Oy, Caratini is pitching again tonight. Let's not make this a regular thing... One pitch, one out though!

Anthony Rizzo in to "close" the game! The 42nd greatest Cub of all time! (just passed Charlie Grimm)

A fun bunch of all time Cubs.

Silver Flint is #105.

Frank Demaree is #108, technically not in the top 100-ish but close. I really love the 1938 Goudey set and Demaree is the only Cub in there.

Next are players 305 and 150 sandwiched around the 2nd greatest Cub ever.

Finally it's the great Leon Durham, the 89th greatest Cub. He's as 80s as it gets, never played a minute in the 70s or 90s. But by the end of this season, Kyle Hendricks will finally push Leon into the 90s.

http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/...pshfbj9twj.jpg

It has been a veeery long time since I updated this thread, and the collection and ranking have gone through lots of changes. I've got a website showcasing the all-time greatest Cubs if you're into that kind of thing.

https://allthecubs.com/

Nice list, and nice stuff. I'm a Cubs fan too, but unlike you - I'm quite possibly doing the "worst" Cubs of all time - in that I want to get all the Bowman (1948 - 1955) Cubs. It's affordable for me in that there is only one Banks card on that list, which I already have. The rest of those Cubs were pretty awful, but they sure had some nice cards. :)

That's a great project. There are plenty of good Cubs during that run. Cavarretta, Pafko, Sauer, Schmitz, Rush, Frisch, Minner. All those guys matter. Then the big one in 55, but also the Gene Baker in 55 is a personal favorite. Gene was the 2nd black player to play for the Cubs.

I've messed around with a 51 Bowman Cubs set because that set is so pretty. I still need a few.

Ah yes Gene Baker with the band-aid over his eye. That's on my list!

As you may know, the Cubs revamped their team Hall of Fame in 2021 and released a list of 56 names that have been honored by the Cubs at various times and in various ways over the years. I've got a lot to say about the choices that were made, but mostly I'm just glad they're formalizing their Hall and taking it seriously. In December I submitted a request to PSA to create a rookie card set registry for the players on the list, and I just saw today that it was added to their pending list, all the way at the bottom. Who knows how long that will take to finish, but at least it got approved.

I sent them a list of cards I thought would be appropriate to use for the registry, at their request. Everything from 1948 to present is pretty straightforward, but those pre-war rookie cards can get fuzzy. The official RC of Rogers Hornsby is 1933 Goudey even though he had cards as far back as 1917, so hopefully they go with my suggestions instead. Here's the list I sent them.

1887 N172 Old Judge Jimmy Ryan
1887 N172 Old Judge Clark Griffith
1887 N172 Old Judge John Clarkson
1887 N172 Old Judge King Kelly
1909-11 T206 Frank Chance
1909-11 T206 Mordecai Brown
1909-11 T206 Joe Tinker
1909-11 T206 Johnny Evers
1909-11 T206 Wildfire Schulte
1909-11 T206 Ed Reulbach
1909-11 T206 Heinie Zimmerman
1909-11 T206 Orval Overall
1911 T205 Gold Border Hippo Vaughn
1914 Cracker Jack Pete Alexander
1921 E121 American Caramel Rogers Hornsby
1922 E120 American Caramel Gabby Hartnett
1922 E121 American Caramel Charlie Grimm
1933 Goudey Charlie Root
1933 Goudey Billy Herman
1933 Goudey Hack Wilson
1933 Goudey Kiki Cuyler
1933 Goudey Riggs Stephenson
1933 Goudey Leo Durocher
1934-36 Batter-Up Stan Hack
1934-36 Batter-Up Phil Cavarretta
1948 Bowman Hank Sauer
1949 Bowman Andy Pafko
1949 Leaf Lou Boudreau
1954 Topps Ernie Banks
1961 Topps Ron Santo
1961 Topps Billy Williams
1965 Topps Glenn Beckert
1966 Topps Fergie Jenkins
1966 Topps Randy Hundley
1966 Topps Don Kessinger
1967 Topps Ken Holtzman
1970 Topps Bill Buckner
1973 Topps Rick Reuschel
1977 Topps Bruce Sutter
1977 Topps Andre Dawson
1980 Topps Rick Sutcliffe
1982 Topps Lee Smith
1983 Topps Ryne Sandberg
1987 Donruss Greg Maddux

Glad you posted again. I am a real old Cubs guy and my favorite player was Hank Sauer and I remember the afore mentioned "worst" Cubs teams very well. I found the list of Greatest Cubs players interesting. It is a work well thought out.

