The next Cubbie prospective wave has crashed upon the Major League shore. Last week, Albert Almora, Jr. washed up on the Wrigley coast; today, word has dropped that Willson Contreras will be added to the roster ahead of the big series against the Pirates this weekend.
The catching prospect has absolutely crushed AAA pitching so far in 2016. He's currently in the midst of a 20 game hitting streak and, overall, is slashing a wicked .350/.439/.591 on the season. All of this seemingly proves that his surprising march to the Southern League batting title last season was no fluke.
The converted infielder burst out of nowhere, instantly transforming from just another minor league project to an uber prospect when he played AA pitching to the tune of a .333 batting average. With David Ross retiring after this go-round and Miggy Montero a free agent after 2017, he appears to be the catcher of the future.
I just so happened to pull this from a pack two days ago
However, this roster move still comes as a pretty major surprise. After all, Willson is still relatively new to catching and the party line has always been he needs more minor league seasoning to fully complete his development behind the dish. Furthermore, the Cubs already have three catchers on the Major League roster.
Although, reports are stating that the corresponding roster move will involve Tim Federowicz, so that knocks down one of the pins between "Double L" and playing time. Tim can refuse a minor league assignment and with the glut of catchers at the MLB level right now, I'd anticipate him saying "sayonara" and looking for a clearer path back to the Bigs.
Furthermore, I just grabbed this from my LCS over the weekend
Getting Willson regular playing time will still be a bit of a challenge - it's going to be like the early days of the Kyle Schwarber call-up all over again. Perhaps he'll even spend some time back in the infield - we all know how much Joe Maddon loves his players to be versatile. Additionally, I can't help but wonder, is it possible that the Cubs might be shopping Miguel Montero? After all, franchises don't generally call up blue chip prospects to ride the pine. It could also be that his back is acting up again.
Regardless, it's fairly apparent that Willson's bat is fully-cooked and Major League ready. The only down side is that today is an off day and us Cubs faithful have to try and manage our excitement until tomorrow's contest against the Pirates. GAH! I just want to see him play now!
It's always nice to see a little "home improvement" on an already stellar roster.
In yesterday's post, I took a stroll down memory lane with Adam Greenberg as my tour guide. Greenberg, of course, is famous for being drilled in the head with the first pitch he saw in the Major Leagues and, if not for a immensely strong fan campaign, that would have been the only pitch he ever saw in the Bigs.
Even considering his "do over" at-bat with the Marlins in 2012, Greenie still made only one, lone appearance for the Chicago Cubs. That got me curious, how many other men in the long history of the franchise have made only a singular appearance in Cubbie Blue?
My extensive research shows the answer to be quite a lot, the most recent being Donn Roach*:
Roach made a spot start before the Cubs kicked it into high gear last summer. A minor league signing during the off-season, Roach was killin' it in AAA and the Cubs needed a consistent fifth starter; so, he got a chance against the Cardinals on June 27th. It didn't go so well - Donnie gave up 4 earned runs in 3.1 innings as the Cubs went on to lose 8-1. The front office was unimpressed and went out and acquired Clayton Richard before Roach's next turn.
Roach was promptly DFA'ed and claimed by the Reds. At this point, he has yet to return to the Majors.
Before the Donn, there were many others who only got one shot and missed their chance this opportunity which comes once in a lifetime, yo. Eminem would not be proud. Here are the guys for which I have cards of, in alphabetical order:
Jophery Brown - 9/21/68
1 ER in 2 IP against the Pirates, Cubs lose 5-1
Jophery would injure his arm during the next season and with Tommy John Surgery still years away, his MLB career consisted of just that one appearance. Brown then went into a career of acting and stuntman work; his IMDB page is pretty impressive!
Also, thanks go to long-time blog reader Stubby for creating this custom, otherwise Brown would be forever unrepresented in my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection!
