Sandberg Sunday

It's been a loooooong time since I did a Sandberg Sunday post. But to be honest, its been a looooooong time since I added anything new for my Ryne Sandberg collection. Eventually I'm going to start adding my Sandberg PC to Zistle but that'll be a serious undertaking.

I did pick up two new (pretty sure they're new) cards at the card show last weekend but I already showed them off in one of my recaps this week.

So instead of showing off a new Cubs Ryno card, I have the newest card in my collection, a Phillies Ryno card.

2014 Topps Heritage #57 Ryne Sandberg

Sandberg doesn't look too thrilled about it either if I do say so myself, haha. He started the season as the third base coach but took over as interim manager on August 16, 2013 after the Phillies fired Charlie Manuel.

According to the Getty Images caption for the photo used on the card, it's from that first game as the Phillies skipper.

Photo by Drew Hallowell (courtesy of Getty Images)

PHILADELPHIA, PA - AUGUST 16: Manager Ryne Sandberg #23 of the Philadelphia Phillies stands in the dugout before the game against at Los Angeles Dodgers Citizens Bank Park on August 16, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)

The blurb on the back sounds good....as long as you trust Topps' fact checkers. Sandberg, in fact, lost his first two games as manager of the Phillies before reeling off two wins, five of his next six and seven of nine. As much as I wish Sandberg continued success, I also like facts on my baseball cards.

Phillies first 15 games under Ryne Sandberg

And if you've missed my 2014 Topps breakdowns on my other blog, don't worry, I'll be back to those this week. I've had some stuff going on and since that one is the more research intensive of the two blogs, that's the one that has suffered over the last 10 days or so.

Some 2014 and Some "2014"

Before I show off some new card pickups, I'd like to point out that with the first pitch in the bottom of the first inning today, the Cubs will have officially used all 25 men on their roster. Two games and a pitch is all it will take this season. Will this be the third year in a row with a team record for players used? Granted, each of the first two games went in to extra innings, but that's still a little ridiculous.

In yesterday's game they used 23 players, including four more Cubs debuts. The only two left out were Opening Day starter, Jeff Samardzija and today's starter, Jason Hammel. That makes eight new potential ATCRCS cards if/when I get back to making those.

The good news? Cubs pitchers have only given up five runs (four earned) in 25+ innings. The bad news? Cubs batters have only scored three runs in 26 innings. This will make for a heck of a card in my new custom set.

OK, on to the cards.

Sometimes I do a eBay search, follow some links and suddenly an hour has gone by. I have no idea how I came across these but they all came from the same seller with no additional shipping beyond the first win. Gets me every time.

The first lot was for five of the 2014 Heritage Box Topper/Loader Advertising Panels. And that's kind of how it was listed, no names of any of the players featured. I think it caught my attention because the main picture had a Cub.

Peter Bourjos, Andrew Lambo, Stolmy Pimentel, Chris Rusin

Edwin Encarnacion, Buddy Boshers, Matt Shoemaker, Juan Uribe

Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Yasmani Grandal, Logan Morrison

Jered Weaver, Taijuan Walker, James Paxton, Marco Estrada

There were two copies of the last one in the lot. I placed the minimum bid and ended up being the only one. Does anybody know how many different ones of these there are? I didn't see any other Cubs featured but if somebody knows of any, please let me know. All of them had the same back:

These last two cards fall into the "2014" category. With quotes. Or maybe that should be an asterisk. These are 1965 Topps buy backs, foiled stamped with a 50th Anniversary logo.

Frank Baumann and Dick Ellsworth

I was really happy when I won them for the minimum opening bid of $.99 each but when I got them I was a little disappointed. Not with the seller, but with myself. It was kind of that same feeling I got when I picked up a couple of those blank back 1/1 cards Topps sells directly through eBay. Why did I buy these?

The cards are in pretty good shape corner and edge wise. The centering and crookedness are a little off (that's not my crop job) but without the 50th Anniversary stamping they probably would have sold for more at a card show.

I'm still pretty happy with the pickup overall though. For about $5 total, I got a pair of cards that were teenagers before I was born, a pretty neat panel with a Cubs player and a few extras for trade bait. Plus, the auction ended on Sunday and I had these in hand, from California to Virginia, after Wednesday's mail delivery. Not bad!

Here are the backsides for the buy backs. No additional stamping.

The Gift of Heritage

My wife generally toes the indifference line when it comes to my collection. She won’t tag along to a card show but she doesn’t give me crap about my collection either. But it still surprised me when she came home from the store the other day and tossed a rack pack of 2014 Heritage my way. She said she hadn’t seen these before and knew I was saving “my” money for the card show (and maybe recovering my hard drive) so she picked one up for me. Nice! I love opening packs.

A lot of bloggers are going gaga over the set, which is fine with me. I don’t have any kind of attachment to the original set but I can see why people like it. Personally, I prefer action shots but since poses and head shots are kind of the hallmark of a set like Heritage, it doesn’t bother me. I also like to collects autographs and a nonglossy set like Heritage is perfect for that. Except for those previous mentioned head shots. Look at the Shin-Soo Choo or Zack Wheeler cards below as an example. They’d have to sign right over their face like they’re Steve Stone or something. So aside from the Cubs and the Ryne Sandberg card, I won’t be chasing anything else.

Without further ado, here are the twenty cards from my pack.

Ross Detwiler, Edward Mujica, Ross Ohlendorf

Wade Miley, Shin-Soo Choo, Chase Headley

Jim Johnson, Rickie Weeks, Zack Wheeler

Corey Hart, Mike Zunino, Nate Eovaldi

Chris Johnson, Jimmy Rollins, Yoenis Cespedes

Ethan Martin, Cameron Rupp, Buddy Boshers, Matt Shoemaker

New Age Performer Carlos Gonzalez

Ernie Banks Flashbacks

Logan Watkins, Abraham Almonte

I am definitely quite pleased that 10% of my cards were Cubs. And to get two that wouldn’t necessarily be included in a standard team set (an insert and a dual team rookie) is even better.

Those two cards have been added to my 2014 Cubs tab up above. And aside from the other two horizontal rookie cards, the others are up from grabs. I know, the base cards aren't a real exciting giveaway, but if you’re putting together the set, they could help someone.