I am not going to lie, half of my motivation for typing up this post right now is that I desperately want to use that "punny," Guys and Dolls-referencing headline. I am not the least bit sorry either - that is pure gold, dammit.
In case you missed it, yesterday afternoon, the Cubs signed rehabbing, former All-Star closer Joe Nathan to a Major League deal. The former Tiger and long-time Twins stopper has been recuperating from Tommy John surgery that he underwent early last season.
The idea behind this move is that relief depth is always a necessity - even if you have a stable, productive bullpen, you really don't. Bullpens are fungible and health is always a question. If all of his rehab goes as planned, Nathan could offer a nice, shot in the arm, type bullpen option for the late innings. After all, before the injury bug bit him in Detroit, Joe was an elite closer.
That said, good old reliable Nathan is just that - kinda old. In fact, the 41 year old reliever is now the oldest player in the Cubs' entire system and he hasn't had a fully healthy, productive season since 2013; thus, there's a strong chance that he simply ends up being this year's version of Rafael Soriano. By that, I mean formerly top-notch reliever who has absolutely nothing left in the tank and bombs out terribly on the mound.
Of course, this deal is low risk/high reward - Nathan is getting the MLB minimum (prorated, at that) and doesn't even cost a roster spot until he's healthy (he was immediately placed on the 60-day DL). Basically, it's costing the Cubs almost nothing to add a six-time All-Star to their bullpen mix.
These are the kinds of moves that every team rolls the dice on and, really, why not? What do they have to lose? Fingers crossed that this dude with 377 career saves can return to the form he had in Minnesota and Texas. If you combine an effective, not even prime, Nathan with Strop, Grimm, Rondon & co. in the Cubs 'pen, opposing teams might be playing 5 or 6 inning games.
Now, as you can see, I have plenty of Joe Nathan cards in my possession already; so, if everything goes as planned and Nathan joins the Cubs at their target of late July, I have several options for adding him to my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection. I have to believe that this coagulation is due to his six-time All-Star status, the meat of his career falling during my collecting prime and the fact that I've never traded with a Twins fan (if anyone wants to fix that, let me know).
Good luck on your rehab Joe - here's hoping that everything goes as planned and you're donning a Cubs uniform before the month of July is out. Perhaps you and Grampa Rossy can bond and use your senior citizen battery powers to mow down the rest of the National League!
Yesterday was a day. You know what I mean - we've all had those kind of days. The ones where your running around like, as Charlie Daniels might say, your head is on fire and your ass is catchin', just trying to keep up with the amount of work, neediness and insanity around you.
Yea - THOSE days.
Well, after a looooong day at work trying to keep up at ludicrous speed (I now see that graduation time is almost more stressful for faculty than students), I was completely emotionally and physically drained. Then, I still got up and ran 4 miles because I'm a glutton for punishment. Anyway, what I'm saying is that I was exhausted yesterday evening and in desperate need for respite.
In steps Adam from Cardboard Clubhouse.
Well, not quite literally - it would be weird if the Ohio-native just walked into my house unannounced, threw cards at me and ran (though what a story that would be). Rather, a padded mailer stuffed to the brim with neat, new cards for my collection showed up at my doorstep, sent off by the aforementioned Adam.
A good half of the contents of said package were 1980 Topps football, which is a-okay with me, seeing as my vintage football collection is sorely lacking. Such awesome names as Golden Richards and Virgil Livers were sadly missing from my Bears All-Time Roster Collection binder, which is such a shame. Thankfully Adam (figuratively) stepped in and corrected that misdeed.
You might know Golden best from his days as a Cowboy, but he also spent a couple of seasons in the Windy City (1978-790 towards the end of his career. Virgil might have an organ for a last name; however, he is much more known for another part of his body. That is, I'll put it this way, he's known for an injury that is often cited as why athletes should wear cups...
Yowie!
Tommy Hart is another guy best known for his work with another team (49'ers), but was also teammates with Golden in 1978-79. Meanwhile, local boy Ted Albrecht (Harvey, IL) was a Bear through and through during his five year NFL career and currently serves as an analyst on WGN broadcasts of Northwestern football. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that I went to college with a relative of his.
