Jose on a Bike

This is so Jose Cardenal...

This picture was on Uniwatch last Friday.

 

It's from 1975 and it shows Jose Cardenal riding an old fashioned high-wheeler. Rick Monday is in the background paying no attention to Jose.

It makes sense that the player that sported a fro like these...

...would be the player riding the bike.

But why? Why was Jose on the bike?

Actually, it turns out it was for a good cause.

 

The date of the article is May 17, 1975. You can see that he's riding the bike to promote a Cancer Society bike-a-thon. Good for you, Jose.

You can also see that the article calls Jose the #2 hot dog in the National League. I'm sure that would have ticked off the little man. In his big head, with the big fro, he was the #1 hot dog.

 

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 12,370 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: 1967 Topps #578 John Boccabella When this card game out, he was still John Boccabella.  It would be two more years before he would become John Boccc-a- belll-aaaa!  In 1967, he was just one of a parade of rookies that Leo Durocher put out each year as the player to replace Ernie Banks.  Boccabella did not replace Mr. Cub.

1980s: 1985 Donruss #67 Ryne Sandberg This is the card Donruss issued for the reigning NL MVP.  Sandberg has a decent season in 1985, hitting .305 with 26 HRs and 83 RBIs.  He also won his third straight Gold Glove.

1990s: 1997 Pacific #258 Scott Servais  The Cubs starting catcher in 1997, he put together a serviceable season.  In 122 games, he hit .260 with 6 HRs and 45 RBIs.

2000s: 2005 Topps Factory Set Bonus #5 Brandon Sing  This card was one of five bonus cards that were included in the Cubs version of the complete set Topps factory set.  Sing has 32 homers in high A ball in 2004 which was enough to grab the attention of the Topps people.  He hit 26 for the Cubs AA team in 2005, but after splitting the 2006 season between AA and AAA, the Cubs released him.

2010s: 2012 Heritage #113 Kerry Wood On his final Heritage card, Kerry Wood has a rather stern look.  Maybe he knew his career was just about finished.  He pitched in just 10 games in 2012 and wasn't good at all,  He retired on May 18 after striking out the final batter he faced, White Sox outfielder Dayan Viciedo.

1952 Scorecard

I filled one of the last two holes in my scorecard collection by picking up the 1952 card.

Behold!

It's another Otis Shepherd special.

It looks like we've got a relative of Mr. Met on the cover of the Cubs scorecard.  Of course Mr. Met was only a twinkle in the eyes of Mommy and Daddy Met.  He wouldn't arrive for another ten years.

I also find it interesting that although the player is wearing a uniform that matches the Cubs in color, there are no Cub-specific logos on the player.  The cover of the card could be used in any ballpark, not just Wrigley Field..

And in fact, it was.

Here is the same picture on the 1951 PCL Los Angeles Angels scorecard, a team that was also owned by the Wrigley family.

And was my new card scored or unscored?

Mostly unscored.  All I've got are some numbers written in on the left side of the Cubs lineup.  What were those number for?

After a bit of detective work, I was able to deduce that the card comes from the game on May 27, 1952.  On that day, 8,173 fans saw the Cardinals beat the Cubs 8-5.

You can see that the lineup was preprinted on the card.  But that wasn't the lineup the Cubs used that day.  That's where the handwritten numbers come in.  The eight players listed were the starters, but in a different order.  See the 1 next to Miksis' name?  He was the actual leadoff man that day.  The #2 hitter was not the preprinted Dee Fondy, it was Bob Ramazzotti, who had a 2 written in by his name.  The rest of the numbers match with the correct lineup.

The original owner wrote in those numbers, but didn't bother to score the game.  I wonder why?

Now that I've got 1952, the only card missing is 1950.  Once I have that, my run from 1949 - 2014 will be complete.

After that, maybe I'll start working backwards from 1949.  We'll see if that can be done on a budget.

Four Catchers

Two days ago I showed several scored scorecards. Sharp-eyed reader Eric noticed that on the scorecard from 1969 the Cubs had four catchers listed. In today's major leagues, any GM that would put four catchers on the roster would be considered insane. Forty years ago it was more common for teams to carry three catchers. But even for that era, four catchers on the Cubs roster was unusual.

I decided to do some digging around to see if I could figure out the Cubs catching situation throughout the 1969 season. I used three books on the ill-fated team along with the Tribune archives to put a timeline together.

