Patching Up the Bullpen

Between the histrionics provided by the Cubs and their epic ninth inning comebacks this past week, the chaotic non-waiver trade deadline (which saw the Cubs make two further deals themselves) and my officially moving my office over to another school, this seems like forever ago; but, just a couple of weeks ago, Mike Montgomery was added to the bullpen in a trade with Seattle for top prospect Dan Vogelbach.  I covered the deal at the time, however, I did not have any cards of the LOOGY in my trade stacks to shuffle into my CATRC binder.  

First world problems, I know.

Luckily, the Snorting Bull (of the blog of the same name) came charging in to the rescue.  In that post, the resident Durham Bulls super-fan and Cardinal collector offered to send me a few "Montys" to rectify this sad situation.  I expected a few base cards of the former Royals/Rays farmhand, brought in to shore up the beleaguered Cubs bullpen, but...

... Instead, with great generosity, Mr. Bull forwarded a patch card of the Cubs new PATCHwork  BULLpen addition!  There's some symbolism in that somewhere, I think.

This is the first patch card to enter into my collection and, boy oh boy, do these things look nice in hand.  It sure doesn't hurt that the patch happens to be of the most iconic minor league baseball team playing today, thanks to major motion pictures Bull Durham and The Rookie.  Not to mention the fact that I love minor league cards of eventual Major League Cubs - this card is a real winner, all the way around.

Oh yea - and it's numbered /99 too.  No bull, this card bucked me to the ground.

The only downside to this manu-relic is the fact that it's so thick - easily as thick as five or six of your standard trading cards.  Thus, it carries too much mass to be included in my CATRC binder.  Luckily, it appears as though the Snorting Bull was anticipating such a quandary, seeing as he included another Mike Montgomery card that was just as impressive.

It might be hard to tell thanks to the mirror-like reflective quality of the Chrome, but that is a certified John Hancock  on the first mainstream baseball card of the Cubs new lefty.  This hit will easily slide into a standard, nine-pocket binder page without any issues.  

Anyway, a signature and a relic in one trade package?  Hot damn!  Seeing as I was expecting your garden-variety base cards, one might even say that this package ROYALLY surprising.  OK - I'll stop with the forced, cheesy puns... for now.

They're almost as painful as the way Mike has pitched in a Cubs uniform, so far.

Mr. Snorting Bull, thank you  so very much for the exceptional generosity you showed in this trade package.  I can only hope that my return fire was at least  a quarter as potent as the sneak attack you sent my way.  

As a result, I'm back on track and up to date with my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection, with major style points as well. 

In my humble opinion, that's nothing to SNORT at.