000s: 2004 Topps Chrome #424 Todd Walker Thanks to the design of the 2004 cards, I know that Todd Walker's number was #4.  This is the last time uniform numbers were on the front of a Topps card.

2010s: 2018 Donruss #228 Kris Bryant Variation  It almost looks like it says "Rizzo" behing Bryant's leg.... does that make this another Bryzzo card?

Merry Steve

I knew that 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

  My traditional Christmas Eve post.  It has been run each Christmas Eve since 2010.

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 Rule-Following Autographs

 I've got two new certified autographs.  Both follow my collection rule: a certified auto from a year he played for the Cubs, showing him as a Cub.  One was not easy to get and one was super simple.  Take a look and figure out which was which.

 

Pretty easy to figure, right?  How many of you have even heard of Manuel Rodriguez?  But he played in 14 games for the Cubs in 2022 and has a certified autograph from Chronicles, so I needed his autograph.

It was a different story with Seiya Suzuki.  He obviously follows my rule, but getting one of his autograph cards at a decent price was no easy task. I settled on this one from Chronicles Marquee.

I now have 150 different players that follow my rule.  At this point I don't think I've missed any players since the first Cubs certified autographs showed up in 1996.

Terry Adams	Kyle Farnsworth	Jon Leiber	Manuel Rodriquez
Arismendy Alcantara	Mike Fontenot	Jon Lester	Chris Rusin
Albert Almora	Kevin Foster	Cole Liniak	Addison Russell
Moises Alou	Dexter Fowler	Greg Maddux	Jeff Samardzija
Adbert Alzolay	Kyuji Fujikawa	Nick Madrigal	Rey Sanchez
Jake Arrieta	Kosuke Fukudome	Dave Magadan	Ryne Sandberg
Javier Baez	Sam Fuld	Dillon Maples	Kyle Schwarber
Darwin Barney	Sean Gallagher	Carlos Marmol	Scott Servais
Francis Beltran	Nomar Garciaparra	Sean Marshall	Jorge Soler
David Bote	Matt Garza	Alec Mills	Alfonso Soriano
Milton Bradley	Leo Gomez	Scott Moore	Sammy Sosa
Roosevelt Brown	Tom Gorzelanny	Matt Murton	Geovany Soto
Kris Bryant	Kevin Gregg	Rod Myers	Steve Smyth
Scott Bullett	Angel Guzman	Thomas Neal	Marcus Stroman
Freddie Bynum	Jason Hammel	James Norwood	Seiya Suzuki
Marlon Byrd	Todd Haney	Roberto Novoa	Matt Szczur
Jeimer Candelario	Ian Happ	Will Ohman	Ryan Theriot
Victor Caratini	Brendan Harris	Augie Ojeda	Keegan Thompson
Andrew Cashner	Kevin Hart	Mike Olt	Ozzie Timmons
Larry Cassian	Kyle Hendricks	Ryan O'Malley	Steve Trachsel
Frank Castillo	Jason Heyward	Kevin Orie	Duane Underwood
Welington Castillo	Jose Hernandez	Angel Pagan	Jermaine Van Buren
Starlin Castro	Bobby Hill	Bob Patterson	Josh Vitters
Ronny Cedeno	Rich Hill	Eric Patterson	Todd Walker
Rocky Cherry	Nico Hoerner	Corey Patterson	Todd Wellemeyer
Matt Clement	Micah Hoffpauir	David Patton	Randy Wells
Steve Clevenger	Cesar Izturis	Joc Pederson	Turk Wendell
Buck Coats	Brett Jackson	Carlos Pena	Jerome Williams
Tyler Colvin	Reed Johnson	Billy Petrick	Patrick Wisdom
Willson Contreras	Jacque Jones	Felix Pie	Kerry Wood
Juan Cruz	Matt Karchner	Lou Piniella	Travis Wood
Yu Darvish	David Kelton	Mark Prior	Michael Wuertz
Wade Davis	Brooks Kieschnick	Brooks Raley	Carlos Zambrano
Blake DeWitt	Craig Kimbrel	Aramis Ramirez	Rob Zastryzny
Rafael Dolis	Bryan LaHair	Alfonso Rivas	Ben Zobrist
Scott Downs	Tommy LaStella	Anthony Rizzo	Julio Zuleta
Jason Dubuois	Junior Lake	Henry Rodriguez
Carl Edwards	Derrek Lee	Henry Rodriguez