A Merry Cubs Christmas to You!

Here's a short Christmas-themed post featuring cards from my Cubs collection:

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas!

Hope you got some nice gifts. Maybe six geese a laying?

Or four calling birds? 

Three French hens?

How about a diamond ring?

If you didn't do much for gifts, maybe you enjoyed some Christmas carols. 

The Holly and the Ivy is a classic.

Or Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

Maybe We Three Kings.

(Technically a Chicago White Stocking, but it's the same franchise!)

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is another popular one.

Deck the Halls is always fun.

Hope you had some treats, too. Maybe a cherry candy cane:

Or some fudge?

Yeah, I know I fodged on that one a little. 

Well, regardless, from the words of White Christmas, I hope your days will be merry and bright.

 And that your Christmas is white (but that the snow is manageable).

1973 Topps: The Sneaky Hall of Famers

A short, long-overdue post as I have been working on completing the 1973 Topps set. I'm down to 15 cards (including the Mike Schmidt rookie, unfortunately). 

I've decided I like approximately a million different things about the 1973 Topps baseball set. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but there are so many little things that are unique to this set, or things this set does really well. One of the features of the set (and at least a couple other Topps vintage sets), is the manager cards that feature the coaches, too. On first glance, you may have missed it, but there are five different Hall of Fame coaches hidden among the small pictures on these cards. 

If you are familiar with the set, you might know a couple without looking, but here they are:

#81 - Cubs Field Leaders (Whitey Lockman / Hank Aguirre / Ernie Banks / Larry Jansen / Pete Reiser)

Mr. Cub kicks off our list. 

#377 - Expos Field Leaders (Gene Mauch / Dave Bristol / Larry Doby / Cal McLish / Jerry Zimmerman) 

Larry Doby was the first black player to play in the American League. He also replaced Hall of Famer Bob Lemon as manager of the White Sox, finishing the 2nd half of the 1978 season with a 37-50 record. 

#449 - Indians Field Leaders (Ken Aspromonte / Rocky Colavito / Joe Lutz / Warren Spahn) 

Spahn is the all-time wins leader among left-handed pitchers.

#517 - Pirates Field Leaders (Bill Virdon / Don Leppert / Bill Mazeroski / Dave Ricketts / Mel Wright) 

Maz finished up his career in 1972, then went straight to the coaching staff for Pittsburgh.

#569 - Dodgers Field Leaders (Walt Alston / Red Adams / Monty Basgall / Jim Gilliam / Tom Lasorda)

The only manager/coach card from this set in which both the manager and a coach are Hall of Famers. Alston was inducted in 1983, Lasorda in 1997.

Merry Christmas!