Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 12,370 Cubs cards from 88 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1976 MSA Isalys Jerry Morales I'v got an entire post about this set here.  Morales was at his career peak in 1976.  He hit a career high 16 HRs in 1976 and his average was in the mid .270s.

1980s: 1989 Fleer Glossy #631 Rafael Palmeiro All Star Palmeiro has two cards in the 1989 Fleer set, this All Star card and his base card.  He also has a card in the traded set because he didn't spend the 1989 season with the Cubs.  He was traded to the Rangers before the season in a deal that brought Mitch Williams to the Cubs.

1990s: 1994 Stadium Club #355 Dan Plesac  The lefty from NW Indiana pitched in 54 games for the 1994 Cubs, all out of the bullpen.  He was 2-3 with an ERA of 4.61.  The team brass was so impressed by this that when he became a free agent after the season, they didn't bother to offer him a contract.

2000s: 2008 Factory Team Set #CHC6 Carlos Marmol This is one of three different cards of Marmol from Topps in 2008.  He didn't make the base set, but had a card in Update.  He was also included in the special Cubs version of the Factory Complete set that included 5 bonus cards, of which Marmol was one.

All three of his cards used a different picture.  Doubt that we would see that today.

2010s: 2014 Donruss #81 Travis Wood Here is Travis Wood in all of his logoless glory on Donruss 2014.  I don't think it has happened very often that the RNG has picked a card from the current year.  Wood is off to remarkably unremarkable start to the 2014 season.  He is 4-4 with an ERA of 4.61.  He was the Cubs' lone All Star last year.  I don't think that he will be on the team this year.

The 2008 Chicago Tribune Players Cards Cubs

As promised, I've got the 26 player set of Cubs from the Tribune's 2008 Player cards.  The cards came on a full sheet, combined with White Sox cards.  Each sheet had either six or seven Cubs.

I'll show the cards according to the sheet they were printed on.

Sheet #1, issued on August 10, 2008 - Six Cubs

 

 

 

 

Sheet 2: Issued on August 17, 2008 - Seven Cubs

 

 

 

Sheet 3: Issued on August 24, 2008 - Six cards

 

 

 

 

Sheet 4: Issued on August 31, 2008 - Seven Cubs

 

 

 

 A few things...

• the Jim Edmonds card is one of just a few with him as a Cub.
• Henry Blanco spent several seasons with the Cubs, but never had alot of cards.  Nice that the Trib included him, tattoos and all.
• Samardzija is awfully young looking, and his hair is pretty short, too.
• The team that finished the season with the best record in the National League landed eight players on the All Star team - pretty impressive.
• Couldn't they have found a more flattering picture of Lou Piniella?

Card From A New Source

Today's cards came to me from a new source...my White Sox fan father.

He's told some friends about the 'ol blog, and one mentioned that he had some cards laying around.  The cards went from friend to pops to me.

I'll try to be delicate here....and maybe some of you have been in the same situation:  People find out that I collect...they have cards that they'd like to give me...they think they're giving away something that is worth a bundle....I end up with either doubles or cards worth a couple pennies each.

I really appreciate that they think of me; that is very nice of them.  And I always graciously accept the cards.....I just don't tell them what the cards are actually worth.  Sometimes I end up with treasures, some time with...well you know.

The stash from my dad included some '90s logoless Post cards and some mid-90's Upper Deck.

But there was also a set included that I hadn't seen before, so, yeah!

In 2008 the Cubs and the White Sox both ended up as division champs, the first time since 1906 that both Chicago teams were in the post-season.  For four Sundays in August of that year, the Tribune had an insert in the paper that included a sheet with 13 cards on it, One week there were seven Cubs and six Sox, the next saw six Cubs and seven Sox.  After four week the set had 26 cards for each team.  The stash from dad included the complete 52 player set.

The cards came on a full sheet of heavy-stock paper.  It was perforated and you had to tear out each of the cards.

Here is what a card looked like...

...an interesting design; or more accurately, a "borrowed" design.

It looks like the Tribune borrowed design elements from the 1972 and 1973 Topps sets.  The team name at the top and the stars have that funky 1972 look to them.  The player's name at  the bottom and the player in the circle come straight out of 1973.

Here is a mock-up I did...1972 on the top left, 1973 is top right, while a combo card with features from both years is on the bottom left, and a card from the Tribune set is on the bottom right.

