2024 Cubs Wall Calendar

I have the 2024 Cubs wall calendar ready to go up in a few days.  By the way, this makes the 25th year of Cubs wall calendars for me.  Some day I'll have to show the entire collection.  The problem is scanning them... the calendars are 12" x 12" but my scanner bed is 8½" x 11".

Anyway, this is what the cover looks like, with a picture that I borrowed from eBay so I didn't have to scan it.  As usual, each month features a large picture of a Cubs player.

And who did the maker, Turner Licensing, consider to be calendar-worthy this year?

January - Keegan Thompson

February - Drew Smyly

March - Nelson Valezquez

April - Nico Hoerner

May - Codi Heuer

June - Patrick Wisdom

July - Brandon Hughes

August - Justin Steele

September - Seiya Suzuki

October - Jamison Taillon

November - Dansby Swanson

December - Christopher Morel

I think that there were two major omissions, Cody Bellinger and Adbert Alzolay.  Both were major players in the Cubs 2023 season.  

And how did Turner do with respect to players still on the team?

Three are gone... Nelson Velazquez, who was traded on July 31, and Codi Heuer and Brandon Hughes, who both elected free agency in November.

2022 Finest Flashback Cubs

 Ok, this one is my fault.  I bought these cards 13 months after the season ended because I didn't realize that the set had even been released.  It was an online only product, released in late August of 2022.  I guess I wasn't paying attention.

The set is based on 1995 Finest and has 220 cards, with the last 20 being short prints.

 

There are just three Cubs among the 220 and Sammy is one of the short prints.  I wish I could find a better way to scan these.  The cards don't look this dark in hand, but scanning the chrome cards gives me this dark look.

Merry Steve!

 I knew that this guy played a few games for the Cubs, and I knew that I just had to get a card of his. He played only three games for the Cubs in late April of 1986, and he was just one for nine, a crummy .111 batting average. As far as I can tell, this card from the Cubs team issued set is the only card that features him as a major leaguer, though he did play with the Reds in 1983 and the White Sox in 1984. 

He didn't have much of a big league career, but once a year his cards will be here on Wrigley Wax.

 

Merry Steve Christmas to all!

The Christmas Story According to St. Luke

 My traditional Christmas Eve post.  It has been run each Christmas Eve since 2010.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

From the Gospel according to St. Luke, the second chapter: 

In those days

Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire

world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So

also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of

because he belonged to the

and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the

to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. 

She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a

because there was no

for them in the inn. And there were

living out in the

nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at

An

of the

appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

May the simple, yet miraculous truth 

of the Christmas story 

touch your heart anew this year.

Peace,

Paul

Wrigley Wax 

Eighties Alphabetically - Ames

 This is an easy one!

 

Ames discount stores put out one set in one year in the 1980s and had two Cubs.

You can see from the cards that they partnered with Topps.  In fact, Topps was doing several partnerships with discount stores during this time.  Ames wasn't a big player in the store world, but I suppose they wanted to keep up with K-Mart and Woolworths, among others.

This set came out in 1989 and featured 33 cards in a boxed set.  All of the players in the set had at least on season that included 20 homers and 20 stolen bases.  Dawson accomplished that five times, though never with the Cubs.  Ryno did it three times.

Justin Steele Living Set

Coming off of his breakout season, Justin Steele was recently added to the Living Set.  His 2023 included a 16-5 record and an All-Star appearance.   He must not have caught on with collectors yet, as the print run for his card was just 1,535 copies.  That is the lowest run of any of the Cubs in the Living Set.

The Cubs are on quite a roll with the set, having five cards since July.  The six cards for the year make this the highest year for the team since 2018, when six Cubs were also included.  There are now 25 Cubs total in the set and they look good in a 5x5 mosaic.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 21,422 Cubs cards from 316 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1961 Fleer #11 Mordecai Brown What an odd picture choice for Brown, with a card that came out about 50 years after his playing days.

1980s: 1982 On Deck Cookies Bill Buckner  MSA used the same disc design for over five years.  Does MSA stand for Make Same Always???

1990s: 1990 Score #229 Jerome Walton Walton was the reigning NL Rookie of the Year in 1990.  Sadly, he encountered the dreaded Sophomore Slump, along with the Junior Jinx, and  Senior Slump II.

2000s: 2001 Bowman Heritage #265 Ricky Gutierrez  Man, what a plain and boring looking card!  

2010s: 2017 Honus Bonus #68 Albert Almora  Most cards to it the other way around..the player in color and the background in black and white. Honus Bonus flipped it.