The Ivy Collection - 2013 Topps #296 Didi Gregorius

I recently launched a new series I'm calling The Ivy Collection. I probably have hundreds, if not thousands of Cubs cards that feature ivy in the background, but this separate collection will focus more on visiting teams. You can find a link to the cards I already have in my collection in the right hand side bar under the Niches heading. If you come across any I don’t have, I’d love to add them to my collection.

For the past few years, Topps has used Getty Images as a source for their photographs, making today's card a lot easier to place than the older cards I've already showcased. Rather than jump right into Getty though, I decided to try to find the game using context clues first.

From the front, we know that the Reds played the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The ivy is green and full. As a Cubs fan, I know that's Darwin Barney sliding in to break up the double play.

We can also see from the back that Gregorius played in 129 minor league games in 2012, not leaving much room for time in the Majors. The last sentence in the blurb also mentions him being a September call up.

My first stop is over at his Baseball-Reference page.

From there, I see that he played in just eight games in 2012.

And luckily for me, just one of those eight games came against the Cubs and at Wrigley. The next step was to find when Barney got on base.

Darwin Barney grounded out in the 1st, 3rd and 5th before finally reaching on a single in the 7th. But as you can see by the inning summary above, he made it to third base on a single by Anthony Rizzo. Not a potential double play ball.

In the 9th, Barney followed up a David DeJesus single with another of his own. This time however, Rizzo grounded to second baseman Henry Rodriguez (not the former Cubs outfielder nor the former Cubs pitcher with the same name) who fed the ball to Gregorius to force Barney out at second. Rizzo was safe at first, thus no double play.

Maybe that's why Jeff of 2x3 Heroes sent me this card. He knew it didn't belong in his double play collection. Or it was a duplicate. Potayto. Pototto.

One more thing I wondered though, was if Gregorius even made an attempt at Rizzo. I would think that the fact that Gregorius still had the ball in hand and Barney is already underneath him, he would have just eaten it. Usually, the runner is still a few feet away from the bag when the relay is made.

Let's take a look at the original Getty Image.

See? Barney is already at the base and Gregorius still has the ball. Unless Barney was already on the move, which is possible with a first and third, no outs situation, there's probably no shot at Rizzo.

Anthony Rizzo isn't a Rickey Henderson type guy on the base paths, but he's no Cecil Fielder either.

But as you can see by the picture above from later in the sequence, Gregorius did make the throw. I guess since they were sacrificing the run anyway, he may as well try to turn two.

Well I didn't stop there, I found the video too. I tried to embed it, but it wasn't working so here's the link via MLB.com

Rizzo's RBI Fielder's Choice

Sorry if an ad comes up, nothing I could do there. That was closer than it should have been at first. Just saying.

Thanks again, Jeff for the card!

Edwin Jackson

I finally got everything from Cubs Lot #2 scanned and cropped but ran out of steam to do any kind of write up about them. Instead, I'm falling back on some autographed cards from my draft folder.

Edwin Jackson came to the Cubs as a big free agent signing following a disastrous 101-loss season in 2012. Despite doing slightly better as a team in 2013, Jackson managed to lead the Major Leagues in Losses with 18. While losses aren't the be all, end all they used to be with pitchers on bad teams, having a nearly 5.00 ERA doesn't bode well either. The Cubs just haven't been able to match that offense.

This season, Jackson has a 1-2 record while the team is 1-4 in his starts. But the run differential is just -3. Scoring four runs is a decent total that'll win you some ballgames. You just can't give up five! 

These three Edwin Jackson cards were autographed last season with a little help from an SCN member. His signature is not much more than EJ but I'm glad to knock the two customs cards off my list.

This 2013 Topps card is actually form the factory team set and is Photoshopped. Jackson's Series 1 card still showed him in a Nationals uniform and didn't show up as a Cub until the Update Series where they used a different photo.

2013 Topps Factory Team Set and Series 2 Alfonso Soriano

As promised, I need to finish breaking down Series 2 before I move on to the Update Series. I'm not sure how I got sidetracked on these because I really like doing them. Looks like I have 5-6 more before I get to the "jumbo" set of 14 in the Update set.

Today, I have Alfonso Soriano's Series 2 card, that also happens to be the same front that Topps used for his Factory Team set card.

This was one of my favorite cards in the set this year. There might be a little Cubs bias, but how can you not enjoy a walk-off moment? The Cubs didn't have much to celebrate in 2012 so selecting this photo was probably a no-brainer for Topps. Thank goodness it wasn't a short print variation.

The only thing I would have done differently is lower the photo so that Soriano's face falls between where it now and the Cubs logo on his jersey. Because right now, the focal point of the card is Rizzo's back. But that's a pretty small issue.





Photo by Brian Kersey (Courtesy of Getty Images



And if you look at the original photo from Getty, you can see that they had a little room at the top to work with. Maybe they didn't want to show any more  of the empty stands behind the celebration, even though they kind of already did.

