Cubs Lot #2, Part 4: Everything Else and the Breakdown

Last week's first Cubs lot was a pretty manageable 217 cards. So much so, I was able to fit the scans and breakdown into one post. My second lot was nearly six times that size at about 1300 cards. But don't worry I'm only going to split it into four posts. Relics. Autographs. Serial Numbered. Everything else and the breakdown.

So you’ve seen the Relics. And you’ve seen the Autographs. And the Serial Numbered cards.

Just because these next cards don't share any of those characteristics, that doesn't make them any less a part of my Cubs collection. There are a few base cards but also quite a few inserts and a decent mixture of rookies and stars.

Let's start with one of the staples of my repack box breakdowns, the oldest card in the box.

1979 Topps Cubs Prospects (Dave Geisel, Karl Pagel, Scot Thompson)

Dave Geisel had a perfect 3-0 record with a 2.15 ERA in his 36-game Cubs tenure.

On the other hand, Karl Pagel went a career 0-3 at the plate with three strikeouts in his time with the Cubs. The cap logo belongs to the Midland Cubs, the team's Double A affiliate at the time.

Scot Thompson spent the most time with the Cubs, playing with them through the 1983 season.

You probably can't tell from the scan but the photo on this Kevin Tapani card is extremely blurry. With the pinstripes and the blue and red color scheme of the Cubs uniform, It almost looks like an attempt to make a 3D card, glasses not included. I already have the regular card, but I'm going to keep this too, just for fun.

The other day at the card show I picked up a Mike Fontenot Classic Combo card that I didn't know existed from the 2007 Topps set because it wasn't included in my team set checklist. Low and behold, I came across an Alfonso Soriano in this lot, paired up with JJ Hardy.

Maybe I'm missing something obvious about these Chrome cards but can somebody explain why the Blake Lalli had a white border but on the Jeff Antigua, the chrome goes to the edge?

Topps reusing photos isn't limited to just the old retired players. I have a really good memory when it comes to player photos so this makes me afraid of all the Cubs cards I've put back from dime boxes over the years because I recognized the photo as something I already had. And these were just two of the examples, there were probably a half dozen more, easily.

This card marks JR Mathes' debut into my collection. Can anyone explain to me how you get J.R. from Alfred George? Speaking of debuts...

A good chunk of Topps Total was able to add a couple more first timers to my collection, represented here by Francis Beltran and Donnie Hood.

I guess Fleer didn't get the memo from Topps that it was ok to Photoshop. Here, Alfonso Soriano appears on Cubs cards while wearing Washington Nationals uniforms.

The player who added the most unique cards to my collection from this lot was Corey Patterson with 18 new-to-me cards. I already showed some of the numbered cards, but here's a trio of "regular" inserts from the lot.

There was only one new Ryne Sandberg card in the lot. This card from Metal Universe didn't scan very well but it appears that Sandberg has some kind of funnel/vortex/vaccuum thing on his glove hand. Ok.

Of course, there were tons of cards of Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee, Geovany Soto, Carlos Zambrano but it was a pretty mixed bag on new-to-me and dupes. 

Let's get to the breakdown.

Advertised Quantity: 1391

Actual Quantity: 1372

Damaged Cards: 5

Non-Cubs: 1

Different Cards: 1067

Price Per Cubs Card: $42.05/1371 = $.031

Price Per Different Card: $8.98/197 = $.039

New Cards (or upgrades): 567

Price Per New Card:  $42.05/567 = $.074

Number of Different Players: 371 + 29 team cards/multiple players

Considering all of the "hits" and still being able to come in at well under a dime per new card, I was very happy with this lot. The rest of the lots going forward will be of the much smaller variety, more like the first one. Before I get to those though, I will probably dip into my Craigslist lot a little more.

As for the one non-Cubs card that showed up, I'll probably keep it anyway:

How fun to say is Rancho Cucamonga?

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 Baker Factory Team Set & Series 2

Scott Baker missed all of the 2012 season following Tommy John surgery. He signed with the Cubs as a free agent this past off season but suffered a setback that has kept him on the DL since Spring Training. Topps apparently has high hopes for him with the Cubs though, because not only did he sneak into the Heritage set with a photoshopped card, they doctored another photo and put him into the Cubs Factory Team set. And then reused the card for Series 2, even though he has yet to play.

