Cody Bellinger crashed into the outfield wall at Wrigley Tuesday night.  He was taken out of the game with sore ribs as a precaution.  On Wednesday he was found to have fractured a rib and was placed on the IL.  Called up from Iowa to replace him was Pete Crow-Armstrong.  PCA wasn't exactly tearing things up in Iowa, batting just .203. He was a late inning defensive replacement on Wednesday night but was the starting centerfielder on Thursday afternoon.  He struck out his first two times up and looked clueless.  But on his third AB he smacked a home run into ..read more

The Cubs recalled Matt Mertis from Iowa on Tuesday, taking the roster spot of Garrett Cooper, who was DFA'ed.  Mervis was promptly put into the lineup Tuesday night, and he was 0-3.  He was doing well in AAA once again, and it remains to be seen if he can do the same thing in the big leagues or if he is one of the AAAA players. I didn't have to make a card for him because Topps included him in the factory set.  I'm assuming that he will also have a card is series two ..read more

I recently picked up another of the Cubs season ticket holder sets, this one from 2022.  Topps and the Cubs partnered up to create a 15 card set using the 19878 Topps design.   I'm assuming they used that design because it was also used in 2022 Archives.  They didn't have to make anything new, they used something already set to go. Not only did the use a recycled recycled front, but they got very lazy with the backs.  Look at that.  There is a lot of blank space.           These are the ten cards of players that were currently with t ..read more

The electronics giant Motorola gave away baseball cards at their 1976 dealers convention.  Each pack contained one card and a stick of gum.  It was a pretty novel thing to do back then. The set features eleven old-time players.  The front has a picture of the player while on the back there was information about Motorola products. There are two Cubs in the set and I thought I had this set done over a year ago, but nope.  I picked up one card but never got the other.  I realized this last week, found the missing card on eBay, and bought it.   The two Cubs are Ha ..read more

 Three more Cubs made their 2024 debut.  All three saw action on Friday.  Two came to the team off of the IL, having recovered from back issues.   Jameson Taillon started Friday's game and went 5 effective innings against the Marlins, giving up just one run on three hits.  He'll be a welcome addition to the rotation if he keeps that up, with Justin Steele on the IL and Kyle Hendricks struggling. Patrick Wisdom played right field on a windy afternoon for the first five innings and then moved to third base for the rest of the game.  The Cubs will need decent product ..read more

I've got 21,727 Cubs cards from 316 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades. 1900s - 1970s: 1971 Topps #175 Jim Hickman Topps had Hickman pose right at the batting cage on a sunny day in New York. 1980s: 1984 Nestles #267 Carmelo Martinez  He didn't play for the Cubs in 1984 as he was traded to the Padres in the deal that brought Scott Sanderson to Chicago. 1990s: 1992 Star Millennium #48 Ryne Sandberg I like the look of the nameless jerseys, especially now with the ne ..read more

There are five current Cubs players with cards in the factory set but were not included in series one.  I did homemade cards of them for my opening day post, so lets see how mine compare to Topps. My cards are on the left, while the Topps version in on the right. My action shot wins!  Topps has both the ugly City Connect uniform and a screaming shot, so I win times two!   I like the Topps bunt shot,  but any card that uses the City Connect uniform is an automatic loser.   Wow!  Great minds think alike! My action shot wins, again ..read more

The bullpen needed some fresh arms so yesterday the Cubs sent Luke Little and Daniel Palencia to Iowa and brought up Hayden Wesneski and Colten Brewer. They didn't waste any time using Wesneski.  He was brought in yesterday's game in the fifth inning, with the Cubs leading 2-1 at the time.  It turned out to be a great move as he gave up no runs and pitched through the eighth inning.  In the meantime, the Cubs scored three more runs while the D-Backs tallied once in the last frame.  Because starter Justin Wicks didn't last through the fifth, the win went to Wesneski. Topps ..read more

On Monday the Cubs placed Seyia Suzuki on the 10 day IL.  To take his place they called up rookie outfielder Alexander Canario.  Canario played in six games last September and hit a respectable .294.  Craig Counsel wasted no time in getting him into action this year as was used in a pinch runner in the 11th inning of Monday's 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks ..read more

Former Cub pitcher Ken Holtzman passed away yesterday at the age of 78.  The lefty was a member of the '69 Cubs and pitched in one of the most memorable games that season.  He tossed a no-hitter on August 19 against the Braves.  Remember, the Braves won the West that season, so it wasn't like he no-hit an also ran team.  An oddity of the game is that he didn't record a single strikeout.   Two years later he pitched another no hitter, this time against the Big Red Machine in Cincinnati.  The Cubs won the game 1-0 and the lone run was scored by Holtzman.  ..read more