Ernie Banks Gypsy Queen Collection

I have a player collection of five different Cubs, but Ernie Banks was the only one of the five in this year's Gypsy Queen.  Because I only had one player to chase, I decided to get a few of Mr Cub's GQ parallels.

I ended up with four.

This is my favorite...the blue framed card.  The blue frame and blue uniform have such a nice look together.

The white frame card, a Target exclusive, looks too plain for me.

As far as the minis go, I was able to get the two that were not 1/1s

 

...the sepia /50  and black /199.

Though not mentioned on the sell sheets, there are also red mini version out there that are /99.  I'm hoping to be able to get the Banks version, but so far haven't had any luck.

Billy's Autograph and Who Else??

Here is post #3 of my recent Billy Williams autographs.

But first...

In 1984 the Cubs made the post-season for the first time since 1945.  The whipped the Padres in games 1 and 2 of the NLCS at Wrigley.  One more win and they were off to face the Tigers in the World Series.

Of course that one win never came.  The Padres swept the last three, in part because of that #%&&#@ Steve Garvey.  With apologies to Night Owl and GCRL,  I was never a big Garvey fan during his time with the Dodgers...he seemed to phoney and full of himself for me...a pretty boy, not a ball player.  His NLCS performance cemented my dislike for the guy.

So take a look at my Billy autograph..

...Billy and #%&&#@ Steve Garvey.

This is a postmarked postcard from the day that Steve Garvey broke Billy's NL consecutive games streak.  I guess it was a nice touch on the Padre's part to have Billy at the game.  The Cubs had a big celebration when Billy set the record, but I don't think they brought in Stan Musial, who's record he broke.

I've been hemming and hawing about getting the postcard for a while. But once I picked up the Perez Steele autos, I figured what the heck and went after this one.

I'm glad I got it, but I still can't stand  #%&&#@ Steve Garvey!

Perez Steele Billy Autographs

I've got three more Billy Autographs today, none on baseball cards.

But they are on cards....post cards.

In 2010 I picked up the Cubs that were included in the Perez Steele postcard collection.  Billy Williams was among the players.

Since then I've seen several auctions that have autographed version of the card.  I got interested in getting one after I got the signed Hall of Fame postcard.  So I did an ebay search and found not only the Perez Steele card, but a second version from a 1989 set called Celebration.  The two cards were done in the same style but featured different pictures.

I went after both...

..and got em!  The top card is the regular version and the bottom is from Celebration. Since they are postcards, they're much bigger than a baseball card.  My thought is to some day have these matted and framed.  I think they'd look great either in my office at school or on the wall of the WW World Headquarters.

Two signed Billy Williams cards are good, but three are even better.

In 1990 there was another Perez card set, this one called Great Moments.  Billy was great moment #69 and when I saw the card, I knew I needed it too.

This one has a design that mimics the original Turkey Red design.  It's also not the standard baseball card size.  In fact its even bigger than a postcard.  This measures 5.75" x 8"

Here's what it looks like compared to a regular baseball card.  It dwarfs the card.

These are very welcomed additions to my collection.

Tomorrow I'll have one more Billy autograph, and it has something on it I never ever thought I want or get.

A Nice Billy Autographed Card

I've been adding autographed items to my Billy Williams collection and over the next three days I'll show what I picked up.

Up today is the one regular card.

It's from Upper Deck's 2005 Hall of Fame Baseball Class of Cooperstown.  The card has a sticker autograph--boo.  There is also a small piece of a bat with the Hall of Fame logo and 1987 (Billy's year of induction) burned into it.  The card is also numbered....5/15

Despite the sticker auto, I really like the card.

We've got a nice picture of Billy from 1968.  It's a picture that is not on any of my other autographed Billy cards either.

The blue background and blue of his hat and sleeves compliment each other nicely.  Even the signature is in blue.

Upper Deck did a nice job here!

Jo-Dee! Jo-Dee!

Catcher Jody Davis was a real fan favorite in the early and mid-eighties.   The chant of Jo-Dee, Jo-Dee would echo throughout Wrigley Field when he was at the plate in a critical time. And more often than not, Jody delivered.

