Like Father, Like Son

A happy Father's Day to all!

In the long and (sometimes) illustrious history of the Chicago Cubs, several sons have followed in their father's bear tracks to play on the North Side.  So, in honor of this day to honor our dear ol' dads, let's take a look at these various pairs, starting with the ones for which I have cards of both:

*Update* So, even though Wrigley Wax already did a very similar post this morning, I already had this half drafted; so, I'm just going to go ahead and finish it.  Sorry for the repitition!

Bobby had a nice, long 14-season trip through the Major Leagues, spending the bulk of his time as the starting second baseman in Cincy.  Towards the end though, he came to fill a utility role with the Cubs; a gig which he parlayed into coaching career with the club after his retirement in 1959.

Meanwhile, the younger Adams' career wasn't very noteworthy; he spent his entire career as a backup outfielder on some pretty "meh" teams, including the Cubs from 1976-77.  His slash line in Chicago was an anemic .129/.325/.194.

An American League pitcher with a bat; always a rare treat on cardboard.

Joe was a successful bullpen pitcher for hire throughout the 70's; however, he had to overcome a skull-fracture caused by a comebacker in 1971.  The problem wasn't just physical, it was psychological too; after returning, he would recoil after every pitch in fear.  How did he get over it?  "I went to see a Catholic priest who doubles as a hypnotist. He put me under seven times in four days. After that, I didn't have any fear of getting hit, and my control was better."

After the juju, Joe went on to pitch through the '79 season, going out as a member of the "We Are Family" Pirates.

Maybe we should have sent Casey to the same priest; maybe that would have fixed the massive control problems that kept him from seizing his opportunity to take a spot in the Cubs' rotation in the early part of this decade.

One of these two is a treasured legend in franchise history who still serves as a sort of goodwill ambassador for the Cubs with his Fantasy Camp in AZ.  All of this after a iron-man career as a backstop for the consistently competitive teams of the 60's, including the beloved '69 Cubs.

The other is grateful that Milton Bradley was such a royal pain in the ass; otherwise, his name would go down in team history as the worst free agent signing instead of the psychopathic Bradley.

Can you guess which one?

Marty played the outfield and Matt was a moundsman.  Both eventually found their way to Chicago at or near the very end of their journeyman careers.  Like father, like son.

Marty played for 6 teams in 11 years from 1956-66, peacing out by hitting .231 in 33 games as an extra outfielder/pinch hitter for Chicago.

Matt was an A from 1977-83, including an All-Star campaign in 1978.  But, by 1982, he was leading the league in losses with 18 and was soon traded away.  He spent the next four years with four  different teams, including 19 bullpen appearances with a 4.97 ERA in his last season (1986).

The Sarge was a part of Dallas Green's massive overhaul of the roster going into the 1984 season, coming to Chicago in the Bob Dernier trade, and immediately became both a key bat in the lineup and a fan favorite as well.  Already well into his career, Gary was in decline by the time this 1987 Topps card was released and was out of the big leagues by the end of the year.

His son was toolsy outfield prospect who just never could put it all together for the Cubs in 2000-01.  It wasn't until several years after they jettisoned him that he went from roster filler to All-Star for the Rangers and landed one of the most infamously bad contracts in recent years with Texas.

Gary Jr.'s card came from a garage sale that the Cubs put on at Wrigley the last time that they remodeled the bleachers in 2006 (the same year Matthews exploded).  It was part of a complete set that seems to have been put out by the team in 2000 with sponsorship from Sears.  I've never seen these anywhere else and don't know anything else about them.

I really like the backs of these; a nice simple layout with some detailed bio info and even the player's numbers.  The full set sits somewhere in one of my binders; does anyone know anything more about this oddball set?  Maybe it wasn't ever actually put out?

To me, Chris Speier is a boozing, old third base coach that served under Dusty Baker's coaching staff in the mid-00's.  But, of course, he had a nice long career, first as a starting shortstop and then as a utility infielder 20-30 years before.  Two of those years were with the Cubs from 1986-87, but he'll still always be that shadow of his former self to me.

His son Justin came up with the NL Wild Card winning team of 1998; but, he was sent packing (in one of many short-sighted Cubs trades of the era) to Florida for supposed bullpen reinforcement Felix Heredia.  Justin went on to become an actual reliable reliever for the next decade while Felix began a slow and steady demise.

That tale is far too common in Cubs history.  Thank God for Theo!

...And now, for those father-son duos that I only have one card of, I've simulated one using the phenomenal Rookies smart phone app:

FOr the longest time, I thought these two guys were the same person.  Same name, same position, but slightly different era.