Glad you updated your list and brought tread back. My main focus is great CUBs, weighted to pre war but vintage and modern HOFs and stars is always fun to pick up. Wish I could say I my condition budget was as nice as your but at least were not competing. Thanks for sharing and good collecting to you. Go Cubs

This is a really unique and fun collection. Thanks for sharing!

One question: A lot of times when guys collect one team, they only collect cards that feature the player with their team. I noticed with your CJ Alexander, you're not necessarily doing that. Do you prefer to find a card with the Cubs, or is it just about finding the coolest card for that player?

If a player's rookie card isn't with the Cubs, I'll usually chase both the rookie card and the player's first card with the Cubs (and whatever other cards I'm interested in). I've got a 1921 Oxford card of Alexander that shows him on the Cubs. I wanted the PSA registry to be rookie cards, regardless of team.

Your list has been a great help to me filling out my own similar, but not score-weighted, collection. Gotta send some thanks for that. I've had some overlooked names added to my watch list since I stumbled onto your list years ago.

I allow leeway for some notable guys even if their numbers aren't spectacular, so guys like Max Flack, Cliff Heathcote, and Dom Dallessandro make my cut. Hal Jeffcoat sneaks in because he was a 2-way (hitter/pitcher) player for the Cubs, though none of it was spectacular.

Love the web page. Insane quality collection.

Great collection -- really thoughtful .

Just a side note - The Cubs Team HOF seems to think that they won the series in '69. Practically the whole team made the HOF (okay not Don Young, Jim Hickman, and Bill Hands) but the entire infield, two starting pitchers and an outfielder. The team really has done a nice job with it though...https://cubs.fanportal-mlb.com/hof/?...chc-halloffame

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...s%20signed.jpg

Let's play two!

Love the big top borders...
my kind of card..

As a Mets fan I long for a team with a bit more history. Hard not to love the Cubbies.

Day late in posting this but March 27 1902 was the first mention of "Cubs" in print.

Thanks man! That's my goal, to spread some love for all the great Cubs. Not just Tinker-Evers-Chance and Bryant-Baez-Rizzo (I know that doesn't line up perfect but whatever) with Ernie Banks in between. There were a lot of guys who deserve to be remembered.

You're not wrong about the 1969 Cubs. I wrote about it here. Bill Hands was better than a few of those guys, but for some reason he didn't make the cut.

But I'm just really glad the Cubs have taken it seriously. Cooperstown has a lot of questionable additions and omissions that are fun to talk about, and the Cubs Hall is no different. I love players like Don Kessinger and Hank Sauer and Bill Buckner, even if I don't think they're hall-worthy.

History is really baseball's greatest advantage over the other sports. The Cubs have been around since 1876 (not as the "Cubs, but still). I think the team HOF should have a different standard than the Cooperstown standard. As a lifelong (50+ years!) Cubs fan I'm happy with Kessinger and Buckner despite their modern "analytic" shortcomings. For a few seasons Buckner was the Cubs the preeminent player -- we thought he was their best. That's got to mean something. I felt like Kessinger was their dependable SS forever when I was kid.
A team HOF - as opposed to the big one in Cooperstown -- should be more about fandom and little less about achievement as reflected in the modern "numbers."

I completely agree. I incorporate a lot of non-stat stuff into my ranking like playing time, all-star games, playoff appearances, awards and so on. Even so my ranking doesn't perfectly measure what a Cubs Hall of Famer is, but for me it's nice to have a starting point that's objective and the same for all players across eras.

Your point about Kessinger is well taken (not Buckner though, I'll never get that). But you used the words "felt" and "when I was a kid." At some point someone felt that way about Woody English and Charlie Hollocher too. Why aren't they in the Cubs Hall? The fact that the selection skews toward one particular team so heavily is a red flag for me. Guys who played in the 60s were honored in the 80s. Not shocking. But "I remember when they played" shouldn't be such a big factor. That's not fair to the players of 80 or 100 or 120 years ago.

Finally sent this one in to get authenticated by PSA. 1885 Chicago White Stockings.

Is that a different font on the flip? Is this a new thing, or is it just because it's an odd card?

https://allthecubs.files.wordpress.c...885-ws-psa.jpg

https://allthecubs.files.wordpress.c...5-ws-psa-b.jpg

https://allthecubs.files.wordpress.c...s-psa-flip.jpg

I can't comment on the flip but what a great card! I would have called it a cdv or cabinet (I have seen both with deckle-edges) depending on the size (it's hard to tell how big it is from the scan). But whatever you call it, it looks amazing to me.

Thanks! Not as big as you think, about 3.5" x 5.5". The size seems somewhere between a cabinet and a cdv. Not sure why they went with "photocard." I think they were too busy grading Pokemon cards to give mine a lot of attention. It took them two months to finally decide they would authenticate it.

