PWE from 2x3 Heroes

I don't know if it's practiced efficiency or some kind of Jedi mind trick but Jeff from 2x3 Heroes managed to sneak 6 cards into a PWE and past the postal scale with a single forever stamp. Mine always seem to get bumped up to the next ounce. Nice work!

First up, we have a pair of this year's Heritage Cubs cards. Starlin Castro finally gave us Cubs fans something to smile about in Wednesday's game against the Pirates. He seemed to have found his bat from 2011 and Darwin Barney's Gold Glove from 2012 all at the same time. Chris Rusin just missed out on making the Opening Day roster, but he'll be up with the club again before you know it.

Also from 2014, but from the flagship product, Jeff managed to find an Ernie Banks mini for me. Nice! As for Aramis Ramirez, he always seemed to have MVP Potential but never quite got there. He received MVP votes in four different season with the Cubs but only got as high as 10th. Until his first season in Milwaukee where he squeaked up to 9th.

Jeff also managed to find two cards for my new niche collection, cards with Wrigley's ivy in the background. Since they are both pitchers and less likely to have a bunch of games as Wrigley, I thought I'd do a little digging to see if I could find the games.

First up is a 1989 Fleer Dennis Martinez. According to Baseball-Reference.com, Martinez pitched in six games against the Cubs in 1988, three of them at Wrigley.

The first game was in Montreal so we can skip that one. The second one was a dominant 9-1 complete game at Wrigley. But if you look at the game date in the chart above, you'll see the date was April 19th. Now look back at the card and any Cubs fan can tell you that the ivy isn't that green and lush that early in the season.

Two months later, the Expos returned to Wrigley and Martinez got drubbed for 7 runs in only 3.1 innings. His next game against the Cubs is a head scratcher. If you just look at the line above. He pitched 7.2 innings, only gave up two runs, the Expos won 8-4, but Martinez didn't get the win. That must have been some late inning rally for the Expos. But it was in Montreal so it doesn't pertain to the card.

His last game at Wrigley in 1988 came in late September. The Expos fell to the Cubs 5-4 but Martinez escaped without taking the loss. Narrowing the card down to two games (June 19 and September 20), I'm going to guess this photo came from the June game. I don't know what the production process on cards was like back then, but September seems too late in the season to be included. And of course, this is assuming the photo used even came from 1988.

And finally, we have a 1991 Upper Deck Juan Agosto. Look at that perfectly lined up pant striping and stirrup. And that pouty duck face.

Agosto made four appearances against the Cubs in 1990, split evenly between Wrigley and the Astrodome. Unfortunately for Agosto and the 'Stros, the Cubs came away winners every time. Unlike the Martinez card, the full ivy doesn't really help me narrow down the game so it's a tossup between the May 27 and Aug 14 games at Wrigley.

Either way, I'm pretty sure the Cubs were 2-0 on these cards. Bonus!

Thanks for the cards, Jeff!

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.

500

Just as Robert is about to hit 1000 posts over $30 a Week Habit, I realized I too was approaching a milestone. If I recall correctly, Robert was my first official follower here at Once a Cub and was also involved in one of my first trades as a member of the blogosphere. Here I am now, almost two years later and this is post #500 for me. And don't forget Robert's brand new blog, Just Another Hockey (Card) Blog, check it out now!

I try to post just about every day but a couple of extended breaks brings my average down to just above 5 posts per week. Still not too shabby. At the time, I didn't know if there was room for another Cubs specific blog but Ive been made to feel most welcome. So much so that I recently expanded into a second blog myself.

Thanks to everybody who follows one or both of my blogs. I know the cool thing to say is I don’t care how many views or comments a post gets and I write this for myself, blah blah blah. But in reality, I love getting a comment notification email or seeing a new follower pop up every once in a while.

I’m trying to get better about that myself. I've been chiming in a little more lately instead of lurking and I just sent out a bunch of emails the past few days asking for addresses or confirming old ones with previous trade partners. A couple of you I couldn't find emails for in your profiles so be on the lookout for comments on your blog. If you feel overlooked, maybe I haven’t found your blog yet, so drop me a line and let me know you’re out there!

It seems a little silly for me to have another contest so soon after I just had one so I’m going to wait a little closer to my actual two year blog-aversary next month. But since I  know a lot of you just like to look at the pretty pictures and skip past the words, here’s the closest thing I could find to tie in to 500.

Asterisk or not, the only two players with 500+ home runs as a Cub

More specifically, a little less controversial, here's an Ernie Banks piece.

Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks hit 512 home runs during his career. Maybe I should have saved this for post #512?

Somebody a little more knowledgeable than me might be able to speak to the distribution but I believe these were gas station (Unocal) giveaways back in the Chicago area in the mid 1980’s. They are printed on 8 ½ x 11 magazine-type glossy paper. I have several in the series but I’m not sure exactly how many there are. This one was signed a couple years back and just recently resurfaced among my belongings. The back has a long blurb that you should be able to click on to enlarge and read the whole thing.