Father Cooney played for the then-Chicago Colts from 1890-92 as their regular shortstop.  That was the extent of his Big League time, excepting a brief six game stint with the original Washington Senators the next year.  I don't know much else about the dude, other than he died just ten years later.

His son had a couple cups of coffee in 1917 & 1919 and then from 1924-28 he saw regular action.  Just like his dad, he started at short in Chicago for a year and half in 1926-27.

Mini Cooney's card comes from a set of playing cards released under Jack Brickhouse's name in 1985.  It seems to be the only baseball card that either Cooney has ever gotten; thus, I had no choice but to split up the deck.

Good thing I don't really play cards.

The Macko story is a tragic one in baseball history.  Joe was a minor league lifer who spent some time with the Cubs organization, eventually being added to the club's big league coaching staff during the comical College of Coaches era.  But, he never did see time as "Head Coach."

Joe's career extended into the 21st century, working in various capacities for the Texas Rangers.

His son Steve was a top prospect in the Cubs organization. In 1980, Macko's promising career stalled after he incurred a bad bruise in a collision with Bill Madlock. From there, doctors discovered he had testicular cancer and Macko died of the disease in November of 1981.

Such a bright career and an all around good guy extinguished far too early.

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There ya have it; all of the Cubs' father-son combinations throughout history.

A happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!  I have a bbq to attend to with my dear ol' dad; so, I'll catch you all on the flip side.

The OTHER St. Louis Baseball Team

Unless you live under a rock, you know that St. Louis baseball has been all over the news for the past few days.  Unfortunately for them, it's not because the Cardinals somehow manage to keep being an unstoppable winning machine despite half of their key players being disabled ( I maintain that it's a deal with the devil; after all, their primary color is red....)

No, it's because someone or someones in that organization were bitter towards Jeff Luhnow and decided to hack the Astros computer system - very haphazardly and recklessly at that.  The FBI is involved and there's likely going to be some jail time involved.

But you know what St. Louis baseball club isn't involved in a high-tech computer hacking scandal?  The St. Louis Browns, that's who! Mostly because they played their last season way back in 1953 and computers were still the size of gymnasiums; but, that's beside the point.

 

Last week, I picked up this lovely, oddball set of 50's-themed baseball cards from one of my LCS's for a few bucks.  It was released in 2003 and designed by Ronnie Joyner - a sports cartoonist who has created several fascinating sets of baseball cards.  The Washington City Paper recently spotlighted Ronnie and it is a fascinating read; check it out here.

The set at hand honors the 50th anniversary of the final edition of the St. Louis Browns, who immigrated from the Gateway to the West in the opposite direction and became the Baltimore Orioles after the 1953 season.

The complete set includes 40 cards, including all 38 players who saw game action and two cards that could be combined to make a large, floating-head team card (seen in the middle).  These were sold in complete packages, which even came with a fancy, foil seal (so you know it's a big deal):

Now, I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking "Tony, you're a pretty strict Cubs collector, what possible use could you have for such a niche set of a long-forgotten team?"

Well, first of all, I've long had a fascination with teams from days gone by; ever since I pulled a "weird" card of Walter Johnson on some "weird" team from Washington, I've always set aside cards of Senators, Browns, Pilots, Colt .45's, etc. etc.  I'm a baseball nerd AND a history nerd.

Second of all, this set contains one of only two cards that were produced of a guy who saw some time with the Cubs way back when.  The other was also a commemorative set, this one done by Larry Frtisch, in 1998 for a team reunion; but, that's not important right now.

So, when I saw this random, obscure set sitting on the discount table of local store, I couldn't pass it up. 

 



Ed Mickelson got three separate cups of coffee (must've been free refills?) for three different teams in the 50's:  the Cardinals, the Browns and the Cubbies.  The first baseman only totaled 18 at-bats through all three stints and posted a collective .081 batting average in that time; you can see why he didn't get much of a look.

He didn't head to Baltimore with the rest of his '53 teammates, as he was purchased by the Shreveport Texas League club the following April.  Mickelson bounced around the bushes for several more seasons before the Cubs gave him a final look in 1957; he was hitless in 12 plate appearances.

Unfortunately for him, Eddie wasn't long for this town

Image courtesy of Kevin Baskin



I'm very happy to finally be able to add Ed to my CATRC, as it was getting frustrating seeing my saved Ebay search populated by nothing but Phil Mickelson memorabilia.  I don't particularly care for the gentleman's game.

However, it turns out that Eddie wasn't the only card I was able to add to the CATRC.

