Billy on a Checklist

This card from Chad goes straight into the Billy Williams collection.  And shame on me for not already having it in the collection.

It comes from the 1992 edition of Studio.  They used a very nice, modern shot of Billy, who was the Cubs hitting coach at the time.

1992 Confex Baseball Enquirer Andre Dawson

Here's a fun card from Chad.  This is the 1992 Confex Baseball Enquirer card of Andre Dawson.

Well, we have to assume that this is Andre Dawson.  

The 64-card set is a parody set.  None of the players are mentioned by name on either the front or the back.  There are two other Cubs in the set, Don Zimmer and George Bell.

The 1992 set was the only one released by Confex.  Since I already have ⅓  of all the Cubs, I plan to hunt down the other two.  This will be an easy brand to complete!

Reader Chad is Santa Again!

Each year around Christmas since 2015, reader Chad had generously sent a package to me.  They've been filled with all sorts of Cub-card goodies.

He did it again!  This is a look at the stacks of cards that came my way.

About half the cards are already in my collection.  They will be going to school and included in the birthday packs that I give to my students.

The cards that are new to me will be featured over the next few days.  Many of them have inspired a hunt for all the Cubs from the particular brand.

Today I'll feature just one...

... this card, that has been signed by Shawn Boskie. The Revelation verse that he's referencing says this, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."

The card is not from Topps, Upper Deck, Donruss, Fleer, or any other card manufacturer.

Instead, it comes from Shawn Boskie.  He had these printed up himself.  It gave him the opportunity to have a card to give to anyone requesting an autograph.  He also uses the card as an evangelism tool.  Good for him!

I don't know how rare this card is, but there is an unsigned cards available on COMC and it is listed for $56.89.  Then again, Ebay has a signed card like mine for $1.

Looking Back at 2018

Total Number of Cubs cards in the collection from 2018: I've got 516 Cubs cards from 2018, which is right in the middle for the decade, fifth place.

Total Number of brands collected: 28 different brands.  Seen for the first time were Big League, Living Set, and National Baseball Card Day.

Brands and number of Cubs cards:
Topps - 144
Allen & Ginter - 56
Autographs - 3
Archives - 12
Big League - 19
Bowman - 18
Bowman's Best - 2
Chronicles - 2
Chrome - 12
Diamond King - 10
Donruss - 20
Factory team set - 17
Finest - 5
Fire - 10
Gallery - 12
Gold Label - 7
Gypsy Queen - 11
Heritage - 62
Holiday - 10
Living Set - 6
National Baseball Card Day - 10
Opening Day - 18
Pro Debut - 4
Relics - 1
Stadium Club - 15
Topps Stickers - 10

Ernie Banks - 13
Billy Williams - 4

The player with the most cards: Kris Bryant tops the list for the third consecutive time, with 92 cards.  That number got a big boost from the 30 card Kris Bryant Highlights insert set.

The nastiest looking card: A two-way tie.  I couldn't decide between the ironic card of Drew Smyly with the odd smile or the Big League Sketch card that gives Bryant a too-big head.

 

My favorite card: Another two-way tie, with two cards of players from the past.  Diamond King did a nice job colorizing the Hartnett picture, and since he is a catcher, the lack of logos didn't matter.  The picture on the Billy Williams card looks to be from 1971, when Billy was the absolute best in the eyes of this nine-year-old.

 

Looking Back at 2017

Total Number of Cubs cards in the collection from 2017: 590 cards, the second highest total of the decade.  The number of Cubs cards got a big boost from the World Series title in 2016

Total Number of brands collected: 27 brands.  Making their debut were Chronicles and Fire while Gold Label was back after a long hiatus.

Brands and number of Cubs cards:
Topps - 129
Allen & Ginter - 49
Autographs - 6
Archives - 25
Bowman - 29
Bowman's Best - 3
Bunt - 17
Chronicles - 5
Chrome - 16
Diamond King - 18
Donruss - 11
Factory team set - 57
Finest - 12
Fire - 17
Gallery - 11
Gold Label - 9
Gypsy Queen - 15
Heritage - 81
Holiday - 10
New Era - 4
Opening Day - 16
Pro Debut - 9
Relics - 4
Stadium Club - 115
Topps Stickers - 10

Ernie Banks - 9
Billy Williams - 9

The player with the most cards:  Kris Bryant, with 67 cards, was the leader for the second year in a row. Winning the league MVP award helps boost your total number of cards.

The nastiest looking card: The 1992 Bowman cards that showed players in street clothes were bad back then.  Updating them in 2017 was not a good idea.

My favorite card: Ben Zobrist's Stadium Club uses a picture from Game 7, showing him on second base after knocking in the go-ahead run in the top of the tenth inning.  Great choice!

Topps Living Set Kyle Hendricks

Kyle Hendricks was featured in the Living Set last week.  Topps does a nice job of shipping the cards out and I had mine within a week.

The print run for this was just 2,074.  That is the lowest total for any of the ten Cub players that has been featured.  I wonder how much longer Topps will keep the Living Set alive?

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 17,359 Cubs cards from 203 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1978 SSPC #255 Willie Hernandez  Willie always had a pretty laid-back, cool look on his cards.

1980s: 1989 Topps Stickers #38 Sticker back Ryne Sandberg  The 1989 sticker made you collect both the fronts and the backs.

1990s: 1999 Wrigley Field Top Ten Charlie Root  At least they didn't put Babe Ruth on the card.  Root would not have been happy if he was told that this was a WF top ten moment.  In his mind it was a non moment.

2000s: 2001 Heritage Classic Renditions #4 Sammy Sosa They put Sammy against a barely visible backdrop of an old ballpark and that makes this a Classic Rendition.  Um, no.  We need to see more of the ballpark and more of his uniform to get the idea that this has been set in the past.

2010s: 2019 Heritage Cloth Sticker #30 Javier Baez  I had a hard time getting a decent scan of the cloth stickers.  The gray border got wavy and the picture is grainy looking.