The Wrigley Marquee Has Returned

One step closer to the home opener on Monday.

After spending the winter being refurbished, the Wrigley Field marquee was re-installed yesterday.

The work took all day.  They started with the bottom piece and worked their way to the top.

I must say that the work their doing on the old ballpark looks great.  It will be great when it is all finally finished in a couple years.

I did a double-take when I saw this piece come off the truck...

Were they taking part of the sign back to the original green color??  No.  The green is the back of the sign.  It will now be visible on the concourse, so they painted it.  Nice touch, actually.

One thing I will need to do is to make a new banner for the blog.  The one I've got now will look out of date.

Heritage Collectors Are Insane!

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post on an Ebay listing for a 2012 Heritage Darwin Barney No Position card.  It was the first time the card had been listed in nearly two years.  It had a BIN/BO of $250 and the seller accepted an offer of $175.

I thought that the buyer was nuts, since the previous 36 sold for an average price of $86.

Now it looks like the buyer got a bargain.

Heritage collectors are insane...because...

Last week another Barney No Position was listed.  The seller wrote a thread about it on Blowout.  He listed it for a BIN/BO price of $299.  I decided to watch the auction, figuring that it would be sitting there for years at that price.

It sat there for a couple hours.

Heritage collectors are insane because the card sold for $200.

I guess there were some collectors that decided to pounce after a two year drought, some collectors with deep pockets.

I couldn't spend $200 on an Ernie Banks rookie card.  I love him, but I can't ever imagine a situation where I'd spend $200 on a card of Darwin Barney.

If you're curious, I've been tracking the card since the set was released four years ago.  Here are all the sold copies from Ebay.  I'm missing the price on a few that went BO...this was before I knew about Watchcount.

3/17/2012	$122.50
3/18/2012	$117.89
3/20/2012	$99.99
3/28/2012	$72.99
3/31/2012	$99.99
4/2/2012	$67.76
4/3/2012	$90.00
4/7/2012	$76.76
4/10/2012	$74.57
4/25/2012	$60.00
4/26/2012	$99.99
4/26/2012	$79.99
4/29/2012	$73.00
5/6/2012	$99.99
5/6/2012	$98.77
5/19/2012	$110.00
6/28/2012	$200.00
7/2/2012	$115.39
7/8/2012	$117.65
7/10/2012	$103.27
7/21/2012	$76.00
7/29/2012	$76.56
7/30/2012	$75.55
8/29/2012	$86.01
9/19/2012	$100.00
10/2/2012	$63.01
11/17/2012	$49.26
2/16/2013	$39.99
2/16/2013	$59.00
4/10/2013	BO
4/30/2013	$47.00
7/10/2013	$32.99
8/18/2013	$33.33
9/10/2013	BO
9/28/2013	BO
12/14/2013	$27.95
1/20/2014	$24.00
2/27/2016	$175.00
4/3/2016	$200.00

I am also proud to say that the cheapest price on the list, $24 on January 20, 2014, belongs to me.  It was a second copy I bought for my Heritage team set.  I couldn't resist the low price.  I'm thinking about listing it now.  Seems like I should cash in on the insanity.

Nailed It Again?? Nah

Didn't nail it, I bought it.

I figured there'd be no way I would get the Schwarber card in a second Marketside Pizza box.  It would take several boxes before I might get the card.

The pizza isn't cheap and it isn't all that good, either.  So for the price of one box plus shipping, I bought the card.

Lazy way out?

Sure.

Probably the cheaper way out, too.

It's Opening Day 2016!

And away we go!!!  Let's prove those Vegas oddsmakers to be geniuses!

The Cubs open the season on the road against the Angels,.  I like them starting out west, with the warm California weather.  What I don't like is the Pacific time zone, especially with a night game.  They'll be starting at 10:00 here in Michigan.  Luckily this week is spring break, so I can stay up late to watch the game.

To celebrate the Cubs opening day, I've got their all time opening day lineup. The lineup features a majority of the players from the '60's and later. That seems odd to me, considering the long history of the Cubs. In fact, of the entire lineup, I have seen all but three (Hartnett, Grimm and Pafko) of them play (and I'm not that old).

Here's what I did to pick the cards shown (when possible):  This is Arrieta's first Opening Day start, so I've got the card from the season of Fergie's first Opening Day start.  I could do the same with Grace, Sandberg, Dunston, Santo, Williams, and Sosa.  I've also got the opening day count for today's Cubs lineup.

Pitcher: Fergie Jenkins, 7 Opening Day starts. 
Jake Arrieta is making his first start today.

Catcher: Gabby Hartnett, 12 starts

Miguel Montero is making his first Opening Day start

  

First Base (since 1900): Charlie Grimm and Mark Grace, 12 starts
Anthony Rizzo makes his fourth opening day start.

Second Base: Ryne Sandberg, 13 starts 
Ben Zobrist makes his first opening day start.

Shortstop: Shawon Dunston, 11 starts
Addison Russell is making his first start

Third Base: Ron Santo, 13 starts
Kris Bryant makes his first opening day start

Left Field: Billy Williams, 10 starts
Kyle Schwarber is making his first opening day start.

Center Field (since 1900): Andy Pafko, 7 starts
Dexter Fowler makes his second opening day start

Right Field: Sammy Sosa, 12 starts
Jason Heyward is the starting right fielder for the first time

The 2016 Chicago Cubs

And away we go!  The 2016 season starts tomorrow!

The expectations are high.  Vegas has the Cubs as the favorite to win the World Series.

But you have to play the 162 games first.

The 25 man roster that opens the season has only four players that weren't with the team last year.  Three are big name free agents, Heyward, Zobrist, and Lackey.  The fourth, Adam Warren, came to the Cubs from the Yankees for Starlin Castro.

Despite the lack of major turnover, only 12 of the 25 have a card in series one or Opening Day.  So I fired up Photoshop and made 2016 base cards for the other 13.

Here thay are:

Infielders

  

 

 

Catchers

 

Outfielders

 

 

 

Starting Pitchers

 

 

The Bullpen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 14,141 Cubs cards from 108 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1955 Bowman #223 Hal Jeffcoat  The TV set! The card was really cutting edge in 1955 because there was very little, if any, color TV in 1955.

1980s: 1987 Topps Stickers #56 Lee Smith The 1987 season was Smith's last with the Cubs.  He registered 36 saves and had and ERA of 3.12, but his record was 4-10.  Trading him after the season was a huge blunder, in my humble opinion.

1990s: 1990 Star Gold #48 Ryne Sandberg  Ryno was at the peak of his career in 1990.  40 homers, 100 RBIs, an eighth straight gold glove, first second baseman in history to have consecutive 30+ home run seasons...he was the man!

2000s: 2006 Special Endorsements #GS Geovany Soto  This is the Soto card in my autograph collection.  He was still a minor leaguer in 2006, playing just 11 games with the Cubs in September

2010s: 2013 Team Issued #21 Dave Kingman This card was pictured on tickets to the Cubs 21st home game in 2013 on May14.  Kingman was selected because on the same date in 1978 he hit three homer and drove in eight against the Dodgers.  Tommy Lasorda was not happy after the game.  Click here for his very blue reaction to Dave Kingman's day. 

Starlin's Stickers

Only one Cub player has been in every edition of the revived Topps stickers sets, Starlin Castro.  His six year run will obviously come to an end in 2017 since he is now with the Yankees.

Here's a look at all six of Starlin's stickers...

I do like all of the red and blue that Topps uses on the Cubs stickers.