Holiday Cardboard Envy

It appears as though I am one of the few bloggers who did not receive any baseball cards for Christmas.  I can't say that I am surprised though, seeing as my girlfriend encourages everyone to buy me clothes for the holiday gift exchanges.  Therefore, I have plenty of new pairs of socks (not white or red), flannels, jeans and running shoes; however, this isn't a fashionista blog, so that doesn't make for good fodder.

Don't take that as complaining though, I am eternally grateful for all of those items since I would never purchase them myself and would never do as good of a job picking them out either.  I guess those are the reasons why they don't get me cards as well.  It's all quite understandable.

Still, after seeing all of the nifty card-related gifts hit the blogosphere yesterday, I couldn't help but get a bit of an itch... an itch that only a trip to the card shop would satisfactorily scratch.  After an hour of flipping through their dimebox selection, I found several new cards for my binders and did not have to settle for clothing.

The highlight of the dig was my very first card of the Cubs' newest pitcher, Adam Warren.  The successful swingman was the main piece coming over in the Starlin Castro deal (secondary piece Brendan Ryan has already been jettisoned) and thus needed to be included in my CATRC.  His first ever professional baseball card seemed like a good artifact for inclusion, at least until he gets a card in Cubbie blue.

That wasn't the only fun thing I found though:

Here we have a couple of Cubs' farmhands from a product that I have next to nothing of.  Trey Lang was taken in the sixth round of the 2012 draft out of GateWay Community College in Arizona.  Unfortunately, despite pitching for three seasons in the minors, he never made it past Low-A ball.  It appears as though he hung up his cleats after the 2014 campaign; his Twitter account lists him a professional trainer and what better person to train you than a former pro athlete?

Ryan McNeil came into the organization as the third round pick in the same draft.  After undergoing Tommy John surgery after just eight pro appearances, he's steadily been working his way up the chain, making it to mid-level A ball last year.

As it stands, Mr. Lang will be inserted into my "failed" Cubs prospects collection - mass-produced cards of Cubs prospects who stalled out before making the Bigs - and McNeil could either join Lang or eventually find his way into my CATRC.  The jury is out.

The side-armer you see to your left is Ben Rowen, an arm claimed by the Cubs off of waivers in a bit of Wrigley Roster Jenga last summer.  He was added to the 25-man roster and I even wrote a full post about the move and my quest to add a card his; however, he was DFA'ed and pushed off to the Blue Jays before ever appearing in a game.  Therefore, he does not merit inclusion on the Cubs All-Time Roster.

At this point in time, neither does Leathersich.  The former Mets top prospect was signed to a minor league deal earlier this winter as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery.  The intriguing arm won't be ready to go until at least mid-season; but, they breed pretty good pitchers over there in Queens, so hopes are high.

Anyway, I'll be adding the Rowen card to my "Coulda Been a Cub" collection - cards of Major Leaguers (he got into a few games with Texas in 2014) who were once property of the Cubs organization, but never made it into a game.  Leathersich will be kept on retainer in case he is needed for the CATRC, or he could end up joining Rowen.  We shall see.

Honestly, I grabbed this card just because it's shiny and I wanted to round my purchase up to a dollar.

I've seen this card on many a blog and I've always had a thing for it.  Something about the rare windbreaker appearance on a baseball card and the odd sight of seeing short-termer Carlos Pena in Cubs colors.

That about did it on the baseball side of things; but, I was able to add a couple of more pieces to one of my other sports accumulations:

My NASCAR collection has gone largely neglected for several years, mostly because my interest in the sport has fallen to "casual" status in the interim.  While I used to watch religiously every Sunday, I now really only pay attention to the Daytona 500 and what information I absorb second hand.

That doesn't mean I don't still have a soft spot for the sport and I won't keep adding to my collection.  No way.

Dan Gurney is much more well-known for his career in the open-wheel and sports car circuits; that said, like most race car drivers, he would drive any car he was allowed to.  Showing up at mostly road course races, Gurney won 5 races and placed in the top ten 8 times in just 16 contests - not too shabby!

These two Gurney rides have been part of my die-cast collection for years.

Additionally, I absolutely adore the design of Goodwin Champions products and I'll add any singles that I can shoehorn into one of my collections.  This card is a damn work of art!

