Christmas Goodies From Reader Chad... Again!

 

This box from reader Chad arrived at the Wrigley Wax World Headquarters last week.  Each year since 2014 he has generously sent me a box of Cubs cards.  It is always an amazing collection of cards and I am very grateful to him.  

I am going to take a few days to show all the different cards he sent to me.  In today's post I have a bunch of discs.

This isn't a card, its a coaster.  Schlitz was a Cubs TV sponsor back in the 60's and early 70's.  I remember an old TV commercial that Leo Durocher did for them.

This comes from Panini's Cooperstown Collection in 2013.  It's their take on the 1909-1911 Colgan gum disc.

He actually sent me two of these 1989 Cadaco discs, saying that there is an A version and a B version, but couldn't tell any difference between the two.  He was correct.  The two discs he sent me are identical.  

I did some digging and found that the difference between the two versions is that one list the team name 

These come from Fleer's 2003 Hardball set.  They are all inserts to the base set, none of which I had.

Ryno's glove placement on this 1994 Oscar Mayer disc is perfect, covering the Cubs logo so they didn't have to remove it.  All they had to do was take out the C on his hat.

Upper Deck's 2003 Standing O set had die cut parallels, and this is the one for Mark Prior.

Finally, a big Sportflics disc from 1987.

Let's have a big round of applause for reader Chad and these great round cards he sent me!

Five Random Cubs Cards

 I've got 20,875 Cubs cards from 307 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1970 O-Pee-Chee #429 Cubs Rookies  A card with my sort-off namesake, Jim Cosman.  

Just change the C to a K and we are good to go!

1980s: 1985 Donruss #167 George Frazier  He came to the Cubs in 1984, part of the trade that brought Rick Sutcliffe over from the Indians.  He was 7-8 with an ERA of 6.39 in 1985.  The Cubs media guide says it was due to knee trouble and he had surgery on the knee after the season.

1990s: 1997 Topps #154 Steve Trachsel  Looks at what happened to pants and stirrups over the 12 years between Frazier's card and Trachsel's.  Pants came down to the ankle and stirrups almost disappeared.  I like the stirrup look so much more.  

2000s: 2005 Bowman Heritage #317 Derrek Lee  D-Lee looking bad!  And by the way, the checklist for 2021 Bowman Heritage was released over a year ago, but the cards never showed up.  Is it safe to say that there will be no 2021 Bowman Heritage?

2010s: 2011 Topps #247 Ernie Bank Variation Diamond I was really into it in 2011.  Not only did I get the short-printed Ernie Banks variation, I got the Diamond parallel version too.

Sixties Saturday - 1966 Topps

 We keep rolling through the 60's and now we are up to 1966.  The Cubs actually had a manager this season, Leo Durocher, instead of a head coach.  But Topps didn't do manager cards in the '66 set.  

Among the Cubs cards is one with a dead man.  The Dick Ellsworth card mistakenly used a picture of Ken Hubbs, who died in a plane crash before the start of the 1964 season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2022 Stadium Club Cubs

 Stadium Club was another of the brands with a December release.  Seems to me that December is not a good month to release four or five products.  I would think people have other things to spend their money on, like Christmas presents.

The 300-card set has ten Cubs.  300 cards divided by 30 teams equals ten cards... perfect!  I doubt that Topps did that on purpose.

Stadium Club is noted for the pictures used on the cards.  We'll see how well Topps did with the Cubs.

The ten Cubs cards included three retired players, and I'll start with them.

I don't have any other cards of Ernie Banks with this picture, so that is a good thing.  The photo was taken at Shea Stadium on April 26, 1969 according to Getty Images.

Ryno is acknowledging the fans as he was introduced at the All-Star game at Wrigley Field in 1990.  This is the last time the game was held at Wrigley.  How is it that the game hasn't been there in over 30 years?  The next available game is in 2025.  Can they get that one and end the drought at 35 years?

Kerry Wood's card shows him as he leaves the field for the very last time. Notice some of the Sox players in the dugout clapping for him, too.  This is a nice choice of a picture to use.  

Topps did a decent job with all three of the retired players.  How about the active ones?

This shot of Contreras making a head first slide would be ok, but..

... do we need another one?

 

These two get thumbs down for using the City Connect uniforms.  Also, Topps, why is Greg Deichmann included?  A set released in December should not include a card of a player that was removed from the 40-man roster in April.

Kyle Hendrick batting, really?

You'd think that Topps would have had time to get an actual picture of Stroman in a Cubs uniform instead using one...

...of him with the Mets.  There should be no Photoshopped cards in a set that comes out in December.

Suzuki's picture isn't Photoshopped, but is is from spring training. The Cubs do not wear the jersey he's shown in at Wrigley Field.

For as good as the did with the retired guys, Topps really blew it with the active players

1989 Cap'n Crunch

Here's a recent oddball addition, for the 1989 set issued by the cereal Cap'n Crunch.  You can also see that the card was made by Topps for Quaker Oats.  The set was not licensed by MLB, so logos have been removed.

Dawson was the lone Cub in the 22-card set.  The number on the front of the card is not the card number, but the player's uniform number.  You don't typically see a uniform number so prominently featured on a card.

The 1989 set is the lone issued by Cap'n Crunch, though Quaker Oats and Topps collaborated on a set for Granola in 1986.