A Chi-Town Package from P-Town Tom

A couple weeks back, P-Town Tom from over at Waiting 'Til Next Year posted his Kerry Wood checklist. After going through my dupes, I found a couple to send his way. I really didn't expect anything back, but as is the way of the blogosphere, Tom was quite generous in return. As he noted in his post, it is not always easy trading with a fan of your own favorite team. 

First up, we have a little tit-for-tat as he sent some Kerry Woods back my way. There were more than just these two, but the others were real shiny and didn't scan real well.

I had several Cubs cards from this Fleer Game Time release but the Wood has so far eluded me. The Talking Sports is an oddball as you may have noticed the lacks of logos and team name. Usually, with two teams in Chicago, they will refer to the Cubs as Chicago (NL), but for some reason, this card has a  C in parentheses. I guess for Cubs? 

Protip: If you type (C) in Microsoft Word, the copyright logo shows up instead. You can (R)egister your (TM) too, FYI.

But I digress. I found the back of the Talking Sports card interesting too.

The card is from 1997, when Wood was still in the minors. The last line of the blurb mentions that Wood started both of his teams's no hitters. Is a minor league no hitter like kissing your sister or something? Are they truly about developing the pitcher and don't care that you have a no-hitter going? I know there have been a couple of multi-pitcher no-hitters in the Majors but usually that involves an injury or a lot of walks. Once maybe, but getting pulled twice? Seems odd. I have questions.

Tom also threw in a couple of autographed cards. Bob Dernier played for the Cubs when I first joined the bandwagon and aside from Ryne Sandberg, has always been one of my favorites. And while I didn't start collecting sets until a couple of years later, 1985 Topps were some of the first packs I remember walking down to the gas station to buy. 

Dave Otto probably spent more time announcing the Cubs than he did playing for them, but since he did radio and I was outside the Chicago area, I remember the player more. Here, Otto is shown with the Tacoma Tigers, the Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland A's at the time. 

But wait, there's more!

How did this South Sider get in the package? Tom must have checked my Want List at the top of the page because Adam Dunn was one of the cards I needed from this long forgotten set from 6 months ago. I have to wrap this set up as any Cubs fan knows at this time of year...we're just a couple months away from next year!

Thanks Tom!