Going a different way...

After messing around with this new-old template, I began thinking how this might make for a much bigger historically significant set. Like 100 Cubs from 100 Years at Wrigley. Or maybe an All-Time 40-Man Roster set. But in either set, there are a bunch of guys that I probably wouldn't be able to find good, usable, color photos of to be included. Guys like Gabby Hartnett, Cap Anson or Hack Wilson.

So I decided against an official set but here are a few cards I put together just for fun.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I grew up with the Boys of Zimmer so this is one of my all-time favorite cards I've made now.

I'm too young to have seen Ron Santo play, but he is definitely under represented in these recent Topps sets that include retired players.

One of the newest Hall of Famers, set to be enshrined in Cooperstown this summer is Greg Maddux. I love the look of thought from the "Professor" in this photo so even though he isn't in a home jersey for a Wrigley Field themed set, I used it anyway.

And finally, I can't go wrong with either of these two Hall of Famers. But before Wrigley Wax gets on my case about using these two overused photos, in my defense, there aren't too many good color photos of these guys!

Maybe I can do a 25-man roster of players from the "color photo" era. Or at the very least, a starting nine. I'll save that list for a future post.

Couple of 2013 Topps HOF Inserts

After a little hemming and hawing, I decided to go ahead and track down all of the Cubs inserts. There aren't too many and while I haven't picked them all up yet, here are a couple that have started to trickle in.

Ernie Banks - The Greats (TG-4)

I really like the look of this insert set and wish there were more Cubs in it. Maybe in Series 2 and Update? I missed out on some reasonably priced gold parallels numbered to 99 but I'm keeping an eye out.

Andre Dawson - 1987 Silver Slugger (SS-AD)

This is a pretty sharp looking set too. The 1987 season which this card commemorates was also the year Andre Dawson became the first player to win the league MVP award while playing on a last place team. I feel a little bad for Expos fans looking for a Dawson relic seeing as he won three of these awards while in Montreal compared to the one in Chicago but then I think of him wearing that silly Expos cap in the HOF and get over it. Haha.

The Cubs have only had 8 different players win the Silver Slugger Award since its inception in 1980, although Ryne Sandberg has won it 7 times and Sammy Sosa 6 times. It would be a nice change of pace to see someone like Leon Durham have one of these in a future release.

2013 Fergie Jenkins 1971 Cy Young Award (CY-FJ)

The back of this card boasts of some pretty strong achievements in Fergie Jenkins' pursuit of the Cy Young award in 1971. Three other Cubs aside from Jenkins have brought home the award but I'd like to finally see some cardboard recognition for the Red Baron himself, Rick Sutcliffe. Bruce Sutter has a Cubs jersey card this year and Greg Maddux would likely be featured as a member of the Braves. No offense to the Hall of Famers, but the Cubs have a strong cast of fan favorites that deserve some love from Topps too!

Ernie Banks - Jersey Back 8x10

First off, there were quite a few looky-Lou's on yesterday's post about starting a new fantasy league but only a few nibbles. Check it out here if you missed it. Hoping to get a few more confirmed, so the sooner the better. Reserve your spot now, payment not due til March. Less than the price of a blaster could yield several! This will be my last reminder for a week or so.

Now on to your regularly scheduled post. I took time over the holidays to go through a box of miscellaneous stuff I had tucked away. In it were a few magazines and 8x10's I had gotten autographed but never really had room to frame them up and display. I still don't have room to do that but I thought I would pull them out and scan them. Maybe this year for Father's Day, I'll ask for a larger version of last year's gift!

If I don't have room to hang signed photos or magazines, I sure as heck don't have space to hang framed jerseys. About 2-3 years ago, before I started making customs msyelf, I ran across a site called Baseball Backs. (If you just want to browse, I've found it easier to go through his Flickr photostream, which is broken down by league and team). The guy who runs the site creates photos that resemble the backs of a player's jersey. I can't vouch for other teams' accuracy but as far as I can tell with the Cubs, he seems to put the effort into getting them right. During the season, he's usually good for one a day. He takes a break during the offseason but sometimes will add some trades or free agent signings. Looking forward to some new ones soon!



Ernie Banks, 1968 Cubs Road Jersey (Original Photo Courtesy of Baseball Backs)

I've previously posted about these (here's my Geovany Soto) but this one signed by Ernie Banks is one of my favorites. He signed it perfectly up the slant of the #4 in silver (Sharpie? Paint Pen? Can't remember...) and I have no doubt that when I do eventually get it framed, it'll look even better. 

 

A little blog cleaning starts with a good...

SWEEP!

Most of the time, sweeping the worst team in baseball (Sorry Marcus!) isn't something to get all excited about. But when your team gets swept in 4 consecutive series to make for a 12 game losing streak, there probably isn't a whole lot to get excited about anyway. I wasn't able to watch yesterday's Cubs game (stupid CSN, more games on WGN please!) but I followed the game log online while doing a few other things. These days, I'll take any victory and the come from behind walk-off variety makes it that much sweeter. 

