Keep Your Willie Warm

To say the least, it's been awfully cold in the Chicagoland area for the past few days.  In fact, at one point yesterday morning, it was colder in the Windy City than it was on the surface of the red planet Mars... holy Chi-beria, Batman!  In contrast, later today, the mercury is due to rise all the way up to the low thirties; it's going to feel like a summer heat wave.  I think I'll run shirtless this afternoon.

This recent warmup did nothing to help the latest trade envelope to arrive in the Wrigley Roster Jenga mailbox, which was deposited in the nearly frozen over receptacle yesterday afternoon.  This chilled PWE came courtesy of the blogosphere's dime box king and fellow Chicago Eskimo, Nick, and was actually cold to the touch.

Let me just take this opportunity to remind all the guys reading this blog - it's essential that you keep your Willie warm:

I was talking about Willie Stargell, Forever stamps, obviously.  Get your mind out of the gutter, folks.

In what has become something of a trademark for Nick's mailings, a baseball-themed stamp was affixed to the outside of the envelope; so, I knew who was generous enough to gift me with some cards without even having to see the return address. 

Another detail that I could easily pick out was that poor Pops was chilled to the bone... and not just because I too was standing outside.  Rather, it was so frigid out there, that the first couple of cards to fall out of the envelope were quite clearly physically affected by the temperatures:

Just look at that, we have snowflakes on the surface of this Jason Hammel and Ian Happ has actually frozen over... the horror!!......

What's that?  They're SUPPOSED to be like that?  Oh *ahem* well, then...

The Hammel comes from Topps' recent gimmick of a parallel set - Topps Holiday.  I actually enjoy this gimmick, as the snowflakes look better than the smoke seen on the normal design. Meanwhile, we also have a "ice" parallel of Ian Happ's 2016 Bowman Platinum card, which were exclusive to value boxes.  It's super shiny and will look great in my CATRC binder when Happ makes the ultimate ascent.

Speaking of shimmery Bowmans, here's the Vogelmonster via the 2013 edition of Bowman Chrome. Vogelbach appeared on a "Risin' Thru the Ranks" insert then; but, now, he appears to have finished rising, as he's penciled in as a starter for Seattle next season.  Shame they couldn't find room for his potent bat in Chi-Town.

Along with the former Cubs prospect, we have another guy who never actually suited up with the Cubs in Warren G.  I've never been much a rap aficionado, but I was, at least, tangentially aware of the "Regulate" songster.  I think we can all agree that the First Pitch insert set has been a fun one.

Things must be warming up with this PWE, judging by the wispy smoke rising from the corners of Mr. G there...

In fact, it's starting to get hot - red hot, in fact.  "Red hot," as in, red parallels.

Neither one of these players amounted to much in the Second City, although Randy Wells did have a couple of decent seasons as a mid-rotation, innings-eater.  No matter, next to blue, red is the second best color for Cubs parallels, definitively.  After all, it is the franchise's secondary color.  In short, both of these Target exclusives will look quite sharp in my binders.

I'm all out of temperature-related puns and jokes.  However, although this envelope was shipped first-class, it appears as though Mark Prior is all about that express delivery; at least, that's what this 2003 Upper Deck MVP subset indicates.  Neat multi-exposure shot!

Ernie Banks certainly looks impressed by Mark's delivery, as we Chicagoans all were circa 2003 *sigh*.  At any rate, a new beaming Banks is always a welcome sight.  Seriously, that might be the most infectious smile in human history.

OOOOOOOOOO - turn of the millennia-era Pacific!  You know what that means, bright colors, busy designs and deep checklists.

Jose Nieves is shown floating in a big, Cubbie-blue purgatory on this 2000 Paramount single and you all know how I feel about blue Cubs cards.  Along with the former shortstop prospect, we have Tyler Houston, starting catcher for the 1998 NL Wild Card winners.  I opened a few packs of Online back in the day and I remember it seemed so high-tech and futuristic to have URLs on baseball cards... now it just looks dated and silly, especially when written out in full like that.  Where's our Twitter handle and hash tag cards?