When the Cubs broke camp in April, they were carrying the traditional three catchers. Ironman Randy Hundley was the starter. Gene Oliver and rookie Ken Rudolph were the backups. The Cubs had signed veteran Bill Heath over the winter, but he lost the last roster spot to the younger Rudolph, who had a good spring with the bat. Heath was sent to the minors.

Hundley got a majority of the playing time, which became a real sticking point later in the season. Skipper Leo Durocher drove his starters into the ground and by September they were dead, and so too the Cubs pennant hopes.

The first change to the catching lineup occurred on May 9. Early offensive slumps led the Cubs brass to add another bat to the bench and send out a pitcher. The pitching staff was left with nine arms. Can you see a team today going with only nine pitchers?

 

The bat that was brought in was catcher Bill Heath. Seemed like an odd choice, since Heath was a lifetime .236 hitter. But he was hitting .300 in AAA, so the Cubs thought he might help. His addition gave the Cubs their fourth catcher.

In late June the Cubs needed another pitcher, so Gene Oliver was sent to AAA. This took place on June 29, the date of my scorecard, Billy Williams Day. Oliver's stay in the minors was going to be temporary.

The team knew that Ken Rudolph was going to have to spend two weeks on a military assignment, and Oliver would return to the team and take Rudolph's spot.

That took place on July 11.

When Rudolph returned to the team in late July, the four catchers stayed on the roster.

Needing to make another move, on August 11, Rudolph was sent to the minors (he was sent to AA, probably to make sure he would get plenty of playing time). He would have spent the rest of the season there, except for an injury.

On August 19, Ken Holtzman was throwing a no-hitter against the Braves. Bill Heath was catching as Randy Hundley had hurt his ankle. Late in the game, a foul tip caught Heath on the hand, breaking a finger. Gene Oliver finished the game behind the plate. After the game, Heath was put on the DL and Rudolph was recalled. Heath stayed with the team the rest of the season, but wasn't activated. He never played in the major leagues again, his final game being the Holtzman no-hitter against the Braves.

I don't have any cards of John Hairston, so this picture from the Tribune will have to do.

The next move was made on August 25 when rookie outfielder / catcher John Hairston was brought up. Two days later Gene Oliver was deactivated and named a coach. This left the Cubs with Randy Hundley and two rookies. That meant that and already tired Hundley was going to spend the rest of the season handling all the catching duties.

When Tacoma's AAA season finished in early September, several players were brought up. Among them was catcher Randy Bobb. Now the Cubs had four catchers again, but three were rookies. This was the way the season ended.

The total tally of catchers was six. Randy Hundley played in 151 games. Ken Rudolph and Bill Heath were in 23 games, Gene Oliver only 23, and the late season callups of Hairston and Bobb had a total of four games between them.

Clearly Hundley was the workhorse. But it took a toll on him. He lost so much weight over the season that he needed to wear suspenders in September to keep his pants up.

I guess that begs the question: If you're going to carry three or four catchers, why not use them? Only Leo knows the answer.

Here's how the final numbers worked out

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BA
Randy Hundley	151	522	67	133	18	64	.255
Bill Heath	27	32	1	5	0	1	.156
Ken Rudolph	27	34	7	7	1	6	.206
Gene Oliver	23	27	0	6	0	0	.222
Randy Bobb	3	2	0	0	0	0	.000
John Hairston	1	1	0	0	0	0	.000
TOTALS		618	75	151	19	71	.244

Other than Hundley, it's not very pretty.

I guess they needed a fifth catcher.

 

Go Cougars!

My run of Cubs schedules goes from 1961 - 2014.  It covers an awful lot of games (and a lot of awful losses!).

My run of schedules of Cubs minor league affiliates is a bit thinner--I think it is one.  

But thanks for Jedi Jeff at 2x3 Heroes, I've doubled my collection with this:

the Kane County Cougar's 2014 schedule.

I thought it was a brilliant move for the Cubs to move their low A affiliate up from Peoria to Kane County.  Sure seems like a no-brainer to me to have your farm teams as close to home as possible.  

Before I moved to Michigan, I was in the NW burbs of Chicago.  The Cougars were about a 45 minute drive from our house.  We would take in one or two Cougar games a year.  With parking being a buck and tickets going for just a few more, it was a much more economical way to watch a ballgame compared to going to Wrigley.  We always enjoyed our times there.

