A Goliath package from David

Yes it has taken me a little bit (too long and I apologize for that) to THANK YOU David from Indian Baseball Cards and then some . . . for the most generous of shipments I received last week.

Somehow he heard of my "want" of Cubs cards and satisfied that "want" with a load (over 100 cards spanning 47 years !)

Some of my favorites are:

Top Row: a 1962 Topps Jim Brewer # 191 (upper left corner); a great pose by Mitch Williams (top center) and my first Razor: Andrew Cashner.

Middle Row: three Alfonso Soriano's; 2007 Turkey Red, 2008 UD in black and white and 2008 UD Timeline. I hope you can notice the great eyeliner Soriano has.

Bottom Row: a 1991 Fleer Greg Maddux bunting and the 1993 Fleer League Leader with the Maddux powerful face pre-release, to my first O-Pee-Chee, 1991, of George Bell watching a lazy fly ball reach the Wrigley basket (or at least I think so).

Also included in the package were several Studio 1992's, Donruss 1992's, Donruss 1987's, several Topps Stadium cards of various years and many other cards including this 1985 Father-Son card of Dizzy and Steve Trout (got to love that hair !)

I will be posting another entry with more of my favorites from David, including some Tampa Bay Rays (Devil Rays) he sent along (living in Sarasota one must cheer for the Rays, sometimes).

Thank you David !

Cubs Leaders from 1986 ?

An unexpected benefit of collecting baseball cards and this new world of blogging, one gets the opportunity to look back and report on history. Though most of my collection is "stuck in the sixties and seventies" I have recently discovered a new appreciation for the "modern" cards as well.

So I was looking at my Cubs cards from that overproduced wood grain border set of 1987 (I know that set does not constitute "vintage" or "modern" but nonetheless it is "history").

One card popped out like a sore thumb to me: the Cubs Leaders card # 581. For the record the Cubs were lousy in 1986, posting a 70-90 record and coming in fifth in the NL East.

While this card displays the back of Ron Cey and Steve Trout (two nice guys), makes me stop ad wonder what they were actually talking about but in either case neither of them were team leaders in any major category. The back of this card lists all the leaders in various categories and no mention of Cey or Trout anywhere.

In doing some extra research I did find this:

Cey led the team in games played at third base with 77

Trout led the team in "intentional base on balls" with 13

So that's it . . . two players who contributed nicely for the 1984 NL East Division Championship team; with Cey leading the team in HR's and RBI's and Trout going 13-7 (yes that 1984 team)but team leaders from 1986 . . . not !