What http://www.cubs.com looked like about the time this card was produced.

Of course, I like the dated nature of the card - it almost feels like a time capsule to my childhood.  The design is exceptionally eye-catching too.  Houston - we don't have a problem.

Speaking of dated and time capsules and such, here's a pair of cards that are far older than the late 1990's:

Vintage is always welcome in this house, especially when both cards present conditional upgrades.  My original Hobbie had some serious surface scuffing while my Tappe was more off-center than your average politician.  Score!

Also, I feel like the "C" on Tappe's helmet is way too big to be real - it looks airbrushed, to me.  However, the light-hitting, back-up catcher never played with the any other team in the Bigs.  Perhaps the picture dates from his time in Los Angeles or some other minor league stop?  Perhaps it was originally blank?  The world may never know for sure.

There was one more vintage card included in Nick's gift, one that presented another quirk:

Okay - I love everything about this card.  Vintage, oddball, mustachioed Bruce Sutter, powder blue pajama pinstripes, my favorite edition of Kellogg's cards (they're standard size), no bowing or cracking... this card is downright perfect.

Well, except for one, tiny detail - this isn't a Cubs card.  At least, not technically.

Don't believe me?  Flip it over:

Ah ha - this card came out right after the Hall of Famer's controversial trade to the Cardinals... cheapskate Wrigleys...

I didn't notice this little detail until I was sitting down to draft this post.  Obviously the good people at Kellogg's didn't have an image of the split-finger master in Cardinals duds yet and, since no team affiliation is listed on the front, there's no way to tell he's switched teams without turning it over.  While this card might technically be classified as a Cardinals card, it's still a Cubs piece in my mind - a picture is worth a thousand words.

Plus, it's still a super card, regardless.

Much like Ralston Purina, that trade was for the dogs...

And so, we've reached the end of this surprise PWE.  Like the frozen Chicago tundra, everything in the envelope was really cool, though in a much different way.

Thank you, Nick!  I'll make sure to properly return the favor, as soon as possible - I've had a nice bunch of cards starting to build up with your name on it.  Nothing as captivating as your Christmas Ichiro or vintage Sadarahu Oh and Mickey Mantle though - holy moly!  That kind of generosity will keep you warm, no matter how arctic circle-like it is outside.

That said, you should probably still wear a hot, gloves, scarf and parka, should you decide to venture outside - just in case.

Too Many Awesome Cards

'Tis the season of giving. We are just six short days away from everyone's favorite gift-giving holiday and the pressure is on to come up with that perfect Christmas present.  Thankfully, we card bloggers are quite easy to shop for and, also, awfully generous.  Throughout the lead-up to December 25th, I've seen many a blog post offering up free cards to a good home, one of which came from Dennis at Too Many Verlanders. 

Dennis and I had never traded before and I felt weird claiming a stack of cards, being a total stranger and all.  However, Dennis was feeling the spirit of the season and was more than willing to offer up a stack of 50 or so Chicago Bears singles that had caught my fancy.

As an added bonus, Dennis also threw is some special surprises, as well.  But, we'll get to those later.  First, the Bears portion of this Christmas package:

These represent my first cards of either Brandon Meriweather or Eddie Goldman in a Bears uniform.  Previously, both were depicted in the jerseys of their alma mater in my Bears All-Time Roster Collection binder.  These make for an excellent pair of upgrades.

Next up, we have former Bears receiver hauling in a couple of catches, including an impressive one-handed grab during training camp.  Catching never was the problem with Brandon, though.

I'm a sucker for shiny and this Topps Platinum single really caught my eye - I'd never owned anything from this set before.  Thus, the rainbow-foiled version of Mr. Marshall will also be sliding into my Bears binder.

Kevin Butler was the kicker for the 1985 Bears and, as such, will always get spotlighted on this blog when he, or any other Bear from that squad, shows up in a trade package.  In terms of beloved teams, I don't know that there's a stronger infatuation than that which Chicago has with Ditka's men.