Meanwhile, Truex was just starting to emerge when as my dedication to the sport was waning.  Thus, I never did pull any cards of his in my NASCAR card collecting heyday.  This shiny number allows to cross another driver off of my to-get list.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but since Press Pass went bye bye, no company has picked up the NASCAR trading card licence, correct?  If so, my collection is going to continue to fall woefully out of date.

Such a shame

With the hasty addition of a few more miscellaneous cards, including one that you'll see in tomorrow's themed post, I was able to round my dimebox purchase up to a full dollar - because who wants to deal with change?  With that, my cardboard envy itch had been scratched.

Maybe next year I'll lay down a nice, specific list of some cards that I wouldn't mind seeing underneath the Christmas tree next year.  Cards that are a little bit more expensive than I would pull the trigger on myself (which is like $10 - not an expensive gift at all).  On the plus side though, I'll look really dapper in all of my new clothes while I draft this list.

It Was Christmas' Time in the City

Come children and gather 'round so that I might tell you the real, true story about Christmas... Steve Christmas.

Though his name sound likes a jumping off point for a terrible holiday cash-in type movie like Fred Claus, I assure you that it is not.

Jolly old Steve played got three separate and very brief call-ups for the Reds, White Sox and Cubs in 1983-84 and 1986.  All told, the festive back up catcher played in a total of 24 games and batted a whopping 1.62 in 37 AB's.

Christmas did save the day once with his own moment in the sun. While with the White Sox, he hit his only big league home run. Of course, because baseball, it was a tie-breaking, pinch-hit, three-run big fly against the hated Twins in September of 1984. A true Christmas miracle!

The man of the day as part of the White Sox org

Scan borrowed from the Trading Card Database

Meanwhile, his stint with the team on the other side of town came as his sunset, playing in three April games as an injury replacement, going 1 for 9 in the process.  I don't know what ended his brief tenure, but I do believe I once read that he was then injured himself and never made it back up.  There just isn't really a lot of information floating around about third string catchers on fifth place teams from 30 years ago, believe it or not.

That quick cuppacoffee (or was it hot cocoa?) was enough to get his likeness into the team-issued set, sponsored by Gatorade, given away by the Cubs that year.  Therefore, I can now spread the joy of (Steve) Christmas on my blog three decades later.

Anyway, here's wishing whoever is taking the time to read this rambling a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, good tidings to all and all of that.... why are you reading this?  Go be with your family!

I'll close with my favorite Christmas song, sans Steve.  It's a little too dark to be carol-ready; but, being the cynical guy I am, that's why I like it.

Merry Christmas - Now Get Out!

Tomorrow is the big day!  As such, I'm sure that preparations for large family gatherings, massive amounts of cooking, last minute gift shopping and wrapping, etc. etc. are all under way.  No one has time to read baseball card blogs right now.  Right?

Well, apparently I have a little time to write for one.  The perks of having to be up for work at 5:30...

Anyway, in the last day or so, the Cubs have officially parted with a couple of role players.  Nothing says "Merry Christmas!" quite like kicking someone out of the door.  Since the name of this blog is Wrigley Roster Jenga and these moves fit that nameplate, I feel obligated to knock out a quick post.

Since this isn't all that interesting to anyone who doesn't root for the Cubs, it's no big deal since I'm sure everyone has far more important things going on.

First off, the Cubs have already parted ways with Brendan Ryan, the veteran utility man acquired as the PTBNL in the Starlin Castro/Adam Warren swap.  His inclusion felt weird from the get-go; what use would the Cubs have for an all-glove, anemic bat middle infielder when the system is basically busting at the seems with better players up the middle.

Well, I think it's obvious now that he was sent to Chicago as a bit of salary relief for the Yankees, which feels weird to type having lived through the George Steinbrenner era.

Peace out Brendan, sorry you didn't get to be a real Cub.

Additionally, though he was designated for assignment last week; ironically, his removal from the 40-man was necessary to add the aforementioned Brendan Ryan to the roster (Roster Jenga'ing at it's finest, right here).  He was officially commandeered... ahem.... I mean claimed by the Pirates yesterday.

