Opening Day 2022

 Better a little late than never!  The lockout pushed Opening Day back a little, but at least we have an Opening Day.  To celebrate, I've got the Cubs 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.

In italics is what I will put the Cubs starting lineup for today as soon as it is announced.  The only starter I know for sure are Kyle Hendricks and Willson Contreras.

Pitcher: Fergie Jenkins, 7 Opening Day starts.
Kyle Hendricks is making his third start today.

Catcher: Gabby Hartnett, 12 starts
Willson Contreras is making his sixth Opening Day start

 

First Base (since 1900): Charlie Grimm and Mark Grace, 12 starts
Frank Schwindel is an Opening Day starter for the first time.

Second Base: Ryne Sandberg, 13 starts
Nick Madrigal makes his Cubs debut as the starting second baseman.

Shortstop: Shawon Dunston, 11 starts
Nico Hoerner will be an Opening Day starter at shortstop for the first time

Third Base: Ron Santo, 13 starts
Patrick Wisdom is making his first Opening Day start at third base.

Left Field: Billy Williams, 10 starts
Ian Happ starts in left field for the first time.

Center Field (since 1900): Andy Pafko, 7 starts
Jason Heyward is in center for the second time.

Right Field: Sammy Sosa, 12 starts

Seiya Suzuki will make his Cubs debut as the right fielder.

1980 O-Pee-Chee Cubs

 The 1980 O-Pee-Chee set came in at just a little better than 50% of the Topps set.  So did the Cubs set.  OPC included players from the entire Topps set, so some of the Cubs have new card numbers.  They seemed to pick the bigger names and left out players like Steve Dillard, Miguel Dilone, Doug Capilla, and Lynn McGlothen.  I doubt that any Canadian Cub fans felt slighted that they couldn't have a card of any of those players.

Set Size: O-Pee-Chee - 374, Topps 726  

Cubs in set: O-Pee-Chee - 14, Topps 26

The fronts are identical.

It looks like OPC used a lighter colored cardboard.  Otherwise, the differences on the back are the usuals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1965 O-Pee-Chee Cubs

 This is the set that started it all for O-Pee-Chee, the 1965 set.  It consists of 283 cards, which were the Topps cards in the first  three series plus 19 from series four.  The cards were almost parallels for the Topps cards except for the words "Printed in Canada" replacing "Printed in USA.

 Set Size: O-Pee-Chee - 283, Topps 598 

Cubs in set: O-Pee-Chee - 14, Topps 29

The fronts are identical twins.

The OPC cards were printed on gray card stock as opposed the the white used by Topps.  The copyright on the OPC cards doesn't say ©O.P.C, it says ©T.C.G., the Topps designation.  OPC wouldn't appear until 1972.

The significant lack of differences between the early Topps and OPC cards is the reason it took me so long to finally get the OPC cards.  It took a while to convince myself to spend a decent chuck of change to get cards that were basically twins to the Topps cards that I already have.

The limited number of OPC cards has made me settle for cards in lesser condition than I'd usually get.  It's hard enough to find the cards from the older OPC sets, let alone fine cards in decent shape at an affordable price.  As you look over the scans of my cards you'll notice lots of dinged corners and several creases.  

It was a break for the wallet that Ernie Banks' 1965 card has a higher number, so he wasn't included in the OPC set.  I still had to get one for Santo and Billy Williams, but they aren't typically as expensive at what you have to pay for Mr. Cub.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking Ahead to Heritage 2023

 Collectors were worried that sets like Heritage would disappear when MLB gave the exclusive baseball card rights to Fanatics.  Those fears were allayed when Fanatics bought Topps.  Knowing that Heritage will live on, I can confidently preview the 2023 set.

 

Topps used the same two-color combination for Cubs cards in 1974 that was used in 1973 - blue and red.  I hope that the Heritage cards do the same thing, without repeating the color mistake made on this year's Heritage.  The colors work perfectly for the Cubs as is.

I also put 2022 Kyle Hendricks into 1970s Wrigley Field.  I also do hear by grant to Fanatics permission to use this idea when they make their Heritage cards.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 20,340 Cubs cards from 301 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1973 Topps #328 Bill Bonham Thank you RNG for picking a card to help me make my point about this year's Cubs Heritage cards.  Look at how great the red name and blue team name match with the picture.  Why on earth did Topps change the name color to yellow on Heritage?

1980s: 1989 Topps #391 Andre Dawson All-Star The All Star cards from this era look so much better than the ones in today's sets.

1990s: 1997 Fleer Ultra #312 Mel Rojas  What a free agent bust he was.  For $4.5 million, the Cubs got 13 saves in 54 appearances and an ERA of 4.42.

2000s: 2003 Topps #216 Todd Hundley  What a free agent bust he was.  For $10 million over two seasons, the Cubs got a .199 hitter.  Thankfully, he was a Dodger by the time this card was issued.

2010s: 2019 Allen & Ginter #232 Willson Contreras This is a pretty nice looking card of the Cubs catcher.  I didn't realize until looking at this card how much more of the card was taken up by the picture.  Ginter pictures usually take up a lot less space.

70s Saturday - 1975 Fleer Pioneers of Baseball Cubs

 The 1975 Fleer Pioneers of Baseball set has 28 cards.  There isn't a team designation on the cards, so I used the list at Teamsets4U.  It lists the four cards below as Cubs cards.

 

 

The Evers card could go with the Cubs, since he was with the Cubs for the majority of his career.  It could also go with the Braves, since he is wearing a Braves uniform.  You make the call...

Complete Clubhouse Collection

It wasn't that long ago that I did a complete Clubhouse Collection post.  Heritage Update from last year was late and I did my post in January.  Here we are just a couple of months later with the complete collection including the new cards from 2022.

 The total number of Cubs CC cards is now at 87.

Here's how the number of Cubs cards has varied over the years. 

0 cards - 2001, 2007, 2011, 2014 

1 card - 2005, 2006 

2 cards - 2002, 2003, 2004, 2013, 2015, 2022 

4 cards - 2008, 2010, 2012 

5 cards - 2009

6 cards - 2016,

8 cards - 2018

10 cards - 2017, 2019 

11 cards - 2020, 2021

The vertical years were 2008, 2009, 2017, and 2020.  The horizontal tile has cards from 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022.