The schedule tells me that parking has gone up (five bucks now) and the tickets prices are higher too.  But there are usually deals to be found and its still a lot cheaper than Wrigley.

I don't plan to get to a Cougars game this season, but I do have four Midwest League teams (West Michigan Whitecaps, Lansing Lugnuts, South Bend Silver Hawks, Fort Wayne Tincaps) within a 90 minute drive, so catching a Class A game is still doable.

I may have to check the schedule and see when the Cougars are in my neck of the woods.  And thanks to Jeff, I've already got the schedule in hand.

Scored Vs. Unscored Scorecards

A comment left in my last scorecard post asked if I minded if the cards were filled out or blank.  My response was that it didn't really matter to me; it was the cover of the card that I was most concerned with.

There are really two sided to the question about the inside of the card.  Scored ones seem more authentic since they have the information for the exact game of the card.  On the flip side, unscored cards are more pristine.  There are merits to both sides of the argument, which is why I haven't  been too concerned which way the card went.

I've got 64 years worth of scorecards.  I went back through them to see just how many of each I had.  The tally was scored 22, unscored 42.

It is interesting to note that starting with the 1995 card, every card in my collection is unscored.  The reason....most people (including me) don't keep score at a ballgame anymore.

Of the 22 scored cards, eight were scored by me.  They're all from games I went to starting with my second game at Wrigley in 1972 through games I attended in college.

An interesting thing with the scored cards is that no two are scored in the same way.  Just like everyone has a personalized style of handwriting, it seems like most people have a personalized style of keeping score.

I've got a sampling of the different styles below.  Most were scored in pencil and over time the cards have yellowed and the pencil has faded.  I tried to use a little photoshop magic to make them readable.

Sunday, August 29, 1954...the Cubs beat the Pirates 7-4.  A very basic scoring style...all outs were recorded with an O.

September 9, 1956...game 2 of a doubleheader saw the Braves top the Cubs 5-3.  This person used a little more detail recording the outs, but the are all written as two numbers, 43, instead of 4-3.

Wednesday, June 19, 1957...game one of a doubleheader saw the Cubs smash the Phillies 9-0.  This is probably the neatest of all the scored cards.

Saturday, June 14, 1958...the Reds edged the Cubs 4-3.  This person used letters for hits..S for Single, D for Double, H for Home run.  Outs were recorded as fractions...4/3.  I've never seen either of those before.

Sunday, July 8, 1962...Game 1 of a twinbill saw the Cubs beat the Braves 7-5.  This person used a pretty standard scoring style.

Sunday, June 29, 1969...It was Billy Williams day and the Cubs swept the Cardinals in a doubleheader.  This is game two, which saw the Cubs blow out the Cards 12-1.  This person's scoring was very basic, but the handwriting was very neat.

Wednesday, July 22, 1970...This card is from my first game at Wrigley (read about it here), though the card isn't mine...it was bought just a couple years ago.  The Cubs demolished the Big Red Machine 10-2.

Sunday, July 30, 1972....this is the first of my personally scored cards.  I was 10 years old at the time.  I used an O for out instead of the numbers.  This is from game one of a doubleheader; the Cubs won 4-0 with rookie Rick Reuschel going the distance for the shutout.

Thursday, May 17, 1979...My messiest scorecard, but when the two teams combine for 45 runs in 10 innings, I have an excuse for the mess.  Look how many times the teams batted around....the scorekeepers nightmare.

Tuesday, August 18, 1981...This is the final scorecard that I've personally scored.  The Cubs fell to the Dodgers 5-0.

A Rare Card of Darwin Barney from 2010

The main checklist source for my Darwin Barney collection is Beckett.  They've got a fairly comprehensive list of almost all of his cards.

If you do a search for "Darwin Barney 2010" only two cards are listed.  I've had one of the two for a couple years...

...this PCL All Star card put out by MultiAd Sports

It's taken a while, but I finally got my hands on the second one.

It too was put out by MultiAd Sports and is part of an Iowa Cubs team set.  It's a good thing the company is called MultiAd and not MultiPictures because they used the same picture on both cards.  They're a minor league company but they pulled the same lame stunt as the big league Topps.

Barney's All Star performance at Iowa in 2010 led to a mid-August callup to the Cubs. And from there his career took off....and more recently tanked.