The reliever with a live arm wasn't able to put anything together in Chicago, logging a 4.71 ERA and losing two full mph on the radar gun.  Not good.  All it cost to add Medina to the system was Welington Castillo, who went on to pop 17 homers in just 80 games with Arizona.

Well, not every trade can be of the Jake Arrieta/Pedro Strop fleecing variety, right?

To be fair, I don't think anyone saw his break out coming

And there you have it.  There have been several other minor league signings in the last few days as well; however, I'll save coverage of those deals for my annual spring training ranking of the NRI's.  I need to spread out my talking points, after all.

Besides, like you the readers, I too have a lot to accomplish in the next two days.  Three different family parties in two different states and three different towns, not to mention I work both mornings. The holiday stress is real.

I guess it could be worse - I could have been cut from my job right before... sorry Mr. Ryan.

The Land of Lincoln

As you all might be aware, Illinois is known as "the Land of Lincoln;" it's on our license plates and everything.  After all, Abraham Lincoln, while he was born in Kentucky, got his legal and political career started in the state's capital of Springfield and was even interred there after his assassination.

However, don't go running away from me yet - this isn't going to be a history lesson of a post (although, I did minor in history in college), I've simply discovered a second Land of Lincoln that I was heretofore unaware of:  Canada.

Whaaaaaaaaa?   What does one of the greatest presidents in the history of our country have to do with our neighbors to the north?  Well, nothing really, at least not directly.  However, the coin on which his likeness is featured recently landed me a whole bunch of new hockey cards for my Blackhawks All-Time Roster Collection:

That's right, you've heard of dimeboxes; now, feast your eyes on the contents of a (virtual) penny box,, including these two gems in photo selection from 1998 UD.

When I have downtime, I often like the just browse for Cubs, Bears and/or Blackhawks cards on Ebay and sort the results by "lowest price + shipping."  The reasons why are as follows:  A) any cards that I buy because I'm just really bored better be inexpensive.  B)  In general, I'm a pretty well-known cheapskate.

Hahahahahaha, see what I did there?  I wrote cheap"SKATE" and this is a post about hockey cards! I'm so very clever.

Anyway, the search results for Blackhawks showed a couple of hundred listings from a single seller in Canada who was selling a bunch of hockey singles with a starting bid at one measly cent and no shipping cost.  It's pretty clear that the vendor was busting some old complete sets and likely just wanted them gone.  Well, in the words of the great Lt. Aldo Raine...

The only catch here was that the listings did not include pictures or team affiliations, so if prospective buyers wanted to search out specific teams, they'd have to do some tireless research.  Challenge accepted!

Unfortunately for me, my hours of flipping through listings turned up only one actual Blackhawks card (at least, where I eventually won the auction).  On the plus side, I did uncover several future and former Chicago hockey players hiding in plain sight.  For a penny a piece, I can always upgrade to black and red later.

Since there were so many cards to be had, I made it a bit of a game to see how many I could win without going past the initial bid.  I didn't expect to come away with more than a couple, after all, who could pass up such cheap auctions.  However, as you can see, I did quite a bit better than I expected.

The cards are all base and from the over-production era through today, so it's not like I was robbing a bank and getting Connor McDavid's Young Guns card for a copper Lincoln.  Nevertheless, if I thought dimeboxes were a minor miracle for my building my burgeoning Blackhawks collection, this was like a godsend.

I was especially happy to walk away with some bigger names from the current dynasty.

The 90's were also heavily represented in my haul - including a former captain in Martin LaPointe. The Redwings might be to the Blackhawks as the Packers are to Bears; but, I'll let this slide for a wheat back.

Additionally, there was a healthy smattering of the 21st century to be had too:

I'm especially fond of the 2012-13 UD Michal Handzus on the bottom left and the 2008-09 Craig MacDonald OPC Retro on the next to it.  For Handzus, I enjoy the minimalistic design of the set and I'm quite fond of the Hawks double-dipper for his staving off elimination in Game 5 of the 2014 Western Conference Finals with a game-winning goal in double OT against LA.

As for MacDonald, the blue border looks really nice with the blue in the Lightning jerseys.  That said, it's actually the back of the card that really does it for me:

I absolutely adore the skate found on the reverse of this set - it's a charming little touch and as a relatively new hockey collector, these sorts of details still have power over me.

