A Hall of Fame Bunch

For a while now, I've been plugging away at a new project: A Hall of Fame Frankenset. Every card #1 to #799 features a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. The set is actually complete in the sense that there is a card in every slot. But there are a couple of "upgrades" I'm now trying to make on the set:

Balancing the representation of players in the set. For example, right now I believe Sandy Koufax has two cards in the set and Carlton Fisk has 11. So, there's some work to do in that area.

Adding some vintage cards to the binder. I am now on the lookout for affordable vintage cards of Hall of Famers. The acquisitions below should arrive in a few weeks from COMC. I was able to get them all for $2.50 or less. Most were less than $2. 

With these additions, I'm closing in on 100 cards in the set that were issued before 1980. Not too shabby I'd say. The oldest card in the set, if you're curious, is a 1951 Bowman Billy Southworth. 

There are a couple of cards featuring multiple players, one of which is card #731. 

My goal is to have no multi-player cards, but I'd have to replace it with this one, which I can't find any cheaper than $6.25 right now, and I can't justify paying that for this card: 

This has arguably been my favorite project I've ever worked on, and I think it will be an ongoing project. I recently snagged some vintage Hall of Famers from Diamond Jesters' Time Travel Trade that should arrive any day now, and I picked up another (Tony Perez) from Nick from Dime Boxes in a giveaway he did for his 11th blogiversary:

I also claimed a replacement from my Minnie Minoso player collection, because that 1977 Topps card went into the Hall of Fame Frankenset. The other gem of the group was my first Grover Alexander Cubs card. And the Billy Williams was a throw in. Thanks Nick!

He Played for the Cubs? - An All-Time Team

This is a post that I've had in my mind for a couple years now. Using just the cards in my Cubs collection, I wanted to put together an all-time Cubs team, consisting of players that made most of their impact on other teams. Accompanying each member of the roster is an image of their Cubs card in my collection. I used WAR (Wins Above Replacement) as a quick metric to try to measure the player's relative impact on the Cubs compared to their whole career. In some cases, I favored a player with lower WAR in my starting lineup. Enjoy the 25-man roster and let me know your thoughts in the comments. Happy New Year!

The Batting Order:

*Hall of Fame

1. Lou Brock - RF*

2010 Topps Update - Cards Your Mom Threw Out

Career: 19 seasons / 45.3 WAR

Cubs: 4 seasons / 3.6 WAR

2. Richie Ashburn - CF*

Career: 15 seasons / 58.1 WAR

Cubs: 2 seasons / 4.1 WAR

3. Fred McGriff - 1B*

Career: 19 seasons / 52.6 WAR

Cubs: 2 seasons / 3.3 WAR

4. Ralph Kiner - LF*

1977-84 Galasso Glossy Greats

Career: 10 seasons / 48.1 WAR

Cubs: 2 seasons / 4.6 WAR

5. Nomar Garciaparra - SS

Career: 14 seasons / 44.3 WAR

Cubs: 2 seasons / 1.5 WAR

6. Tony Lazzeri - 2B*

Career: 14 seasons / 47.6 WAR

Cubs: 1 season / 0.7 WAR

7. Gary Gaetti - 3B

Career: 20 seasons / 42.1 WAR

Cubs: 2 seasons / 0.8 WAR

8. Roger Bresnahan - C*

Career: 17 seasons / 42.0 WAR

Cubs: 4 seasons / 3.8 WAR

9. Robin Roberts - P*

Career: 19 seasons / 86.1 WAR

Cubs: 1 season / -0.7 WAR

Goose Gossage - Closer*

Career: 22 seasons / 41.1 WAR

Cubs: 1 season / -0.2 WAR

Bench:

Kenny Lofton - OF

Career: 17 seasons / 68.4 WAR

Cubs: 1 season / 1.8 WAR

Jim Edmonds - OF

Career: 17 seasons / 60.4 WAR

Cubs: 1 season 1.1 WAR

Luis Gonzalez - OF

Career: 19 seasons / 51.6 WAR

Cubs: 2 seasons / 4.7 WAR

Jason Kendall - C

Career: 15 seasons / 41.7 WAR 

Cubs: 1 season / -0.3 WAR

D.J. LeMahieu - SS

Career: 12 seasons / 30.3 WAR (still active)

Cubs: 1 season / -0.2 WAR

Davey Johnson - 3B

Career: 13 seasons / 27.4 WAR

Cubs: 1 season / 0.5 WAR

Chris Speier - Utility

Career: 19 seasons / 30.6 WAR

Cubs: 2 seasons / 0.9 WAR

Other Starting Pitchers:

Cole Hamels - #2 Starter

Career: 15 seasons / 59.0 WAR

Cubs: 2 seasons / 5.0 WAR

Burleigh Grimes* - #3 Starter

1961 Fleer Baseball Greats #37

Career: 19 seasons / 52.8 WAR

Cubs: 2 seasons / -0.6 WAR

Curt Simmons - #4 Starter

Career: 20 seasons / 43.3 WAR

Cubs: 2 seasons / -1.1 WAR

Dan Haren - #5 Starter

Career: 13 seasons / 35.1 WAR

Cubs: 1 season / 0.2 WAR

Other Relief Pitchers:

Hoyt Wilhelm*

Career: 21 seasons / 46.8 WAR

Cubs: 1 season / -0.2 WAR

Tom Gordon

Career: 21 seasons / 35.0 WAR

Cubs: 2 seasons / 0.8 WAR

Bobby Shantz

1964 Topps Style Custom
(Shantz never had a Cubs card issued.)

Career: 16 seasons / 34.7 WAR

Cubs: 1 season / -0.1 WAR

Craig Kimbrel

Career: 13 seasons / 21.8 WAR (still active)

Cubs: 3 seasons / 1.8 WAR

Others considered:

Rick Aguilera, Jeff Blauser, George Bell, Rod Beck, Joe Carter, Nick Castellanos, Tommy Davis, Cliff Floyd, Jimmie Foxx* (I don't have a Cubs card of Foxx, or else he would have made the team), Monte Irvin*, Eric Karros, Harvey Kuenn, Phil Nevin, Carlos Pena, Joc Pederson, Benito Santiago, Bobby Thomson, Willie Wilson

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!