Also, found within Dennis' Bears lot was a good amount of visually appealing Matt Forte cards, including this 2013 Rookies and Stars card from Panini.  Rookie Jordan Howard has been doing his best to make we Chicagoans forget about Forte, but it's still bizarre to think of the running back as a New York Jet...

This Brian Urlacher rookie was on top of the stack in Dennis' original post and it certainly helped sway me into claiming the lot.  Back when the future HOF'er actually had hair... well, he has hair again now, thanks to some restoration procedure, which is weird to see in and of it's self... anyway, long story short, it's a bit jarring to see the center with follicles.

Julius Peppers might not have worked out too well in Chicago, but this Panini sticker is still more than welcome in my collection.  I have bought exactly one pack of sticker product in my entire collecting life, so anytime these show up they are essentially guaranteed to be new to me.

That about sums up the Bears lot, definitely some good, useful stuff for my Bears hoard.  That said, it was the bonuses that Dennis threw in with the gridiron gang that entirely stole the show from Urlacher and Co.:

Here's a pair of team-issued photo cards from the early 90's - I'm not sure exactly what year this was, but the team used a similar design throughout the late 80's/early 90's. 

If I've made one thing clear on this blog, it's that I love oddballs.  The collecting landscape would be quite dull if it were made up of just Topps, Panini, Upper Deck, etc.  Oddballs of one of my childhood favorites, like Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, are icing on an already delicious cake.

While these glossy, over-sized cards were used by players to fill autograph requests throughout the year, these two did not come with the John Hancocks of the players pictured.  That doesn't matter though, this package still contained plenty of signed star power!

Awww sweet, a IP auto of should-be-Hall of Famer Rafael Palmeiro.  The wood grain borders of '87 Topps, the colorful "Future Stars" banner and the short-term stop of Raffy all combine to create one of my favorite cards of the 80's and now I have my own, signed copy!

This was a sight to behold when it fell out of the padded mailer and, it alone would have made for an excellent gift.  Instead, Dennis decided to completely blow me out of the water with another "Ultra" inclusion:

Joe Girardi might be a Yankee manager first in many a person's mind; however, he'll always be a beloved back-up backstop for the Cubs in my North side-obsessed brain.

1991 Fleer Ultra is already a sleek, "less is more" type set with excellent photography.  This expertly framed play at the plate has kicked up a faint cloud of dust, which creates the perfect backdrop for a Joe's penmanship.  Seriously, it's almost like the card was designed with that purpose.  That Expo base runner might be out at the plate, but this bonus is a score!

Thank you Dennis, you really knocked it out of the park with this package.  Fifty new Bears cards, two Cubs oddballs and two new autographs for my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection binder - out of that bounty, only the Bears cards were expected.  Simply amazing!  I'll be sure to return the favor ASAP.

Dennis certainly knows how to make an introduction.

MLB - Major League Bremen

Just about a week ago, I wandered into my alma mater for a community rummage sale.  I don't think that I'm the only card collector who enjoys these sort of resale events - I think most of us love to peruse flea markets, garage sales, thrift shops, and other similar secondhand shopping happenings in hopes of coming across some abandoned trading cards.  This rummage sale was held in the cafeteria of my old stomping ground and, outside of a decent button-up dress shirt, didn't end up having anything to make me want to open my wallet.  However, that doesn't mean the day was devoid of baseball cards.

Within the last couple of years, Bremen High School has done some rennovating and part of the draw to this rummage sale was the opportunity to walk around and take my first, firsthand look at what they've done.  Some fresh coats of paint and a mural have really spruced up the joint.  Additionally, there were some new display cases for showcasing notable alumni.

Behind the glass, I was pleased to see that Bremen's only Major League Baseball player had made the case:

Pete Lovrich, class of 1960, pitched in 21 games for the old Kansas City Athletics in 1963.  Over the course of 20.2 innings (including one start), the former Bremen Brave posted a 7.84 ERA with a 1-1 record.  I suppose you can see how Pete ended up being a "one-year wonder."