Since MacDonald only played a handful of games for the team in 2007, no Hawks card was ever produced of him, I won't have to feel obligated to change it out.  That's okay with me.

As a closing act, I was even able to lock down a card of the latest player to breeze into Chicago:

Rob Scuderi was acquired in a trade for the ineffective and injury-plagued Trevor Daley with Pittsburgh not even ten days ago.  It was, in fact, the first player-for-player trade of the 2015-16 season.

Unfortunately, the Hawks' new defenseman took a puck to the face in last night's tilt against the Stars when a slapshot errantly deflected off of another stick.  Scuderi immediately collapsed to the ice - it was quite the frightening scene.  Thankfully though, the early reports are that Rob is okay and no serious injury was sustained.

I should note, however, that this card was a little more expensive, ten times more expensive!  Which, of course, only made it a dime, so I think I can live with that.  This card was listed about a week after I won all of the rest with a starting price of ten cents; thus, I think the seller decided to up his starting price a tad after I went nuts.

Who says pennies are worthless?

And this is why I sort my Ebay searches for "lowest price + shipping," you just never know what deals you're going to find.  In total, I was able to add 21 new players to my Blackhawks All-Time Roster Collection for about 50 cents.  How about that?

So, that's the story of how I discovered that Illinois is not the only "Land of Lincoln" on this continent - go Canada!  Has anyone else ever been fortunate enough to run across penny cards?  If so, what were you able to find?

In the meantime, I'll allow the Beatles to play me out...

Stress, Junk Food and Cardboard

Phew - between the end of the year overload at work, the stress of last minute Christmas shopping and holiday planning, and the normal wear and tear of the week have really caused my anxiety levels to shoot through the roof.  As a result, my free time has been spent mostly running from place to place to place, trying to take care of one of the above stressors.

However, blogging is a nice, cathartic exercise for me; so, I shall not be skipping today.  That said, I'll try to keep it fairly brief so that I can go back to worrying about this and that.  

A delicious piece of candy might help to calm me down; when I am particularly stressed out, I like to self-medicate with a lot junk food.  If it weren't for my naturally speedy metabolism, I'd be screwed (hopefully it holds out for a while).  Unfortunately, while the cards I'm about to show originally came with candy, that was not the case when I found them.

The 1922 E120 American Caramel Baseball Card set was a series of 240 cards distributed with the titular candy company's delectable delights.  The cards were color-coded by league, with American League players printed in brown on cream cardstock and the National League players printed in dark green on sea-foam cardstock.

Although, what I have here are actually a set of reprints produced in 1991.  So, even if a piece of caramel survived 90+ years, it wouldn't be found with this exact set.  Bah... technicalities.

I found this set at the LCS by my place of employment.  Another thing I like to do when I'm all bugged out is to flip through some cards; thankfully, a nearby card store makes that an easy task right after work.  

The proprietor of this particular establishment acquired these curiosities and kindly set them aside for me.  He's familiar with my goal of collecting one card of everyone to have ever played for the Cubs and noticed that this set featured a lot of obscure names.  

It was quite the pleasant surprise.  It might be a little hard to see his face, but the expression of Oscar Grimes' mug was probably exactly what mine looked like at the time.  Not only was being able to cross a nice handful of names off of my to-get list in one fell swoop a mood-changing experience, but the fact that someone thought enough of me to set them aside for me was especially uplifting.  Sometimes it's just nice to be thought of, you know?

What was also nice was the deal he cut me.  For the eight cards in the checklist that were needs in my collection, he ended up charging me a flat eight bucks.   My post-purchase research indicated to me that, even though they are reprints, singles from the 1991 edition regularly go for $1.50 for lesser names.  So, he even gave me a good deal - score!

Before these beauties joined my collection, I honestly had no idea that the set had ever been reprinted.  For a lot of these names, these are the only card they had printed in their name.  If not, there might have been one or two other ones; but, those too would be rare and super vintage.  I thought these would be white whale acquisitions for longer down the road, if I were to add these names to my collection.

After all, how many of these players have you actually heard of?  I mean, honestly?

As proven several times over the course of this pursuit and blog, reprints are my best friend when it comes to adding old-timey players to my CATRC.

