A Chi-Town Package from P-Town Tom

A couple weeks back, P-Town Tom from over at Waiting 'Til Next Year posted his Kerry Wood checklist. After going through my dupes, I found a couple to send his way. I really didn't expect anything back, but as is the way of the blogosphere, Tom was quite generous in return. As he noted in his post, it is not always easy trading with a fan of your own favorite team. 

First up, we have a little tit-for-tat as he sent some Kerry Woods back my way. There were more than just these two, but the others were real shiny and didn't scan real well.

I had several Cubs cards from this Fleer Game Time release but the Wood has so far eluded me. The Talking Sports is an oddball as you may have noticed the lacks of logos and team name. Usually, with two teams in Chicago, they will refer to the Cubs as Chicago (NL), but for some reason, this card has a  C in parentheses. I guess for Cubs? 

Protip: If you type (C) in Microsoft Word, the copyright logo shows up instead. You can (R)egister your (TM) too, FYI.

But I digress. I found the back of the Talking Sports card interesting too.

The card is from 1997, when Wood was still in the minors. The last line of the blurb mentions that Wood started both of his teams's no hitters. Is a minor league no hitter like kissing your sister or something? Are they truly about developing the pitcher and don't care that you have a no-hitter going? I know there have been a couple of multi-pitcher no-hitters in the Majors but usually that involves an injury or a lot of walks. Once maybe, but getting pulled twice? Seems odd. I have questions.

Tom also threw in a couple of autographed cards. Bob Dernier played for the Cubs when I first joined the bandwagon and aside from Ryne Sandberg, has always been one of my favorites. And while I didn't start collecting sets until a couple of years later, 1985 Topps were some of the first packs I remember walking down to the gas station to buy. 

Dave Otto probably spent more time announcing the Cubs than he did playing for them, but since he did radio and I was outside the Chicago area, I remember the player more. Here, Otto is shown with the Tacoma Tigers, the Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland A's at the time. 

But wait, there's more!

How did this South Sider get in the package? Tom must have checked my Want List at the top of the page because Adam Dunn was one of the cards I needed from this long forgotten set from 6 months ago. I have to wrap this set up as any Cubs fan knows at this time of year...we're just a couple months away from next year!

Thanks Tom!

Kerry Wood...Oddball?

This isn't much of a post today but I recently looked through my Kerry Wood collection and this card caught my eye.

The 1999 Topps Picture Perfect Kerry Wood card is an insert, not a parallel or a variation. And as far as I know, it came in packs of Topps Series 2 back in 1999. I don't think I can get away with calling a Topps insert card an oddball very often (if at all) but I'm not sure what else to call it. It's just...odd. Anything stick out?

What about now?

I know the Cubs play a lot of day games but when was the last time you saw a pitcher wearing eye black? I guess "mini collection" would be a name for it, if I was going to collect something like that. I've seen lots of mini collections across the blogosphere but I'm not sure I've seen an eye black one. Or any other pitchers with eye black. Anyone? Bueller? Like I said, not much of a post, just something I found interesting on a card.

What about the back, you say? Sure, here you go. 

Ooooh, a quiz! With the answers on Topps card #20. Factoids! Synergy! I don't remember much else about the movie In Good Company except for this scene:

Ok, guys. Open book quiz time. Here's the answer sheet! You should be able to click on it and zoom if you can't read it.

Pseudo-Surprise from 2 by 3 Heroes

Jeff from 2 by 3 Heroes sent me an email about a month ago dangling a fantastic bit of trade bait in front of me. Unfortunately, I had nothing in return at the time but was going to look at that card show that I never made it to earlier this month. I have something cooking but nothing just yet.

Fast forward to this past weekend and I pulled out a yellow padded envelope that I assumed was an eBay pickup I had forgotten about. Nope, it was even better. While I was expecting it to come eventually, I didn't know it was already on the way, hence the pseudo-surprise.

 I'll start oldest to newest, since the newest card in the package was the original piece of bait offered. The rest is all bonus!



1989 Cap'n Crunch Andre Dawson



If you had asked me if I had this, I would have said yes. But I couldn't find it and this one is in incredible shape. Not even for its age. Incredible shape. Period.

 

1994 Collector's Choice Ryne Sandberg (Team Checklist)

I had this card in my Ryne Sandberg PC but it's nice to have one for my Cubs team sets I'm putting together too. Great horizontal card.

A pair of young aces in the form of 2002 Donruss Originals. Oh what could have been. I didn't have either of these, nice!

2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects Green X-Fractors Justin Bour

Jeff probably didn't think twice about this "throw in" card but I'm pretty excited to have it. Justin Bour is a local guy (along with current Cub Shawn Camp) so it has a little bit of sentimental value to it. Justin is currently in Double-A with the Tennessee Smokies.

