Hobby Archaeology: 1994 Chicago Tribune Cubs Scrapbook

    After a decade, the Chicago Tribune brought back their Cubs Scrapbook feature for the 1994 season.  As with the 1984 series, these were presented in full color, but this time came four to page.   As with the White Sox set, no real announcement was made beyond the bit to the right that was on the first page pf the sports section the day following the end of the Sox set.  Oddly, it says the "first of eight" even though there were 32 "posters" printed in the series.  The set ran from April 19th - May 2nd.

Hobby Archaeology: 1984 Chicago Tribune Cubs Scrapbook

     In 1984, the Chicago Tribune produced yet another series of "cards" for the Cubs.  The set was announced on the front page of the September 5th issue, to appear "intermittently" on the Focus page, which was the last page of the Sports section. This time around, rather than stringing them out one or two players per issue, they issued the set in full pages spread across five seemingly random issues from September 5th to 2 October, as the Cubs were making their push toward the post-season.

     The other big change with this issue is that the cards were presented in full color, and designed in a way such that the cut-out card can be folded in half to create a "card" with a front and a back.  The set introduction recommends folding the cut-outs around a piece of heavy paper or cardboard and gluing it in place to make them more card-like.

Hobby Archaeology: 1980 Chicago Tribune Sox & Cubs Scrapbook

     As they did in 1977, in 1980 the Chicago Tribune again issued series of quarter-page sized photos of  players, along with a limited set of statistics for the players' entire career.  The series kicked off on 22 June and was set to run until 17 July, concluding with the teams' managers, but it actually didn't finish until 18 July.  Maybe they missed someone and inserted a new pair of players or simply miscounted the number of days.  In any case, the series ran for 27 days and covered 52 players and both managers.  The complete checklist is below.


22 June - Edward Farmer (Sox) / Bruce Sutter (Cubs)

23 June - Chet Lemon (Sox) / Jerry Martin (Cubs)

24 June - Michael Squires (Sox) / Bill Buckner (Cubs)

25 June - Bruce Kimm (Sox) / Barry Foote (Cubs)

26 June - Thad Bosley (Sox) / Scot Thompson (Cubs)

27 June - Lamar Johnson (Sox) / Dave Kingman (Cubs)

28 June - Robert Molinaro (Sox) / Mike Vail (Cubs)

29 June - Richard Dotson (Sox) / Dennis Lamp (Cubs)

30 June - Ken Kravec (Sox) / Doug Capilla (Cubs)

01 July - Kevin Bell (Sox) / Clifford Johnson (Cubs)

02 July - Wayne Nordhagen (Sox) / Ken Henderson (Cubs)

03 July - Richard Wortham (Sox) / Bill Caudill (Cubs)

04 July - Britt Burns (Sox) / Rick Reuschel (Cubs)

05 July - Steve Trout (Sox) / Mike Krukow (Cubs)

06 July - Greg Pryor (Sox) / Mike Tyson (Cubs)

07 July - Harold Baines (Sox) / Larry Biittner (Cubs)

08 July - Todd Cruz (Sox) / Mick Kelleher (Cubs)

09 July - Ross Baumgarten (Sox) / Lynn McGlothlen (Cubs)

10 July - Mike Proly (Sox) / Willie Hernandez (Cubs)

11 July - Lamarr Hoyt (Sox) / Steve Dillard (Cubs)

12 July - Ron Pruitt (Sox) / George Riley (Cubs)

13 July - Jim Morrison (Sox) / Ivan DeJesus (Cubs)

14 July - Guy Hoffman (Sox) / Dick Tidrow (Cubs)

15 July - Randy Johnson (Sox) / Tim Blackwell (Cubs)

16 July - Ricky Seilheimer (Sox) / Lenny Randle (Cubs)

17 July - Jesus Figueroa (Sox) / Preston (Mike) O'Berry (Cubs)

18 July - Tony LaRussa MGR (Sox) / Preston Gomez MGR (Cubs)

Hobby Archaeology: 1963 Chicago Tribune Autograph Album

From the Chicago Tribune Archives

     In 1963, the Chicago Tribune ran a series of photo profiles on the Cubs and White Sox in the daily sports section which ran from 04 July to 04 August.  The series alternated Sox/Cubs players every other day and concluding with the teams' managers.  Each day a new player was presented with a facsimile autographed photo and a short biographical sketch of their accomplishments.   There was a small blurb on the front page of the July 4th issue announcing the series, saying they used the latest photos taken by Tribune cameramen.  Here is the checklist.