The game in question took place on August 30, 2012 against division rival, the Milwaukee Brewers. Down 9-3 in the bottom of the 6th, the Cubs actually managed a 6-run rally to tie it up. But Milwaukee scored one more in the 7th (on a home run by future Cub Cody Ransom) and padded their lead with another in the 8th. So with a two run deficit heading into the bottom of the ninth, you can begin to understand why there are some empty seats in the photo...

But after Joe Mather pinch hit for Carlos Marmol and struck out, the top of the lineup came through with a rally. A walk by leadoff man David DeJesus was followed by a walk to Luis Valbuena. Starlin Castro singled scoring DeJesus. Anthony Rizzo doubled, which plated Valbuena to tie the game and moved the winning run (Castro) to third. This brought up Alfonso Soriano, who entered the game during the 6th inning rally and had walked twice.

Rather than walk him a third time and load the bases and try for an inning ending double play, the Brewers pitched to him and gave up a single to deep center over an outfield playing shallow. The teams combined for 23 runs on 31 hits. The Brewers issued 11 walks while the Cubs only had 3. And none by Carlos Marmol, who pitched a perfect top of the ninth to earn the win. Say whaaaat?!?

The back for the Factory Team set card is the same as the Series 2 version aside from the card number. Kind of scary that a former 40-40 member with 14 years experience wasn't even halfway to Barry Bonds' all-time home run record of 762. I was a actually both a little surprised and disappointed by his numbers in Chicago. Nothing spectacular, thought he could/would have benefitted from the winds at Wrigley a little more. But not as horrible as I thought either. Maybe his defense clouded my judgment on his overall ability.

2013 Topps Scott Feldman Cubs Factory Team Set

The 2013 Cubs Factory Team set I picked up a little bit ago brought me Scott Feldman's first Cubs card. Along with fellow offseason acquisition Edwin Jackson, they have yet to earn a victory, combining for a 0-6 record. Meanwhile, Carlos Marmol has 2 wins, including being the pitcher of record in last night's extra inning debacle of a win. But I digress.

I don't know the exact timeline on when these team sets were produced and released but this one is definitely a photoshop job. I'm not as much of a uniform aficionado as Wrigley Wax is, but I think it looks pretty good. They even got his number right as he switched from 39 is Texas to 46 in Chicago. I don't think they should necessarily retire Ryan Dempster's old number but it is a little sad to see it move on so quickly. (And Tony Campana's #1 is now worn by Cody Ransom.)

Photo by Michael Zagaris (Courtesy of Getty Images)

When this photo was taken on June 4, 2012, Feldman was in the midst of a 1.2 inning shellacking at the hands of the Oakland Athletics. Whoops. In addition to adjusting the uniform, you'll note that Topps removed the logo from the outfield wall as well.

As I mentioned, this is Feldman's first official Cubs card. But it's not his first card of 2013. He was also given a regular card in Series 1, while still affiliated with the Rangers.

This game wasn't much better for Feldman although he did make it further, as the Rangers fell 6-5 to the Twins on August 26, 2012.

Photo by John Williamson (Courtesy of Getty Images)

The backs are nearly identical with only changes made to the team and the blurb. Apparently, the Cubs and Rangers have the same color scheme. I never really thought about it before, but I guess I associate them more with red.

The blurb on the back of the Rangers card talks about his rough start to 2012 and then his impressive comeback to even out his record. What it fails to mention is that he didn't pick up another win all season and rattled off another five more losses.

2013 Topps Wrigley Field Factory Team Set

It's been a couple of weeks since I did one of these card breakdowns. Heritage was tough and I don't have any Gypsy Queen cards yet so it's nice to have something fresh to work with. I'm not sure which of the cards in the 2013 Factory Team Set will make the cut for Series 2 but the stadium cards never make it so we'll start there.

Unfortunately, when you search for "Wrigley Field" over at Getty Images, you get all the photos from games that happened at Wrigley Field, not just aerial photos like this one (48,000+ photos). So I had to go deeper. Behind home plate is the "Opening Week" logo so I narrowed my search to April 2012 (down to 1500+). Adding "aerial" didn't help as this shot was likely taken from an upper deck somewhere and not actually from the air.

The Cubs opened the 2012 season on a 7-game home stand against the Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers. Of the two teams, the Brewers were more likely to wear that dark uniform shown on the card and the on deck circle logo more closely resembles the Brewers logo. Including "Brewers" to the search brought it down to a more manageable less than 500 photos to browse.

Sure enough, after playing spot the difference between five similar photos, all submitted by the same photographer, I found the right shot. One interesting difference is that for some reason, the chalk lines were removed on the card. No base coach boxes. No foul lines in the outfield. Infield and batter's box were hard to tell from the photo and probably mostly erased throughout the normal play of the game anyway.

Photo taken by Jonathan Daniel (courtesy of Getty Images)

The photo caption did not provide a lot of detail as to what was going on so it was up to me to find out.

CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 11: A general view of Wrigley Field as the Chicago Cubs take on the Milwaukee Brewers on April 11, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. The Brewers defeated the Cubs 2-1. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

With the date now in hand, I went over to Baseball Reference to look at the boxscore. Looking at the photo again, here is what I knew. Runner on first with a left handed batter at the plate. Low scoring game so there probably wasn't a lot of opportunities for this matchup. Let's take a look.