Alex Burnett - 5/29/13
0 runs (earned or not) given up in 1 IP against the White Sox, Cubs win 9-3.
The long-time Twins reliever was a roster jenga waiver claim from Baltimore and his only Cubs experience was closing out that blowout win over the cross-town rivals. He was then shuttled to AAA Iowa, where he stayed for the rest of the year.
Thankfully Burnett made the Iowa Cubs team set that year (as any former Major Leaguer usually will), seeing as this as close as I'll ever get to an official Cubs card for him.
Dick Calmus - 9/2/67
1 Start, 4 ER in 4.1 IP against the Mets, Cubs lose 5-4
The September call-up hadn't seen the Majors since he had a 21 game trial with the Dodgers in 1963 and proved why in his only Cubs appearance. He'd been picked up by Chicago in a trade with LA for Fred Norman at the beginning of the season.
I find it exceptionally surprising that a guy who'd only played in one game in the last 4 seasons somehow made it into the 1968 Topps set; but, who am I to complain? It made checking his name off my list that much easier!
Bob Caruthers - 1893
4 PA's with 0 hits and 1 walk, playing center field
Parisian Bob played so long ago that I cannot locate the exact date on which he donned a Chicago Colts uniform. Caruthers was a famed moundsman for the Cardinals and the Bridegrooms in the 80's, but age and the increase in distance between the plate and the mound put a halt to his pitching prowess. He tried to revive his career as an outfielder, but alas, he was no Rick Ankiel.
This Origins of Baseball set is absolutely beautiful and appropriately ornate for the era in which it covers. Love it!
Phil Collins - 10/7/23
1 Start, 2 ER in 5 IP against the Cardinals, Cubs win 10-3
The Chicago native got his first Big League audition with his hometown team at the end of a lost season. With the team mired in fourth place, they gave the youngster a shot to prove himself on the second to last day of the season.
Despite his good performance, Collins was buried back in the minors until 1929, at which point he became the key swingman for the Phillies for the next several seasons. After he retired, he went on to learn how to play the drums, becoming a founding member of a British progressive rock band known as Genesis...
Wait - I'm being told that this is not the same Phil Collins... there must be some misunderstanding.
Mort Cooper - 5/7/49
3 ER in 0 IP (3 batters faced) against the Dodgers, Cubs lose 10-4
Mort was the ace of the Cardinals staff for much of the 1940's and, along with his brother Walker (who'd also eventually become a Cub), made up the only brother-brother battery in baseball history. However, he injured his arm and, as was often the case in those days, never fully recovered. As a result, his weight ballooned due to lack of conditioning and his career was basically over.
Phil Wrigley granted Mort a favor and allowed him to attempt a comeback with the Cubs; however, as his infinite ERA will attest, that did not go so well. He was officially done with professional baseball after that cameo.
Jim Cosman - 4/30/70
3 ER in 0.2 IP against the Braves, Cubs lose 9-2
Cosman was a Rule 5 draft pick by the Cubs from the Miracle Mets, hot on the heels of their infamous comeback over the Chicagoans and eventual World Series triumph. The bush league-lifer was certainly no Hector Rondon or Willie Hernandez, though.
Jim got only one moment to prove his worth to Leo Durocher and the Cubs and promptly blew it, putting an end to his Major League career.
Dave Dowling - 9/22/66
1 Start, 2 ER in 9 IP against the Reds, Cubs win 7-2
Dave Dowling pitched in two games during his MLB tenure, one perfect inning for the Cardinals in 1964 and then a complete game gem for the Cubs two years later. For all the early promise he showed at the Major League level, it's a wonder that Dave never got another chance to build off of it, One can even forgive Topps for thinking this blip in MLB history would be a future star.
George Gerberman - 9/23/62
1 Start, 1 ER in 5.1 innings against the Mets, Cubs lose 2-1
The above stat-line is both the beginning and the end of Gerberman's time in the show; that singular start was the only MLB appearance he'd make, Cubs or otherwise. Thank goodness for Larry Fritsch and his "One Year Winner" sets for shining the spotlight on such obscure players!
