Luis Montanez

When Topps had their 50th anniversary set in 2001, I briefly returned to collecting. When my first son was born in 1999, I bought a complete set just for the heck of it. But when my second son was born in 2001, I bought a lot of packs, trying to hand collate the set like back in the day.

One of the cards in the set that I remember (because he was a Cub) was Luis Montanez. He shared a Rookie Card with David Espinosa of the Reds. Montanez was a the third overall draft pick in 2000 so even though he hadn't risen above Single-A by the time the card came out, he had a Rookie Card.

Funny thing is, Montanez would spend several more years in the minors and in 2006 the Cubs granted him free agency. He signed with the Baltimore Orioles and spent 2007 with their Double and Triple-A affiliates before finally making his Major League debut in 2008.

Can you think of anybody else that had about 7 years between their rookie card and Major League debut?

Montanez spent parts of three seasons with the Orioles before being granted free agency again and then signed with the Cubs for the 2011 season. He played in 36 games, mostly as a pinch hitter and outfielder before being a free agent again at the end of the season.

In 2012, Montanez spent time with the Cardinals and Phillies Triple-A teams and began the 2013 season with the independent league Somerset Patriots. That's where this card was signed with a little help from someone on SCN. He has since signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He is currently on the 7-day disabled list with the Arkansas Travelers.

This marks card #75 is the ATCRCS collection.

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!

Jaime Navarro

Jaime Navarro came to the Cubs as a free agent in 1995 after spending the first 6 seasons of his career in Milwaukee. This was around the time my interest in baseball and collecting was becoming interrupted by other things (Ryne Sandberg retiring/unretiring, girls, high school) but I definitely remember Navarro with the team. At that time, Milwaukee was still an AL Central team so I didn't know much about them other Robin Yount and Paul Molitor. Maybe a little Gary Sheffield too from his 1989 Topps card but I was (and still am) a National League kid.

The Cubs weren't great during Navarro's two year stint with the team but he managed to lead the Cubs in wins both years with 15 and 14 wins respectively. Not exactly staff ace numbers but his combined 3.62 ERA was the best of his career when compared to his tenure with other teams.

Although primarily a starter, when he collected a Save with the Milwaukee Brewers early in his career, Navarro, along with his father Julio Navarro, became the first father-son combo to each record a Save. A few others have since matched that accomplishment including current Cubs relief pitcher James Russell with his father Jeff Russell.

Since retiring, Navarro has coached at various levels in the minors and is currently the bullpen coach for the Seattle Mariners. This card (not as dark as it scanned) was signed when I sent out a bunch of cards to be signed when the Cubs were in Seattle back in July.

Where Are They Now? 2010 Pro Debut Part 4

At the end of last Sunday's post, I teased two of the more interesting names from the set, so today I present to you Rebel Ridling and Trey McNutt. But first, here's a quick look at previous entries in this series:

Part One - Ryan Flaherty and Brett Jackson 

Part Two - DJ LeMahieu and Brooks Raley

Part Three - Chris Archer and Hak-Ju Lee

Rebel Ridling was drafted in the 25h round of the 2008 draft out of Oklahoma State University. That year he started in low Single-A with the Boise Hawks and finished the year and mid Single-A with the Peoria Chiefs. The next season was spent entirely with the Chiefs, as shown on the card above. He progressed to high Single-A Daytona for all of 2010 and even Double-A Tennessee Smokies for 2011. But after a disappointing 2012 split between Daytona and Tennessee, Ridling was released after the season.

Ridling played some left field but mostly first base. With Anthony Rizzo as the long term Cubs first baseman, I'm not sure how much room there was him had he played well anyway. I couldn't find any stats for him for 2013 so I don't think anyone picked him up. 

The Cubs picked up Trey McNutt in the 32nd round of the 2009 draft out of Shelton State Community College. He didn't play for the Daytona Cubs until 2010 so it's a little weird that his 2010 card above shows him on the team. It should have been a Boise Hawks card (like Hak-Ju Lee) or from the Arizona Fall League (like LeMahieu and Jackson).

McNutt got a taste of Double-A Tennessee by the end of the 2010, but unfortunately he's been stuck there since. He's racked up a 16-20 record with a 4.52 ERA over his parts of 4 seasons there. He is part of the Cubs 40-man roster though so I'm curious to see if he gets a late season call up.

One Game Wonders - Adam Greenberg

Last week, I made a claim that Clay Rapada was at least tied for the shortest stint as a Cub with a mere 1/3 of an inning. I mean how could you possibly get into a game and not play at least that much, right?

Well, I was wrong. In the case of Adam Greenberg that is exactly what happened.

