ATCRCS Update and So Taguchi

At the beginning of the year, I had grand plans to make and send out a couple hundred of my ATCRCS cards in hopes of having at least a hundred back by the end of the year. One a day didn't seem too daunting.

Then reality set in. I did in fact make a couple hundred....fronts. I could do those while multi-tasking (like watching TV) and not risk making a mistake. The backs of the cards were a different story. Compiling the statistics as well as researching then writing the blurbs takes just as long, if not longer, than cutting a player from the background for the fronts of the card. Plus, I also had to pay more attention to avoid careless mistakes and risk the Wrigley Wax Wrath now faced by Upper Deck and Panini!

I continued to churn out fronts during the year before I realized I had almost 250 but only about 50 backs. And that was with the distraction of my 2012 Team Set, the newly dubbed PASS set and the creation of this blog. Since I already have a ton of the fronts made, I will keep my goal of getting 100 signed for the year going into 2013 PLUS roll over the remaining 65 from 2012. That's right, I'm shooting for 200 by this time next year.

With that math, I have 35 cards signed for the set so far. I have posted 32 so far, recently got back two more and expect one more back from a private signing either Saturday or Monday.

In case you couldn't tell by the title, today's feature is So Taguchi. This card is a little bittersweet for me and not because he is more known as a Cardinal and was even part of two World Series teams with them. OK, maybe a little but not just because.

I don't read Japanese so I'm assuming he signed the English version of his name followed by his jersey number 99 and then his name in Japanese underneath it. But for all I know, it could the Japanese version of a bible verse. Hopefully, he's not still bleeding Cardinal Red and it says something like Cubs Suck!

The private signing fee was about twice what I wanted to pay but after realizing Taguchi doesn't sign through the mail anymore and probably lives in Japan again, I bit the bullet. Didn't want to be kicking myself a year or two down the line when I couldn't get him. It wasn't the most I've paid for the set but definitely the highest cost-to-production-for-the-Cubs ratio. He spent most of 2009 with the AAA Iowa Cubs before getting a September call-up. Speculation is/was that he was signed as a teammate for fellow Japanese player Kosuke Fukudome.  As you can see by the back, I didn't have much to go on for the back blurb. No game winning hits or RBIs. His run wasn't of the game winning variety either. But once a Cub, always a Cub.