The September call-up gave up only three hits, though he did walk five. The only run came on a long ball smashed by future Cub Frank Thomas (the original); furthermore, the only strikeout he recorded came courtesy of another future Cub - Jim Hickman.
Adam Greenberg - 7/9/05
1 PA, HBP on first pitch seen against the Marlins, Cubs win 8-2
The inspiration for today's post about one time (and one time only) Chicago Cubs players. For a more detailed report on Greenie, please refer to yesterday's musings.
Tony LaRussa - 4/6/73
Pinch runner against the Expos, Cubs win 3-2.
Yes - that Tony La Russa. The same man who made it to the Hall of Fame on the strength of his managing career with the despised White Sox and Cardinals was briefly (very much so) a Cub.
On Opening Day, the Cubs came behind in a thrilling walk-off victory against Montreal in the bottom of the ninth. Tony scored the winning run after having come in as a pinch runner for Ron Santo. La Russa was sent to the minors soon after the contest and never took the field or picked up a bat for the Northsiders (or any other MLB team, afterwards).
It's obscure bits of trivia like this that made me fall in love with the history of Cubs roster construction.
Jay Loviglio - 7/26/83
1 PA with a SO against the Dodgers, Cubs lose 5-2
Loviglio was a well-regarded prospect in the Phillies and the White Sox organizations before finding his way over to the other side of town for 1983. His prospective shine had severely deteriorated by then, after having batted a collective .192 across three separate trials with Philly and the South Side.
As a result, Jay was only given a single plate appearance with his short leash, serving as minor league depth for the rest of the 1983 campaign. That lone at-bat marked the end of his MLB playing career, though he would eventually go on to manage in the minors for the organization.
Thus, despite having a couple of multi-player rookie cards with the White Sox, this managerial MiLB card reps Jay in my CATRC binder, since Charlotte was a Cubs affiliate at the time.
Larry McLean - 1903
1 game at catcher, 1 BB and RBI in 5 PA
The famously volatile and temperamental catcher got a brief trial with the Cubs before game logs are available before being included in what is widely regarded in one of the worst trades in Cardinals history. McLean and pitcher Jack Taylor were swapped with St. Louis for Jack O'Neill and Three-Finger Brown. Eat your heart out Lou Brock.
The tallest catcher in Big League history (6'5") stuck around St. Louis for only one season before going on to star for the Reds and Giants. However, McLean had a violent drinking problem and his career came to an end after a 1915 brawl with Giants manager John McGraw and coach Dick Kinsella. Just a few years later, McLean was shot to death in a bar fight.
Thank goodness Tom Barker's baseball game cards were reprinted because I surely don't have the space in my budget for originals right now.
Roger Metzger - 6/16/70
1 game at SS, 2 groundouts in 2 PA against the Giants, Cubs lose 3-2
The Cubs of the late 60's/early 70's showed little to no love for young players, thanks greatly to the crotchety manager Leo Durocher. That likely played into the decision to trade the 16th overall pick in the '69 draft after just a solitary MLB appearance. In return from Houston, Chicago got light-hitting Hector Torres, who played just one year with the Cubs.
Meanwhile, Metzger went on to be a starting shortstop for most of the rest of the decade, even winning a Gold Glove in 1973. While not a star, he did produce 3.4 WAR over his eleven seasons.
Oopsy.
Bobo Newsom - 6/4/32
0 ER in 1 IP against the Pirates, Cubs lose 12-4
Bobo seemingly played forever and for every team in the League. over the course of his 20 seasons in the Majors, Newsom found himself taking the mound for nine different teams (remember, this is pre-expansion) across four decades before retiring after the 1953 season. One of those nine teams was, you guessed it, the Chicago Cubs.