Les Moss never actually played for the Chicago National League ball club; but the grisly, old backup catcher did serve as the Cubs pitching coach in 1981 after toiling as a manager in their beleaguered farm system for a few years.

The split-season '81 squad went a combined 38-65, leading to the firing of general manager Bobby Kennedy that May and the dismissal of skipper Joe Amalfitano in the off-season.  Les was a casualty of replacement manager Lee Elia bringing in his own staff, so he went to Houston and guided their pitching staff from 1982-89, including an NL West title in 1986.

Les somehow smiling the dismal 1981 season

(must be early on, before the true misery, judging by the browned ivy)

Image courtesy of MemoFX

I recently decided to actually pursue collecting coaches and giving them their own special section in my CATRC binder (which is players, managers and coaches) after merely setting their cards aside and doing nothing with them for many years.

You might say that they were just gathering "Moss" in the interim; "Les" is more after all.

Okay... Fozzy Bear wouldn't even have laughed at those puns.  I apologize.

There were a few other '53 Browns who logged time in Chicago; however, I already have cards of them in their proper blue uniforms.  That said, I'll gladly hang on to these for their miniscule player collections.

Obviously, the biggest name here is Mr. Larsen.  Now, despite looking like a senior citizen in this particular rendering, Don was a fresh-faced, 23-year old rookie - long before the notoriety he would gain for his World Series perfecto or his Cubs debut no-hitter.

Here is what the backs of the cards looks like:  very similar to the flagship designs of the time, except clearer, crisper and easier to read with modern printing techniques.  Each included a unique cartoon about the player (unlike the recycling Topps likes to do in their retro-themed sets) along with a detailed bio and the player's stat line from that final season.

I chose to show off the back of Littlefield's card because I found it the most amusing.  I suppose the modern day equivalent would be a player looking at his Twitter feed or MLBTradeRumors.com.

Original image courtesy of Kevin Baskin

Two-bit, hackjob editing courtesy of me

The rest of the cards in the set hold no particular interest to me, so if anyone wants a few, let me know.  I highly doubt there are many Browns bloggers on the interwebs (maybe more than the Marlins though?), but who doesn't love nifty oddballs such as these?

The set includes HOFer Satchel Paige and other notable names like Marty Marion, Virgil Trucks and Johnny Groth - see the picture at the beginning of the post for the full list - don't go hacking my computer to find out who else is available.

Oh, wait, that's more like a Cardinals thing than a Browns thing.

Sorry Cards fans, I couldn't help but take that parting shot; here's hoping that whole nasty situation gets resolved as quickly as possible with minimal damage to the sport.



A "Barry" Uncomfortable Feeling

We card collectors are always excited by the arrival of mail. Mail time means that new cards could be sitting right in your mail box, be it from a generous fellow blogger, a massive COMC order or even a redemption from Topps (if you're REALLY patient). Thus, we may be the only sect of society that is still enthused about snail mail.

That said, sometimes life keeps you too busy to truly enjoy these sort of moments.  Recently, I ordered an ancient baseball card through eBay for just chump change that filled a vacant spot in my CATRC:

Sure, its all sorts of creased, weathered like hell, heavily trimmed and was apparently pasted into a notebook at some point in it's life (at least we can still tell it's a Piedmont back); but, who doesn't love picking up a T206 for less than you'd spend at McDonald's?

However, the day it arrived in the mail was a perfect storm of manic activity. Thus, I opened the envelope, ooo'ed at its contents, placed it back in the envelope and went back to figuring out how I could jam running errands, going to the gym, running 5 miles and making dinner in the span of 3 hours.

Well, I then completely forgot about the envelope... for two weeks.... until I was flipping through my binder and noticed that Shad was MIA. Panic set in.

After all, this is a century-plus old tobacco card; it's not something that I can run to Target and replace.  Plus, I might not find another one in my cheapskate price range for years.

I went all Scooby-Doo on my basement, trying to retrace my steps based on my faint memory. Not in my junk basket, nor the stack of papers on the table, nor my card table... I was losing hope.

On a whim, I checked on the top of my TV stand. Lo and behold, there it was - underneath some random, leftover gift bag tissue paper. Man am I going to be fun in old age.

Notice what's behind the tissue paper?  Yea, I might have needed some of that stuff if I was unable to recover my T206!

This also happens to be my cat's favorite perch. Despite his best efforts of keeping this tissue "nest" warm, my envelope did not hatch and produce more baseball cards. Damn.

He is not in the mood to have his picture taken

I'm quite content just being able to locate this Barry card though.  All I kept thinking was that this fragile, little slip of paper has survived through 8 presidencies, 2 world wars, jazz, swing, rock, disco, hip hop, grunge and Deflate-Gate and here I was going to be responsible for it's eventual demise.

