2018 Series One Cubs

My Brentandbecca order has arrived!  I now have the Topps 2018 series one Cubs cards in hand.

The Cubs set consists of ten cards.  That is just half the number of Cubs from a year ago.  No World Series or League Leader cards is the main reason.

Three of the ten that Topps included really have no business being shown as Cubs.  Alex Avila, John Lackey, and Koji Uehara became free agents after the season and there wasn't much chance that any of the three would end up back in Chicago.  If I ran Topps, I would decree that no free agents would be included in series one.  I'd save them for series two or update, when they can be shown with their correct team.

The seven current Cubs that Topps included were good choices, all top line guys.  The biggest surprise to me is that Kris Bryant will be in series two.  He went from being card #1 in 2017 to at least #351 a year later.

 

 

 

 

Happy Valentinetti Day!

Bobby Valentine never played for the Cubs, so you'll have to settle for Vito Valentinetti.

All I've Got of Him: Ken Holtzman

The Oscar Gamble post got me in a '69 Cubs mood.  I've done an "All I've Got of HIm" post on most of the main guys.  I haven't done Ernie Banks or Billy Williams because I have too many cards of each to make a decent looking tile.

The only other main player I haven't done is pitcher Ken Holtzman.  I wonder if the casual fan thinks of Holtzman as a 3-time world champ with the A's rather than I Cub? 

For me, Holtzman, a lefty like me, was a Cub who spent some time in exile before returning to his rightful place at Clark and Addison.

When he came to the majors in 1965, Holtzman was compared favorably to Sandy Koufax - both Jewish, lefties, hard-throwing.  He never attained the lofty heights of a Koufax, but he did have a very good career.

Career uighlights include:

• 174 wins
• 1601 strikeouts
• 2 no hitters
• World Series record of 4-1, ERA of 2.55

I've got a total of 23 Hotlzman cards.  There are nine Topps cards from his playing days, five more from other sets while he was active, and nine others from after he retired.

Oscar Gamble

I planned to do this last week, but somehow forgot.  Sorry Oscar.

Oscar Gamble passed away a couple weeks ago.  Much was written about his playing days and his hair.  Not much was said about his early days. though.

Gamble drafted by the Cubs in the 16th rounds of the June, 1968 draft.  Barely a year later, on August 27, 1969, he made his big league debut with the Cubs. 

Yes, Oscar was one of the 1969 Cubs.  He was just 19 years old (the last teenager to play for the Cubs) and played in only 24 games, but he was on that memorable team.  He was traded to the Phillies after the season and then his career really got started, but it did start as a Cub.

There is just one card that shows him as a Cub,

the 1970  team card.  Gamble is on the ground, sitting with the batting practice pitcher,two batboys, and the batting practice catcher.  No respect for Oscar!

Not satisfied with that, a while back I created a 1969 Topps card for him.

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 15,402 Cubs cards from 130 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1976 Topps #323 Rob Sperring  Rob played and hit very Sperring-ly.  His average over three seasons with the Cubs was 50 games a year and a .221 batting average.  

1980s: 1983 Fleer #510 Dick Tidrow  Dirt was not a member of the 1983 Cubs.  He was traded in January across town to the White Sox in the Steve Trout trade.

1990s: 1996 Pacific #31 Mark Grace  This card has a nice-looking picture with hard-to-read gold lettering. It seems that often the card companies are more concerned with the look of the card rather than its readability.  

2000s: 2005 Bazooka #11 Moises Alou  Now there is some lettering that you can read!  Moises looks like a pitcher with that funky release face.

2010s: 2012 Golden Moments #CP Carlos Pena Jersey  Well shame on me.  I had this card among my rule-following relics.  But since the card is from 2012 and Pena was just with the Cubs in 2011, it does not follow the rule, and it is out!

Topps 2018 Cubs Retail Inserts

There are a couple insert sets in the 2018 set that are only available in retail stores.  I can't buy them from Brentandbecca, so I rely on Ebay and Sportlots for them.  I've already posted on the Kris Bryant Highlights sets.  In addition to it, the other retail-only sets are Legends in the Making and Opening Day.

 

Bryant and Rizzo are the Cubs Legends in the Making.  The Bryant card talks about how he has broken some of Billy Williams' team rookie and early career records.  Rizzo is compared to Santo and Williams.

Question for Topps... If you have an entire brand called Opening Day, why use the same name for an insert set?

Flick Friday: The Bingo Long Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings

Today's flick is The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings.  Released in 1976, it stars 

 

Gale Sayers Billy Dee Williams and Terrence Mann James Earl Jones.

Set in 1939, Bingo Long (Williams) is a pitcher for the St Louis team of the Negro National League.  He is tired of playing for his autocratic owner and decides to set up his own team.  He poaches stars from other teams including Leon Carter (Jones) and hits the road with his squad.

Early on they go town to town playing local black teams.  Pressure from the Negro League owners on the local teams begins to take away potential opponents, so the All-Stars begin playing against white teams.  At the same time they begin to clown things up, ala the Globetrotters.

The Negro League owners turn up the pressure and one of the All-Stars ends up getting stabbed. Things continue to get worse as they run out of money and lose one of their cars.

The movie climaxes with a winner take all game against an All Star team from the Negro League.  You'll have to watch the movie to see who wins.

It's a very enjoyable movie.  The baseball is pretty authentic and old stadium in the south were used as locations, adding visual accuracy.