In 1932, the Wrigley natives were marching their way to the World Series and Newsom got the call to join the bullpen. Newsom took mop-up duty, closing out one blowout loss before the Cubs decided to sweep him off the roster and back to the minors. He'd be drafted by the Browns in next year's Rule 5 proceedings and Bobo never looked back afterwards.
Don Prince - 9/21/62
0 ER in 1 IP against the Mets, Cubs lose 4-1
Another One-Year Winner and another "one and done" Major League pitcher - praise be to Larry Fritsch!
Prince made his Cubbie Cameo just two days before the already featured George Gerberman with a scoreless inning of relief against the hapless Mets (who still managed to beat the Cubs). It was hairy though, he issued a walk to the first man he faced, Joe Christopher, then hit the next batter, Frank Thomas. However, Prince settled down and got Jim Hickman to ground into a double play and Sammy Drake to ground to second.
As hairy as that inning was, Prince's post-baseball life was even harrier. In 1996, Prince was convicted in a murder for hire plot in South Carolina. He received a 17.5 year sentence for attempting to have two people murdered by an undercover police officer he thought was a hit man. Egad!
Clay Rapada - 6/14/07
0 ER in 0.1 IP against the Mariners, Cubs win 5-4
Due to a rash of injuries in the Cubs bullpen, Clay got the call to serve in the bullpen as the Cubs started heating up in the summer of 2007. His entire Cubs tenure amounted to just one third of an inning, but he got his man before being returned to AAA. A couple of months late, the eventual NL Central Champions moved him to Detroit for Craig Monroe in order to reinforce their offense.
Over the next few years, Rapada found some success as a LOOGY for the Tigers, Orioles, Rangers and the Yankees, getting as many as 70 appearances for the Bronx Bombers in 2012 before injuries derailed his career.
Roe Skidmore - 9/17/70
1 hit in 1 PA against the Cardinals, Cubs lose 9-2
First of all, can we all just agree that this is just an awesome baseball name?
Second, Roe suffered from the same disease as Roger Metzger did earlier in this feature, being a rookie. Despite the fact that Roe laced a solid single in his first (and only) at-bat and spent the entire month of September on the active roster, Leo the Lip never used him again. In fact, no manager ever used him again, leaving his career batting average at a perfect 1.000. At least that's kind of cool.
Bob Smith - 4/29/59
6 ER in 0.2 IP against the Reds, Cubs lose 18-8
One of three Bob Smiths to call the Northside of Chicago home at some point, he was by far the least successful. Acquired in a trade with the Red Sox for future managerial star Chuck Tanner in Spring Training, Smith was called upon to stop the bleeding when Cubs starter Moe Drabowsky couldn't make it past the first inning. Already down four at the time, as you can see by the line above, Bob certainly didn't make the situation any better.
Just a few days later, the Cubs flipped him to Cleveland for the over-the-hill Randy Jackson, allowing "Handsome Ransom" to finish his career where it began. Bob was done in the Bigs after 12 more lackluster assignments with the Indians.
Justin Speier - 5/27/98
2 ER in 1.1 IP against the Phillies, Cubs lose 10-1
The son of former short-term Cubs middle infielder Chris Speier, Justin made his father's two-year Cubs tenure seem like eons, in comparison.
Justin was a 55th round draft selection who beat the odds and became a long-time, middle relief nomad, finding work in the bullpens of several teams through the 2009 season. He only hurled 1.1 innings for Chicago though, as the surprising Wild Card contenders shipped him off with Kevin Orie and Todd Noel to the Marlins for bullpen "help" in Felix Heredia.
Seeing as bullpen guys hardly get any love from the card companies, unless their a big-time closer or a former star starter, thank goodness Upper Deck had such expansive checklists when they had a baseball license.
