Some scans...

One thing I forgot to mentioned that as a bonus box topper, an old issue of Beckett Baseball Card Monthly was thrown in. The condition wasn't too bad either considering it's almost 20 years old.

August 1994 Beckett, referring to Ryne Sandberg's first retirement

Another thing I forgot to mention yesterday of the statistical variety, was the distribution through the decades. I thought there were some anomolies in the card selection, but a closer look showed there really wasn't. The most glaring one was:

Four different Eddie Zambrano cards but only one Carlos Zambrano card! Out of 2000+ cards and parts of 11 season with the Cubs and only one Carlos Zambrano card?!? Well, the explanation turned out pretty simple. The package was about 15% cards from the '80s, 75% from the '90s (when Eddie played) and the remaining 10%-ish was from the '00s (when Carlos played).

This also accounted for the reason behind getting so many cards that were new to me. My time in the hobby as a kid was mid-'80s until the early '90s. Coincidentally (or not) right around the time of that Beckett featured above/Ryno retiring, I was in high school and suddenly had other interests. I made a brief hobby comeback in the early 2000s, had kids and just as quickly re-exited the hobby only to return again within the last 2 years or so. Hence, a good chunk of the cards from 1995ish until the end of the millenium were new to me.

And as promised, here are some more scans from my large purchase of Cubs cards. Nothing special, just cards that intrigued me in particular.

Thought Night Owl might appreciate these, but not a Ron Cey in the group.

2000 Fleer Tradition Bo Porter

Bo Porter only played 24 games with the Cubs. Now I probably only remember him for his dustup with bench coach Jamie Quirk towards the end of this past season. I can't say what Quirk did was right necessarily, but I still can't believe Porter wasn't suspended too. No hard feelings though. Maybe he can do some damage in the American League West as the new Houston Astros manager.

1993 Donruss Doug Strange

This card probably should have been posted the other day when I talked about photo selection. Why would a card company feature a picture like this? Or one where its obvious the player swung and missed or even the disappointed face after a strikeout? The close plays/in-action photos are pretty awesome but thats only when the featured player is making the play or the outcome could go either way. Not sure exactly what is going on in the picture (stealing third or maybe just a play at third?) but it seems pretty obvious Doug Strange did not get the out or even catch the ball here. Strange played in 52 games for the Cubs in 1992. Surely, Donruss could have done better.

Jokes aside, there haven't been many opportunities for Cubs "moment in time" cards in my lifetime so this one intrigued me. Plus, I remember watching this one live on TV so it holds another special meaning, despite the eventual outcome.

And last but not least, here we have the one Ryne Sandberg card in the lot that I did not have in my collection. Or is it a half card? Quarter of a card? After a little research, it seems that this is an insert from 1998 Pinnacle Inside called Stand-up Guys. There are two half players on the front and two half player son the backs. When paired with another card (this one is 14AB, so I'm looking for 14CD), the cards slide together to form 4 separate photos. The other guys featured on this card are Craig Biggio (Houston), Roberto Alomar (Baltimore) and Chuck Knoblauch (Twins). All were second basemen at the time but after looking at the checklist, that doesn't seem to be the common theme for the set. Some are team based, some are position based. Sammy Sosa looks to be the only other Cub on the checklist.