Jeff Baker

Another two birds with one stone today with former Cub Jeff Baker. Utilizing the same fellow collector as I did with the Angels a few weeks ago, I was able to get my 2012 Cubs custom team set card signed as well as my ATCRCS card when the Rangers came through his local stadium in May. There was also another Ranger for my ATCRCS set but you'll have to wait to see that. Hint: It's probably not who you think.

Jeff Baker is your quintessential utilityman but don't play him up the middle of the field! He played six out of the ten positions during his tenure with the Cubs (2009-2012) but Baker never caught, pitched, played shortstop or centerfield. While pitchers and catchers are specialty positions, it does seem odd that he couldn't get into one game at short or center field.

I believe regular Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro has a mini Iron Man streak going and is currently the active NL leader in consecutive games played, but not even as a late inning replacement? Oh yeah, Castro's one of the best Cubs hitters, certainly not someone you would pinch hit for. No dice there, sorry Jeff!

Center field has been more of a possibility with Marlon Byrd and David DeJesus mostly locking it down during Baker's time with the Cubs, with a few others rotating through. I guess you could argue center field is kind of a specialty position too though as captain of the outfield and aside from the catcher, has the best view of the entire field.

Despite playing in Colorado for five seasons and Chicago for four, Baker has gone from utilityman to journeyman. After being traded to Detroit in early August last year, Baker was then traded to Atlanta by the end of the month. Then he signed as a free agent with Texas in January for his fourth team in less than a year.

Something might be wrong with my scanner because the 2012 team set card scanned really dark while the ATCRCS card scanned really light. No way the card is that yellow! Regardless of how the scans look though, I couldn't be happier with how they look in person. I'm going to have to count up how many of the 2012 team set I now have signed but the ATCRCS card is number 57.

I'll be making a big push to get to 100 before the All-Star break and then really have focus to meet my goal of 200 by the end of the year!

2012 Topps Jeff Baker

I don’t know why this card intrigues me but it does.

2012 Topps Jeff Baker Bearded Guy

My first thought when I saw the iconic Wrigley Field marquee on the card was one of my favorite blogs, Wrigley Wax, which uses a personalized version of it as the header. As he does with all his new team sets, a few days later Paul posted his write up about the 2012 Series 2 Cubs team set. Knowing of his periodical use of Photoshop to correct Topps mistakes, I left a comment suggesting he make a few alterations to include replacing the marquee with the one from his header photo. You can see his modified version here.

Normally, with a guy like Jeff Baker, this card probably would have been scanned, logged, put in the binder and forgotten about. I took my kids to a Nationals-Cubs game in 2010 and Baker turned down my kids’ autograph requests in a very similar situation to the one in the picture. Suffice to say, I'm not his biggest fan. It’s his prerogative not to sign, but it’s my prerogative to not care if he's one of the casualties of the impending dismantling and rebuild of the team.

But Jeff Baker isn't what I focused on with this card. As I mentioned yesterday, in my Sandberg Sunday post, I've been giving cards a deeper look and trying to learn more about them. Unfortunately, this card asks more questions than it answers.

Who is the bearded guy? Does he know he's on a card?

Did he sign a standard $75 contract with Topps for the use of his likeness that thetoppsvault sells on ebay like the players?

What is he getting autographed? Surely he's not getting signatures on the back of a marquee sign??

A little more research turned up this photo through Getty Images:

Unless he is just using the sign for support, it does appear he’s getting the back of the marquee signed. While the caption given by Getty does not give the name of this bearded fellow, it does mention it was Opening Day against the Pirates on April 1, 2011.

Ah, such optimism for the fan with his sign. As we all know, last year was not the year. And it doesn't look too promising this year either.