A Funny Hat, An Oversized Glove, and More Random: My Frankenset Top 5

Over the past couple of weeks, I finished uploading all of the images of the pages for my Frankenset, and decided to do a recap of my favorite cards from the set. I've already revealed my honorable mentions as well as cards 6 through 10. That leaves the top 5, which I hope you'll enjoy. 

#5 - 1988 Iowa Cubs Procards #538 - Paul Noce

This card has several things going for it. It's a minor league issue, it's a Cubs card, and it's something fun and different (though there's actually another card in my set of a minor leaguer hitting a golf ball). 

#4 - 1984 Fleer #495 - Jay Johnstone

Jay Johnstone was a funny guy. I've read a couple of his books, and this card encapsulates his personality perfectly. Bonus: a Cubs card, again! 

#3 - 1990 CMC #139 - Paul Noce

Hey, it's Paul Noce again! I believe this card was staged using velcro or tape of some sort. See above for reasons for its inclusion. It takes the #3 spot despite the fact that Noce was no longer with the Cubs organization. The Nashville Sounds were a Reds affiliate.

#2 - 1986 Fleer #396 - Mickey Hatcher

Though not the only card to feature Hatcher's oversized glove, this was the original. Fleer does it again with a card that appears on most "funny card" lists. 

#1 - 1994 Collector's Choice #249 - Nolan Ryan

This might be my favorite card of all time. Some of the reasons why:

• I first got this card as a kid, I believe out of a pack.
• It is the "rarer" silver signature version of the card, and just looks awesome.
• It features my first favorite baseball player.
• It's beautifully framed.
• The back has 27 seasons of easily readable stats (27!!!) 

So even though it doesn't fit one of the quirky categories found in my Frankenset, it still is #1 to me. It's one of a few "generally awesome" cards from my set, and it just had to be included. 

Do you have a favorite of this group? Any cards you hadn't seen before? 

A Legendary Hat and Legendary Goggles: The Frankenset Recap (Page 55: Cards 488-496)

Welcome to third installment of an 89-part series (wow, that sounds daunting) covering my completed Frankenset. I thought it would be fun to share the set page by page on this blog, and also provide some random commentary with each page. More information on the Frankenset as well as links to the pages that have been revealed can be found here.

I'll also occasionally share miscellaneous information about the set in its entirety. This week, I am featuring a fun fact about the "unique team" category. There are 77 cards in the 800 card set depicting a player with a "unique team." This is defined as a team you normally wouldn't associate that player with (think Willie Mays on the Mets or John Smoltz on the Cardinals). Here are the top teams featured in this category:

• Orioles - 7 (one of these is featured in this week's post, but the card only contributes a half point to this total, since it also fits another Frankenset category)
• Giants - 7 
• Athletics - 6 
• Padres - 5 
• Red Sox - 5 
• Angels - 5 
• Yankees - 5 

Today, we'll look at page 55 of the set, cards 488 to 496.

1993 Stadium Club #488, Scooter Tucker

The meaning of this nickname is not fully known, even by Scooter himself.

1992 Upper Deck #489, Paul Gibson

Probably Dubble Bubble, which means it lost its flavor after approximately 7 seconds.

1994 Pinnacle #490, Chris Sabo

Sabo's iconic goggles make an appearance with an added bonus of an unfamiliar uniform.

1982 Donruss #491, Billy Martin

It probably wasn't too hard to find an opportunity for this type of photo.

2013 Topps #492, Jose Molina

The middle Molina brother actually played 15 years in the majors, but is still lesser known than older brother Bengie and younger brother Yadier. 

1990 Score #493, Eric Show

If you only saw his face, I imagine you might think Eric was participating in an activity other than throwing a baseball.

2012 Topps #494, Darwin Barney

Airborne.

1984 Fleer #495, Jay Johnstone

Perhaps one of the most iconic cards of all time, from a quirkiness perspective. And Jay Johnstone was a quirky guy.

1987 Topps #496, Bruce Bochte

Bruce looks like a middle school science teacher from the early 90s. Does anyone wear glasses like that anymore?

What was your favorite card from the page? Mine would have to be the legendary Jay Johnstone. I've actually read a couple of his books, which are quick and entertaining reads. I'd say the Billy Martin would be my second choice and Chris Sabo would come in third. 

Thanks for reading!

The March to 1,000: New Additions

Since finishing my Frankenset, I have shifted my focus to my all-time Cubs player collection. Recent Cardbarrel and eBay orders and some card show pickups brought my total from 830 to 886. 

I compiled a list for my own reference of cards using the team page on Trading Card Database. This helped me find some cards from the 1995-present period that I had missed. I filled in some of those using Cardbarrel. We'll start with a group of guys I wouldn't have thought of in a million years without TCDB.

And a couple you might actually recognize:

Then, I focused on the late 40s / early 50s players, finding a seller on eBay offering some Bowman reprints of those players. Starting again with some randoms:

Maybe you thought, "Wait, I think I've heard of Dutch Leonard." You probably have heard of the other Dutch Leonard, though this guy actually had the better career.

A couple guys you're more likely to know:

I thought I had a good chance at getting some late 50s or early 60s cards from a vendor at a recent card show, and I was right. As I already have cards of the star players from pretty much every era, all of these are commons:

Art Schult looks sleepy.

Larry Jackson doesn't look thrilled to be joining the Cubs after 8 years with the Cardinals. St. Louis would go on to finish 2nd in the NL in 1963, while the Cubs ended up 7th. The Jack Curtis cards would fit well in my "blurry" card collection, but it is destined for the Cubs binder.

  

Also picked up some cards for my 2nd and 3rd tier player collections. The Mudcat Grant is well-loved. Liking the '79 Tiant signing autos and the Satchel Paige (does he have a bad card?). 

I've identified over 150 players on my master list who have a card that I think is fairly attainable. So that would put me over 1,000. I'm thinking when/if I get to 1,000, I would just focus on adding new players (though Topps Total is an online-only product now, I believe, meaning some players will be harder to come by at a reasonable price). 

Hoping to get some fun Frankenset facts out there in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.