Steve Schubert was a Bears wide receiver for a few years (nothing too notable about the guy) while Greg Latta was one of the few players to have ever played in the playoffs for the NFL ('77 & '79 with Chicago) and for the old World Football League, where he played for the Florida Blazers in the 1974 World Bowl.
WFL, USFL, XFL, UFL... the money-machine that is the National Football League really has crushed any and all challengers, hasn't it?
Now, I should also note, that the backs of most of these vintage pieces also have some inscriptions on the back:
After inquiring with Adam as to the pen markings on the back (they came to him as part of a lot, so individual info was lacking), we came to the conclusion that these are the workings of some 80's kid trying to impress his friends or some other such nonsense. The handwriting seems pretty uniform on all of them, the pen is the same and the "autographs" don't even come close to other known examples for any of the players.
No matter - there's no love lost with me.
Meanwhile, as great as these vintage finds were, Adam sent more than just "oldies but goodies." Also included was a sizable portion of the Bears 2014 Topps team set:
RIP Topps Football.
Gotta love Jared Allen plowing through the snow on the bottom right (that's about the only kind of plowing he did with the Monsters of the Midway) and the sweet catch by Alshon Jeffrey in the middle. However, my favorite card of the bunch was definitely this one:
The reason being is that this is my very first card of Kyle Long, which will now slot nicely into that Bears All-Time Roster Collection. Woot!
See, there hasn't been much to cheer for or a lot of talent to speak of the past few seasons of Bears football - they're deep within a rebuild Kyle Long is one of the few legitimate stars on the roster jenga'ing squad and thus, his cardboard comes at a premium in Chicago. Being the cheapie that I am, I'm not going to pay a full buck for his base cards at my LCS; so, I've been holding out.
You might say that this addition to my collection has been a "Long" time coming! ba dum tiss
The rest of the padded mailer was filled with other cool, miscellaneous singles. Sadly, the disheveled, mentally exhausted version of me that was present last night forgot to take a picture of the rest before I sorted them away, except for this excellently-framed Alshon from last year's Prestige release.
Here's hoping that Panini has more of this sort of stuff up their sleeve now that they've got the exclusive license for physical NFL cards (Topps still has their digital-only Huddle). Rather reminiscent of Stadium Club here.
With that, we've finally reached the end of Adam's chock full 'o' awesome trade package. Seriously, after a pretty trying and tiring day at work, this was the best possible way to unwind; plus, seeing so many needed names for my Bears collection really turned my frown upside down. Hopefully, at least some of this joy was reciprocated with my end of the trade; a sincere thank you, sir!
Is there any way better to wind down from a rough day than sorting through new cards? Methinks not.
This weekend is a very important one for me - it's Pole Day for the 100th Indianapolis 500, an event that I've been attending for more than a decade now. The Indy 500 is my second favorite sporting spectacle (first is Cubs baseball, duh) and the 100th running of the event is sure to be special.
Unfortunately, that same Sunday is also my monthly local card show, a card show that I've been unable to attend since 2015 came to a close. This weekend it's the Indy 500 stuff; but, all year the show has fallen on a day in which I have already made other commitments, be it work, family or personal.
When I realized put all of this together Saturday, as I was reviewing my upcoming schedule, I got a little bit frustrated - after all, this is 5 months in a row where I've been denied. Rather than take that denial lying down, on a whim, I decided to check and see if there were any other local shows that I could actually make it to.
Lucky me - not only was there one in nearby Highland, IN, it was on that very day. Well, actually it was a community wide garage sale; however, I've been there before and there was plenty of sports memorabilia to be had. Frustration = gone.
So, into my car I hopped and half an hour later, I was roaming the isles of a garage sale/flea market/card show. Certainly this is the best way to spend a rainy, cold Saturday.
The very first vendor I came across with cards to peddle had a deal that caught my attention - $1 IP autographs, or five for six. I flipped through this box and found a healthy stack of Cubs from the recent-ish past. I was hesitant since there was no certification on them; but, after seeing the scrubby subjects to chose from and the taking the price point into consideration, I decided to bite anyway.
