Hump Day Hits

As I've been sorting and scanning cards, I realized I have a bunch more relics and autographs (your typical cards considered the "hits" of the pack). I love me some alliteration so to help get through Wednesdays of the offseason, I've come up with Hump Day Hits where I'll show off a random hit from my collection.

A few weeks ago, an eBay seller was clearing out their Chicago sports collection that included dozens of relics and autographs from the Cubs, Bulls, and Bears. Some of the listings had Buy It Now prices but many more started at just $.99. I think I did pretty well, picking up 24 new pieces for just about a buck and a half apiece after shipping.

For some reason the Hall of Fame ballot for 2014 was "released" yesterday. Maybe I'm a bit more computer savvy but I thought this information was widely available on Baseball-Reference and even the Hall of Fame website for years. I'll tie this together by starting this new theme off with a big name from the list.

In 2005, Greg Maddux was in the midst of his second stint with the Cubs and had already more or less cemented his Hall of Fame status. I haven't known the Braves to wear pinstripes so I can reasonably assume this is at least from a Cubs uniform. In fact, I'll willing to believe that this is from the actual jersey that Maddux wore in 2004 when he secured his 300 career victory. Ok, probably not.

I never really thought about how many swatches a company could manage to get from a game used jersey. This card is numbered to 250, which sounds like a lot. Even for a Prince Fielder and Pablo Sandoval jersey. But these squares are probably less than one square inch so I guess it's possible.

Maddux is a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame and I can't think of any reason not to vote for him. He's gotta be as close to unanimous as it gets. Especially to reach the milestones he did that included 10 seasons with the Cubs!

Jason Marquis

The Cubs signed Jason Marquis as a free agent following the 2006 season. He was coming off a season where he led the National League is Losses (16) and Home Runs Allowed (35). He also led the Majors in Earned Runs Allowed (130). Oddly enough, he did that for the World Series Champion (gag) Cardinals.

League leader and World Series champ? Sounded good enough on paper for the Cubs brass!

Luckily for the Cubs, Marquis would right his ship (at least a little) and go 23-18 during his two seasons in Chicago as well as lowering his ERA about a run and a half from his 2006 numbers.

He didn't make an appearance during the 2007 NLDS that the Cubs were swept out of by the Diamondbacks. And he made a one inning relief appearance in the 2008 NLDS in a game that was already out of hand in another three game sweep, this time by the Dodgers.

Marquis did hit three home runs during his time with the Cubs, including a grand slam on September 22, 2008 against the Mets. He had 14 RBIs with the Cubs in 143 plate appearances. I don't have any statistics to back it up but it seems fairly decent for a pitcher to have an RBI in every tenth plate appearance or so. It obviously depends on the game but I would think a lot of situations would call for a pinch hitter. Maybe I just have low expectations of pitchers hitting.

Marquis spent 2013 with the San Diego Padres and this card was signed with a little help from an SCN member when the Friars came through their home stadium.

This brings me up to 96 ATCRCS cards shown off here on the blog.

2013 Topps Opening Day Josh Vitters

As I've been compiling my checklists of haves and needs, I've been also doing quick eBay searches to knock off some one-sies and two-sies when possible. That was the case when I decided I should probably knock off 2013 Topps Opening Day before the 2014 version hits the shelves.

Despite a poor 2012 late season call-up performance for Vitters, the card was double digits in price (with shipping) back when it was released. I'm glad I waited though because I was able to pick it up for just a few bucks.

The photo used was from the same play as the one used on his 2013 Topps Series 2 card, just earlier in the sequence. 



Photo by Brian Kersey (courtesy of Getty Images)



And as I previously mentioned when dissecting that card, I belive this is the Joaquin Arias groundout in the 7th inning of a 6-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants on August 31, 2012.

And for anybody interested, I tacked on these other autographs from the same seller for a pittance. Both are up for grabs. Neither are big names but I have to imagine there is a Rays or Dodgers fan that would be willing to take either off my hands.

1991 Fleer Andre Dawson

The other day I hinted at another card thrown into the package by Marcus from over at All the Way to the Backstop. Or maybe I should say from Marcus over at Yellow Cardboard? He runs two blogs, the first revolving mostly around the Padres while the second one, as you may have guessed, the 1991 Fleer set.

At first glance, the card is nothing really to get excited about. I've seen this card a hundred times as 1991 was right in my heyday of card collecting as a kid. You can barely see Andre Dawson's face, although I'd recognized the batting stance even if I'd never seen the card and his face was fully obscured.

Unlike the cards of today, where Topps culls their photos from the Getty Images files, I have no idea where this photo originated. But I thought I saw enough clues within that I could use to try to figure it out.

Starting with Dawson's uniform, this design was exclusive to the 1990 season. In 1989, the Cubs were still using the pullover, V-neck blue jerseys on the road and in 1991, the font changed to a taller version. See below.




Imge courtesy of Sportslogos.net

 

You'll also note that you can see the patch on Dawson's right arm. In 1990, the Cubs hosted the All-Star game at Wrigley Field.