From the nearby community of Blue Island, Lovrich went from the All-Conference ace of the Bremen pitching staff, to Arizona State University.  When he ascended to the Bigs, he was both the first (and only) Brave and the first Sun Devil to play Major League Baseball.  While his time probably didn't go as well as he'd hoped, he can always hang his hat on those bits of trivia.

As you can see from the quick picture I snapped, the school even made sure to include a copy of his only baseball card as part of the display - a 1964 Topps single:

Here's a better look, courtesy of COMC.  If anyone happens to have an extra one of these lying around, I sure wouldn't mind talking trade.  I feel like I should own a card of the only guy to have both walked the halls of Bremen High School and from the bullpen to an MLB mound.

I'm irrationally glad to see that Bremen had put up this display, seeing as I had been completely unaware of Pete's accomplishment until long after I graduated.  It seems criminal that such a notable alumni wasn't being celebrated by his school.

Meanwhile, while Mr. Lovrich might have been the only Bremen Brave to make it all the way to the majors, he isn't the only professional athlete to hail from our small-ish high school.  There was still one more baseball card proudly on display:

Tim Flannigan is a name that was much more recognizable to me, seeing as he was the Bremen baseball coach during my four years of schooling, one of which was spent on the baseball roster.  I played with the freshman squad during my first year of high school before realizing I was better at running around a track than hitting a baseball and Coach Flannigan was the varsity coach, so our paths didn't actually cross very much.  Still, pretty cool to see such a familiar face on a baseball card.

The second-team All Stater starred on the same diamond a little less than a decade earlier, playing up the middle.  After a collegiate career for nearby Saint Xavier University, Flannigan was drafted in the 30th round of the 2000 amateur draft and signed on the dotted line with the New York Mets.

The Harvey-native played for two years in the bushes with the Mets org - he spent the 2000 season with the low-A Pittsfield Mets (with whom he's shown on the framed, team-issued card) and 2001 with the single-A Capital City Bombers.  As a utility infielder, Coach Flannigan could only muster a 

.202/.302/.258 slash line before his release, but he still played in 73 more professional games than I did.

A powerful swing(and miss) during my diamond days

In the end, while I wasn't able to pick up anything new for my collection at this rummage sale, my morning wasn't completely baseball card-less.  The short trip was worth it to see this new display, anyway.

I felt compelled to show these notable alumni off, after seeing some similar-themed posts pop up on the blogosphere.  Gavin, of Baseball Card Breakdown, and his "Guys from Granite" collection comes to mind, specifically.  Bremen High School might not have produced very many professional athletes, but there are a few, including Mr. Lovrich and Coach Flannigan.  I suppose they have molded some fine young minds as well... but sports!

Go Braves!

The One Where Gavin Outdoes Himself

Gavin, of Baseball Card Breakdown notoriety, and his Christmas mailings are quickly becoming the stuff of legends.  Last year, his "LaMarr-y Chrstmas" ornaments broke the blogosphere and the cards he included with them weren't so bad either.  On a related note, surely, by now, you've seen his skills with custom cards; the man should be on Topps payroll, just sayin'.

Well, this year, he really took it up a notch with his now-annual Holiday mailings... something that I fully wasn't prepared for.  On a day when all of the packages in the world showed up on my doorstep and the UPS man probably threw out his back carrying them all, it was Gavin's plain white envelope was the star of the day, outshining all of the Christmas gifts, bachelorette party supplies and Advocare check.  It was that good.

Allow me to show you why:

It takes an exceptional mailing for a fan-favorite, red refractor (nee Prizm) to be the least-interesting card of the bunch.  That is to say, on any other day, this 2013 PRIZM single might have been one of the highest of the highlights.  After all, with red being the secondary color for the Cubs, red parallels usually work quite well with Northsider cards.  As it stands, today it's the opening act.

