Joe Carter

How many of you instantly think about the Cubs when Joe Carter is mentioned? Probably not too many of you. He got some MVP votes in Cleveland as well as his one year stinit in San Diego. But he didn't really become a star until heading up north to Toronto. As a Blue Jay, he won two Silver Slugger, was selected to 5 All-Star Games and continued to garner MVP votes. His crowning achievement is probably that World Series winning, walk-off home run off another former Cub, Mitch Williams. And oddly, enough, that's what I remember about that moment. Two former Cubs squaring off. Hard to believe that was 20 years ago this year.

Almost exactly two months ago, I did a pre-draft look at the previous players picked #2 overall by the Cubs. Joe Carter was one of those profiled and as luck would have it, shortly after I made the card, the opportunity to get it signed presented itself.

Carter was playing at the Lake Tahoe Celebrity Golf Tournament in July and a member of SCN was helping out. When I returned from my trip, I had this one waiting for me. Nice!

This card marks #65 in the ATCRCS collection. 

First Pitch Friday - Dutchie Caray

On July 13, 2013, Dutchie Caray threw out the first pitch at a Cubs game against the St. Louis Cardinals. This isn't the first time she has thrown out the first pitch but it is the first and only one I've been able to find a picture of to use for the custom. The Cubs would go on to win this one 6-4.

Also of note that day, and probably the reason she was invited, was that the Cubs were giving away a Harry Caray replica statue to the first 10,000 fans. I "borrowed" the photo below from an ebay auction. They are going for a pretty penny right now so I'll have to wait until the bidding frenzy dies down a bit or live without. 

Candy Maldonado

While I wasn't thrilled with this photo initially, it is kind of growing on me. If I remember correctly, the background was very cluttered, a batting practice backstop and some other people. But there isn't a plethora of Candy Maldonado images in a Cubs uniform floating around. It is a little badass though.

Andre Dawson was granted free agency and signed with the Red Sox in December of 1992. Two days later, the Cubs signed Maldonado. However, in 1993 Sammy Sosa made the transition from center field to right field, limiting Maldonado to just 70 games in both left and right before being traded to the Cleveland Indians for Glenallen Hill.

Former Blue Jays third baseman, Kelly Gruber runs a baseball camp in various places up in Canada and Maldonado is one of the guest instructors/coaches. A member from SCN mentioned they would be attending the camp and offered help getting autographs. Obviously, I took him up on the offer and got this card back in the mail within a couple of weeks. Not bad considering international mail both ways can be a little frustrating.

This card is brings the total number of ATCRCS cards showcased here to 64. I've recently had a large package returned that brings me much closer to 100 (!) but am still a long way from my end of year goal of 200. Time to get cracking!

Matt Guerrier

Matt Guerrier recently came to the Cubs from the Dodgers in the Carlos Marmol deal. I haven't had the opportunity to watch him pitch much, maybe once or twice, but his stat line looks decent. He's currently 2-1 with a 2.19 ERA since joining the Cubs.

While with the Twins, Guerrier tied for the American League lead in pitching appearances with 76 in 2008 and followed it up with a league leading 79 in 2009.

Upon joining the Cubs, he took over the jersey number 51 from former Cubs catcher Steve Clevenger.

Unfortunately, I don't have much else to say about him yet, but for a middle reliever, that's probably a good thing. More times than not, if you start hearing about a middle reliever, its because they're blowing games. His one loss was a 1-0 defeat to the A's in his Cubs debut. And he is credited with a blown save against the Cardinals (that might be DFA worthy!) but he also has 5 Holds and picked up 2 Wins. So, keep flying under the radar please!

This is the 36th card I've made for the 2013 Cubs Team set. As of last night's game, and with another Cubs debut, 49 players have played in a game this season for the Cubs. Last year was a team record when Sveum & Co. used 53 different players. I might have to make record breaker card with floating heads!

Carlos Lezcano

Carlos Lezcano signed with the Cubs as a free agent in 1977 but didn't make his Cubs (& MLB debut) until 1980 when he was the Cubs Opening Day center fielder. He played 21 games with them until mid-May when he was sent down to the Triple A Wichita Aeros. Lezcano stayed there until he was a September call-up and played 21 more games that season. He played another 7 games in 1981 during a mid-season call-up but that was it for his Major League career. 

He has been a minor league manager for the past 20 years or so, including a pretty long stint with the san Diego Padres organization. In 2006, he guided the AZL Padres to the League Championship and won the California League Manager of the Year Award in 2010 as head of the Lake Elsinore Storm.

This season, Lezcano is managing the El Paso Diablos of the American Association, an independent league. I found somebody on SCN who attends Diablos games was able to secure a few autographs for my collection. Lezcano benefitted from playing in a time that included the beginnings of Donruss and Fleer. He had a card in both inaugural sets, as well as Cubs Future Stars cards in both 1980 and 1981 Topps.

My Topps cards were in crummy shape, but I did send my Donruss and Fleer cards.

That Fleer card is partially badly scanned, but mostly a victim of bad factory cutting.

Of course, I also sent some ATCRCS cards, two of which were returned. I've taken to sending extras when I can in case the player wants one/some. I usually print a couple anyway so I don't end up with too many cards that end up like the Fleer above.

I made a back for this but forgot to scan it and can't find the original file. I'll keep looking though.

UPDATE: Found the back!

Wowzer!

I feel like I've missed so much! I was in Europe for the Royal Baby and the high speed train crash in Spain but missed some of the really important stuff like the trade deadline and all these suspensions being handed out. Unfortunately, it looks like my plan to leave a few posts behind didn't work out. I think what happened was I published them, made some changes and then didn't re-publish them. Oh well.

I plan on going back and catching up on all the blog posts I've missed over the past few weeks so those of you with blogs, don't be surprised if you get some comments on some old posts...

The good news is that I have a bunch of posts basically done and am ready to hit the ground running. Look forward to a slew of new ATCRCS cards! Additionally, a couple of new Cubs made their debuts while I was gone so I'll have to whip up some 2013 team set cards. Last I looked, as of Logan Watkins' debut, there have been 48 different Cubs in uniform this season. We're creeping up on that record setting 53 from last year! 

As for the mail situation, I was able to get a few of the promised envelopes out before I left, and plan to drop a few more off at the post office on my way to work this morning That should be done by the time this actually posts. The rest will go out this week. Thanks for your patience!

Fantasy Baseball Update

Way back in January (I think), I suggested starting up a Fantasy Baseball League made up entirely of bloggers, with blasters as prizes. A twelve team league was ambitious, but we ended up with 10, mostly bloggers, a co-worker and my older son.

For the most part, we have some pretty dedicated players and it shows in the standings. As it should be, the more active players have risen to the top. I thought I had mentioned declaring a mid-season winner to help keep everyone motivated but I may have been thinking of rewarding the end of season best record. It looks to be a two-horse race between Tom of Waiting 'Til Next Year and Roy of plain gray swatch. Tom has the slight lead but he's playing me this week with just a two-game lead over Roy. We'll see how that ends up...

As I mentioned, I am behind again in my trades because of a found bag of packages. But I will try to find something good for the mid-season winner too.

By the time this posts, A&G should be out and when I return, will pick up a blaster to finish out the prize pool. Good luck the rest of the way!