Billy Autograph #25

I'm now one autograph away from my goal of 26 Billy Williams autographs.

Here is number 25....

This comes from 2004 Playoff Absolute Absolutely Ink.  As you can see, it's not just an autograph card.  There are also relics: a piece of a jersey and a piece of a bat.   Three-in-one....such a deal!  Even better, I only paid about three bucks per piece, about $9 total for the card.  I consider that to be quite a steal, especially since the card is a /50.

The only downside is that it kinda compromises my quest for autograph cards with different pictures.  I say "kinda" because

its the same picture as the one on this Gypsy Queen autograph.  But I can also argue that they are significantly different...different cropping, color vs. black and white, photograph vs. whatever you call the GQ style.

Yeah, I'm going with that.

All 25 cards fit nicely into a 5x5 tile...enjoy!

Topps 2014....Name the Featured Player

Last week you had the change to play "Name the Featured Player" from the 1973 set.  I gave Topps a hard time for not cropping the pictures close enough.

Forty-one years later, the same problem exists.  A look through 2014 series two gave me three more cards that give us the chance to play the game.  I really thought that Topps would have figured out the proper way to pick pictures that would leave no question as to the featured player.

Click on the name and see if you can correctly Name the Featured Player.

John Lannan         Russell Martin

Matt Holliday       Jon Jay

Mike Aviles     Jordan Danks

So how did you do with the 2014 cards?  Better than with the '73s?

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 12,397 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: 1963 Topps Peel Off Ernie Banks  These stickers were inserts in the 1963 set.  Back then the inserts weren't what you chased, the base cards were.  These were just seen as a nice little bonus.  Since most kids peeled the stickers off and stuck them some where, these are a bit harder to find that other inserts from the '60s.

1980s: 1985 Fleer #58 George Frazier  He was a part of the trade that brought Rick Sutcliffe to the Cubs in June, 1984.  That deal is known as the Rick Sutcliffe trade, not the George Frazier trade.  In 1985, working out of the bullpen, Frazier was 7-8 win an ERA of 6.39.

1990s: 1992 Leaf #381 Danny Jackson The Cubs signed Danny Jackson to a big bucks contract before the 1991 season.  He lasted only a year and a half in Chicago was was a big bust.  He started 19 games for the '92 Cubs was and was 4-9 before being traded to the Pirates.

2000s: 2005 Topps Total #227 Corey Patterson The 2005 season was Corey's last as a Cub.  As he lost his patience at the plate, the team lost patience with him.  For the year he hit only .215.  He had 97 hits but struck out 118 times.  The Cubs traded KKKKorey after the season.

2010s:2011 Topps Manufactured Glove #RH Rogers Hornsby This is one of five Cubs that had these fake glove patch cards.  There was also a numbered black version of the glove.  I ended up with all ten of the Cubs cards.  It was also the last time I chased after all the Cubs when Topps made these manufactured type cards.

2014 Series Two: Flying Necklaces

I spend some time yesterday putting 2014 Series Two into a binder.  Then I had the chance to look through all the cards.  I was barely two pages into the set when I came across this card...

...of Martin Prado.  What caught my eye is just above his left shoulder....a cross.

You don't find too many cards with crosses on them.  But there is Prados, in mid-air as a result of his swing.

As I went through the rest of the pages of the set, I paid special attention for any more flying crosses or necklaces.  I didn't see any more crosses, but there were several chains and Phitens flying.

2014 Series Two Inserts

The Cubs came up fairly light among the various inserts in series two.  I came up with a checklist of only five cards among the non-auto and non-relics.

 

First off are a couple more 1989 Die Cuts.  The two from the second series match the two that were in series one.

Starlin Castro had a manufactured patch, as did Anthony Rizzo in series one.

The last two cards belonged to Greg Maddux.  It seems like there have been quite a few cards of him as a Cub recently.  These two series two Maddux cards both have to do with his rookie season, which means he has to be a Cub.

First is this Future Stars card.  It's a thick card, which I didn't expect. Looking at pictures, I just assumed it was plain cardboard.

The other Maddux card is this beauty. Topps has done rings before and they always have looked good.  In case you are wondering, in 1986 Maddux started six games for the Cubs and was 2-4 with and ERA of 5.52.  Not exactly Hall of Fame numbers, are they.

He got better.

2014 Series Two Cubs

My Topps 2014 Series Two Cubs have arrived!

Brentandbecca had a really fast turnaround and the cards came less than a week after the series was released.

There are eleven Cubs cards among the 330 of series two.  That's a bit of a bump up from the nine that were in the first series.

Eight cards were no surprise since they were included in the factory team set.  I'll lead off with those...

 

 

 

 

 

Two of the eight are not on the current Cubs roster.  Fujikawa is still recovering from last year's Tommy John surgery while Veras was released a couple weeks ago.

Of the remaining three cards, only one made sense,

starter Jason Hammel.

The other two must have been fillers,

 

because Donny Murphy was released during spring training while Blake Parker has spent most of the year in AAA.

Looking over the roster, guys that contributed to the team both last year and this year but were left out by Topps were mostly bullpen guys.  James Russell, Justin Grimm, Pedro Strop, and Hector Rondon all could have been included by Topps.

We'll see if they show up in the Update set.

The flagship total for the 2014 Cubs is 20 cards, which make a nice 4 x 5 tile.

1973 All Time Leader Cards Updated

My recent look-through the 1973 set inspired me to do a little updating.

The set included an eight card subset of All Time Leaders in various career categories.

Here are the original eight cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the 41 years that have passed since the cards were issued, five of the eight categories have seen a new career leader take over.  Those cards needed to be updated.

So here we go:

Pete Rose became the new all time hit leader when he passed Ty Cobb in 1985.

Last September, Alex Rodriguez hit his 24th grand slam, passing Lou Gehrig and his record that had stood for 75 years.

Hank Aaron was already the total base leader in 1973 so I just had to update his final career number on the card.

Aaron became the all time RBI leader when he passed Babe Ruth on May 1, 1975.

Nolan Ryan didn't just pass Walter Johnson as the all time strikeout king, he obliterated the record, topping Johnson by over 2,200 strikeouts.  In fact, in this age of the strikeout pitcher, Johnson has fallen to ninth place.  Each of the other three fallen leaders on these cards is still in second place all time.