 For reference, here's what the back of the cards look like:

As you can see, I did not purchase the full team set.  There were a few names on the checklist that I already had and since the set did not come sealed or shrink-wrapped, I was able to cherry pick just the cards that I needed.

The Cubs of the early 20's were not a particularly good team.  After their flukey World Series appearance in 1918, the club did not make a return trip until 1929 and usually hovered around 80 wins.  As you can see by the names on this particular list, their talent level reflects that.  Except for that Hartnett dude, later known as Gabby, he does have a spot in Cooperstown after all.

Curiously, though American Caramel lists the manager, there were no managerial cards included in the set at all.  This is unfortunate because Killefer is another guy that I need to track down.  Poor managers - they've never really gotten any love, it's not just Topps that has slighted them.

2009 - the last year managers were included in Topps Flagship

All told, finding these cards after a particularly bothersome work day was an immensely happy surprise and total mood improver.  Accordingly, so too has blogging about them been a cathartic and tension-reducing experience.  I am so very grateful to have this outlet.

On top of that, I just got a pretty swell coupon for pizza in my text inbox; so, I've got that going for me too.  While this time of year might be naturally anxiety-ridden, I just have to realize that it's not all bad and, while it can get intimidating, it's all totally manageable.

I hope you are all handling the holiday humbugs well too.  How is it that you all deal with your stressors this time of year?   I've found cardboard is relatively cheap therapy.

Now, about that junk food...

No, Not THAT Guy... Playing the Name Game

Last month, when I was digging through a multi-sport dimebox at my second-ever card show looking desperately for as many different Blackhawks players as I could possibly find, there was a card that immediately caught my eye; however, he wasn't on ice.  This was a card of a baseball player, a pitcher, from the pre-WWII era who I'd been searching for.  His name might sound fairly familiar to you.

There must be some misunderstanding, the man who drummed for and later fronted British prog-rockers Genesis did not abandon a career on the mound in order to pursue his musical dreams.  Phil Collins the baseball player died 3 years before Phil Collins the musician was even born.  These two men just both happen to share the same name and one of them took that moniker to much greater heights of fame... I think you know which one.

The pitcher was a Chicagoan who got a one game try out with his hometown Cubs in 1923 at the age of 21.  He wasn't seen in the Big Leagues again until 1929, at which point he became a stalwart of the middle of the Phillies rotation.  Most importantly though, is that single game with Chicago made him a need for my CATRC.

Besides the joy of unexpectedly landing a long-needed card from a random dimebox, this development got me thinking, how many other Cubs players share names with famous people?  It turns out that there are quite a few:

Collins wasn't even the only musician:

One of these guys was half of the famous country duo Brooks and Dunn, the other one played two partial seasons off of the bench for the mid-70's Cubs.  Can you guess which Ronnie Dunn is which?

Hint - it's the one wearing a v-neck with the sweet mustache... wait a minute...

I'M RICK JAMES BITCH!  

Pardon my french, but that famous quote from the Dave Chappelle show is something that can be uttered by both of these men as a truth.  Rick James the ballplayer was a first round ('65) flameout who pitched in all of 3 games while Rick James the man behind the microphone sang about superfreaks and wore A LOT of leather.

Hey hey we're the Monkees!...

Well, actually, only one of the men depicted above was a member of the Monkees; the other was an outfielder around the turn of the 20th century.  Although, as you can see, one commonality they shared in their respective professions was a flair for over-sized, floppy collars.

Additonally, there's another Davy Jones "floating" around who doesn't dabble in music:

That's right, pirate Davey Jones - ye of locker and Pirates of the Caribbean fame, argh!

Speaking of Hollywood, there's an actor with a movie that is aired and aired and aired and aired again this time of year who definitely didn't play in the infield for Chicago:

Jimmy Stewart the actor had a much more successful career than Jimmy Stewart the ballplayer. Of course, he had a much more successful and lengthy career than quite a few people.

Additionally, I think the Cubs franchise would have puttered on just fine without baseball Jim Stewart's .236 career average here.  I didn't need an angel or a movie repeating ad nauseam to tell me that.

Getting back to sports though, which one of these guys do you think was actually famous for biting off an ear?

I don't know; it looks like the guy in the pinstriped, powder-blue pajamas is chewing on something, after all.  It could be a big ol' wad of chaw, or it could be Evander Holyfield's hearing organ - I guess the world will never know for sure.