I tend not to mock Photoshop jobs because this is much better than I could ever do. So with that aside, the crop is a little too tight for my liking. Was there really a need to cut off his left elbow? At least they got his new number right as he is assigned #32 if/when he does make an appearance with the Cubs. The #30 that he wore with the Twins is worn by future potentital battery mate, Dioner Navarro.

Photo by Leon Halip (courtesy of Getty Images)

Topps had to go in the way back machine, all the way to 2011 to pull the photo they used for the card. June 1, 2011 to be exact. Baker and the Twins lost to the Tigers that day 4-2 at Comerica Park in Detroit. Miguel Cabrera hit a 3-run homer from which the Twins couldn't recover. How many other pitchers have suffered that fate? The caption from the Getty website narrows the pitch down to the third inning (when Cabrera hit the home run) but nothing more specific than that. It could be any one of the 36 pitches Baker threw that inning.

Spring Training estimates had Baker's return at June but nothing yet. The latest news I could find has Baker throwing simulated games at the Cubs Spring Training facility. Barring any further setbacks, he should find his way into the lineup by the end of the year.

2013 Topps Ian Stewart Factory Team Set & Series 2

Around the same time that Carlos Marmol was DFA'd, Ian Stewart was finishing up serving a suspension and was released outright. It had more than a little something to do with his Twitter rant in which he expressed frustration with his lack of a call-up. Although it probably doesn't help to be batting .168 when the comments were made.

I have no ill will towards Stewart as a player. It sucks to get hurt and while I have all the sympathy in the world for the frustration caused by rehabbing an injury and then not really having a spot when you're ready to come back, the way Stewart went about expressing it was out of line. 

Earlier this week, we said good-bye to Carlos Marmol after his trade to the Dodgers was made official. Now it was announced on Friday, that Ian Stewart has signed with the Dodgers as a free agent. He doesn't appear on their roster on the team website nor has he been officially sent to their Triple-A affiliate, the Albuquerque Isotopes where former teammate Marmol awaits. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Anyway, on to the card. Like the Marmol card earlier in the week, this is the same photo used on both the Factory Team set and on the Series 2 version. I apologize but for the life of me I can't remember where I saw it. Too many blogs busting Series 2 packs lately but somebody pulled one in a box or pack and likened Stewart's expression to the Church Lady (Dana Carvey) of Saturday Night Live fame. Classic. If you remember seeing it or it was you, say so in the comments so I can give credit.

Topps did a nice job cropping and zooming on this one. According to the caption on the Getty Images website, Ian Stewart is making a throw to first base in a 9-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. Not real helpful on the actual play though.



Photo taken by Brian Kersey (courtesy of Getty Images)

After looking at the boxscore on Baseball-Reference, two balls were hit to Ian Stewart, both of the "weak" variety. In the top of the 5th, Chris Heisey grounded out to end the inning. In the top of the 6th, after a leadoff double by Willie Harris, Devin Mesoraco was credited with a single to weak 3B, moving Harris to third. And based on the third base coach's (Mark Berry) reaction in the background of the photo, I think that may be key information.

If this is the Heisey play, I don't think Berry has that kind of reaction with the bases otherwise empty and it being the third out. On the Mesoraco single, Berry has to be paying close attention and moving into a better position to direct incoming Harris on how hard he is rounding third.

So that's my call until proven otherwise.

2013 Topps Carlos Marmol Factory Team Set & Series 2

Last week, the Cubs designated setup man, closer, reliever Carlos Marmol for assignment. Wrigley Wax did a nice write up shortly afterwards that showed off his collection of Marmol cards. Aside from my customs which I've already showed off, I don't think I had anything he didn't but I also held back from posting because I didn’t want to count my chickens before they hatched. I wasn’t sure anyone would nibble let alone bite and there was a slim chance he could end up in Iowa and thus, still with the team.

But now that he is officially traded to the Dodgers, I may as well get this card out of the way in my 2013 breakdown. The front of the card was the same one used in both the 2013 Team Factory set and in Topps Series 2. A nice celebratory pose that has become increasingly rare.

I think they did a great job on this card considering the source photo that was used. The crop is tight and with Marmol's face shadowed by his hat in the afternoon Chicago sun, the lightening was well done too.

