Keith Moreland

Yesterday, you asked for it. Today you get it! More Moreland! Ok, so you didn't really ask for it. But you're going to get it anyway...

I live outside of the Chicago area so I haven't had much opportunity to listen to Moreland as a Cubs radio announcer. Just a few snippets here and there. So I remember him mostly as a member of the "Chicago Phillies", a group of former Phillies who made their way over to Chicago with Dallas Green in the mid '80s. They wouldn't have had a bench but I'm pretty sure they could have fielded a team.

These cards were signed during the Cubs trip to Seattle back in mid summer. I'm more than happy to knock another ATCRCS off the list and this time, I even sent a few extra "real" cards. I have a half-hearted notion to try to get the Cubs Diamond Kings signed but we'll see how that goes.

And one of my new favorites to the collection is this dual signed Keith Moreland/Fergie Jenkins Batting & Pitching Leaders card from 1984 Topps. Jenkins signed it last year sometime and Moreland was just recently added. The numbers on the card aren't spectacular by any means, but neither were the 1983 Cubs...

PWE from 2 by 3 Heroes

I'm going to start having JediJeff from 2 by 3 Heroes pick out my boxes and packs for me because he has a knack for pulling cards from the right side of Chicago that he ends up sending me anyway. This is the look I imagine on his face when he pulls yet another Cubbie:

1981 Fleer Jerry Martin

This card is in great shape and a definite upgrade to the one I previously had.

1994 Topps Stadium Club Steve Trachsel

If there was a "dapper" category for baseball cards, this Steve Trachsel might be among the finalists.

2013 Topps Chrome Starlin Castro

My first and only 2013 Topps Chrome card. Eventually I'll pick up the rest but for now I'm happy with this one.

And the card I alluded to at the beginning:



 A nice on card autograph from former Cubs player and current radio announcer, Keith Moreland. Despite the lack of logos, I like the idea/theme/look of the card. And I had to say that because even though it says Chicago in the upper left corner, I'm about 99% sure that photo is from his time with the Tigers. That dark blue color doesn't match up to any of his other teams (Phillies, Orioles, Padres) and even if the color was darkened by Panini, the Cubs didn't have grey jerseys during Moreland's time with the team. Home jerseys were striped and road jerseys were blue.

I don't know where Panini gets their images from but I did a quick search on Getty since Topps uses them. Oddly enough, they had photos of Moreland in a Phillies uniform and a Tigers uniform, but not a Cubs uniform, his longest tenured team. Here's a photo of Moreland in a Tigers uniform and why I think its a match:

Moreland in 1989

AP Images had a few black and white images of Moreland as a Cub and a couple of non-usable color ones (he's in the background or back turned.). And US Presswire (USA Today Images) had nothing on Moreland.

You want more Moreland you say? Come back tomorrow!

Thanks Jeff!

Card Show Recap Part 2: The Hits

Yesterday, I showed off the dime box pickups from the big card show last weekend. Today, I bring you hits.

The dealer who had the one 3200 count box for sale was mostly selling supplies. But he did have a single 800 ct box of miscellaneous inserts/parallels for $2 each. Most of them were serial numbered cards and after two handfuls, I didn't see anything worth picking up. But I'm glad I went through the last stack because I found this 2012 Pro Debut Junior Lake bat card. Because of my "Where Are They Now" posts I did on the 2010 Pro Debut Cubs, I've been trying to complete the Cubs master set for the entire run, including hits. This card has been going for $5-10 on eBay so to find one for $2 without shipping, was a steal. There aren't even any currently for sale on eBay.

Also in that same last stack was this Topps Stars Game Gear Corey Patterson bat card. Not something I would have normally picked up but for $2, what can I say? Maybe I'm a sucker. I haven't gotten around to cataloging my relics and autographs yet but I do think this might be my first Patterson relic. I hope they had some kind of die cut machine for that crazy relic cutout.

One last table and I was out of money. I found a dealer who had a $4 relic/autographs box, 4 for $10 or 10 for $20. Brains work kind of funny. Relics and autographs for $2 doesn't seem like a lot. But having to spend $20 for 10 cards to get that deal doesn't sound so great. Especially when you're down to about $12. Could I even find 10 cards from a box like this?

Sure enough, I did. While I was searching the box, the dealer was wheeling and dealing with other customers saying how he didn't want to take stuff home with him. I pulled out 10 cards, hoping the dealer would be willing to cut me a break too. 

I told him I had $12 left and asked what he could do for me. He said he could the $2 per deal without having to get 10, so for the $12, I could get 6. Not too bad. I put two back right away, some minor leaguers who never made it. Then I put back another card that after closer inspection was a little dinged up. After hemming and hawing a little bit to try to get rid of one more, the guy said just take those seven. Nice!