Bob Usher - 4/26/52
1 BB in 1 PA against the Cardinals, Cubs lose 4-3
We wrap up our Cubbie Cameo Countdown with Bob Usher, who had himself a nice go as an extra outfielder for a handful of teams in the late 40's/50's. The Cubs acquired him from the Reds at the end of the 1951 season for Smokey Burgess (who would have looked great in Cubbie Blue for the next decade) and Bob Borkowski. After making the Opening Day roster the next season, he was quickly scooped off of waivers by the PCL San Diego Padres.
Ah - nothing screams old-timey baseball quite like minor league teams making transactions with Big League clubs, independent of farm system structure.
Also, Usher did manage to get himself a true Cubs card, despite his "blink and you missed it" tenure; that said, it's a 1952 Topps and those aren't just falling off of trees. In the meantime, this reprint of his 1951 Bowman card, produced by CCC in the 80's, will have to do.
Oh yes - it will be mine
With that, we've reached the end of the Cubs' one game wonders (for which I have cards of). I hope you found this bit of research to be at least somewhat entertaining - it definitely ate up a few hours of my free time.
While these guys might have only spent a couple of hours donning blue pinstripes, they are all Cubs just the same in the eyes of the all-time Cubs roster. Thus, they are included in my CATRC, alongside the Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Cap Ansons of the team history, just the same. Be it one game or a thousand, a Cub is a Cub.
* - Reliever Spencer Patton has, as of today, only appeared in one game as a Cub (5/6/16). However, seeing as he is still with the org, included on the 40-man, and tearing it up as the closer for AAA Iowa, I'm betting he'll get another shot with Chicago before the year as up. At the very least, he'll likely get a September call-up.
I'm sure most people are familiar with the story of Adam Greenberg, one of the many "Moonlight Grahams" in the extensive history of Major League Baseball. Greenie, of course, was called up with his Double-A teammate Matt Murton on July 9th, 2005 (just shy of 11 years ago - wow); he promptly made his debut, pinch-hitting in the sixth inning against fireballer Valerio De Los Santos.
Then came the pitch heard round the world - literally. One could hear the sound of De Los Santos' fastball cracking Adam's head reverberate throughout Pro Player Stadium. As he immediately crumbled to the ground, my stomach immediately began turning like a revolving door.
I recall watching this game live and, to this day, it's the scariest thing I've seen occur on a baseball diamond (I wasn't around to see Dave Dravecky).
From there, post-concussion syndrome basically ruined his career in affiliated ball. He found himself suffering from uncontrollable bouts of vertigo any time he so much as looked down, forcing him to sleep sitting up, and inability to control the focus of his vision. Needless to say, this made baseball just a touch difficult.
He was eventually able to make a full recovery, but it took several years. After bouncing through the Cubs, Dodgers, Royals and Angels organizations at several levels, it appeared as though his time to shine had already passed. In stepped Cubs fan and documentary filmmaker Matt Liston (Chasing October, Catching Hell).
Taking inspiration from the Moonlight Graham depiction in Field of Dreams, Liston took it upon himself to save Greenberg from a life of being Graham'ed. He launched an extensive online media campaign, even appearing on the Today Show, to garner notice for his Change.org petition to get Adam (who'd been playing for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the independent Atlantic League since 2007) one more at-bat in the Bigs.
The year was 2012, the Cubs were a team in transition and well on their way to a dismal 61-101 record. Liston was hoping that the Northsiders would take on Greenberg to provide a small bright-spot in an otherwise bleak year. I was one of 27,152 people who sympathized with Liston's cause:
This was the kind of thing I paid attention to at work in 2012... sorry for the time theft!
Anyway, while the Cubs disappointingly did not take Liston's bait. Luckily, the newly-branded Miami Marlins, the very team which Adam Greenberg was batting against back in 2005, were desperately in need of some good publicity. They were also in the doldrums of an awful season, right after having gone on a massive spending spree and opening a new stadium. Not to mention, the actions of team owner Jeffrey Loria were painting the organization in terrible light.