Photo taken by David Banks (courtesy of Getty Images)

According to the caption on the Getty website, Marmol just earned a Save (his 13th of the season) over the St. Louis Cardinals on July 28, 2012. Hopping over to the boxscore on Baseball-Reference.com, you can see this was a typical Marmol Save opportunity. Up by one run, Marmol of course gives up a leadoff single (a walk would have been just as typical). A stolen base that put the tying run in scoring position while recording the next three outs is enough to warrant a "here we go again" rise in blood pressure response from Cubs fans everywhere.

This game evened the series at a game apiece and the next day the Cubs would win in extra innings to take the series too.

The back is pretty unremarkable. No red "League Leader in Italics" notations which was a little surprising. I remember just a few years ago when he seemed near invincible as the Cubs closer but I suppose those types of stats aren't featured on the back of the card. I figured the K/BB ratio would be bad but I thought he would rank pretty high in K/9. Guess not.

In 2010, he did lead the MLB in Games Finished with 70 and his 38 Saves were good enough for 4th in the NL and 8th overall. I'll miss that Carlos, but not necessarily the current incarnation.

2013 Topps Matt Garza Factory Team Set

Now that Matt Garza is off the disabled list, I had hoped to welcome him back with a win. He pitched well enough in his rehab starts, making two starts apiece at Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa with a combined 1.17 ERA and the big league club was on a roll too. The stars were not aligned on Tuesday though. Despite handing the bullpen a 3-0 lead after only giving up one hit and three walk in five scoreless innings of work, the Cubs ultimately fell 5-4 in his return.

 

 

Garza was trade bait last season until he landed on the disabled list right before the trade deadline so it's not wonder Topps didn't include Garza in Series 1. His factory team set card shows him in a throwback uniform from the game against the San Francisco Giants on June 2, 2012. This made the original pretty easy to find when sifting through photos from last year.  They could have done a little bit better job on the cropping, even if it meant zooming out a little bit, to get his left elbow in the frame.

 



Photo by Brad Mangin (courtesy of Getty Images)



While I usually see the appeal in throwback jerseys, I can't say I find this one particularly attractive. Unlike some of the other teams from around the league, I just don't feel nostalgia for this design. Maybe because it preceeds me by a good 65+ years. According to the picture below, these uniforms are from around 1911. Why not go back a couple more years to 1908 when they last won the World Series and maybe try those? Just a thought...

 

 

More from my time though, I wouldn't mind seeing the powder blue "pajama" uniforms of the late '70s/early '80s (not shown above). Or even those 1984 pullovers.

 

Like Tuesday, the Cubs lost the game last year by a run, falling 2-1. See, might as well try a different uniform. Garza pitched 6 innings, gave up both runs, but the Cubs coldn't muster any more runs than a David DeJesus solo home run. On a Tony Campana note that's probably only interesting to me, he was 2-4 in the game with two stolen bases. But when he led off the top of the fourth with a bunt single, he unfortunately was thrown out stealing just before DeJesus's home run. Doh! His second hit of the game and subsequent steals of second and third failed to yield a run.

 

Garza's Career Chase stat is Nolan Ryan's strikeout record. No danger of that record falling here although he did break into the top 10 in his league in strikeouts in 2009 with the Rays and 2011 with the Cubs.

 

With Garza's return to the rotation, Carlos Villanueva got bumped to the bullpen. Rumor has it that he also shaved that sweet villainous mustache too. Double whammy.

 

2013 Topps Edwin Jackson Factory Team Set

Edwin Jackson signed as a free agent this past off season so his inclusion in this team set needed a photoshop job. His 1-6 record this season doesn't necessarily reflect the ways he's pitched. I was fortunate enough to witness his lone victory this season last weekend against his former team, the Nationals.

The photo Topps used was good although, with his throwing hand knuckles nearly cropped off and his glove arm missing, it was probably better suited for a horizontal card. Since the Cubs didn't have any of those in the team set, that would have been nice.

This was kind of a tough photo to find. Apparently Jackson has a very consistent windup and follow through. The only variations were slight timing differences in when the photos were taken during the process. Sometimes his throwing arm was up closer towards his arm later in the delivery or the glove was curled in a little closer towards the body. 

What gave this photo away were the legs behind Jackson in the background against the blue signage. 

Acording to the caption, this was a game between the Washington Nationals and the Milwaukee Bewers on July 26, 2012. Normally, since this didn't involve the Cubs, I wouldn't really care but for the sake of consistency in these posts, I looked up the boxscore.

Jackson and the Nats defeated the Brewers 8-2 just like his game last weekend. Similarly, he also helped himself at the plate. In that game we went 1-2 with a walk and scored twice.

