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!