I think most people who follow baseball, or at least did last season, know Greenberg's story. For those who don't, you have to go all the way back to 2005. Scratch that, let's go back to 2002. The Cubs selected him in the 9th round of that year's draft and played for the Lansing Lugnuts (Single A) and Daytona Cubs (High A).

In 2003, he played for Daytona the entire year, but after starting 2004 there, he bumped up to Double-A West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx and got into one game with Triple-A Iowa Cubs.

Back to 2005, Greenberg started the season with the Diamond Jaxx but got the call to the big leagues in early July. With the Cubs leading the Marlins 4-2 in the top of the 9th inning on July 5, 2005, Greenberg made his Major League debut pinch hitting for pitcher Will Ohman. The very first pitch from Valerio De Los Santos hit Greenberg in the back of the head. Carlos Zambrano came in as a pinch runner when Greenberg was removed from the game.

He returned to the minors shortly after for some rehab but ended up spending the rest of the season on the disabled list. In 2006, Greenberg was hitting .168 between Iowa and West Tennessee and the Cubs released him in June. He got picked up by the Dodgers within the week but was granted free agency after the season, never making it past their Double-A team.

The Royals signed him for 2007, but again spent the season with their Double-A affiliate and was granted free agency afterwards. They re-signed him to a minor league contract for 2008 but was released at the end of Spring Training. He started the season in the independent Atlantic League with the Bridgeport Bluefish before signing a contract with the Angels and spending the rest of the season with their Double-A affiliate, the Arkansas Travelers.

Again granted free agency following the season, Greenberg returned to the Bluefish where he spent the past couple of seasons.

Last season, a petition was started (who knew those things work?) to get Greenberg an official at-bat. The Marlins signed him to a one game contract and was brought in to pinch hit in the 6th inning against the Mets on October 2, 2012. And who was on the mound that day? Um, only eventual Cy Young winner, knuckleballer RA Dickey. How fair was that?

So Greenberg got his at bat, a 3 pitch strikeout but was replaced in the lineup after the inning. No defensive inning played.

He signed a contract with the Orioles for 2013 but didn't make the team out of Spring Training and played this season again for the Bluefish.

I have three official Adam Greenberg cards in my collection, with a couple more that I know of. The first two are Cubs cards, a 2004 Bowman and a 2004 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres.

The other is a 2013 Topps card.

The Bowman card has a a chrome version and Topps Total also included Greenberg in their 2004 set with a base card and silver parallel. I guess Greenberg also has all the 2013 Topps parallels too but since they're Marlins cards, I won't be pursuing those.

Good luck to Adam in 2014!

Repack Friday - The Rookies

As promised earlier this week, here are the results from my other repack box, this one claiming 5 Rookie Cards. And despite the pretty pictures on the box, I didn't pull anything like the Gypsy Queen, Bowman or 2012 Topps shown.

And unlike the HOF box earlier, this one went back to a couple of tried and true standards for the unopened packs, Fleer Ultra, 2008 Upper Deck and 1989 Topps. Although the Topps was a cello pack rather than rack pack and the fourth pack was another wax pack of 1988 Donruss.

Nothing crazy in the 1989 Topps cello pack but it wouldn't be a repack if I didn't get at least one Jerry Reuss card. If I didn't already send the others off somewhere, I may be on the verge of a mini collection! Dennis Boyd makes an appearance because of his nickname. I miss the Turn Back the Clock cards and think Topps may be due to revisit them. Maybe a Mariano Rivera Tribute card? And of course, Robin Yount is a HOFer.

And despite not getting a single Cubs player in the pack, there were a couple of former/future Cubs. And one almost was (Rob Dibble).

And here's a card I haven't seen in years. Somebody has to 'fess up to owning one of these from back in the day. Who will be the first in the community to step up? I couldn't even find one on eBay after a quick search. I wonder how long "supplies lasted" for these?

One decent card in the Fleer Ultra pack. Anybody have a "players out of uniform" mini collection?

The Upper Deck pack wasn't much better even with 3 "scan worthy" cards. The Starquest cards are one per pack. You can't really go wrong with a Yankees insert. Even if you don't collect Yankees, somebody does. Bucky F'n Dent. And this weird Jim Edmonds card in a Padres uniform but the team is listed as the Cubs.

Three more scan worthy cards from 1988 Donruss. They knew Dennis Boyd's nickname and weren't afraid to use it. Bill Buckner, a former Cub. And a not so smiley John Smiley.

On to the miscellaneous 100 cards.

Not quite as many HOFers as last week but a couple will have to do. 

