Ain't No Break Like a Nacho Break

Last year, our principal decided to take advantage of the modified school schedule the school board gave us. He took the Wednesdays we suddenly had with no students in the building and instituted "Nacho Wednesday." Every Wednesday, we had Crock Pots full of nacho cheese sauce and bags of tortilla chips in the faculty room. I will never pass up nacho cheese. Seriously, my wife once bought me a #10 can of nacho cheese from Costco as a Valentine's gift. Thanks to Nacho Wednesdays at work, my wife has started to refer to my growing belly as my "nachos." I'm not complaining. I'm also not complaining that this year--though we're back to a normal schedule--the principal decided to keep Nacho Wednesday. So I sit here writing this post after taking a nacho break. Hence, the topic of my post today: Nacho(s Grande) Breaks.

I haven't done many team breaks of late because I've been more focused on different aspects of my collection lately. Well, that and it seems like the Cubs are already taken whenever I see Nacho's posts. But I got in on his recent Chrome break and asked him to send the stack that I had reserved for who knows how long.

There were only four Cubs in that box. Two of them were two different refractor types of Brailyn Marquez. Marquez only has 2/3 inning pitched in the Majors, in which he gave up 3 walks, 2 hits, and 5 earned runs. But, hey, these cards are cool! He was also the 6th youngest player in the NL this season, according to Baseball-Reference, so there is time for some growth and development.

 

At one point, I also bought into a 2020 A&G break from Chris.

I love these non-base cards from that break The Longball Lore set is especially appealing to me. I also picked up the Brewers in this break, so if you are interested in a Christian Yelich Longball card or a couple of Milwaukee minis, I have some for trade.

And I got the Cubs from this year's Heritage, imitating the funky 1972 Topps set. This is the problem with collecting Cubs right now: only three of these players still play their home games at Wrigley Field--and one of these is in a Padres uni on the card. Interestingly, #1 and #2 on the Pitching Leaders card were traded for each other last offseason. And the third won a World Series.

 

A few extra Nacho throw-ins (possibly a Stadium Club break? I can't even remember) brought me these Cubs from yesteryear. A new Kerry Wood is always welcome in my binders.

I feel pretty certain that the only reason I bought into a 2021 Opening Day break was to get one of the last cards I needed for the Outstanding Opening Day insert set. Well, mission accomplished. I have just two more on my wantlist (Giancarlo Stanton and Hank Aaron, if you can help out with that).

Up til now, there hasn't been too much exciting stuff in this haul. Where I really lucked out was the box toppers, where I picked up Javy Baez from both 2020 A&G and 2021 Heritage. That's not too bad! I love this picture, though, with four different sizes of Baez cards. Pretty sweet, I think.

Thanks for the breaks, Chris! Nacho breaks really are the best.

El Mago Desaparece

I've been spending my week posting my collection of cards featuring players traded by the Cubs before this year's deadline. I have one more to show. Over the past four or five seasons, Javy Baez has become my favorite player currently playing. Whether it is his dazzling glovework,

 brilliant baserunning tactics,

or sensational slides,

El Mago always puts on a show. He's just out there having fun and it's easy to have fun along with him. (Unless you're a Pirates fan watching a rookie first baseman get hoodwinked into a head-scratching rundown. That probably wasn't a lot of fun.) Of the players who were traded, I honestly thought Baez had the best chance to stick around, but it wasn't to be. So, as a farewell, here is my Javier Baez collection.

2019 Topps has quintessential Javy after an apparent diving tag.

Stadium Club is nice, but I think my favorite here is the GQ.

I just noticed the corners of this page are both Holiday edition. I like the 2018 photo, turning two over Mookie Betts.

Big League is fun here, mimicking the throw behind Bryant.

Now we're getting into the non-base cards, which make up a good portion of my collection. I like the chromed GQ box topper here.

Great page with a couple of Ernie Banks cameos. My favorites are National Baseball Card Day and the "El Mago" nickname.

A pair of Gold Labels are the highlight to me on this page.

I like the red parallel of last year's Update.

The Heritage you see is a Chromified Refractor version of Javy's shared rookie card with Jorge Soler. I like the GQ mini, which is serial-numbered to 250.

The last page is highlighted by a serial-numbered Topps Tribute parallel.

Even though he is no longer in the Windy City, I'll still be watching Javier Baez play baseball. Until some new Cub shows he can be as exciting as El Mago, he'll be hard to displace as my favorite player in the game. The fireworks have already started in New York, as Baez homered in his first game as a Met. Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant did it, too, by the way--for the Yankees and Giants, respectively. Because that just fits the current situation as a Cubs fan perfectly.

Seventeen

This past week, my wife and I celebrated 17 years of marriage. As I was preparing something for her that involved the number 17, I started thinking about what else 17 signifies for me. On another personal relationship note, 17 is the age that both of us were when we first started dating. (Though not when we first met. We had become acquainted in sophomore English class about a year and a half before.) Extending beyond the personal, my thoughts turned to the #17 on the baseball field, and the player who would almost surely be traded away from the North Side of Chicago, Kris Bryant.