While Mike Tyson is the only shared-name that jumped off the pages at me across sports, there were several notable cases within the sport of baseball itself:

Jose can you see (by the dawn's early light) which one is which?

While our Jose Reyes might have only been called up as a favor for serving so long as organizational depth, at least he never was arrested for domestic abuse...  too soon?

Unfortunately, Pedro's older brother never did don a Chicago Cubs uniform.  If he had, maybe the Cubs of the early 90's would have been a team worth watching.

As such, the Ramon Martinez that actually did wear Cubbie blue got to be part of one of those Cubs teams worth watching - the 2003 Cubs.  Then, the backup infielder had to stick around and see the whole thing implode the next season.  Urgh.

Both of these men were rather good hurlers.  That said, Chicago's Bill Lee was never cool enough to take the mound in a full spaceman's outfit;  Boston's Bill Lee was one the great personalities of his era.

I guess, to be fair, that was at least partially because space travel wasn't possible until more than 20 years after the other one retired.  I GUESS that's a pretty good excuse; I'll allow it.

Here we have a situation where this same-name thing was actually confusing.  Card collectors and fans during the late 90's/early 00's, I'm sure you all are on the same page as me here.  Two players with the same moniker, having come up at about the same time and playing the same position made them hard to differentiate at times.

It's too bad they never made it to the same team at the same time - that would have been quite interesting.

Two famous sluggers sharing a famous name.  One made it into the Hall of Fame, the other really only qualifies for the Hall of Very Good.  I think you know which is which.

While Cardinal Carpenter might have cheated pitcher's death several times and had a much longer and storied career, it was the Cubs version that was traded to Boston for the rights of some guy named Theo...

I think, correct me if I'm wrong, that trade worked out pretty well for Chicago.

In fact, that trade almost seems unreal - almost as unreal as the fictional characters who share names with the following Cubs:

Dang it Bobby!  That boy ain't right.

Those phrases pretty accurately describe both the cartoon son of Hank Hill and the busted 2B prospect.  I still can't believe we got the Pirates to take him in the Aramis Ramirez/Kenny Lofton deal.

Okay, obviously Tom Gordon's real name wasn't actually "Flash;" but, this one is too cool not to include.  First of all, when you're nickname is pervasive enough to make it onto the nameplate of your baseball card, you know you're pretty good.

Second of all, while the "real" Flash (savior of the universe) was busy saving everyone of us, the other one made a long career out of saving games as a closer for several teams.  The nickname works on two levels!

Although, Flash Gordon might be an outdated reference of childhood wonderment for kids of today; we do have a Cub who shared a name with someone who continues to bring children joy to this very day:

Why did one of the coolest names in baseball history have to wasted a low-life like the one Jim Hendry signed just so the lineup could be more left-handed?  Why?

The namesake and founder of the world's best-known board game company stood for fun and friendly competition; ironically, two things that the baseball playing version seemed to be completely against.

Moving on, one thing you absolutely have to have to play a Milton Bradley game is a sturdy table, something our next star might be able to help you with:

Nope - this Ethan Allen had nothing to do with the founding of the popular furniture company.  The "only" thing he created was 1,325 hits on the diamond and his own board game, All Star Baseball for Cadaco-Ellis.  Also, as the head coach of the baseball team for Yale, Allen mentored a young George H.W. Bush.  How's that for a career?

While we're on the subject of politicians...

Turns out there was a founding father who also signed that name, who was also a hero of the American Revolution as a colonel and a general and later parlayed that into a career in politics.  Looks like the name "Ethan Allen" is a pretty accomplished one, huh?

At that, let's call it a day on the Cubs name game.

There are a few other names with some less-famous connections, but the above were definitely the most eye-catching.  When I started this little research project, I had no idea there'd be so many hits!

Of course, there are far more of these occurrences when we open the parameters to everyone who has ever played Major League Baseball.  I'd like to know, what are some of the best examples from your favorite franchise?  My curiosity has been piqued.

All of this, just because I finally found a card of a pitcher who just so happened to share his name with the guy from Genesis.  This is the world we live in, these are the hands were given... and I use them to research similar funny coincidences and blog about it.

Go me?