Dodged a bullet there, huh?

So, absent-minded me had forgotten about Shad Barry, much like baseball history has forgotten Mr. Barry.  Playing during the Deadball era for the entirety of his career, Shad actually had a fairly potent bat - hitting a .267 over 10 years spent mostly as an extra outfielder/corner infielder.

Shad as a member of the Phillies in 1905

Courtesy of BaseballFever.com

He was a Cub for two partial seasons in 1904 and 1905, being acquired and jettisoned in mid-seasons deals both times.  But, this card depicts him as a member of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers of the old American Association, where he played from 1909-10, never again reaching the Majors.

Super vintage, minor league and a guy who played for the Cubs?  That's a trifecta of tremendous in my own, personal collecting world!

Disaster averted and Shad is currently residing in the proper pocket of my CATRC binder; but, it sure was an uncomfortable feeling for a little white there.  Has anyone else ever had an experience like this?  I can only hope your story ended happily as well!

Suit Up!

In honor of the legendary Barney Stinson, I got some new baseball cards of Cubs players doing exactly that.  Well, not EXACTLY that; these aren't cards of baseball players putting on their Sunday best or a Bonds-like tux.  Rather, they are depicted donning their Cubs uniform - which in these particular instances are "Cubgrades."

In case you all forgot in my recent sabbatical, a "Cubgrade" is when I acquire a card of player in a Cubs uniform when they had been previously been represented in my CATRC in the jersey of another team.

Part of my goal, besides accumulating a card of every player who has been on the Cubs' roster, is to get a card that honors their time on the Northside.  I'm a Cubs fan after all, I think they always look better in blue!

First up, one of the leaders of the youth movement, Addison Russell.  I pulled the Bowman Chrome card on the left from a random, impulse purchase pack back when he was still in the A's organization.  After Theo and Jed fleeced Billy Beane last summer at the trade deadline, this  card will become a Zero-Year issue; I can't say I'm too disappointed about that.

On the right, we have Addy's card from this years edition of Bowman - his first licensed card in a Cubs uniform.  I think Panini might have had a card out of him as a member of the "Chicago National League Ballclub" first, but I could be wrong.

He was included in the prospects part of the checklist, but the Cubs surprised Topps (and pretty much everyone else) when they called him up after just a handful of games in AAA.  Thus, he's already shed the prospect tag and he looks like a darkhorse candidate for Rookie of the Year in a loaded 2015 class.

However, the back of his card notates something that makes me a little nervous about the guy.

It has nothing to do with his baseball skills though.  If you read the "Up Close" blurb, you'll see he's a big fan of the mind-warpingly creepy American Horror Story series and Gone Girl - a movie that probably scarred me for the rest of my life.  I will never be able to trust anyone again after seeing that flick.

So, watch out for Addison in a dark clubhouse tunnel or concourse.

Now, Russell is a prospect that seems to be paying big dividends for the Cubs and is primed to have a long, successful career.  On the other had, Jason Smith was one that certainly went the opposite direction.

A middle-infielder who could supposedly handle the bat, like Addy, Jason seemed to have a clear pathway to Wrigley.  His stock was high enough in 2001 that he was included in the trade that brought Fred McGriff to the Friendly Confines.

Unfortunately for him, his bat never really developed; but, he was able to bounce around the league until 2009 as a utility infielder.

While the 2002 Donruss Signature Series card on the left is nice and shiny, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for 2001 Upper Deck.  Why?  I have a thing for simple, color-coded layouts.

Meanwhile, I've always had a natural inclination towards early Donruss releases as well.  Concurrently, I've never really gotten the enjoyment out of '79 Fleer as other collectors in the blogosphere have.  So, I was happy to make this swap in my binder.

Hector Cruz, brother of Jose and Tommy and uncle of Jose Jr., was a Cubbie double dipper.  During his brief stints in 1979 and 1981-82, the former top prospect never fully delivered on his early promise and he faded into the obscurity that is Cubs' third basemen and outfielders of his era.

See also:  Thompson, Scott; Lum, Mike; Lezcano, Carlos

On the brighter side, O'Leary got to see some playoff action as a Cub in their magical, yet depressing season of 2003.  The former middle of the order power threat in Boston was on the downswing of his career (in fact, his last year in the Bigs, period) and came to the Cubs in a pinch hitting/extra outfielder capacity.

He played sparingly and hit .218 over 93 regular season games.  But, I'll always remember him for the homerun he hit in the bottom of the 9th of the dreadful NLCS, which provided a last - albeit dull - glimmer of hope before the Marlins broke my heart.