All the rumors of the roster tear-down began with everyone pegging Bryant as the most likely trade candidate in the MLB before the season even began. Of the Big Three who were traded away from Chicago, KB has been the most frustrating to me. The guy bursts onto the scene in 2015 to win Rookie of the Year. The next year, he has already reached the pinnacle, taking home MVP honors while recording the final out (along with favorite partner in crime, Anthony Rizzo) in Game 7 of the World Series. After that, his game dropped off a little. Some even questioned whether he was still a superstar. Brian at Collecting Cutch wrote a piece last week about Bryce Harper, presenting his career and asking if he was overrated or under-appreciated. Not surprisingly, the comments left on the post represented both sides. The same debate could be had for Bryant, as well. It appears injuries played a little bit more of a role in KB's downturn, however, as he has begun to tick up over the past year. He was arguably playing the best baseball in Wrigley at the time he was traded.

As I did with Anthony Rizzo, I will show off my Kris Bryant cards in tribute. However, since he will have a Rookie of the Year Spotlight post, I'll spare you my entire collection. Here are just a few pages of KB17.

I love the Gold Label here, though Bunt and Stadium Club are pretty great, too.

I like the Bunt Lightforce insert on this page. The 1989 Upper Deck you see is a Baseball Breakdown custom courtesy of Gavin.

I like the row of Fire parallels here. The orange and the green are serial-numbered.

Wow, I like all of these, but the winner has to be the Beckett cover promo. The reverse side of the card features Kyle Schwarber, in case you were curious.

For a moment, I started to think that maybe Bryant was going to stick around after all. The cutoff time of the deadline approached without him being moved. The deal was announced with just minutes to spare. All good things come to an end. They already had years ago when my favorite #17 ever said goodbye to Chicago. Mark Grace has always been my favorite player, so I have to give him some love here too.

The Rookie Page.

I think my favorite is 1996 Stadium Club. He's smacking one of his decade-leading 1,754 hits.

1991 Topps is an iconic card from my own childhood.

1993 Studio is the best here.

This may be the best page of Graces. I can't choose a favorite. Diving on Sports Illustrated? Gold Label(s)? E-X(s)? Finest? Or the slide on 2000 Topps?

Another great page with a lot of baserunning this time. But Gold Label is my favorite.

1995 SP Championship is my selection here.

Another 1989 rookie pops up here, but my favorite is the dugout shot on the Sports Illustrated card.

I'll take the attempted pick-off tag on 1994 Pinnacle.

Man, I love 90s cards. It's hard to hard to pass on the EX-2000, but 1997 Leaf, 1996 SP, and 1996 Finest just might do it.

 

Note the crease across the 1991 Fleer autographed card. I got this card signed TTM when I was a kid, and I was so disappointed that my favorite player had signed, but the card had been damaged in the mail.

Some great oddballs here, including a few magazine cut-out cards. 1990 Post were the first baseball cards I got, and the first two were Gracie and Ryno, sparking a Cubs fandom in my little mind.

Like Bryant this weekend, Grace eventually left the Cubs. He joined the D-Backs and won a World Series just four months after I graduated from high school. By that time, my wife and I were dating steadily, on a path that would lead us here, still together after 17 years of marriage.

The Beginning of the Bryzzo Brexit

I have been dreading July 30th since April. The Cubs' brass has made little secret of their desire to cut costs and start a rebuild of the team. This stings a bit because the core of the team that has been designated as too expensive to keep just happens to be the core that brought home the Cubbies' only championship in the lifetime of virtually any person currently on earth. When they won the championship, I was elated, but also surprised. It seemed that the squad of youngsters had arrived ahead of schedule. Kyle Schwarber, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Jorge Soler, Javier Baez, and Willson Contreras were all rookies or second-year players when they won it all. It seemed like that core would only grow stronger as they matured and I expected more future success as they hit their primes. Now here we are, five years later and those players have hit their primes and their contract years. They have been good enough to win a few division titles, but with no more postseason success. They have also been good enough to all get paid, and the sad reality is that the Cubs couldn't--or wouldn't--pay them all. So the decision was made to blow it up and move on. I've been less than excited about the prospect of saying goodbye to some of the most special players in the history of my fandom, but it's happening.

None of these guys are Cubs anymore.

I know it wasn't the first trade the Cubs made this season. And I know that some of the aforementioned youngsters left the team before this year. But the departure of Anthony Rizzo the day before the deadline marked the beginning of the Cub-pocalypse that I was expecting. 

 

Cub-pocalypse it was, as they seemed determined to raze the thing down to the final brick. Just consider this: they let Kyle Schwarber walk in free agency this winter, replaced him with Joc Pederson (who is essentially the same player), then traded Schwarber's replacement this month. In a strange twist of fate, both Schwarber-style players were traded by their respective employers. A similar situation happened with Jon Lester and Trevor Williams, though they aren't as similar as Schwarber and Pederson. This team was never meant to stay together in any way, shape, or form. I knew that. I was expecting that. It was still shocking to see them give up on retaining the entire trio of Rizzo, Baez, and Bryant.

