2014 Series Two: Flying Necklaces

I spend some time yesterday putting 2014 Series Two into a binder.  Then I had the chance to look through all the cards.  I was barely two pages into the set when I came across this card...

...of Martin Prado.  What caught my eye is just above his left shoulder....a cross.

You don't find too many cards with crosses on them.  But there is Prados, in mid-air as a result of his swing.

As I went through the rest of the pages of the set, I paid special attention for any more flying crosses or necklaces.  I didn't see any more crosses, but there were several chains and Phitens flying.

2014 Series Two Inserts

The Cubs came up fairly light among the various inserts in series two.  I came up with a checklist of only five cards among the non-auto and non-relics.

 

First off are a couple more 1989 Die Cuts.  The two from the second series match the two that were in series one.

Starlin Castro had a manufactured patch, as did Anthony Rizzo in series one.

The last two cards belonged to Greg Maddux.  It seems like there have been quite a few cards of him as a Cub recently.  These two series two Maddux cards both have to do with his rookie season, which means he has to be a Cub.

First is this Future Stars card.  It's a thick card, which I didn't expect. Looking at pictures, I just assumed it was plain cardboard.

The other Maddux card is this beauty. Topps has done rings before and they always have looked good.  In case you are wondering, in 1986 Maddux started six games for the Cubs and was 2-4 with and ERA of 5.52.  Not exactly Hall of Fame numbers, are they.

He got better.

2014 Series Two Cubs

My Topps 2014 Series Two Cubs have arrived!

Brentandbecca had a really fast turnaround and the cards came less than a week after the series was released.

There are eleven Cubs cards among the 330 of series two.  That's a bit of a bump up from the nine that were in the first series.

Eight cards were no surprise since they were included in the factory team set.  I'll lead off with those...

 

 

 

 

 

Two of the eight are not on the current Cubs roster.  Fujikawa is still recovering from last year's Tommy John surgery while Veras was released a couple weeks ago.

Of the remaining three cards, only one made sense,

starter Jason Hammel.

The other two must have been fillers,

 

because Donny Murphy was released during spring training while Blake Parker has spent most of the year in AAA.

Looking over the roster, guys that contributed to the team both last year and this year but were left out by Topps were mostly bullpen guys.  James Russell, Justin Grimm, Pedro Strop, and Hector Rondon all could have been included by Topps.

We'll see if they show up in the Update set.

The flagship total for the 2014 Cubs is 20 cards, which make a nice 4 x 5 tile.

1973 All Time Leader Cards Updated

My recent look-through the 1973 set inspired me to do a little updating.

The set included an eight card subset of All Time Leaders in various career categories.

Here are the original eight cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the 41 years that have passed since the cards were issued, five of the eight categories have seen a new career leader take over.  Those cards needed to be updated.

So here we go:

Pete Rose became the new all time hit leader when he passed Ty Cobb in 1985.

Last September, Alex Rodriguez hit his 24th grand slam, passing Lou Gehrig and his record that had stood for 75 years.

Hank Aaron was already the total base leader in 1973 so I just had to update his final career number on the card.

Aaron became the all time RBI leader when he passed Babe Ruth on May 1, 1975.

Nolan Ryan didn't just pass Walter Johnson as the all time strikeout king, he obliterated the record, topping Johnson by over 2,200 strikeouts.  In fact, in this age of the strikeout pitcher, Johnson has fallen to ninth place.  Each of the other three fallen leaders on these cards is still in second place all time.

Topps 1973...Name the Featured Player

Many of the cards from this year's Archives set had the 1973 template.  That set has been a favorite of mine, so the Archives cards inspired me to page through my 1973 set.

One thing the 1973 set is noted for is action shots.  Not very good ones, mind you, but there are action shots.  Its the first set with a good percentage of game action. Unfortunately, Topps had not yet master the fine art of cropping, so several of the action cards are a bit confusing.

The confusion leads to today's exciting game, "Name the Featured Player."

So here's how the game works:

I'll show a cropped version of the card, just the picture.  Based on the picture, you have to guess the player that is actually featured on the card.

Glenn Beckert    Duke Sims

Click on the name and you'll see one of two things....

Let's Play!!

Dave Hamilton     Ted Kubiak    Dave Nelson

Dave Radar     Dave Concepcion

Jack Brohamer          Bobby Grich

Wes Parker         Steve Garvey

Bert Campaneris          George Scott

Thurman Munson          Terry Crowley

 So how did you do??

Two Tier Ones

Welcome to another edition of "Cherry-Picking From the Overpriced Rich Guy Sets."

Today I've got two cards from the 2014 edition of Tier One, the set that is all hits, all the time.  No base cards with this one, just the good stuff.

And even better, I can pick these up dirt cheap.  I'll let some else pay the list price of a hundred bucks for three cards.

Two of the Cubs in my player collections were on the relic checklist, so I grabbed both.

Andre Dawson's card has a nice pinstriped piece of jersey.  It's always nice to see a blue stripe running down the card.  There are 399 copies of this card out there.  And the price for a jersey and /399 card....$1.82

Billy William's card comes with a slice of a bat and a swinging Billy from 1970 or 1971.  Billy's bat card is a bit hard to come by, with only 299 made.  With only 299 of the card, I had to pay more for this than I did for the Dawson.  Billy set me back $3.26.

Again, thank you to those who roll the dice and pay $100 for three cards...I appreciate the chance to pick up your scraps at bargain prices.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 12,382 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: 1975 Topps Mini #617 Rookies Manny Trillo  Trillo came to the Cubs from the A's as part of the trade that sent Billy Williams out west.  That explains the airbrushed hat in the picture.  He moved straight into the Cubs starting lineup for 1975 and had a decent rookie campaign. Though he hit just .248, he managed to drive in 70 runs.  He was named Chicago Rookie of the Year by the Chicago sportswriters.

1980s: 1984 Donruss Action All Star #43 Ryne Sandberg  This card is from the Action All Star set, which was made up of 60 cards.  They were not the normal size, but an oversized 3 1/2" x 5".  Donruss considered Ryno an All Star, but they didn't know what position he played.  They still have him listed as a third baseman, though he hadn't played there since the last month of 1982.

1990s: 1992 Upper Deck #590 Paul Assenmacher  Two things stand out in my mind concerning Paul Assenmacher....a full beard and a sweeping curve ball.  The card shows the beard; you'll just have to trust me on the curve...but it was a nasty one.

2000s: 2006 Turkey Red #458 Aramis Ramirez  The Turkey Red set of 2006 had cards that looked like Turkey Red, unlike the edition Topps put out this year.  Aramis Ramirez looked like a stud in 2006, with career highs in homers (38) and RBIs (116).

2010s: 2010 Allen and Ginter This Day In History #63 Alfonso Soriano The date we're celebrating is January 7.  Soriano was born on that date in 1976.  Forty-nine years earlier, in 1927, the first trans-atlantic phone call was made.  A Cub fan in England (long-time listener but first time caller) called WGN to complain about the Cub's lack of timely hitting.  He hung up and was going to listen the response.