The Complete Cubs Clubhouse Collection

 I try to get all of the Cubs cards in the Clubhouse Collection and thus far I've been able to do just that.    

The total number of Cubs CC cards is now at a nice round 100. 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 

4 cards - 2008, 2010, 2012 

5 cards - 2009, 2022

6 cards - 2016, 

8 cards - 2018 

10 cards - 2017, 2019, 2023  

11 cards - 2020, 2021 

The vertical years were 2008, 2009, 2017, 2020, and 2023. The horizontal tile has cards from 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022.

I'm Darwin Barney

 I've been married for 40 years and have yet to forget our anniversary when it comes up each July.  The blog has been going for 15 years but I somehow forgot to write an anniversary post last Friday.  If I'm going to forget an anniversary, thankfully it was for the blog and not Mrs. WW!

Wrigley Wax made it's debut on December 30, 2008.  And here we are 15 years and 5,445 posts later!

15 is a significant number for me since that is Darwin Barney's number.

Look at that... I'm the #1 Barney collector on TCDB!  I'm pretty sure that each of those cards has been featured on the blog at sometime.  The Barney collection has been stalled for a while since he was traded in 2014, but the Cubs collection and the blog have continued on and the plan is to keep going.

Happy 2024!!

Apparently 2024 will be the year of the centerfielder!

Five Random Cubs Cards

 I've got 21,519 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: 1972 Topps Posters #21 Billy Williams  What a great way to start! My guess is that the picture is from spring training in 1971 or 1972. Billy is wearing a jacket under his jersey, trying to lose a few of the pounds he gained over the winter.

1980s: 1985 O-Pee-Chee #19 George Frazier He's looking pretty smug here.  He should have that same look after the 1985 season when he posted a 7-8 record with an ERA of 6.39

1990s: 1996 Stadium Club #53 Jim Bullinger  He's hanging out on a rooftop in Sheffield Avenue.  I wonder if they took rooftop pictures of several players or just Bullinger?

2000s: 2003 Heritage #408 Hee Seop Choi  There was lots of optimism surround Choi in 2003 and he was the Opening Day first baseman.

2010s: 2013 Team Issued Season Ticket Holders #47 Starlin Castro This is Castro's fourth card in the set.  He was a big deal ten years ago, which shows how low the team had sunk.

Eighties Alphabetically - Archives Reprints

 These are cards from the 1980s, but not really.  

In 1983 Topps released a reprinted version of their iconic 1952 set.  It gave collectors the chance to have the cards without breaking the bank.

Topps didn't fully commit to the original as they didn't use the cards original larger size and instead opted for the now-standard 2½" x 3½" format.

2023 Heritage High Clubhouse Collection Cubs

 I have all of the Cubs Clubhouse Collection cards since Heritage's beginning, so I can't quit now.  There were five more CC cards in the 2023 High set.  They are getting easier and cheaper to get as they just don't seem to have much value to collectors any more.  That tiny piece of cloth or bat isn't a big deal any longer.

 

 

I'm confused as to why these cards have three different color schemes.  The base cards have one scheme per team, so doesn't it make sense that the Clubhouse cards would do the same?  And don't get me started on the use of the same photoshopped background on all of the cards.

2023 Heritage High Numbers Cubs

The High Numbers Heritage cards came out a couple of weeks ago and I now have all of the Cubs cards.  The set adds another 225 cards to Heritage, including 25 more short prints.  No Cubs were included in the short prints, so my wallet was spared a bit there.  I had to buy just seven regular cards.

 

 

 

Most of these are action shots instead of the more standard Heritage posed pictures.  That makes senses since many of the players were with other teams in the spring during picture day, so no posed Cubs pictures were available.

Three of the seven Cubs are catchers, since no Cubs catchers were included in the base Heritage set.  Look carefully at the Tucker Barnhart card and you'll notice an oddity.  Though a catcher, he is wearing a regular fielders glove.  He also has an odd smile on his face.  The reason for both - he was pitching.  In fact, he pitched in four games for the 2023 Cubs.  Over the four innings he gave up just one run, for an ERA of 2.25.  

Topps did a very quick turnaround on the Jose Cuas and Jeimer Candelario cards, as they were both trading deadline pickups on July 31.