Spoiler alert - I walked away with six:
Carmen was a local LOOGY (say that five times fast) who hails from New Lennox, IL. "Pig" got a couple of cups of coffee, after 7 years of toiling in the minors, during the 2007-08 back-to-back Central Division Championship seasons, but never saw any meaningful action.
Buck Coats, besides having a name that seems more appropriate for the Deadball Era than today, is another guy who took a while to reach the Bigs - 6 years. Buck came up the year before Carmen, but was traded to Cincy after only 18 games. After a couple of more trials with the Reds and the Blue Jays, he was done in the MLB by 2009, with a career .193 batting average.
While the first two I grabbed were never really prospect material - these two guys were supposed to be jewels of a deep farm system. Well, that Cubs farm system of the 2000's proved not to be so deep after all.
I was really high on Jason Dubois and predicted he was ascend to throne vacated by Sammy Sosa in the Cubs outfield. After all, he did flash 30+ home run power in the minors. Meanwhile, Ronny Cedeno was supposed to be an offensive and defensive star up the middle for many years to come.
In the end, both were traded for Jody Gerut and Cesar Izturis, respectively, So, you can see how that panned out.
Meanwhile, Ryan O'Malley was never even supposed to see the Bigs - he was strictly seen as minor league depth... that is, until the 2006 Cubs ended up playing an 18 inning marathon against the Astros and had to burn their scheduled starter for the next day (Rich Hill).
With the lifelong Cubs fan O'Malley scheduled to pitch for Iowa that next day, he instead found himself whisked away to Minute Maid Park, where he twirled 8 scoreless innings, sealing a series sweep. Not a bad Major League cameo, huh?
As for Jerome Williams, he was acquired in a dump of the much-maligned LaTroy Hawkins in 2005. Hawkins was blowing saves left and right and the Cubs acted quickly to rid themselves of him that May. The two pieces acquired, Williams and David Aardsma, surprisingly proved themselves to be quite useful... for other clubs, down the line.
There was plenty of other Cubs to be had in that box, but I limited myself to the above 6 because:
the risk associated with uncertified autos
it was the first table I visited at the show - gotta pace myself, after all.
After flipping through the resident vintage dealer's selection of 1967 Topps a few tables over, in search of a Doug Clemens card (#489) and striking out, I was lucky enough to stumble onto a dime box full of recent football releases nearby. Seeing as my Bears All-Time Roster Collection is lacking when it comes to the recent roster turnover, I wasn't surprised to find a few needs hiding within:
My first card of last year's first round draft selection, who has yet to actually see the field. Here's hoping that he's healthy come fall - it'll be like the Bears had two first-rounders this year!
Christian Jones is an inside linebacker - that's pretty much all I know about the guy. It appears as though the undrafted free agent had a heckuva game against the Lions last season, recording 5 tackles and a sack. So, there's that.
As far as parallels go, orange is to the Bears as blue is to the Cubs. By that, I mean that they look pretty darn spiffy. As an added bonus, getting a serial numbered parallel out of a dime box is never a bad thing either.
Fun fact, last year's second round draft pick was a college teammate of Christian Jones... it's a small world after all!
Alright - a Bears card that actually shows the player in a Bears uniform!
Senorise is a special teams player who was hurt for almost the entirety of last season. As a natural running back, maybe he'll get a chance on the offensive side, now that Matt Forte has departed for New York.
Also - shiny!
While that was all I could find for my collections in that particular box, that was definitely not the end of my dime box digging at this show. Just across the aisle-way was another of the coveted discount boxes and this one was an oddball du jour:
I made sure to pounce on these two quickly - I mean, there are ONLY 80,000 of these bad boys floating around out there!
I recently decided to set aside Bulls cards in the event that I jump into a full-fledged Bulls roster collection, in the same mold as my Cubs, Bears & Blackhawks accumulations. So, I figured why not grab this Toni Kukoc oddball? Also, is it just me, or does his jersey look an awful lot like a bottle of Heinz mustard?
Furthermore, Brooks Kieschnick in a collegiate uni will fit in perfectly with my "Baby Bears" binder.
There was a good handful of these magazine cutouts to be found within the oddball dime box; however, I limited myself to just these two, seeing as they weren't really needs. Still, I couldn't leave behind such lovely oddities at a dime a pop.
