#ThrowbackThursday - Little Big Leaguers

For the past few weeks, I've been using the popular social media phenomenon known as #ThrowbackThursday as an excuse to post a series of retrospectives on Cubs players' younger days.  Yes - I have way too much time on my hands.

We kicked this series off by looking at their minor league cards, followed by a look back at cards from their time in in the collegiate ranks and, most recently, digging up some cards from their varsity blues days in high school.  Thus, the natural progression leads us back even further, to a time when they were just beginning to learn how to play America's pastime; I, of course, am speaking about Little League.

Yes, believe it or not, I was actually able to track down some cards that go this far back into their family archives.  Is it creepy for a grown man to posses mass-produced pictures from a celebrity's era of innocence?  Maybe... but, that's not the point.

Can you guess who this "little hotshot" is?  I'll give you some hints:

1.  He's one in a long-line of above-average Cubs first-basemen.
2.  Currently, he is serving on the coaching staff of the AZ D'Backs.
3.  He lead all of Major League Baseball in hits in the decade of the 90's.

The answer, of course, is:

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....Mark Grace.  Look at him, already bringing home the big hardware at such a young age.  I found this Triple Play single at a garage sale held at Wrigley Field, shortly after the original bleacher restoration project.  It was quite the productive trip, netting me a brick from the bleacher structure, the card you see above and a whole bunch of team issued oddballs, including a set that I don't think was ever actually issued (you can see an example, courtesy of Gary Matthews, Jr., here).

Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent; back to the subject at hand:

Here is a much less prominent player in baseball/Cubs history.  I'm sure Jason was a star on his Little League club; but, in the Major Leagues, he was just one of several arms brought in to soak up innings during the darkest days of Theo's rebuild.

After being claimed on waivers in September of 2012, Berken made 4 starts, going 0-3 with a 4.82 ERA in 18.2 innings.  For his entire career, his marks are 10-20 with a 5.36 ERA; yikes.  

Look at that youthful enthusiasm, before he knew he'd be used to eat up garbage innings as a profession.

Here we have a much more prominent player/manager in the sport's history, way back when he was just a scraggly haired, little rascal.  It's hard to imagine the haggard and cantankerous former manager of the Cubs as such a young lad - it does not compute.

However, thanks to the best subset in one of the blogosphere's all-time favorite sets (every time I see a '72, I immediately think of the Night Owl), we know that "Sweet Lou" wasn't born a cranky, elder-statesman.  

You learn something new every day, huh?

Anyway, I have one more card to showcase before I close this thing out:

Who's this superstar from 1995?  Wait a minute....  I recognize that toothless grin...

That's the proprietor of this very blog, me, during my days of playing T-Ball with the Midlothian Tigers.  Seeing as how I spent most of those days picking dandelions in the outfield and practicing my cartwheels, it's pretty amazing that they got me to stare straight at the camera long enough to get a usable shot.

With that, I've exhausted my stash of Little League of baseball cards.

Additionally, unless I discover a set of cards that use famous baseball players baby pictures, I think I've reached the end of the line with this weekly feature.  I hope it was at least mildly entertaining to see prominent athletes at much earlier stages of their development.  I know I find such cards to be fairly fascinating.

I'll have to come up with a new concept for #ThrowbackThursday for next week - the social media gods demand it.

Later, kiddos!