I find it interesting that a big city newspaper with all sorts of graphic artists on staff couldn't come up with their own unique design.

Tomorrow I get up the full 26 card Cubs team set from the Topps 1972-73 Chicago Tribune Player Cards set.

Gypsy Queen Ernie Banks Red

I've got the last of the Ernie Banks cards that I'm chasing from Gypsy Queen.

I don't know much of anything about the red mini other than the fact that its a /99 card.  Red wasn't originally listed on the checklist over at Baseballcardpedia but I see that it is now on the list.  They weren't mentioned on the sell sheets released last year either.

My final Mr. Cub GQ tally is seven cards.....the base, blue frame, white frame, mini, black mini, sepia mini, and red mini.

Billy's HOF Autograph

Can you stand to look at another autograph of Billy Williams?

I can!

I picked up #23 last week and it too has a unique picture on it.

It's another postmarked envelope, this one from July 26, 1987...the day that Billy was inducted into the Hall of Fame.  The two pictures are from different era....the swinging picture looks to be from the mid-late 60's (though I'm a little confused about the red sweatshirt he's wearing under his jersey.  The portrait would be from 1972-1973.

The signature is in pen, but I think alot of signed items from that era were in pen.  Sharpie signatures were still a few years off in the future.

I'm still on the hunt for three more signatures to give me a nice 26 autographs of #26.

1951 and 1955 Cubs Scorecards

I was able to pick up two more scorecards at reasonable prices, especially since were 63 and 59 years old.  Usually cards this old are only listed as BINs, and the prices are pretty high. But a seller listed several Cubs scorecards from the 50s in an auction with a starting price of $9.99.  That's more reasonable for me.

There were some bids on them and I paid more than the starting price, but I also stayed below any BIN price, and the seller shipped them for free, too.  I was very happy to add 1951 and 1955 to my collection.

The 1951 scorecard celebrates the 75th anniversary of both the National League and the Cubs.  The 1951 Cubs were not in any mood to celebrate as they finished in last place with a 62-92 record.  My card is from a game against the Dodgers on July 24, 1951.  The Dodger lineup included Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, and Roy Campanella.  The only notable thing for the Cubs  is that the Rifleman Chuck Connors was the starting first baseman.  The Dodgers beat the Cubs 6-3 in front of crowd of 22, 254.

A box seat to the game would have cost your two bucks, while the unreserved grandstand seats were $1.25.  Want to sit in the bleachers?  You'd need all of 60 cents.

The second card is the 1955 version.  Look at all the people in the stands.  The 1955 Cubs drew just over 800,000 fans for the season, so I doubt that there were too many games that featured a packed grandstand.

My card is from game 2 of a doubleheader on May 18.  The Cubs swept the Phillies, and in game two it was a 7-5 win.  Only 9,329 fans made it to the Wednesday twibill.  I wonder how many scorecards were sold that day and how many besides mine still survive.  An odd thing about the doubleheader is that it was the only day the Phillies were in town.  They came in for just the one day and left as the Cubs played the Braves the next day.  You sure don't see a one day series any more.

Inflation had hit the high rollers, who now had to fork over $2.50 for their box seat.  But everyday Joe could still get his grandstand ticket for $1.25 or the bleacher seat for $0.60.

These two cards leave me only two holes in a run from 1949 - 2014.  I'm just missing 1950 and 1952.  The seller did have a '52 up for auction, but I lost out on that one.  I'll just wait a bit longer for these two to come up in an auction.

My collection now stands at 64 cards, which makes for a nice 8x8 tile.

Barney Rainbow Update... Now Up to 18

Picking up the factory team set gave me another card to add to the 2014 Barney Rainbow.  The count now stands at 18 cards.

What's still left?

I'm assuming there will be another parallel with the update set...Topps has done that the past couple years.  There is also a parallel in the factory complete set.  And the clear /10 card from series one has still eluded me.  Otherwise, I think that's it.

Here's the eighteen

Top Row: Base, Base blank back, Base no foil, Power Player
Row 2: Opening Day, OD blank, factory team, pink
Row 3: Black, Camo, Gold, Red Hot Foil
Row 4: Target Red, Walmart Blue, Green, Toys R Us Purple
Row 5: Yellow, Opening Day blue