Chris Coghlan²

I've understood and agreed with the concept of Topps Update since it first showed up as Topps Traded back in 1981.

Topps has an early deadline to make cards for the next season.  Players get traded after the cards go to press and are therefore shown with the old team instead of the new one.  Fans want to see the players with the new team.  Topps makes Traded / Update and everyone is happy.

But Topps, make sure you look over the cards in the first two series before you make the update set.

Topps issued this card of Chris Coglhan in series one.  But during spring training, Coghlan is traded to the A's.  The good folks at Topps tuck that factoid away...got to make an update card of Coghlan as a member of the A's.

However, Coghlan doesn't hit his weight with the A's and the Cubs re-acquire him in early June.  Topps can scratch the Oakland card and will show him with his new, team...

...which was also his old team!  They wasted a slot in update to show the former Cub as a new Cub.  Same team, almost the exact same pose, just different locations.

Didn't anyone on the Topps update team realize that there already was a 2016 card of Coghlan as a Cub?  Is he really worthy of having two cards in one season?

In fact, I wonder how many players have ever had a basic card in both the regular set and the update set that shows them with the same team?

Two Black Holes

I've been working on completing the Cubs set of Topps Walmart Black cards from 2009 since, well, 2009.

That was the year I started this little blog, and I was jumping head first into everything.  When series one came out, I grabbed all the Cubs.

The series two cards were much tougher to find.  Not many were showing up on Ebay and I lost interest.

About five years later I finally decided to complete the set.  I was able to round up most of the cards from series two and update.  But two cards have proved elusive.

For the past 16 months, this is what my collection has looked like:

Those two gaping holes are killing me!

For reasons I don't understand, the 2009 Walmart black cards of Lou Piniella (#410) and Mike Fontenot (#449) have vanished from all known sellers.  These black cards have vanished through a black hole.

I've been checking all my usual sources weekly and have come up empty.

Please let me know if you ever run across either!

Turkey Red for Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy your turkey.

Enjoy all 55 of the Cubs Turkey Red cards

Cards of All the Cubs

Today let's put it all together.

• There were 45 different players that were on the field as a Cub sometime during the season.  
• 28 players were included in the Topps flagship brand
• One player (Munemori Kawasaki) had a card in Heritage but not the flagship
• Joe Maddon was also in Heritage

I also made this...

...team card since Topps doesn't make them any more.

45 players, the manager, and the team card make a total of 47 different cards...

as a tile and...

...as a GIF

The Cardless Pitchers

There were 26 different pitchers that took the mound for the 2016 Cubs.  Almost half, 12, have Topps cards this year.  That means there were 14 cardless Cubs pitchers.

One of them already has a card as a position player...Miguel Montero pitched in a blowout game against the Mets in July.

I still made a card.  Look at the grin on his face!

Of the remaining 13, seven pitched in ten or fewer games.  You can't expect a card for them.

 

 

 

The two with the most appearances were either released or traded during the season.

 

The other four made between 10 - 20 appearances.  The most noteworthy would be Mike Montgomery, who made the final pitch of the season for the Cubs.

 

 

The Cardless Position Players

With the Cubs roster being fairly stable this year, most of the players have a card from one of the Topps products this year.  Today and tomorrow I'll be showing cards that I made for the ones who missed out.  Today I've got the position players.

There were 20 different position players that suited up for the Cubs in 2016.  Of the 20, only three didn't get a Topps card.

Tommy LaStella played in 74 games but went AWOL in late July.  If Topps had any thought of including him in the update set, his antics should have knocked him off the checklist.

The other two each played in just a handful of games and were left out for good reason

Tim Federowicz played in 17 games, most early in the season.  He was DFA'ed in June and replaced by Willson Contreras...a good move.  Federowicz spent the rest of the season in AAA and was recalled in September and made a few more appearances.

Missing all of the 2015 season due to a knee injury, Kalish played in 7 games in May, and then went back to Iowa.  He injured himself again and missed the rest of the season.  He'll likely be out next season too, and possibly never play again.

I also need to acknowledge that three pitchers played in the field during the season, Pedro Strop, Spencer Patton, and Travis Wood.  Wood actually played out there twice and made a sensational catch up against the ivy on July 31.

It was card-worthy.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 14,494 Cubs cards from 109 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1974 Topps #598 Jim Tyrone  Tyrone didn't have the best Cub career among the players on this card, Steve Ontiveros did...and that isn't saying much.

1980s: 1989 Score #263 Jamie Moyer  Moyer didn't spent the '89 season with the Cubs.  He had been traded to the Rangers in the Mitch Williams deal.

1990s: 1991 Star Stellar #92 Ryne Sandberg Ryno is at the plate and it looks like Mark Grace is in the on deck circle.  In 1991 those two were the top two offensive stars of the team.

2000s: 2002 Leaf #58 Chris Stynes  He was a member of the Cubs for one very mediocre season... 98 games and a .241 average, 5 homers and 26 RBIs.

2010s: 2015 Archives Fan Favorites Autograph MP Mark Prior  This is a friendly reminder of how the dynasty you thought was being built can crumble at any time.