As for the oddball of the box, there's nothing particularly odd about this Eduardo Perez card below, but it did jump out at me. In my best old geezer voice, "Back in my day, the Angels represented the whole state of California. Not just one city, or even two."

And yes I know the Angels were originally the LA Angels. But for the purposes of showing this card, the CA logo on Eduardo Perez's helmet and sleeve represent the Angels of my childhood. I guess the next generation of collectors will be saying that about the Miami/Florida Marlins.

Alex Fernandez signing autographs. I vaguely remember him getting pretty far with a no-hitter against the Cubs but they broke it up in the 9th?

The minor league cards always interest me because I like to see if they've made it or not. Unfortunately while doing this write up, the Baseball-Reference website isn't working right for me so I have to rely on other sources. Dennis Powell made it to the Majors with the Dodgers and Mariners and according to his Wiki page, had three Major League hits, all doubles. Not bad for a pitcher.

Bill Dawley was also a pitcher and played for the Astros, White Sox, Cardinals, Phillies and A's. He was even an All-Star as a rookie in 1983.

I've always liked Dennis Martinez so pulling two cards, one of which has him in a sweet red jersey, gets him a nod here.

Several former/future Cubs show off the diverse brands and years represented in the repack box. The Tom Veryzer doubles as the oldest card in the box, 1983.

Kalvoski Daniels really wanted to be in this box, too bad he's on the Reds here and not from his Cubs stint. The 1986 Donruss could have been one of the 5 guaranteed rookies as well. Unlike the HOF box where the five cards were reversed to differentiate themselves from the rest of the cards, there was no such luck with this one.

Aside from the weird Padres looking Edmonds above, this glorious Jay Baller card represented the only current (at the time) Cubs card from the entire box. Might have been worth it if I didn't already have it.

As I said, with the Rookies not separated, I had to go through them pretty closely to find five. I didn't think they were counting these but I couldn't be sure until I found more:

 On to the "real" five. A rookie prospect from the Yankees? Because of that, the value on this may have reached a full single digit back in the day. The last name is Hutton in case you can't tell from the scan.

A good ol' fashioned Rated Rookie designation makes it a little easier to tell. Plus another sweet red Expos jersey from Wil Cordero might make this one the tops in the group, which isn't saying much.

This Carlos Delgado is by far the fanciest but not sure if it qualifies as a rookie. It's a Hot Prospect card and a "Draft Edition" but what does that even mean anymore? I'm sure the repack box stuffers didn't put any more thought into it than I just did, so I'm counting it. If that doesn't satsify you, see the Kal Daniels Rated Rookie above.

Was Toys R Us allowed to issue Rookie cards? Who knows? Says rookie right on this Reggie Jefferson card so I guess it counts.

Finally, one that actually say RC on it. Again, in case you can't read the scan, this is Madison Bumgarner.

Overall, I'd give this box a meh. Not enough Cubs to keep my interest. And while I wasn't expecting a Ryne Sandberg to be among the rookies, I could have done a lot better. I'm not sure I got $5 entertainment value out of this box, let alone $5 card value. I did get a post out of it, so that's something.

But wait! I'm not done. I almost forgot the best part of the box...

Why yes, there was a stick of bubble gum in that 1989 Cello pack. Solid. Unbroken. Stood the test of time.

Well, not in taste. Yep. Its gone. I'm that guy. Completely crumbled. Nothing to chew. More like a bubblegum flavored cracker. Enquiring minds wanted to know.

Daryle Ward

Daryle Ward spent 11 seasons in the big leagues, including his last two with the Cubs in 2008-09. Mostly used as a pinch hitter, Ward also played some first base and platooned in the outfield.

One of my fondest memories of Ward as a Cub was in a game against the Florida Marlins on August 15, 2008. I was out with friends and we happened to catch the end of the game. The Cubs were down 5-3 in the top of the 9th and Ward came off the bench to take then Marlins closer (and current Cubs closer) Kevin Gregg deep for a three run shot and give the Cubs the lead. Kerry Wood closed out the game with a dramatic 9th himself. I remember a walk and a hit by pitch but according to the boxscore, there was a wild pitch in there too. I've seen dozens if not hundreds of Cubs games since then, but it's funny what you remember.

Man, 2008 was another one of those "This is the year!" years. Hard to believe it was already 5 years ago.

Despite not playing in the Majors, Daryle Ward is still plugging away, trying to catch on with a team. He's been playing the independent Atlantic League for the past couple of years with some short stints with affiliated teams mixed in. This past year, Ward played for the Lancaster Jethawks, which is where the above card was obtained with a little help from an SCN member. He's got a pretty nice autograph. I dig the sig!

This marks the 73rd signed ATCRCS in the collection.