Image courtesy of Patchcollection.com



So, Cubs road game in 1990. That narrows it down from 162 to 81. Dawson probably played in most of them so I'm going to have to look for other clues. I don't know stadiums very well so the outfield wall wasn't any help to me. But the glimpse of the catcher led me to believe that he was from the Padres. My limited Padres knowledge from the early 1990's put Benito Santiago behind the plate. But with the little bit of the last name that we can see, I'm able to rule him out. So I headed over to Baseball-Reference.com to see the Padres roster from that year and they list three catchers that season, Santiago, Tom Lampkin and Ronn Reynolds. I was thinking the last two letters on the back of the jersey was an "OS" but between LampkIN and ReynolDS, "DS" it is.

Now, Ronn Reynolds only played 8 games that season for the Padres. Hopefully, only one against the Cubs!

No such luck. Not only did Reynolds appear in two games against the Cubs, both games were two of his three complete games on the season. Dawson played in both of the games Reynolds played in, so unfortunately that is as far as I can narrow it down.

Dawson had 4 plate appearances on June 29, going 0-2 with two walks. He was credited with an RBI in one of his at-bats when he reached on an error with the bases loaded. The Cubs would go on to win 3-2.

On July 1, Dawson went 2-3 with two more walks in an 11-10 win. So either day at the plate was pretty good for the Hawk.

Thanks, Marcus, for throwing in this extra card. It gave me a chance to take a deeper look. And it may be the only appearance for Reynolds on a card as a member of the Padres so you might have to pick up another for yourself if you don't already have one!

Anonymous PWE Bomb?

So I came home yesterday to a PWE with no return address and an illegible postmark. Someone who has my address and knows what I collect only limits this to about 50-100 possible candidates. Maybe somebody I myself bombed last week with my "pay it forward" post? Or maybe somebody starting a war who does not want retaliation. Hmmm.

Regardless, I would like to thank my mystery donor publicly since I can't do it personally. Thanks for the Target Red parallels!

We've got a trio of Rookie Cards including one of the best cards of the year below in Blake Parker. I'm starting to think about going after the rainbow on this one.

And a fourth Target Red parallel, this one from Series 2.

An added bonus is that all four cards were new to me. I had a few Reds from Series 1 but that was it. Putting together these parallel sets might get me through the rest of the offesason.

Thanks again, mystery donor!

Cody Ransom

The Cubs selected Cody Ransom off waivers from the San Diego Padres in mid-April of this year, replacing Brent Lillibridge on the roster. Just two weeks later, when the Cubs came to DC to play the Nationals, I was able to knock out my 2013 custom team set card in person. Those cards were easier to make than the ATCRCS cards, plus there weren't many usable photos of Ransom as a Cub yet. The one I ended up using for the team set went better with that set. The Cubs are coming to town over the 4th of July weekend next year so I'll have more time to get put together cards than I did with their early season visit this year.

Ransom isn't much of a power hitter, but my clearest memory of him playing this year was a three run homer on June 9th that broke a 1-1 tie against the Pirates. I had to go to Baseball Reference to verify the date but I remember the hit. Even with the Cubs showing fewer games on WGN, I could still count on Sunday games as an out of market fan and it was definitely one of those lazy Sunday afternoon games. When I eventually make the back for the ATCRCS card, I'm sure that will be the highlight of the blurb.

Unfortunately for Ransom, he was designated for assignment in early September and ultimately released on September 16th. This card was sent out to a fellow collector in Seattle that was a big help during the Mariners-Cubs series in late June.

As a refresher, here is one of the two team set cards I got signed back in May:

Ransom did have two previous stints with the Iowa Cubs (Triple-A affiliate) back in 2005. He signed with the Cubs in January 2005, was purchased by the Texas Rangers in March, released in May and re-signed by the Cubs two days later. He played 65 games in Iowa before being granted free agency at the end of the season. He was part of the 2005 Iowa Cubs team set but as far as I know, he didn't have any "real" 2013 cards and certainly no other Cubs cards.

All the Way FROM the Backstop

Over the weekend I got a nice Cub-filled bubble envelope from Marcus of All the Way to the Backstop fame. Last week, he busted open a box of 1993 Fleer Ultra Series II and in the package was a nice collection of Cubs from the set. I had quite a few of these already from my childhood collecting days but lots of them had gold foil pieces missing or edge chipping. Since these were box/pack fresh, ALL of them were upgrades. Nice!

Tommy Shields is a nice I haven't thought about in a long time! And since Marcus was nice enough to throw in the checklist that not only had Rey Sanchez on it, but also the Cubs set checklist, I know I'm only Mike Harkey away from completing this checklist. Bonus!

It also looks like he busted open some 1994 Score Rookie Traded because he sent a 5-pack of cards from that set too. A pair of Rookies and a pair of Tradeds.

And not one Anthony Young, but also a Gold Rush parallel. I remember these from 1995 Score but I don't know if I knew about these from 1994. Now, I have go do some research!

There was another card in the package but it'll get it's own post at some point. 

Thanks Marcus!