Speaking of oddballs which I didn't have before, there was also a nice stash of these minis:
What you see here is a 1971 Dell Stamp of Jim Colborn, steady rotation presence throughout the 70's for the Cubs and Braves.
For those who might not know, these paper-thin, stamp-like creations were intended to be pasted into collector's albums, much like the Panini sticker albums of today. As far as 70's oddballs go, these are amongst the most notable.
Again, I didn't have any of these in my collection, so I felt like I should add at least one to my hoard.
And now we move from the diamond to the ice, with this awesome Topps Archives reprint of Ken Hodge. Seeing as vintage hockey is fairly rare around these parts and the Blackhawks are a hot commodity, reprints are going to be the most affordable route to completing my Blackhawks All-Time Roster Collection.
Hodge might be best remembered for his time in Boston, but he originally came into the NHL with the Hawks in 1964-65 before being included in the infamous Phil Esposito deal.
This card, however, is not a reprint - in case you couldn't tell - no, no, this is authentic, thoroughly-loved, scotch-taped, crinkled vintage.
Forbes Kennedy spent some time in Chicago and, again, like with the Hodge above, since vintage hockey is fairly tough to locate, I'll accept this weathered gem into my collection as Kennedy's representation. I mean, it was only a dime, after all.
I'm curious as to the story behind this card - ah, if cardboard could talk...
This vintage goody didn't come from the dime boxes - but it hardly busted the bank at 75 cents. Chuck Klein is much more identified with the Phillies and he's not exactly a primo Hall of Famer either. Therefore, you don't see too many cards of him at all, let alone that show him with Chicago. With that in mind, I couldn't turn this 1961 Fleer single down.
Into the CATRC it goes, replacing a modern reprint of his 1933 Goudey card. Vintage almost always beats out modern in my binder.
It was at this point that I had seen pretty much everything that the show had to offer and I still had a few bucks burning a hole in my pocket. I remembered a seller who had a bunch of old Exhibits and post cards on display, kiddy corner from the dime box table, and decided to pay him another visit. There had been something that caught my eye on my initial pass:
This team postcard of the winning-est team in MLB history (tied with the 2001 Mariners). The 1906 Cubs won an eye-popping 116 games, but still lost the World Series to the "Hitless Wonders" White Sox in the only crosstown, Chicago World Series.
That said, I didn't notice the "facsimile" notation on the bottom when I pulled the trigger, as it had been obstructed by a label which ran the length of the card on the top-loader which contained it. Printed on thin, semi-glossy paper, this is not nearly as desirable to me as a real postcard.
So it goes, sometimes - it was hardly a high-roller purchase to begin with. Still, I can't help but feel a tad bit duped.
That wasn't the highest note to go out on with my surprise card show; nevertheless, I think I can safely label the experience an overall success: 6 autographs, 4 new Bears, 2 new Blackhawks, plus some assorted oddballs to boot. Not too bad considering I didn't expect to be at a card show at all when I woke up that morning!
Have you ever had the surprise card show experience? Tell me about it in the comments section below. In the meantime, I've got a trip to Indianapolis to start preparing for - I don't want that to sneak up and "surprise" me.
We all love a good quarterbox, dimebox or whatever budget-conscious box you can dream up. After all, our goal as cardboard collectors is to amass as many trading cards that catch our fancy without going bankrupt, isn't it? Thus, any sort of discount in that regard is going to be well-received.
Well, forget boxes, how about penny packs?
A few weeks ago, I posted about how I'd attempted to buy a couple packs of NASCAR cards from the local Dollar Tree, but was rebuffed when they were not found in the store inventory. I guess they decided to hell with it then, because a few days ago, I pulled a couple more (which you see above) out of the trading card boxes.
This time, the purchase went through without a hitch; however, my attention was definitely piqued because the total seemed to be a little lower than I had expected:
...and that would be why. Please ignore my junk food purchases (had to stock up for the Captain America screening) and notice the two packs of Press Pass cards that cost me exactly one copper Lincoln apiece! That's a new one on me.
Finding individual cards for a penny apiece would be an earth-shattering discovery in my book - as for penny packs, that's not even legal is it? I guess that really speaks to the popularity of NASCAR cards around these parts.