No patch on that 2003 UD Patch Collection base card though, obviously meant to be a high end product at the time.  While I am happy to add it to my collection, part of me is sad to demote his '97 Score issue to my box, as it is one of the last holdouts from my original, childhood card collection - funded largely by my late grandfather.

Damn you sentimentality!

Here's another guy who logged some time with the Cubs during that 2003 season.  The pinch-hitting specialist was thrust into regular duty at third base when Mark Bellhorn failed to live up to expectations and wilted in the spotlight.

After 75 games and the great fleecing of Pittsburgh that was the Aramis Ramirez trade, Lenny and his .183 batting average was given his walking papers.  The joke was on the Cubs though, as Lenny signed with the Marlins and got to see the Cubs collapse from the other side and get a World Series ring too.

Grumble, grumble.

No matter, I've always loved the 2003 Flagship set.  I mean, the blue borders frame up a Cubs card just perfectly, don't they?

 Last, but not least, we have the original Mags.

The former Met was a shadow of his former World Champion self by the time he came to Chicago.  In decline by 1996 and bouncing from team to team, the Cubs somehow saw hope that he could plug their long-standing 3rd base gap, a position that in between Ron Santo and Aramis Ramirez was filled by over 100 players.

Surprise, surprise - Mags' wasn't able to stay in the lineup and his .254/.360/.367 line wasn't cutting it.  He was just another in a long line of aging veterans brought to Wrigley with unfair expectations of living up to their former glory, a long-standing Cubs "tradition" until the current front office came to power.

As for the cards, that rainbow Future Stars card is pretty groovy and the wood grain borders of '87 Topps are always welcome, Cubbie blue will always look better than Mets blue!

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Thus concludes my recent splurge of Cubgrading, a task that I'm sure all of you team-collectors out there can appreciate.

In addition, thank goodness these guys played during the over-production era; otherwise, it's seems likely that, even today, none of the featured players (except for Russell and maybe Cruz) would have had a card issued in a Cubs jersey.

Thanks overproduction era, for allowing six more players to be properly "suited up" in my CATRC!

Ooo, Piece of Candy!

Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when one could get a nice piece of gum or candy with their baseball cards.  What could possibly make a cardboard square of one of your childhood heroes even cooler?  Why, a sugary treat of course!

But, then I remember just how bad the gum was that came with Topps by the 80's and the problems of stains, warping and odd smells.  Maybe the candy is more romanticized than anything.

*Sidenote - it's a very bad idea to try and eat a stick of gum from an old wax pack that has survived to the present.  I know, that should be pretty obvious, but curiosity got the best of me one Christmas morning.

This tiny morsel of cardboard scrumptious-ness hails from the distant, tropical land of Cuba and it came with a caramel back in the day.

Caramel Deportivo released this set of nearly square, Cuban League cards sometime between 1945-46 to promote their sweets.  Seen here is Jorge "Pancho" Comellas, who spent a few innings with the wartime, pennant winning Cubs in 1945 - 4.50 ERA in 12 innings across 7 games, including 1 start.  A mediocre player overall, but notable for being one of the first Cuban players on the Cubs roster.

At any rate, these cards were meant to be glued into a special binder, similar to a Panini sticker book of today, where a completed set could be redeemed for a special prize.  Of course, Caramel Deportivo super short-printed one of the cards, HOFer Ray Dandridge, thus making the task damn near impossible.  Topps wasn't the first to pull that trick!

Here's the back of my Comellas - as you can plainly see, it was pasted into something at some point in it's life.

Another characteristic of this set that really threw me off was the cardstock:  it is extremely thin - paper thin.  It feels like holding a piece of regular printer paper, which led me to believe that the seller I purchased this from on Ebay had duped me by giving me a printout of a scan.

In a hasty and panicky bit of research, I was assured by multiple sources that this is exactly as it is supposed to be.  These cards are noted for their fragility and thin-ness.  Phew! Dodged a bullet there.

Jorge laughs at my lack of faith, shown here in his Cubs duds

Thus, I could then enjoy the fact that I was able to acquire another obscure, briefly tenured, old-school player for my All-Time Roster Collection.  A foreign, oddball, super-vintage card at that; I'll take that every day and twice on Sunday!

It's unique pieces like this one that add so much character to my CATRC set.  After all, it'd be quite boring if it was all made up of Topps flagship cards.  I love my Cuban, Japanese, Venezuelan, etc. cards from far-off lands - even if I didn't get my piece of candy with them!

In closing, I'll leave you with the Family Guy bit that inspired the title of this post - never trust James Woods!