I've admitted not following much baseball beyond the Cubs and their opponents but I didn't realize Jackson had played for so many teams before coming to the Cubs. More than a couple one and dones. The Cubs are looking good right now so like the bullpen from yesterday, let's get the bats going and get some run support.

2013 Topps Travis Wood Factory Team Set

 Most of Travis Wood's cards from last year were photoshopped from Reds uniforms after the Cubs picked him up in an offseason trade. With a year under his belt with his new team, Topps was able to find a photo of Woods in a Cub uniform.

I think they did a pretty solid job with this card. The photo was cropped well, filling out most of the card all the way around. Bold Cubs logo on his chest showing. The dirt and grass provide a nice contrast to the home pinstripe uniform.

Photo by Brian D Kersey (courtesy of Getty Images)

The caption of the photo states that it was taken during a Cubs 3-0 victory over the Houston Astros on July 1, 2012. This is one of the last photos of Wood with his long hair as it was cut considerably shorter later that month. Unfortunately, Wood may be a descendant of Samson because while this victory evened his record at 3-3, he would finish the season at 6-13, losing 10 of his last 12 decisions.

Although the party in the back is gone, he has shifted to a much fuller beard this year and is 4-2 with a 2.03 ERA. At this point, he is the only Cub starter with a winning record. There could be something to this hair thing...

The back of the card is pretty standard. Although it appears he has a ton of minor league experience, it looks like he also moved up levels pretty consistently, thus the extra lines. That's always a good sign.

The Career Chase record is Cy Young's all-time wins record of 511. With three seasons under his belt, Wood has a long way to go. In fact, I read an article the other day about how even the 300 win milestone may be a thing of the past.

2013 Topps Welington Castillo Cubs Factory Team Set

In 2010, Welington Castillo was part of the Pro Debut set and played in 7 games for the Cubs. In 2011, he made the Update set even though he played in just 4 games. In 2012, he was shut out by Topps. With Geovany Soto out of the picture, maybe this is the year Castillo can claw his way into the base set by making it into the Series 2 checklist.

In my opinion, this 2013 Cubs Factory Team Set card for him is a great card and deserves to be mass produced into the flagship set. 

Play at the plate?

Check.

Horizontal card?

Check.

Interleague play?

Check.

Cubs coming out on top in the play?

Let's take a look!



Phot by David Banks (Courtesy of Getty Images)

According to the caption on the Getty website:

CHICAGO, IL - JUNE 16: David Ortiz #34 of the Boston Red Sox is tagged out at home by Welington Castillo #53 of the Chicago Cubs in the first inning on June 16, 2012 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images)

Check.

Excellent! According the boxscore on Baseball Reference, David Ortiz drew a two-out walk off of Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija. Red Sox catcher/cleanup hitter Jarrod Saltalamacchia followed that up with a deep line drive to the CF-RF gap. Rightfielder Reed Johnson hit the cutoff man, shortstop Starlin Castro, who relayed the ball to home in time for Castillo to apply the tag.

Think about that for a second. David Ortiz tried to score from first. With two outs, he may have been running on contact, but this wasn't a 2-out, full count opportunity where the runner is already moving. This was a big guy, trying to score from first. He has 11 stolen bases in his career. He does have 16 career triples, much more than I would have guessed, but not too many players are capable of running 270 feet safely. I don't remember the exact play, whether the ball was caroming around off the wall or maybe a bobble, but I have to wonder what the third base coach was thinking to wave him around for another 90 feet.

A quick at the back of the card makes Welington Castillo look like a grizzled veteran. However, a closer look shows it to be only a few years worth of work, but at different levels in some seasons. As I mentioned earlier, with 2008 ROY winner Geovany Soto catching games for the Cubs, it was tough to get time in behind the plate for Castillo. There's a little competition from Dioner Navarro but Castillo is the only Cubs starter currently batting over .300. Sounds like somebody we need to keep in the starting lineup!

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?

1992 Fleer Mariano Duncan

Yesterday in the repack box break, I mentioned a possible card I could investigate.

Like the Tom Glavine cameo in last week's card, visitors are almost always easier because they have fewer games to choose from. I present Exhibit A:

1992 Fleer Mariano Duncan

First impression is a popfly, at Wrigley, probably from the 1991 season. A quick search over on Baseball-Reference shows me that Mariano Duncan played in 5 games at Wrigley Field in 1991.