Now before you see the cards, remember, somebody probably paid $40-50-60 for a box of this stuff and this is what they pulled. Even as a Cubs fan, I probably would have been disappointed with that ROI. Schadenfreude?

I have four cards here and three others that went into mail packages this week so you'll have to find those on other blogs. Let's start off with two more bats. 

The Starlin Castro is from 2011 Allen & Ginter. This probably would have been the one to go back in the box if the guy hadn't offered the 7th for free because I wasn't absolutely, positively sure I didn't already have it. Because of his early popularity and the crappiness of the Cubs in general, Castro was put into just about every set by every company so without looking, he probably represents the most relics cards of one player in my collection. But for $2, I didn't really want to put it back either...

On the other end of the spectrum, Eric Karros was not in my relic collection at all. This bat card is from 2003 Topps, his only season with the Cubs.

Moving on to a jersey card, we have a 2004 Topps Cracker Jack Moises Alou jersey. Despite the size of the scan, this one is a mini card. And as a bonus, it came in a real nice case which has since been transferred to a more worthy card.

And the only autograph of the group (that I kept) is Mike Fontenot from the 2008 SPx Young Star Signatures set. This is another first for the collection as I didn't have any Fontenot hits of any kind yet.

So for right around $30, I got all the supplies I need to make it through for a while (aside from an extra storage box or two), made a nice dent with some oddball dime box stuff, topped off a few giveaway packages and pick up a half dozen hits. I think the next big show like this one will be in March so I'm going to make use of the winter to start putting my pennies away and add the finishing touches on my checklist so I can go attack the vintage. There was some really nice stuff last weekend that I would love to get a second crack at.

Card Show Recap Part 1

A few weeks ago, I mentioned going to a small card show in hopes of finding some new boxes for organizing my collection. No luck on the boxes but I did pick up some cards.

Fast forward to this past weekend and I hit up a fairly large card show that comes around a couple times a year. Unfortunately, a few unexpected, non-hobby related expenses cut into my card budget at the wrong time of year. While there was a whole bunch of vintage that I wouldn't have minded bringing home if I had the funds, I'm still pleased with what I was able to pick up.

I didn't take pictures of the supplies but my mission was partially accomplished. After measuring my shelves, I knew I wanted 3200 count boxes but could only find one for sale. I think I missed the boat by only going Sunday of a three day show. Plenty of other sizes though. And I also picked up a couple of pouches of penny sleeves and team bags.

After making my first, eyes only loop around the show, I knew where I wanted to start. One table had dime boxes filled with not-quite-oddballs. Inserts or other cards that were pretty far from flagship, but still made by major (at the time) brands. And the great thing about dime boxes is that usually if you get an odd number, the dealer rounds down so these work out to be less than that.

I bought a lot of 1990 Fleer back in the day but I have no idea where the League Standouts cards came from. I bought a lot of wax packs so maybe the came in cello or rack packs?  I haven't renamed and tagged any of these photos yet so I haven't into too many of these cards. The Alfonso Soriano is one example of one I know nothing about. But it was shiny and celebratory so it went into my stack.

Chrome is a very underrepresented set in my collection, both Topps and Bowman. They don't scan well (look at that dust!) and used to be real curvy, so even though they're a little better now, I don't go out of my way for it. Steve Smyth had a very limited Cubs career so this may double my Smyth collection, assuming I have the non-Chrome version.

This Ryne Sandberg card looked really familiar but I couldn't say for sure whether I had it or not so I picked it up. The price was right. Still haven't even looked to see. Good thing the weekend is coming up so I can file the new stuff in.

The Kerry Wood card is kind of 3D. The brick and ivy wall is a layer on top of the see through sky background. Definitely new to me. Topps Stars must have been a short lived brand during one of my hiatuses. The Soriano above and this Ben Christensen card did not look familiar at all. In fact, I thought it was a Kerry Wood card until I looked closer. The SP Prospects card of Sean Gallagher was a little confusing. The card itself has a foil Cubs logo, but Gallagher himself is wearing logo-less gear.

Never a bad thing to find a Hall of Famer in a dime box, especially a new one to the collection. This Past Time Pennants card from Upper Deck has an interesting back. Instead of a year by year breakdown, they only include his "Five Best Years & Career Totals". That's one way to do it, I guess.

And speaking of Hall of Famers, Upper Deck and Billy Williams, I found these in the same dime box. They reused the same photo for Billy Williams, but I believe this is a complete Upper Deck Classics Cubs team set for less than $0.40. Not too shabby.

