2014 Topps Factory Team Set - Padres

It's Saturday so that means it must be time to break down another factory team set.

In Series One, the San Diego Padres had a somewhat questionable 14 cards. Now, I say questionable but I know they've generally gotten a raw deal the past few years in set releases, especially with inserts. Unfortunately, I think this will just set Padres fans up for more disappointment when Series Two and the Update Series are released because who's left? Well, let's take a look at the factory team set and some Opening Day and see if we see anybody new.

Up first, we have the nine cards from the factory team set that also appeared in Series One.

Yonder Alonso, Yasmani Grandal, Carlos Quentin

Huston Street, Everth Cabrera, Andrew Cashner

Tyson Ross, Nick Hundley

Will Venable

Nine out of fourteen Series One cards means five didn't make the cut. But before we get to those, let's take a look at Opening Day where the Padres had five base cards. Yonder Alonso and Everth Cabrera are holdovers from Series One. Sneak peeks show up in the form of Jedd Gyorko and Chase Headley. Robbie Erlin, who was also in Series One, was the fifth Opening Day Padre but failed to make the team set cut.

With eleven cards shown, we're left with five brand new Padres cards and the stadium card.

Ian Kennedy was a trade deadline pick up from the Arizona Diamondbacks. I haven't looked but I'd be surprised if Topps photoshopped a camo jersey so I'm willing to bet it's a Padres jersey. Seth Smith was acquired in an off season trade with the Oakland A's and most likely is a Photoshop job.

Two free agent signings, Josh Johnson and Joaquin Benoit sport the other Photoshopped uniforms.

Cameron Maybin rounds out the 16 player cards from the factory team set while the final card belongs to Petco Park. Looks like a beautiful park!

As I mentioned, five guys from Series One weren't part of the team set.

Clayton Richard was granted free agency at the end of 2013 and is currently teamless. Eric Stults is 2-6 with a 5.03 ERA for the Padres this season.

As for this trio of rookies cards, Tommy Medica and Robbie Erlin have playing time this season with the Padres while Reymond Fuentes has so far split time between their Double and Triple A affiliates.

After looking at the roster for the 2013 Padres, the number of games played and if they were still with the team in 2014, snubs go out to Alexi Amarista and Chris Denorfia. 

Last but not least, I like to wrap these posts up with the Opening Day mascot.

For more on this card, check out my other blog with this post.

The Ivy Collection - 1989 Upper Deck #55 Paul Runge

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.

I came home to a yellow bubble mailer Thursday evening and to my surprise, it was from PWE aficionado Jeff of 2x3 Heores fame. I'll go through the two team bags a little more thoroughly in a later post (spoiler: lots of Cubs, horizontals and ivys!) but one jumped out at me right away.

Only when I came to write this post that I noticed the other two cards I've written up were also from 1989 Upper Deck. Oh well! I wonder if Upper Deck had a Chicago based photographer?

1989 Upper Deck #55 Paul Runge

Back in 1988, the Braves were oddly in the National West while the more westerly Cubs were in the NL East. Each team hosted two series for a total of twelve games. Despite playing in a career high 52 games in 1988, Paul Runge would only play in three of the six games at Wrigley Field. 

Luckily for me, not only does this card show the ivy, but it also features a mustachioed Cubs cameo by Rafael Palmeiro. Hopefully, a play at second will help me narrow this down even further. How often can that happen? What are the possibilties? A stolen base? A double? A fielder's choice/breaking up a double play? It doesn't look like Runge got off a throw to complete a double play and is applying a tag so probably one of the first two options.

On May 24, 1988 the Cubs and Braves split a double header. The Braves took the first game 3-0 while the Cubs won the second 2-1. Runge played in game two. Let's see how Palmeiro did.

So Palmeiro went 3-4 and I didn’t include it in the screenshot but two of those hits were doubles. Uh-oh. First game and we’re already running into trouble! Let’s look a little closer and see if any would have resulted in a play at second.

Leading off the second, Palmeiro doubled to short left center. That could easily mean a play at second with no other runners to worry about. In the 3rd inning Palmeiro grounded out. In the 6^th…

…he doubled to third base. That’s a phrase you don’t hear very often. Sounds like a hustle play where he just kept running on a fly ball that didn't get caught. Still could have resulted in a play at second.

In the 8^th inning, Palmeiro singled which was followed up with a double play ball off the bat of Vance Law. But as I said, it looks like Runge was applying a tag, not trying to make a throw to first so I’m going to rule this one out as a possibility.

Runge got the start the next day (May 25, 1988) as well but Palmeiro went 0-3 with a sacrifice.

Fast forward all the way into August and the Braves return to Wrigley. Runge and Palmeiro both played in the August 21, 1998 game.

Palmeiro went 1-3 with a walk and a stolen base. Sounds like at least one play at second.

Palmeiro flew out in the second but singled in the fourth.

But the next batter single as well and Palmeiro went from first to third, so no play at second.

In the bottom of the 6^th, Palmeiro walked and stole second base. Definitely a play at second kind of thing. His last plate appearance was a lineout to left field.

So we have three possible plays in two different games. In the past, I’ve been able to use the ivy in the background to justify an early season vs late season decision. However, this time, late May ivy can be just as lush as August. They were all day games (even game 2 of the double header) so that’s no help. There’s got to be something to help make the choice between a double and a stolen base.

Some of you may have caught this right away, but I tried to slow play it for dramatic effect. A closer look at the card gets you this:

Palmeiro is holding his batting gloves. I’ve never seen a player take off his batting gloves while running out a double which leads me to believe that this photo was taken in the bottom of the 6^th inning on August 21, 1988. Final answer.

