The Cubs' season has spun out of control and they have the third worst record in the National League. Players have been traded away and right now the roster is full of rookies and minor league retreads. Who are these guys?
Darwin Barney, Justin Berg, Welington Castillo, Casey Coleman, Thomas Diamond, Sam Fuld, Marcos Mateo....not exactly household names.
I've given up on trying to make Topps 2010 cards for all of the new guys. I'll wait until the end of the season to do that. And I'll have my work cut out for me.
Right now, only 11 of the players on the 25 man roster have a Cubs card in the Topps base set. That mean 14 new cards for me to make! And it is a real pain this year with the font Topps has for the names (has anyone figured out a simple way to duplicate the font? I haven't). I would suspect that a few will be included in the Update set, so that should lighten my load.
Here's another way to see just how much the Cubs roster has turned over. There were 20 active players with Cubs cards in Series One and Two. Nine of them (including Geovany Soto, who is on the DL) are no longer with the Cubs any more. That's almost half of them!
Well, I can't have a post without a card, so here is a 2010 card for Sam Fuld (whom I chose because he had the fewest number of letters in his name!).
I originally planned to post this yesterday, but pushed it back a day because of Lou PIniella's abrupt retirement. Since then, Sam Fuld and Welington Castillo were optioned back to Iowa. Geovany Soto returned from the DL and Micah Hoffpauir was brought up.
Apparently this has become a weekly feature of Wrigley Wax, saying good-bye to a high-profile member of the Cubs.
Lou's last game with the Cubs and his last game as an MLB manager was yesterday. In typical Cubbie fashion, he was sent off with a 16-5 thrashing by the Braves. His retirement at the end of the season had already been announced weeks ago. But yesterday he said that due to family reasons, he would be stepping immediately.
The team was going nowhere, and if the choice is either spend time with your mom before she passes away or play out the string with a lousy team, then Lou made the right choice.
Third base coach Mike Quade will take over for the rest of the season. GM Jim Hendry also said that Quade would be considered for the job permanently, while current bench coach Alan Trammell would not.
So Lou leaves after almost four years as Cubs manager. His record was 316-293, good for a .519 winning percentage. That was the best percentage a Cubs manager has put up since Charlie Grimm led the team in the thirties and forties. Lou also brought the Cubs to back-to-back post season appearances for the first time in 100 years.
The knock on Lou's time with the Cubs would be the lack of post-season wins. The team was swept in both appearances and looked bad doing so. It was especially painful in 2008 when the Cubs had the best regular season record in the NL. The team was remade to make up for the perceived deficiencies of the '07 team but was still swept by the Dodgers.
I liked Lou and wish things had turned out better. He brought an intensity to the Cub's dugout that hadn't been seen in a while. But he, like the Cubs last 46 managers, failed to achieve the ultimate goal of a World Series title.
Manager cards seem to have become less popular, so I've only got five to show from Piniella's tenure with the Cubs.
Allen and Ginter, 2007
Heritage 2007
Topps 2007, the same picture as Heritage
Topps 2008
Topps 2009
Today we feature Topps' first baseball card release. Some collectors debate whether this should be considered Topps' first cards, since they aren't much like what we know today as baseball cards. They are much smaller and had no information on the back.
I am in the "they're cards" camp. They have a picture of a baseball player and they're cardboard. That's good enough for me!
The cards were sold in pairs, along with a piece of caramel; no gum until 1952. The two cards were attached and had to be separated at a perforation in the middle of the two. They were to be used as a baseball game, kind of like a card game. Following the card game theme, there were 52 cards in the first game (with red colored backs) and another 52 in the second game (the blue backs).
There were a total of five Cubs among the 104.
Only one Cub was among the red backs, Wayne Terwilliger
Four made the cut among the '52 blue backs, Andy Pafko, Hank Sauer, Johnny Schmitz, and Roy Smalley.
When I was getting these, I was pleasantly surprised at how reasonably priced they were and how available they were, too. I figured that Topps' first cards would be super rare and super expensive. I was glad to be wrong on both counts. If you don't have any '51's in your collection, you should look into picking up a couple.
Most baseball fan knows about Bobby Thomson and his 1951 playoff winning home run. The Giants win the pennant!! And with his passing Monday, that famous home run has been shown dozens of times.
While his fame came with the Giants, most baseball fans don't know (or remember....or care!) that Bobby spent some time on the north side of Chicago, too. He was one of many past their prime players the Cubs seemed to pick up.
Thomson played for the Cubs in 1958 and 1959.
He's pictured here in a Brave uniform, the team he was with from 1954 - 1957. Topps painted a really big C on his hat!
Thomson had a really nice season in 1958, hitting 21 homers, knocking in 82 runs and batting .283. He hand broken his ankle in 1954 and it took him a while to really regain his form. I guess he was out to prove that he wasn't past his prime.
His 1959 cards shows him in his Cubs uniform....but I really don't like the pink!
But '58 was his last hurrah. His numbers dropped in 1959, as he played in 30 fewer games. His home runs fell to 11 and his average dropped 24 points. Over the winter the Cubs traded him to the Red Sox for Al Schroll (who???).
RIP Bobby Thomson, Giant hero, ex-Cub.