I'm still not sure what to think about the Theo regime yet so I picked up this Red Sox card from a few years back. We'll see, but time is running short...

Dennis Eckersley was still active (with the A's) when this card came out so it's kind of weird that he's featured as a Cub. I think their might be rules against this now with the MLBPA unless its a Then & Now type card. Eck pitched through 1997 so it's also a little weird to have a career highlights (says it in the illegible foil on the front) card when he wasn't retiring any time soon.

This is one of my favorite new pickups despite its blandness. The A and diamond shapes look black but they're actually foil, just scanned dark. This wasn't even a real full deck of cards as the others I saw in the box were all the ace of diamonds. Which makes sense given the set name. Since his head/hat is sticking out of the top, I probably would have had his glove stick out too. Just saying.

And I couldn't pass up a perfectly centered Jamie Moyer rookie card. I knew I had it already but also knew it would be an upgrade to whatever I already had.

Aside from the other teams that I also picked up and will hopefully start showing up on other blogs within the next week or two, and a few other chrome-like shiny cards that didn't scan well, that's it for the dime box.

Tomorrow, I'll wrap it up will some hits (relics and autographs).

Doug Davis

Last and maybe actually for once, least in the package from Larry (AKA unclemoe) is an ATCRCS card signed by Doug Davis. Let me follow that up by saying I have no ill will towards Doug Davis. Probably a real nice guy. But Augie Ojeda was a fan favorite and Tony Campana is one of my favorites, soooo....sorry Doug.

It probably doesn't help his case that after the Cubs signed him as a free agent in the first month of the 2011 season, he proceeded to go 1-7 in nine starts with a 6.50 ERA. But to be fair, the Cubs also gave him no run support, scoring over 3 runs only twice in his starts.

In his last start, Davis gave up 10 runs in 4 1/3 innings to the San Francisco Giants. What? Cut him some slack because they were the defending World Series Champions? Pffft...fine. But the Cubs released him the next day. The White Sox picked him up a couple of weeks later but he spent the rest of the season with their Triple-A affiliate, the Charlotte Knights and was released.

He signed with the Kansas City Royals for 2012 but never made it back to the big leagues despite a 9-4 record with the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers.

It also doesn't help that as a member of the Diamondbacks in 2007, Davis won Game 2 in a three game sweep of the Cubs in the NLDS. That's probably why he gets invited back for Diamondbacks alumni functions and not Cubs, but as the blog says, once a Cub...always a Cub. I generally try to stay away from negative stuff so when I get around to making a back for this card, I'm going to be a little nicer.

Thanks again to unclemoe for the help with my ATCRCS set and the bonus Tony Campana!

2012 Panini Prizm Tony Campana Autograph

Yesterday, I mentioned receiving a couple of signed cards from Larry (AKA unclemoe). Splitting up the ATCRCS cards so you guys don't get bored with them, I thought I'd show the bonus today and then finish up the package with the second ATCRCS card tomorrow.

Unfortunately, these cards don't scan that well. I must've done it 3-4 times to try and get the autograph to show up better. But trust me, in person it looks great. Shiny, silvery chrome card (much lighter/brighter than this) with a bold blue autograph.

This marks the 13th different signed Campana card in the collection. Not bad considering 7 of them are customs.

Thanks again, Larry!

Augie Ojeda

Towards the end of the regular season,the Arizona Diamondbacks hosted an alumni event and Larry (AKA unclemoe) of My 2008 Topps Set Blog sent me an email offering some ATCRCS help. Not only did he get me two cards for my set but he also threw in a huge bonus (to me anyway). The bonus will be shown tomorrow and the other ATCRCS will be posted on Wednesday. Always nice to be able to get three posts out of one envelope! And since these are fresh and new to me, they're actually leapfrogging some ATCRCS I've had in the draft folder since summer.

So first up is Augie Ojeda. He was drafted by the Orioles in 1996 but traded to the Cubs in 1999 for Richard Negrette (career minor leaguer). Ojeda was a backup middle infielder for parts of four seasons with the Cubs before being selected off of waivers by the Minnesota Twins following the 2003 season.

Ojeda signed with the Cubs for a second stint as a free agent prior to the 2006 season although he spent the entire year in Triple-A Iowa. He spent the next four seasons in the Diamondbacks organization (hence the Alumni appearance). Ojeda went 4-9 with a run and an RBI in the NLDS against the Cubs in 2007.

Ojeda was a Spring Training invitee for the Cubs in 2011 and after playing in 18 games for Iowa, was released in July of that year.

Also of note, Ojeda won a bronze medal as a member of the USA baseball team in the 1996 Olympics. He also later competed for the Mexico National Baseball Team in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Thanks for the help, Larry!