2012 Opening Day Geovany Soto (Walmart Blue Parallel)

This Geovany Soto card is serial numbered out of 2012. I've got to get a master list of all these parallels together so I can figure out which ones I still need/want.

2012 Topps Archives Keystone Connection Ryne Sandberg & Starlin Castro

To be honest, when I saw this card I thought it was a bit of a stretch. Ryno would have been better paired with Darwin Barney (although to be fair, nobody could have predicted Barney's Gold Glove season) and Castro probably would have been better paired with another Shortstop like Ernie Banks. But after reading the back, I guess I can kind of, sort of, see the "connection" that Topps made:

And last, but definitely not least:

2013 Heritage Clubhouse Collection Starlin Castro

The prices on Castro items have cooled a little now that Anthony Rizzo is the hot commodity but are still not always quite to where I'd be comfortable picking them up. So to be able to trade for one is a no-brainer. I believe Matt Garza is the only other Cub in this set so aside from that and maybe picking up some of the autographs, 201 Heritage is pretty much in the books for me!

Thanks for the cards, Jeff!

Wantlist Wednesday - Now with more Wants!

With all the readers Dimwit sent my way this past weekend, a few new trading partners emerged as well. The initial burst was a little overwhelming with making sure I still had what I said I did and needing what I still said I needed but I think I have responded to everyone. I have piles of cards that I'll package up tonight and mail out Thursday morning. Thanks for your patience.

As promised yesterday, I have added my Bowman needs to my Want List. Also looking for any extra Cubs from the set, parallels and all. I made a strikethrough notation for any cards I have made arrangements for and deleted any cards that have arrived from trades. After posting my Kerry Wood McFarlane figure last Saturday, I decided I'd like to add the rest of the Cubs McFarlanes (unsigned) to the collection. If you have any, loose or packaged, let me know. I would prefer loose but in good condition to reduce shipping costs since I'm going to open them anyway. I do have all three variations of the Ryne Sandberg as well as the regular Kerry Wood.

I also scanned in a couple of the Tony Campana cards and posted them in the TCPC tab. Nothing you haven't seen before, just the base, diamond anniversary and cognac from the 2011 Topps Update set. More scans to follow as I continue my quest to be organized. Since I don't have any other photos today, and to save you a click, here they are:

Today's ATCRCS card of the day over on Facebook:

Doug Dascenzo

Signature Saturday - Kerry Wood

Last week or so I received an email from Tom over at Baseball by the Letters asking if he could send me some questions about my blog and collecting history. I gladly agreed and yesterday he posted his writeup. You should check out the whole article if you want to know a little more about me but here is a timely excerpt I shared regarding my first in person autograph experience with a Chicago Cub:

"My first IP Cubs autograph was Kerry Wood when the Cubs came to play an interleague series against the Orioles. My oldest son was about 3 at the time and we went with a friend of mine to get some autographs as the players were coming in the stadium. I had a McFarlane figure base and gave my son a ball I had brought to try to do a team signed ball. Wood got out of the cab and started walking towards the entrance. We had thought there were only a handful of ‘graphers there that day but once a player showed up, people seemingly came out of the woodwork and rushed over. I was one of the first and got the base signed, but I was afraid my son would get trampled so I picked him up and got out of the crowd. Wood kept signing as he walked and when he got to the entrance, he said “Where’d that little boy go, I didn’t get his ball.” So I put my son down and he walked over to Wood and got his ball signed right across the sweetspot. I’ve stopped collecting signed baseballs because they don’t seem to age well, but that’s one we’ll keep forever."

Coincidentally, I was off work yesterday and tuned into some daytime crosstown Chicago rivalry goodness. When they mentioned Wood's impending retirement, I quickly checked the TV schedule for the upcoming games. Friday on WGN, Saturday nationally televised on Fox and Sunday back on WGN. Whew! As an outside the Chicago area fan, I absolutely hate when games are shown on CSN. Although there was no need to fret as Wood came on to pitch to one batter in the 8th inning and proceeded to strike him out on 3 pitches. WGN kept it classy and rather than cut to the obligatory commericial during a pitching change, followed Wood from getting congratulatory high fives, handshakes and hugs from his teammates to the walk back to the dugout where his was greeted by his son. He even came back out for a curtain call. *Who is cutting onions up in here?*

I'm not sure that one encounter in Baltimore even helped shape my opinion of Wood because everything I've ever heard about him was that he was just a nice genuine guy. It simply hammered it home. Now that he's retired, I can get to work on the back of his ATCRCS card. Thanks Kerry!