In the first game, on May 10, Duncan entered the game in the bottom of the 6th inning in place of shortstop Barry Larkin.  No balls were hit to Duncan, either in the air or on the ground, for the remainder of the game.

On May 11, Duncan starts the game at second base but is moved to shortstop in the bottom of the first inning after Barry Larkin again leaves the game. He proceeds to field a groundball from Ryne Sandberg. Judging by the photo, I doubt that is the play. Two batters later, Andre Dawson hit a popfly to deep SS-2B area that is caught by Duncan. In the photo, he is in the grass so we could have a winner here! A groundout by George Bell in the 4th and one by Shawon Dunston in the 9th is the only other action Duncan gets that day.

On May 12, Duncan gets the start at shortstop. Another groundout by George Bell in the third, one by Greg Maddux in the 4th, and one by Jose Vizcaino to end the game is it for Duncan that day.

Fast forward to after the All-Star break, Duncan played in two of the three games in the July matchup. Starting at shortstop on July 23, Duncan fielded a couple more ground balls, one from Dunston, yet another from George Bell and one from Paul Assenmacher. There was a popfly from Ryne Sandberg in the bottom of the 7th but it is noted in the boxscore as Short LF line. I picture that as one of those heading towards foul territory between the third baseman and the left fielder that the shortstop usually flags down. Based on Duncan's position on the card and the ivy in the background, he doesn't appear to be racing towards the foul line but rather, facing the infield. I think I can safely rule out this play.

Duncan rests on July 24, but returns on the 25th. He pinch runs for catcher Joe Oliver, is thrown out trying to steal 2nd base and is replaced in a double switch in the bottom of the inning so he did not play defense at all.

If I had to choose between the Dawson popfly on May 11 and the Sandberg popfly on July 23, I would put all my chips on Dawson. This is, of course assuming that Fleer used a photo from 1991 and not anything older than that. That is my final answer.

1992 Donruss Delino DeShields

On Sunday, I pulled a 1992 Donruss Delino DeShields card in my repack box and mentioned trying to find the details behind the photo. Generally, I save my investigations for Cubs cards but I'm making an exception for this one because DeShields was a future Cub and the play looked interesting. I thought this would be easier than it was but am confident in my final answer.

By the uniforms, I can tell this is a Expos @ Braves game, presumably from 1991. The sliding Brave is pitcher Tom Glavine, which helps considerably. Had it been a position player, they are more likely to have played in multiple games in a series. I figured Glavine played in less games against the Expos than DeShields played against the Braves so I started with Glavine.

Sure enough, Glavine played in only three games against the Expos in 1991 but only one in Atlanta. Unfortunately (for my investigation anyway), on June 9, 1991, Glavine reached base three times that day. He singled to open up the bottom of the 2nd inning. Otis Nixon promptly grounded into a 4-3 double play. Winner? Maybe.

But then, Glavine reached base on an error by DeShields in the 5th which moved Rafael Belliard to second. According to the boxscore, Nixon then singled to shortstop and Belliard was thrown out at home. Must have been a ball hit deep into the hole or up the middle to get credit for a single. But then why did Belliard try to score from second on an infield hit? Either way, no play at second so this was not the play on the card.

Finally, Glavine again reached base on an error in the bottom of the 7th. This time, he was laying down a sacrifice bunt to move Belliard to second when Expos first baseman, Larry Walker threw the ball away and both runners were safe. With one out, Otis Nixon then grounded to third base where there was a force out at second. There is no mention of a relay to first for an attempted double play, but Nixon was safe at first. With one out, I can't imagine them not attempting the double play so this one is a definite possibility as well.

I double checked Glavine's batting history as well to make sure he wasn't used as a pinch hitter or pinch runner in any of the other games but didn't see anything.

Here is why I think this is the first play and not the last. Spike Owen. Yep, the Expos shortstop on the ground behind Glavine. In the first play, the ball was hit to DeShields at second base. I assume Owen was running over to cover the bag but DeShields took the play for himself to turn two.

In the last play, the ball was hit to the third baseman. On balls hit the left side of the infield, the second baseman covers the bag on a double play so DeShields would be there and Owen would have been out of the picture, probably backing up or covering third, especially with a runner moving from second to third.

That's my official interpretation of the boxscore and card. Can anyone find a fault in my logic?