I've been trying to finish this Johnny Evers "rainbow" for a while now. There aren't too many purple options from the tobacco card era. The only one I know is a 1911 E94 Close Candy, and those don't come up often (total PSA pop 28, but only a few of those are purple). Anybody have a purple Johnny Evers for me?

https://allthecubs.com/wp-content/up...rainbow-ss.jpg

Here's an example of the E94 Evers:

https://d1htnxwo4o0jhw.cloudfront.ne...6584.tif?f=jpg

Stephen—Great piece. That “card” was given out for the first game at West Side Park, the Cubs new home in 1885. The team had just moved from Lakefront Park leaving behind lots of memories and the ability of Ned Williamson to hit home runs.

Wow that's great info! Is there a source for that?

It seems very early for the new Cubs Hall of Fame to be having its Harold Baines moment, but I think it's here. My thoughts on the Hall of Fame merits of José Cardenal.

https://allthecubs.com/2022/08/25/jose-cardenal/

https://i0.wp.com/allthecubs.com/wp-...68%2C647&ssl=1

Yeah, I like Cardenal...but Cubs HOF?

Guy was a decent hitter, but terrible in the field. He doesn't even rank in the top of ABs or PAs for the Cubs to get him there just out of longevity.

I don't have a heavy protest, but it's a weak addition to the Cubs HOF.

Jose has an epic story about how when he came to this country how he didn’t really speak English. He would order Ham and Eggs every morning for breakfast and one day he tried to order something else. The punch line is in the end he said “Fu2k it Ham and eggs”. Story was even funnier when Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam tells the story with a jose accent. Great memory from Cubs fantasy Camp.

Asking former players to get involved in these things is never a good idea. Athletes are usually very bad at objectively analyzing their own sport. It's two completely different skill sets. Billy, Fergie, Ryne, Andre, and Lee actually know Jose, so of course they're drawn to that name on the list. Do they even know who Bill Nicholson was? Or Bob Rush? It's just not a great way to put together a hall of fame. We have historians and statisticians for a reason.

Guide to collecting the Cubs Hall of Fame

https://allthecubs.com/2022/09/09/co...-hall-of-fame/

https://i0.wp.com/allthecubs.com/wp-...00%2C337&ssl=1

Here is Jim Vaughn as a Cub.

Kind of hard to find Hof on Cubs

I am really hesitant to even bring up a point/counter-point about vintage RC's, but I notice you don't seem to be on board with the 1908 E91 American Caramel Set A cards as RC's.

It's not on the same level of rarity as the 1903 Breisch-Williams cards, but is it because of rarity...or the whole "generic" thing (another back/forth argument with different sides, especially considering Set A cards)...or something else?

Speaking of rare, I love your 1933 George C Miller Lon Warneke. I spent a while looking a GCM Grimm or Warneke card at a decent price before I gave up trying to find a reasonably priced one.

Don't hesitate at all, it's my favorite thing to talk about lol. I don't have a big problem with considering E91s to be rookie cards. But one of the criteria I consider is the size of the set. I think a set should be league-comprehensive for it to qualify. It's the same reason I leave out 1933 DeLong. The E91 sets are only 33 players each. Some consider sets A B and C to be one big set but they're not checklisted that way. That is some super arbitrary, nit-picky pedantry, but I am a baseball card collector after all.

Yeah that GCM Warneke wasn't cheap but I wanted to have at least one in my collection. It's a great-looking set.

This one is my favorite Hippo Vaughn card, and one of my favorite cards in my whole collection. Love the look of it.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWXTWGEX...g&name=900x900

I don't have a single Bresnahan card, which is inexcusable. Not exactly one of the greatest Cubs because he was there only three seasons, but I need to have at least one. Fatima or Cracker Jack preferably. Or that D303 (I think?) would be nice too.

Totally get that. I was just wondering your thinking on the matter.

Just realized I never introduced my collection website on Net54. LOTS of scanning and I'm finally mostly done. Use the dropdowns on the left to view the different collections or filter by player/set/etc.

https://allthecubs.com/card-filter/

Incredible stuff and one of thee coolest, well-done card pages Ive ever seen. Great work. Inspiring.

great site, great collection

Nice website. Congrats.

Awesome collection, concept and website. Thanks for sharing. I’ve been considering options to create a site for my collection. Would you recommend Wordpress?

Wordpress is convenient and powerful. Just make sure to stay on top of any patching for WP or any plugins you may use. Lots of vulnerabilities.

Neat collection.

My love affair with the Cubs was short when I was a kid in Chicago. The 1969 Cubs were my team. I have managed to assemble a complete collection of autographed photos (or just autographs) of every player who played for the team that year.