Therefore, the Marlins agreed to sign Greenie to a one-day contract to suit up with the Miami Marlins, finally getting another chance to make an MLB appearance, 7 years after the pitch that not only destroyed his baseball career, but nearly ruined his life. On October 2, 2012, that opportunity came against knuckleballer R.A. Dickey:
Talk about making it count; Dickey was on his way to the NL Cy Young Award, after all!
Though Adam swiftly struck out on three pitches, I think Adam and everybody in that stadium was quite happy with the experience. Also, nice touch by the Marlins PA staff in blaring Aerosmith's Dream On as the walk up music for this historic at-bat.
After this touching moment, Adam returned to play for the Bluefish for another season. However, that didn't stop Topps from creating a card to honor that special moment for their 2013 Flagship release:
Which is why I'm randomly blogging about this topic nearly 4 years after it occurred. Today, while killing some free time at my LCS, I came across this card in a box of cards featuring former Cubs and I had to make it mine.
First off, this card slots in nicely with my "Cubs of a Different Color" collection (which is made up of future/former Cubs players in other uniforms). Second of all, this card is a nice little reminder of great feel good story. With the state of the world being what it's been during the last few days, "good feels" are greatly needed.
Additionally, there was a note on the back of the card that made me audibly chuckle. Remember those stupid "career chase" notes from 2013 Topps?"
Thank you for that urgent update there. Topps!
Anyway, thanks for checking in with Wrigley Roster Jenga tonight. Time for me to turn my focus to the Cubs current match up against the Washington Nationals, a team which was only in it's first year of existence when Adam Greenberg suffered his notable beaning.
This weekend, my lovely fiancee and I decided to go out and sign up for our wedding registry at the local Bed Bath and Beyond. Several hours were spent wandering about the vast and seemingly endless retailer, debating which hypothetical cutlery looked best with our hypothetical dish ware, whether or not we needed new mixing bowls, etc. It started out fun, getting to go on a "shopping spree" as we scanned any and every item we wanted/needed without having to pay up in the end, but it quickly became a chore.
Furthermore, in order to ensure that we got there and entirely through the store before it closed, we skipped dinner. By about halfway through the experience, my stomach was growling so loud that people were probably looking for my service dog and wondering why he was so irritated.
Luckily, BBB has a large snack food and gourmet beverage section, jam-packed with off-the-wall stuff that you can't find at your everyday grocer. Shopping hungry is almost always a bad idea; however, I was able to restrain most of my urges and walked away with only a single bag of salty goodness.
Seafood is my favorite food, with shrimp being right next to lobster in terms of my preferred kinds. Once I saw these, I absolutely had to try them. I was hungry enough that I don't think it would have mattered what I was eating, but they were yummy; they tasted as if you were eating the breading off of fried shrimp.
Anyway, as we were driving home, I looked at my snack and finally made note of the company behind my fishy snack: Calbee.
Thanks to excellent, informative blogs like Japanese Baseball Cards and This Card is Cool, I know that Calbee is one of the major manufacturers of baseball cards in Japan, inserting packs of Nippon Professional Baseball cards in with their chip-like products and snack food. Unfortunately, their division over on this side of of the Pacific does not. Licensing issues and lack of interest keep them from including their Japanese cards on our shores, I'm sure.
However, that got me thinking - what if Calbee North America did include baseball cards with their products? Also, what if they focused on North American baseball instead? So, I fired up Photoshop and started on my next weekend project as soon as we got home:
On the right, we have an original 2016 Calbee single, featuring an unidentified Yomiuri Giants player (I can't read kanji, after all). On the left, we have my interpretation of how that same card would look if it was stashed in a Bed Bath and Beyond in Orland Park, IL, as modeled by Munenori Kawasaki.
As you can see, a la Stadium Club, Calbee really lets the photo do the heavy lifting with their no frills design. It's a design which has, more or less, stayed the same over the last 15 or so years with only slight tweaking from season to season.