This is a clip from a special that Channel 9 did on the Cubs in 1984.

I picked up an autographed card of Jody a couple years ago when I was building my autograph collection.  But as you can see, its not a certified auto. The signature looks authentic, and I don't think that there are a lot of Jody Davis autograph forgers out there, but I would still have preferred a certified version.

Now I do.  From Panini's 2013 Hometown set, this certified signature set me back all of six bucks delivered.  And Jody even added a 7 to the signature.

Of course the card does lack logos, and that is a definite minus.  Last years Topps Archives had a certified auto of Jody, but they are going for double the price I paid for mine.  If I want a logo, I'm going to have to pay for it.  Or I'll have to wait for a better price.

I'm waiting.

Wrigley Wax on WGN

As part of the celebration of Wrigley Field's 100th birthday, WGN put together a two hour special titled Wrigley 100 - A Century Celebration.  It aired last week on WGN Chicago, but I didn't get to see it since here in SW Michigan we get WGN America on cable.  I was bummed.

But on Saturday, the special ran on WGN America and I made sure to watch.

Here's the first minute and a half of the show.



It was a really well done special and the two hours went by very quickly.  They highlighted pretty much anything that you can think of regarding Wrigley...the ballpark's construction and changes over the years. the great players, great non-baseball events, and great games.  I'm not sure if WGN is planning on running it again.  Hopefully they will because if you missed it, you should see it.

I'd also like to have it run again so that I can record the show.  I'd like to keep a copy of it because Wrigley Wax made a brief appearance in the show.  It was, however, done without the express written consent of Wrigley Wax, which means it should have been prohibited.

Let me explain the appearance...The special was talking about the wind at Wrigley and how if might affect the Cubs' opponents.  They were interviewing Tony LaRussa and mentioned that he also played for the Cubs.  Then they showed this...

....this Topps 1973 card of Tony LaRussa as a Cub.

Except that is not a real Topps card.  It is a creation of mine.  I made it back in 2009 and wrote about it here.  It's been borrowed by a couple websites since then.  In fact, if you do a Google image search for Tony LaRussa Cubs the card shows up a few time, and oddly, not one is my site.

Somehow the producers of the special found the card and used it.  It was on the screen for only a second or two, but it was on.  The corporate law staff of Wrigley Wax has already initiated legal proceedings against WGN and I'm planning to retire when the residual checks start rolling into the WW World Headquarters.

I should also point out that two of the games mentioned in the special for great moments or games at Wrigley are games that I attended.  There was a brief shot of Pete Rose's 4190th hit and you can read more about my day at the game here.  The 1979 23-22 slugfest was also talked about for a couple minutes, and I wrote about that day here.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 12,322 Cubs cards from 88 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1963 Topps #175 Bob Buhl  The righty went 11-14 for the '63 Cubs.  The best thing the roster book says about his season is that he was second in the NL among pitchers for fielding.  You didn't have the greatest season as a pitcher when the highlight is your fielding.

1980s: 1989 Bowman #298 Andre Dawson   This card is from the first year of modern Bowman and is the larger sized card that Topps used the first two years.  The 1989 season saw Dawson help lead the Cubs to a division crown.  Knee troubles limited him to 118 games, but he hit 21 HRs and knocked in 77 runs.

1990s: 1995 Conlon #1340 Larry French  A 1995 card with a 1938 date...so confusing.  The card is part of a subset called "Baseball Goes to War."  French's war story...he joined the Navy after the 1942 season and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in Naval Supply.  He participated in D-Day and then was assigned to the Pacific where he was a part of the landing on Okinawa.  He was released from active duty in December 1945 but remained with the Naval Reserve.  He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War and stayed in the Navy until he retired in 1969.

2000s: 2009 OPC #3 Alfonso Soriano  It looks like Soriano went deep against the Dodgers.  And look at how packed the bleachers were.  There is even a crowd of people by the gate looking in on the game.  The good old days of 2008, when the Cubs had the best record in the National League.

2010s: 2012 Tier One On the Rise #AR Anthony Rizzo This is my one and only autograph card of Anthony Rizzo...or as he signed it Ath Rz.