Regardless, I was super excited to rip these when I got home, knowing that I'd gotten an awesome deal really put me in a good mood and the contents of said packs kept that good mood alive and well too. Since I've already ripped a pack of Main Event on this blogs, let's start with the Stealth:
I actually needed a Denny Hamlin for my all-time NASCAR driver collection and this one will do quite nicely. As an added bonus, it features one of the most oddly shaped race tracks ever built in Pocono Raceway (the triangular shaped thing above the nameplate).
Carl Edwards the NASCAR driver is a back-flipping fan favorite who was coming up just as my interest in the sport was starting to fade. Still, it's always nice to see a familiar face!
Carl Edwards hot pack! This card showcases his firesuit for both his top level Sprint Cup ride and his second-rung Nationwide team. I get why NASCAR lets it happen, people pay to see the top talent, but I always thought it was stupid, long-term, to let the top guys compete in the developmental series. As a result, you had Cup guys winning the Busch/Nationwide championship and young talent was having a tough time filtering through. That subject was the first journalistic piece I ever wrote on and was used in my high school newspaper.
In the years since, they finally placed some limits on the practice (you can only garner championship points in one series at a time). I'm going to go ahead and assume that my Bremen Echo piece was the catalyst.
Hey - I also needed a Ryan Newman for the NASCAR driver collection! So that two new names with half a cent as the cost to add. This insert is meant to look like a authorization pass for some sort of classified stock car racing confidential location - an appropriate design for a guy sponsored by the US Army.
It sure would look nicer with an autograph on that sticker though.
Pack one closes out with the ageless wonder known as Mark Martin - who competed in NASCAR from the early 80's until just a few seasons ago. Again, always nice to see a familiar face in a pack of NASCAR product, since I've been, at best, a casual follower over the last 8 or so years.
So, that pack of Stealth offered me two new names for my all-time NASCAR driver collection. Perhaps my second pack of Main Event, a product that combines the high-stakes world of poker with the even higher-stakes world of stock car racing, can *ahem* raise the stakes?
I have a general distaste for multi-player cards in any sport, this one being no exception. However, the theme behind this insert is fairly clever, showing all the drivers from a top-notch racing team as a "Winning Hand." Nevertheless, nothing doing for me.
Jimmie Johnson... he's pretty good right? The six-time series champion and 77-time race winner (including this Martinsville event in '09) is basically a modern day Babe Ruth. One more title and he'll tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most Cups in their cabinets. Meanwhile, he's only 40 in a sport where it's not uncommon to compete in top form into one's mid-50's.
He may very well be the greatest, before all is said and done.
Here's a couple of the base cards, mocked up to look like playing cards. Both are familiar names from when I was a rabid fan of the sport. In fact, Tony Stewart was my driver for a long time; his having an Indy Car background (the 500 is my second love in sports), bursting onto the scene at the same time as I started paying attention and sharing the same first name all caught my attention.
This year will be Tony's last and that makes me feel kind of old, seeing as I remember when he was turning laps with rookie stripes on his bumper. Although, based on his results lately, his time has certainly come.
Finally, while the base cards are meant to resemble playing cards, this Tayler Malsam insert is a straight up playing card - it's made of the same material, has the same texture and feel and all that jazz. I wonder if there are enough of these to actually build a deck?
While Malsam might be of the diamond suit, he sure wasn't a diamond in the rough. Malsam didn't really made a name for himself at any level of the sport, bouncing around from team to team in the Nationwide and Truck series, never getting a chance at the Cup level. I've been talking a lot about familiar faces, well, this is one dude who I have no recollection of at all.
Malsam's Truck Series ride at the time this card was made
With that, we've reached the end of penny pack #2. It netted me no cards that I needed for my NASCAR driver collection and the coolest insert was of a guy who never made it. Still, for a penny, one really cannot complain.
In the end, I got 10 cards (two of which were needs) for the low, low, low price of two cents. As far as clearance sales go, this one was pretty epic. Has anyone else ever run into packs of cards priced at such a ridiculously low point? I'm tempted to go back and see if I can dig anymore out of their horribly haphazard card display.