That said, Calbee has upped their ante for a few sets; so, I decided to try my hand at a few of those as well:
Here's my take on a 1990 Calbee design. Hisanori Takahashi was only a Cub for 3 games in 2013 and thus, never had a card that featured him in a Chicago uniform; this seemed like the perfect opportunity to rectify that.
Again, I can't read kanji, so I'm taking some liberties with the text on my reproductions. Also, that name bar has many variations throughout the checklist, but I decided to opt for the two-tone one.
1984 Calbee appears to be directly inspired by 1981 Topps - so, I pulled up a scan of one of those Cubs cards, did a little bit of tweaking and, voila, Calbee America!
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
From what I've gathered, the checklist of cards released by Calbee from 1975 through 1976 is both vast and complicated. There are several different designs and layouts used throughout the collation, including this pink-bordered template that reminds me of 1981 Fleer with a little added flair.
Perhaps the fine folks at Fleer were drawing from international inspiration?
As you can see and I'm only now just noticing, I significantly enlarged the baseball on my Tsuyoshi Wada-bearing reproduction. Drat.
Here's another design found within the checklist of 1975-76 Calbee; it's sort of their version of Topps' beloved Super Veteran cards, featuring a current photograph of the player in action and an old, black and white picture of the player in an inset.
It makes for a garish look, in my opinion - but, that's just me.
Kyuji Fujikawa, by the way, I'm convinced he doesn't age. I could not find a picture in which he looked significantly younger, so I opted for a general action shot from his days with the Hanshin Tigers (a team to which he has returned to this season, after being cut by the Rangers).
Now, most of the rest of the cards in Calbee's history are very much similar to the above card, minus the inset photo. No border and all picture with sparse text that floats freely at the bottom. The most variation to be found is in the color of said text, which can bounce from white, to black, yellow, etc. However, at this point I was having too much fun to quit.
Luckily, Calbee does more than just baseball - they have branched out into international soccer and non-sport as well. I'm not much of an anime fan, but the following design seemed ripe for an American-ized baseball treatment:
Shades of 1954 Topps, if you ask me.
Now, I'm sure you've noticed by now, that I'd been using all of the Japanese, Nippon League imports to have ever blown into the Windy City for my previous mock ups. Murton isn't Japanese of course, but he did play for Hanshin for several seasons after his initial stint with the Cubs, even breaking the single-season record for hits over there. The Northsiders imported him back to America this off-season to give him one last chance to make it in the Majors; he's currently biding his time in AAA Iowa.
Without any more Japanese players to pull from, that was as close as I could get.
With that, my Archives-like treatment of Calbee finally ran out of steam. However, I was able to get, literally, all that and a bag of chips - so, that's pretty cool. Additionally, I figured I should throw my treatments up on the ol' blog and see what you all thought.
Also, Calbee North America - if you're interested in jumping into the trading card ring, I work for peanuts!... well, shrimp chips actually.
The other day, while perusing the card selection of my local Dollar Tree (which is something I've been doing more and more of lately), a particular pack of cards caught my attention. Among the 5 card, sample packs of 2015 Donruss/Topps Series 2 and the incessant supply of football and baseball junk wax repacks was a non-sports product that I had never seen before, yet still appealed to my nostalgic yearnings:
While some kids my age were all gung-ho about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I was squarely in the corner of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. For those of you who don't know, the Power Rangers were a team of teenagers chosen by an alien force to protect the planet earth from whatever galactic villains attempted to invade it.
The show itself was culturally appropriated from Japan's long-running Super Sentai shows, which borrowed not only the concept and the costumes, but was often made up of mostly Japanese footage for action scenes.
When I was in elementary school, they started out as the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and the show was a cultural phenomenon for several years. However, as ratings dipped, in order to spice things up, they adopted a new set of costumes (again, all borrowed from Sentai) and alternated actors every season in order to drive up interest. Mighty Morphin' gave way to Zeo, which gave way to Turbo, which gave way to Space and so on and so forth. By the end of that run, I was already on to bigger, more adult things (like baseball cards).