Next up, we shift gears a little bit with another parallel, but from a different sport.  Shane Carden never did suit up with the Bears, but this spiffy blue parallel, numbered /99, from 2015 Score will still look sharp in my Bears collection.  In case you were wondering, the former East Carolina signal caller has been suiting up with the Montreal Allouettes this season.

Next to Mr. Carden, we have another QB who never made it out of the pre-season with the Monsters of the Midway.  However, this 2007 Chris Leak SP Chirography autograph (also numbered /99)  represents my very first football autograph card.  That's good for some major bonus points!

Annnnndddd it didn't take long for my second Bears autograph to show up.  This one is especially significant to me, as I was introduced to Garrett Wolfe (and Greg Olsen) the year they were drafted (2008) at the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge 5k race in downtown Chicago, but I was too starstruck to ask for their John Hancocks.  Thank you, Gavin, for rectifying my stage fright-induced missed opportunity.

Also, this UD Premier, Premier Penmanship signature is numbered to, you guessed it, 99.  I guess that's the number of the day.

This is the point in opening the envelope where I nearly fell over.  These exclusive oddballs were given away by the USD Torerros at the MLB All-Star Game Fanfest this past summer and the first time I saw one of these pop up on the internet, I started drooling.  Seeing as the event was hosted in San Diego this year, I guess Gavin had the hookup for multiples of this little number, seeing as he's a Bryant collector himself.

Hot damn - this regional oddity will look swell in my collection of non-MLB Cubs cards, which I call my Nothing Major binder.

If the envelope were empty at this point, it would have already been one of my favorite mailings of the entire year.  Yet, the hits kept on coming.  If Starlin was the the opening act and Kris Bryant was the main event, we're about to be treated to an unannounced secret set of  "Rolling Stones-level" proportions:

The man, the myth, the legend - tell me, who doesn't love Bill freakin' Murray.  I'm fairly sure that it's written into Illinois law that disliking the Ghostbuster, greenskeeper, zombie survivor, Groundhogs day re-liver, Scrooge stand-in, SNL alum is expressly forbidden.  The native Chicagoan also just so happens to be a baseball fanatic and his team of choice is the Cubs.

Amazingly, Mr. Murray has not showed up in Cubs gear on an actual card yet, at least until Gavin decided to fix this unjust slight with these two customs; spot on, perfect recreations of 1981 Feer and 1988 Score.

Gavin also went so far as to perfectly recreate to backs of these designs with in-depth and informative write ups.  I was exceptionally delighted to see that Gavin mentioned Bill's brief stint as an actual, uniformed pro baseball player.  That's right, in 1978, William took two at-bats with the independent Grays Harbor Loggers as part of an SNL production.  Don't believe me?  He even has a Baseball Reference entry.

Image courtesy of Fox Sports

Eat your heart out, Will Ferrell!

Gavin brings both design skills AND knowledge to the table with his expertly crafted customs.

Speaking of customs, I believe this is a card blog first - a custom rip card, using a pair of junk wax Tony Gwynn's  My "2016 Holiday Blast Breakdown" ripper is #2/25.

The question of whether to rip or not to rip was made easy for me, as my carelessness led to some paper loss on the front.  Clumsy me.

What curiosities did the inside of this card of wonders contain within?  The suspense was killing me.

WOOT!!!  A hand-made, Ron Santo magnet.  My favorite Cubs player of all-time on a one-of-a-kind, refrigerator decoration?  This rip card could not have worked out any better for me.

See?  it's truly is a 1/1. With the artist's signature to boot.  Boom goes the dynamite!

This unique piece of art will be center stage on my refrigerator - it's easily the coolest magnet on the big, white appliance:

See?  Definitely the best magnet.

Gavin - thank you a million times over for the overly-generous, "Holiday Blast" mailing.  In summation, this surprise PWE contained two sweet parallels, my first football autographs, a collegiate Kris Bryant, Bill Murray's first Cubs cards, and a Ron Santo 1/1 magnet delivered by way of a rip card.  In the immortal words of one Harry Christopher Carabina, aka Harry Caray, "Holy Cow!"