I've been fiddling with some other custom card designs and a great photo from yesterday's game inspired this newspaper-ish one:

   

I originally had it all black and white but it looked a little too blah so I kept Darwin Barney in color. The design was loosely based on this old Ernie Banks card although I'm not a big fan of the red lettering: 

(Ernie Banks 1961 Nu Card, photo courtesy of Wrigley Wax)

I would love to hear any feedback, suggestions and even critiques. 

On to the housecleaning...

I went through my list of those following my blog and if I wasn't following their blog(s) yet, I am now. If I missed you or know of one I should be following, let me know because I'm always looking for more. 

So after I mentioned the other day that I regretted selling someone a couple of teams from the Case Break at a cheaper price just to be rid of them and that it may have unintentionally given them an edge on winning anything randomized, that said someone felt besmirched. That was not my intent! I explained that I didn't realize the possible implications and was merely disappointed in myself for not seeing it. He explained his team had already been selected, he was merely looking for trade bait and that anything extra would have been just that, extra.

Well, we hugged it out (email wise) and decided to dissolve our transaction. I refunded the money, no hard feelings, no backroom deal shenanigans or collusion (as alluded to in a separate email by a third party). Maybe this only worked out because I didn't pull anything worth randomizing but I wanted to air everything out and put it to bed now. Learn something new every time I do a break.

That said, I now have a couple of teams available for trade bait of my own from the break. Willing to move these as team lots or pick and choose to help fill your sets:

Angels - Jered Weaver x7, Dan Haren x8, Albert Pujols x9, Ervin Santana x6, Jordan Walden x9, Torii Hunter x6, Mark Trumbo x8, Howie Kendrick x6

Indians - Grady Sizemore x7, Shin-Soo Choo x8, Justin Masterson x7, Ubaldo Jimenez x9, Carlos Santana x8, Asdrubal Cabrera x6, Lonnie Chisenhall x8, Casey Kotchman x8

Mets - Tom Seaver x6, Johan Santana x7, Darryl Strawberry x7, Ike Davis x7, RA Dickey x6, Lucas Duda x9, David Wright x9, Gary Carter x7

Rays - Matt Moore x6, Jeremy Hellickson x8, BJ Upton x6, Desmond Jennings x6, Evan Longoria x8, Ben Zobrist x8, David Price x8, James Shields x9

Rockies - Drew Pomeranz x6, Troy Tulowitski x6, Todd Helton x8, Marco Scutaro x7, Carlos Gonzalez x9

Twins - Joe Mauer x7, Justin Morneau x6

I could probably be persuaded to part with some of the Cubs and Nationals team sets as well.

Also, my Want List has been updated for Archives. I'm in the middle of some trades for GQ and Bowman so those lists are completely up to date just yet. Thanks for any help!

Mailday Monday - Dimwit & Kelleher

First of all I want to thank Sam over at The Daily Dimwit. We completed a trade this week in a Gypsy Queen exchange so when he received my package he plugged this here blog to send a bunch of new readers my way. So welcome to everybody who discovered my little slice of the interwebs over the weekend! Updated daily at Noon, EST.

So the mail this week brought Dimwit's package. There were a few Cubs for me and a couple of Nats card for my sons. So many different parallels in GQ but knocked out a few for each team set. Always excited to add some new Ryne Sandberg cards. The first card is numbered to 599 and the second is a mini Straight Cut parallel. Now that I have one for the Sandberg collection, still need one of each for the team set.

Couple more Cubs inserts. Ernie Banks regular mini. Starlin Castro Sliding Stars mini.

I don't see a defensive player but Castro doesn't look very confident in his slide.

I normally wouldn't include Nats cards on the blog but since they came as part of this great trade, I'll show them. First, a trio of Ryan Zimmerman minis. A regular mini, a Straight Cut mini and a photo variation:

Three more minis, a Gypsy Queen back Ian Desmond, black Ian Desmond and a black Michael Morse:

Thanks again Sam!

Also in the mail this week was my return package I had sent out to ethannoah over at SCN. He had offered some help with getting Yankee autographs when they visited his hometown Royals. Probably because of their popularity, but Yankees are notoriously tough signers. Don't panic, I didn't want any actual current Yankee players, but rather some former Cubs players and current Yankees coaches. I sent ATCRCS cards for Joe Giradi (manager), Mike Harkey (bullpen coach) and Mick Kelleher (1st base coach) as well as a couple of Topps issues for Harkey and Kelleher.

True to reputation, Ethan didn't have much luck with the Yankees but he did manage to get two Topps cards signed by Kelleher. He wouldn't sign the ATCRCS card, presumably because it is unlicensed. I had run into this excuse myself with a minor leaguer but I won't give up!

He signed a 1980 and 1981 Topps cards and added his #20, which he wore during his time with the Cubs, to the signature.

Thanks Ethan!

Today's ATCRCS card of the day: George Altman