PWE from 2x3 Heroes

Just the other day I mentioned I was behind on trades with Jeff from 2x3 Heroes and the very next day, I received another PWE from him.

Ah, back when the Cubs were in the N.L. East. Howard Johnson ended up playing for the Cubs in 1995 but that was smack dab in the middle of Ryne Sandberg's first retirement so they were never teammates. Look for more on HoJo in the next week or so. 

Speaking of Ryno, this is one of my favorite Sandberg cards. Two shots of Ryno ranging to his right to field a ground ball and when you flip it over...

...he's finishing the playing, getting the out at first, I'm sure. It's very hard to tell, but I'm hoping that's an Andre Dawson cameo out in right field.

When I break open my repack boxes on Sunday I show off future and former Cubs even though I don't normally keep them for my collection. Aside from my complete sets, my keepers are probably 99% Cubs. This Anthony Rizzo in a Padres uniform will join that other 1%. It's just so sparkly!

And speaking of Rizzo, Jeff threw in this 2013 Opening Day card. I don't know if he checked my want list for it or just put it in the envelope becuase it was a Cub, but I needed it too. I had one already for my Cubs collection, but needed this one for the complete set I'm working on.

Thanks for the bomb, Jeff!

PWE from All the Way to the Backstop

About a week ago when I cracked my one and only Heritage pack, I mentioned that I pulled 3 Padres that were heading out to Marcus over at All the Way to the Backstop. Well, he beat me to the punch. Just a few days later, I opened my mailbox and found a PWE bomb.

After only pulling Darwin Barney in my packs these are Heritage cards 2, 3 & 4 for me this year. I'm not sure where Topps got there photos for these as I couldn't seem to find them as easily as I did the Barney or the flagship cards. Oh well. Anybody recognize the stadium behind Scott Baker?

Marcus managed to fit a couple other cards in the package too. 

I had the base card version of this OPC Aramis Ramirez card but not this black parallel so that was a great addition. If you had asked me if I had the Mark Garce card I would have said yes, but a quick peak into my Cubs binders showed no such thing. It looks really familiar though. I'm going to have to spend some time on my master checklist.

While I have various Cubs playing cards, I did not have this George Bell. It is from an MLB All-Stars set in the early 1990's. I love odd balls like these. The last card, which you probably can't tell from the scan is a Bowman Chrome card from last year of Jorge Soler. I had the base but not the chrome. 

Great envelope, Marcus! Thanks so much!