And since I’ve made a habit of showing the backs of these, here’s the one for this card.

D’oh! Another ivy shot!

He’s wearing a different jersey than the front so I thought I could rule out the August 21^st game but then I remembered this was before the “alternate jersey” era. Back then teams had Home jerseys and they had Away jerseys. Only very rarely did they have a throwback jersey, and not that I can recall, an alternate jersey.

I don’t know Braves uniforms very well but I’m guessing this is a warmup jersey? If so, this could be any of the three games at Wrigley I previously mentioned. In fact, if it was just pre-game warmups, it could be from before any of the six games that the Braves played at Wrigley. Everybody warms up, right?

Still, this is great card that double dips into the niche collection. Thanks, Jeff! And as I said, I'll get back to the package after I scan more this weekend.

On a final note, Paul Runge did not retire and become the umpire with the same name like I may or may not have thought as a kid. The umpire Paul Runge was actually around long before the ballplayer Runge. Back then, I thought former players could become umpires just as they became coaches or broadcasters. Not that they can’t, but its still funny when I remember that.

Don Zimmer

A lot has already been said about Don Zimmer, both around the blogosphere and elsewhere in the media. I heard about it while watching last night's Cubs game. A game they came from behind to win.

Baseball doesn't get much better than when you're a 10 year old boy and for me, that was the Boys of Zimmer era of the Cubs. I raced home from school to watch them on WGN, hoping I hadn't already missed more than a couple of innings. And while the number of games have varied over the years, twenty five years later, I'm still following the Cubs on WGN from Virginia.

A lot of the teams could honor him (original Met, Rockies coach in expansion season, Yankees coach during Torre years, Brooklyn Dodger, 6xtime World Series champion as a player and coach, etc) and I'm hoping the Cubs do.

At a bare minimum, how about  patch? He wore #4 as a coach and manager with the Cubs. As a player, his one All-Star season came with the Cubs (wearing #17).

This is my most recent custom that I made of Zimmer, earlier this year and one of my favorites that I've ever made. This is exactly how I remember him.

Back in Spring Training of 2013, I got these ATCRCS cards signed with a little help from an SCN member. One as a manger and one as a player.

I was also able to get a Desert Shield card signed for my set. 

And before I was collecting signed cards, I was getting ice cream helmets signed by significant Cubs. This one got done at ne of the Sun Times shows I believe.

I also had this poster made that I never had printed. I'ts a little late now to get autographed but I think I will finally get it printed and have it displayed.

RIP Popeye

How'd That Get There?! Part 3

Clearing out my draft folder again with just a quick post today.

As I was reorganizing my collection I came across a few cards that apparently, I didn't pay real close attention to when I them picked up. Upon closer inspection, they don't really belong in a team collection...but they do.

2006 Upper Deck UD Game Materials  #UD-CP Corey Patterson

I don't remember what I was thinking when I picked this card up but it was probably something along the lines of "Oh look, C-Patt in a Cubs jersey. And a nice blue pinstripe. I'll take it!" 

Maybe the orange hued background should have been the first clue, but if you look directly under the relic, you'll see that Patterson is noted as being a part of the Orioles. 

What?!

The Cubs traded Patterson to the Orioles before the 2006 season started but apparently Upper Deck still had Patterson Cubs jerseys to get rid of. Or the card was more or less made and at the last minute it was easier to just swap out the team name than scrap the card from the checklist. 

Whatever. I don't recall how or when this entered my Cubs collection but its there despite being an Orioles card on checklists.

The back is similar to the front but since it's black and white, the color Orioles logo sticks out more. Oh well, still happy to have it!

Mark Prior Monday - 2005 Upper Deck Base and Retro

A little while back when I broke down Cubs Lot #4, I mentioned a big chunk of Mark Prior cards but I didn't want to show off the nearly 200 different cards in one post. Doing one or a couple at a time will make the scanning and cropping much more manageable. Prior was a big part of the early-mid 2000's Cubs teams when I wasn't collecting so most of the inserts/subsets were new to my collection. I really enjoy learning about sets that I had ever heard of or knew very little about.

I almost missed that these cards were different and nearly threw one in to the duplicate stack. If I had come across them separately and not in the same stack, I probably would have.

The card on the left is the 2005 Upper Deck base card in the Pennant Race subset. The card on the right is the 2005 Upper Deck Retro card. It seems that one box in every 12-box hobby case of 2005 Upper Deck Series One was filled with the Retro cards.

Despite not noticing initially, there are actually quite a few differences on the front. The left and right borders on the Retro card are white. The background has been tinted blue and some vertical stripes have been added behind Prior's head. The team name is also now in a foil band instead of just hovering over the Pennant Race banner.

The backs however are a different story. They are identical.

As someone who didn't collect when this set was released, it would have been appreciated to have the name of the parallel set somewhere on it. Maybe it was more widely known in 2005 when the set was released but I had a hard time finding information about it when I didn't even know what I was looking for. Ok, not really a hard time but more time than it should have. 

Playing with My (New) Cards

Last week I mentioned I was getting closer to completing the 2014 Opening Day base set. With Saturday's mail, I am even closer thanks to Ethan from over at Playing With My Cards. This 10-spot of cards brings me down to just six.

It's not often I ask for Cardinals cards, especially one featuring a Cubs double play, but these are the problems set collectors run into.

Wrapping up the package was this awesome trio of horizontal cards.

And if you too appreciate a good horizontal card, check out my new blog, The Horizontal Card Challenge. The welcome post gives you a quick breakdown and the first battle takes place tonight at 7 PM EST!

Thanks for the cards (and the segue) Ethan!