Also, I believe this extends your streak of blog roll appearances with the "Holiday Blast" to four days in a row.   We're past halfway with your goal of one, full week.

Exposure well-deserved.

A Bump and Run Christmas Gift

'Tis the gift-giving season and I have never been very good at bestowing gifts upon those I care about.  It's not selecting the surprise that is the problem; my issue in exchanging comes with keeping things a secret.  On multiple occasions, I've walked into the same room as my better half, gift in hand, before the big day.  Furthermore, in a momentary lapse of judgement, I've also asked her opinion on the gift itself before I've even given it to her.  In short, secret-keeping is not a skill that I can list on my resume.

Thank goodness Santa Claus isn't as ham-fisted and loose-lipped as I am.

One person who is clearly much better at this than I am is fellow Cubs fan Trevor, of Bump and Run Football Cards fame.  Yesterday, after a long day of dealing with spirited junior high kids, I came home to find an unexpected PWE in my mailbox.  That's a sight that's sure to brighten the day of any card collector, an exceptionally pleasant surprise.

Trevor even went the extra mile and included this lovely note of Christmas prose and tidings.  I'm starting to feel pretty festive myself too, after this surprise "bump and run."  Now, if this was me trying to surprise a fellow blogger, I would have asked them if they had gotten the specific cards I sent them before I'd even placed the envelope in a mailbox.

Of course, there was more than just a note included within the plain, white envelope - Trevor gave me the gift of Cubbie cardboard for Christmas and I couldn't be happier:

Ah - Starlin Castro, how I wish the longtime Cub and perennial hope for the franchise could have been around for when the club ultimately ascended the mountain.  But, without him, the Cubs don't get Ben Zobrist and who knows what happens then?

Bowman isn't generally a product I often dabble in, so any base cards from those checklists are almost guaranteed to be new to me.  This is no exception.

Retail oddballs rock and, as I mentioned in my "final countdown" of the best cards of 2016 , I truly hope that the Lids and Marketside promotions from earlier this year reopen those floodgates.  Meanwhile, this 1990 Kmart Super Stars Ryne Sandberg, showing of his powerful cut, will more than suffice.

Coincidentally, a lot of our household's Christmas shopping has been done at Kmart in recent years.  Thus, whenever I see that retail chain's name, I immediately associate it with the holidays.  How appropriate!

Here we have a good, old fashioned showdown - as in, 2002 Wizards of the Coast MLB Showdown.  To be completely honest, I've never actually played the card game as Wizards intended (Pokemon, though, that's another story), but that certainly hasn't stopped me from adding the game cards to my collection, strategy cards and all.

I love the mound-conference shot, an event which is not often documented on cardboard.  Here we have Todd Hundley, Ricky Gutierrez, Julio Zuleta and an unidentified pitcher and second baseman having an in-depth conversation, which I can't help but imagine went something like this:

Off topic - the more I think about it, I've come to realize that Bull Durham may very well be my favorite of all baseball movies.  The flick still makes me laugh out loud today and I find myself quoting it on an almost daily basis.  Although, 61* does give it a run for it's money.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Trevor closed his glad Christmas tidings with one more shiny card; however, it's technically not a Cubs card.  I think I'm okay with it's inclusion though:

A minor league Addison Russell, from 2012 Elite Extra Edition?  Yes, please!

It's almost to the point where I forget that this young star ever spent time in the Oakland organization, like Rizzo with the Padres or Hendricks with the Rangers - they all just seem like Cubs, blue through and through, now.

I bet winning that World Series together had something to do with it.

 Equally bizarre sights.

Thank you, Trevor for the generous Christmas surprise.  As a fellow Cubs collector, I know it must have been difficult to part with a few of your coveted Cubs and I greatly appreciate it.  I'm especially fond of that Oakland Addy.  I'll be sure to return the favor with some Cubs and Packers (blech!), as soon as possible.

Of course, it won't be much of  a surprise, now that I've told you.  But, then, that's just how I roll.