First Inning - Leadoff double by David DeJesus, no other runners. Not this inning!

Second Inning - Bryan LaHair walked, Geovany Soto (righty) grounded into a double play. Inning over. Nope.

Third Inning- DeJesus walk, next batter Darwin Barney (righty) flys out to end inning. Nope.

Fourth Inning - Ian Stewart singled, next batter Bryan LaHair (lefty) struck out to end inning. Maybe!

Fifth Inning - Three up, three down. Nope

Sixth Inning - Barney singled, Starlin Castro (righty) fly out, Alfonso Soriano (righty) strikeout. Nope.

Seventh Inning - Ian Stewart singled, next batter LaHair (lefty) also singled. With runners on first and second, no other scenarios matched. Maybe!

Eighth Inning - Catsro walked, Soriano (righty) walked. Nope

Ninth inning - Clevenger doubled, no other base runners. Nope

That leaves me with the 4th inning or the 7th inning. Either way, the runner is Ian Stewart, the batter is Bryan LaHair and the guy on deck is Geovany Soto. The sequence of photos submitted to Getty by the same photographer is inconclusive as well. Maybe someone could tell me by the shadows whether it is the 4th or 7th inning based on a 2:59 PM start time, haha.

Despite the Cubs falling 2-1 to the Brewers, its a pretty decent shot.

The back of the card features a pretty generic writeup about Wrigley Field that should be common knowledge to any baseball fan, not just Cubs fans. In the second line there is a weird spacing between "neighborhood" and "Wrigleyville". Missing the word "called" maybe? Or just a comma?

2013 Topps Tony Campana Factory Team Set

I picked up a 2013 factory team set of the Cubs and really liked getting a sneak peak at what's coming up for Series 2. Wrigley Wax did a pretty solid write up last week so I won't bore you with another post on the same thing. Eventually I might do a photo/game breakdown for each card like I did for Series 1 but today, I just want to focus on one card.

2013 Topps Factory Set Tony Campana (CHC-10)

I really didn't expect the Campana card and while I should be happy, I can't help be a little disappointed in it. His 2011 Update and 2012 Series 2 are already both fielding shots.

Why not something he's known for? His speed? There's gotta be a running photo to use. Like these?

That first one might be my favorite but since he's wearing #41, it's actually from 2011. The second one is from 2012 and would have been perfectly acceptable.

How about maybe laying down a bunt like Tony was/is apt to do?

Maybe continue the seagull theme following Reed Johnson's card from last year?

I'll do a more thorough breakdown of the actual card later this week.

Card Show Recap? Part 2

As I mentioned yesterday, Ty from over at League Leader in Italics also picked up a few Cubs cards for me. This isn't a real easy task as I'm still in the process of cataloging what Cubs cards I do have. Ty stuck to the newer stuff from my want lists though and I am more than happy with that!

From 2013 Series 1, he picked up an emerald David DeJesus parallel and half of the Cubs team set in Gold parallels. The Golds are all numbered out of 2013.

He also managed to find some of the Opening Day parallels and inserts:

Also numbered out of 2013

Some Ballpark Fun

And a pair of horizontal inserts:

This isn't bad cropping scanning, its miscut!

Wrigley Wax already did a pretty good breakdown/writeup on the Opening Day inserts but I wanted to show these off and make sure Ty got proper credit for his awesomeness. Thanks again, Ty!

Card Show Recap? Part 1

So what do you do when a fellow collector gives you the beat down in a spirited battle of packwars? (His side vs. my side) Well, if you're Ty from over at League Leader in Italics, apparently, you buy him more cards! I mentioned yesterday that I had a pretty busy weekend and didn't get a chance to go to the big local card show. But Ty did and he took my want list and gave it a beat down of its own.

We were talking about the show on Friday at work and I mentioned I probably wouldn't make it. He asked for my Want List, but I figured he might find a handful of cards. After all, most of my Want List is made up of commons to finish off sets. I didn't expect him to dig through boxes for me.

But I guess Ty was looking for some of the same sets as I was because when I came into work on Monday, this stack was on my desk:

As I flipped through the stack, I realized my list was basically done! Now I have to find more Wants!!! I didn't have time to scan them all in yet, but here a few camera phone shots of the breakdowns.

Last 7 from 2013 Topps Series 1

2007 Topps replacements for damaged factory set cards

A good chunk of 2012 Bowman and Bowman Prospects

Last 9 cards from 2012 Archives (base only, still need some SPs)

The remainder of the 2012 Topps Series 2 I needed

A bunch of 2012 Gypsy Queen needs!

There were easily 100 cards in the stack. It probably would have cost me $20-25 with shipping from COMC or Sportlots. But I've been assured that these were dimebox or less and that he didn't spend too much time or money because he got most of them from the same guy who was pretty organized.

I'm pulling my Want Lists tabs from publication until I can reassess what I actually need. Some of these sets are now done but I think there are still some that need a couple.

Ty also managed to pick up a few Cubs cards for me but I'm going to save them for tomorrow. Thanks Ty!