However, for a good five years there, I lived and breathed everything Power Rangers. So, seeing this product on the shelves caused a little twinge in my heart and I couldn't help but sample a pack - I mean, it was only a buck after all.
The product itself is some sort of card game (like I'll ever learn to play it) in the vein of Pokemon and makes use of Rangers from every corner of Power Rangers lore. Thus, I was really, really, really hoping to pull at least one card of the original show.
These two definitely were not. I'd never heard of RPM Rangers, which means they came long after I or my little brother (who's interest went several years after mine ended) stopped paying attention. I'm guessing they had something to do with cars, which was a theme already used for Turbo (and it's accompanying major motion picture) during my childhood.
However, green and blue are my two favorite colors, so they've got that going for them.
Furthermore, there's a lot going on in the design here - I have no idea what the numbers on the sides indicate, though I assume they're entirely related to the gameplay. I guess there must be some sort of technological aspect to the game too, judging by the bar codes found on top.
The backs of these cards are all the same, featuring the over-arching Power Rangers combination mark over a "techy" red background. Like it says, these are for a "action card game," so like playing cards, they have to have a boiler plate backside.
Megaforce is another season of which I am not the least bit familiar with. However, the artwork is pretty cool - the lighting bolts on that red ranger are quite intense.
Ah - Zords. Zords are the Power Rangers giant vehicles that combine to form a giant robot. Think of them like human-operated versions of Transformers (esp. the Dinobots of Constructicons). The Rangers would call on these bad boys when their evil opponents were enlarged to gigantic proportions.
Also, they called Zords in honor of the Rangers alien creator and guiding force, Zordon.
Again, I sound like a broken record here, but these don't look or sound the least bit familiar to me either. That said, a "High Octane Megazord" sounds like something an RPM Ranger might pilot. At this point, I was starting to worry that my nostalgic itch wasn't going to be truly scratched.
Ah ha - crisis averted! Here we have two of the original five Mighty Morphn' Power Rangers, in all of their retro glory.
Zack the Black Ranger, who was coincidentally of African-American heritage (or not so coincidentally, the Yellow Ranger was also Asian...), was always the cool guy in group. Meanwhile, I think every kid in my age bracket's first crush was Kimberly the Pink Ranger (played by Amy Jo Johnson).
Even better - Tommy the White Ranger!
Tommy originally joined the original five as the Green Ranger, after being created as an evil counterpart and then breaking free from his puppeteers. Later, as his powers were wearing down, he was reborn as the White Ranger you see above.
Bottom line, Tommy was always the most popular Power Ranger, be it as Green or White; he was definitely my favorite too. While, I definitely prefer his Green incarnation, this will do just fine.
Can you figure out which one is the real one and which is my Halloween costume from a
of couple years ago?
Closing out this package of Power Rangers Action Card Game cards, we have the shiny foil version of the Red Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger. So, after going half of the pack without pulling single Ranger I was slightly familiar with, I ended up with four. Not bad (the collation though, might be).
What's really cool about this card is that, as you can see, he is wearing the same shield as the Green Ranger seen above. However, Jason (the Red one) didn't normally do so. In fact, Jason only wore that extra protection in one episode of the show, one that I can clearly remember, so I can attach this card to that specific memory. How's that for nostalgia?
Plus, it's shiny and who doesn't like shiny, right?
All in all, that made for a pretty fun, warm and fuzzy pack ripping experience. I have no idea what I'm going to do with these now, but that wasn't the point in buying them. Sometimes, it's nice to just kick back, while letting your inner child break free and run wild.
Anyway, that's enough Rangers talk - this is a Cubs/baseball card blog after all. Hopefully you all found this little tangent to be at least slightly entertaining.