Rizzo was the shocker to me. He's been with the team the longest and I didn't expect him to be dealt first. Perhaps as a coping mechanism in the aftermath of the trades, I took to scanning my collection of these players to share. This will be scan-heavy with little commentary beyond mentioning a few cards. I don't have any mega-hits in my collection. This is just my tribute to say, "Thank you," to the players whose achievements have meant the most to me as a fan.

My favorite card here is the rookie. It showcases Rizzo's somewhat awkward straight-up batting stance.

I think my favorites on this page are the 1990-style Archives and playful Rizzo at the Home Run Derby.

2019 Topps Tribute wins here, as I have so few Tribute cards.

I'm going with the great stadium shot on Stadium Club here.

I like the simple A&G pose here.

Now we start to get into non-base cards. My favorite here is the Heritage Chrome.

I like the 5-Tool card in this group, though Rizzo has never been a five-tool player.

In the last group, my favorite is a toss-up between the Fire En Fuego and the DK Aficionado.

Thursday's Rizzo trade marked the end of Bryzzo, the most fun baseball duo this side of Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus. We'll miss you in Wrigleyville, Anthony!

All the 2021 Cubs I Needed

A couple weeks ago, Daniel from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop questioned his status as a team collector. He claimed to no longer be a team collector because he is no longer buying random D-Backs singles. P-Town Tom recently made a similar determination, requesting that collectors no longer send him blind trades of modern cards because he's changing the way he collects. And now, I've recently found myself straying from collecting my professional sports teams. Do I still enjoy adding Cubs and Packers to my collection? Of course! But when I go pick out singles to buy, I'm not at all looking for Cubs and Packers. I'm trying to fill set holes or make progress on one of my [too] many collecting projects. My wantlist on my blog says Cubs and Packers because I like people to include them in trades. But on TCDB--when I have to select specific cards to add to my wantlist--I'm more likely to add cards that aren't either of those two teams. Am I ready to say I don't collect Cubs and Packers anymore? No. But my current collecting goals don't include accumulating more cards of uniforms that I already have by the thousands in my collection. I'm totally content seeking out other cards and letting fellow bloggers remember to send Cubs and Packers my way in trade.

Kerry at Cards on Cards is one of those bloggers who knows that I like to receive Cubs cards. So when I recently placed second in his March Radness (side note: Why did you choke, Gonzaga? One more win and I had it!), he sent me a prize package that was full of Cubs, Cubs, and nothing but Cubs.

These are my first 2021 Flagship cards. As mentioned in my Opening Day post, I am in the minority who likes this year's design. Now seeing the cards with a foil "70 Years" stamp instead of the Opening Day logo, I like them even more. I recognize that the celebration of 70 Years seems unnecessary, but I like what the stamp adds to cards. Kerry provided me with almost a full team set of series one. Only David Bote, Jose Quintana, and Jon Lester remain unaccounted for.

More 2021 that I didn't have. The only 2021 cards I had before this package arrived were Opening Day, so Kerry may have just taken care of me for the year. Typically, I don't care for Donruss, but these cards don't look too bad. I like the selection of players, too--some Cubs legends and my first Brailyn Marquez card.

We're going to keep rolling with 2021, but 1972 style. These players sum up the Cubs this season: only Happ and Mills remain with the club.

Kerry threw in some pretty nice cards of lame-duck former MVP Kris Bryant. Donruss Stat Line and Spectra are both serial-numbered. That also represents my first baseball Spectra card. There's also a nickname variation Donruss and a card that I was shocked to discover I didn't have already: Stars and Stripes Fireworks.

A couple more non-base cards. Both of these players still play for the team, so that's a plus.

And some more inserts/parallels. At first glance, my heart nearly stopped because I couldn't believe that Kerry would gift me that auto-patch KB. It took less than a second to realize it wasn't real, but another Topps self-tribute. I'm sure more than one collector had a similar reaction to cards from this set when they were breaking packs open.

More than anything else he sent, Kerry provided me with stickers. These 2015 stickers include a Javy Baez rookie--if you can consider a sticker a rookie card. It bears the RC logo, but I'm not convinced.

A couple years ago, Topps started making their stickers full card-sized. They came up with some pretty attractive designs, too. But here is why I often struggle with stickers. I think these are the card backs. There is another player on the front, using a different design and this side has the number. It just confuses me to have two different designs and players on opposite sides.

Javy, Rizzo, Schwarber, and Bryant are the front base design, I believe. I'm not sure what the Baez stance, Baez All-Star, or Rizzo are, but as I said, I like the look of all of these. They could be a good Topps Bunt design, in my opinion.

Most of the Cubs-themed prize package from Kerry was new to me. And considering that I don't expect to be opening any 2021 products or adding too many specific Cubs to my TCDB wantlist, or picking up random Cubs cards on the secondary market, I probably needed all of Kerry's offerings to add any of these newer things to my collection. I appreciate that he was generous enough to send them to me.