04 July	Nelson Fox	Chicago White Sox
05 July	Ron Santo	Chicago Cubs
06 July	Floyd Robinson	Chicago White Sox
07 July	Ken Hubbs	Chicago Cubs
08 July	Juan Pizarro	Chicago White Sox
09 July	Larry Jackson	Chicago Cubs
10 July	Ray Herbert	Chicago White Sox
11 July	Dick Ellsworth	Chicago Cubs
12 July	Pete Ward	Chicago White Sox
13 July	Ernie Banks	Chicago Cubs
14 July	Ron Hansen	Chicago White Sox
15 July	Andy Rodgers	Chicago Cubs
16 July	Mike Hershberger	Chicago White Sox
17 July	Bob Buhl	Chicago Cubs
18 July	Camilo Carreon	Chicago White Sox
19 July	Richard Bertell	Chicago Cubs
20 July	Dave Nicholson	Chicago White Sox
21 July	Glen Hobbie	Chicago Cubs
22 July	Jim Landis	Chicago White Sox
23 July	Billy Williams	Chicago Cubs
24 July	Charlie Maxwell	Chicago White Sox
25 July	Lindy McDaniel	Chicago Cubs
26 July	J.C. Martin	Chicago White Sox
27 July	Lou Brock	Chicago Cubs
28 July	Hoyt Wilhelm	Chicago White Sox
29 July	Don Landrum	Chicago Cubs
30 July	Jim Brosnan	Chicago White Sox
31 July	Don Elston	Chicago Cubs
01 August	Gary Peters	Chicago White Sox
02 August	Paul Toth	Chicago Cubs
03 August	John Buzhardt	Chicago White Sox
04 August	Al Lopez / Bob Kennedy

Hobby Archaeology: 1977 Chicago Tribune Cubs & Sox Scrapbook

     From June 12th to July 9th of the 1977 season, the Chicago Tribune produced a series of "cards" in the sports section of the newspaper for a Cub and White Sox player, intended to be cut from the paper and saved.  The feature was titled Cubs & Sox Scrapbook and presented over-sized portraits of a player from each team, along with several years of statistics below the photo. I was somewhat surprised to see one of these had been submitted to COMC, but not surprised to see that it had not been identified.
     Previously, Beckett had listed these photos as two separate sets; 1977 Cubs Tribune and 1977 White Sox Tribune.  Neither checklist was complete, listing only 14 Cubs and 27 White Sox, and they really should not have been listed separately.  The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards doesn't list the set at all, but then they don't usually seem to recognize newspaper sets.  Fortunately the Chicago Tribune has placed their archives online, so this set can now be properly documented.   The set ran for 28 days and includes 54 players and both teams' managers.  Below is what should be the complete set with links to the Chicago Tribune archive pages.

June 12, Cubs-Sox Scrapbook Announcement

June 12, Bobby Murcer (Cubs) & Richie Zisk (White Sox)

June 13, Manny Trillo (Cubs) & Chet Lemon (White Sox)

June 14, Ray Burris (Cubs) & Steve Stone (White Sox)

June 15, Greg Gross (Cubs) & Jim Spencer (White Sox)

June 16, Jerry Morales (Cubs) & Tim Nordbrook (White Sox)

June 17, Donnie Moore (Cubs) & Lerrin LaGrow (White Sox)

June 18, Mick Kelleher (Cubs) & Eric Soderholm (White Sox)

June 19, Ivan DeJesus (Cubs) & Alan Bannister (White Sox)

June 20, Bill Bonham (Cubs) & Chris Knapp (White Sox)

June 21, Jim Todd (Cubs) & Dave Hamilton (White Sox)

June 22, Joe Wallis (Cubs) & Oscar Gamble (White Sox)

June 23, Steve Ontiveros (Cubs) & Jack Brohamer (White Sox)

June 24, Mike Krukow (Cubs) & Bart Johnson (White Sox)

June 25, Willie Hernandez (Cubs) & Bruce Dal Canton (White Sox)

June 26, Bruce Sutter (Cubs) & Wilbur Wood (White Sox)

June 27, Steve Swisher (Cubs) & Brian Downing (White Sox)

June 28, Dave Rosello (Cubs) & Jorge Orta (White Sox)

June 29, Rick Reuschel (Cubs) & Don Kirkwood (White Sox)

June 30, Bill Buckner (Cubs) & Lamar Johnson (White Sox)

July 1, Jose Cardenal (Cubs) & Wayne Nordhagen (White Sox)

July 2, Paul Reuschel (Cubs) & Ken Kravec (White Sox)

July 3, Larry Biitner (Cubs) & Ralph Garr (White Sox)

July 4, Bobby Darwin (Cubs), Francisco Barrios (White Sox)

July 5, Gene Clines (Cubs) & Royle Stillman (White Sox)

July 6, George Mitterwald (Cubs) & Jim Essian (White Sox)

July 7, Steve Renko (Cubs) & Kevin Bell (White Sox)

July 8, Pete Broberg (Cubs) & Jack Kucek (White Sox)

July 9, Herman Franks (Cubs) & Bob Lemon (White Sox)

1994 Chicago Cubs Old Style team issue photo card - Karl Rhodes

 
      Arriving from Seattle today is this blank-backed, 3.5"x5.5" black & white photo card, featuring the Cubs greatest opening day lead-off hitter of all time, Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes.  This was in a lot of four, including Shawon Dunston, Jose Bautista and Willie Banks, so I'm dating this "set" to 1994, the only year those four were Cubs at the same time.

      Often called just "photo cards", these types of cards have been issued for over 70 years, usually by the teams themselves, frequently displaying a sponsor's logo.   These cards were long a staple of fan packs (those goody bags sent to fans who wrote to the team begging for handouts), and in the last 30-40 years have been issued in tandem with autograph signings at the ball park or other fan events.

    The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards does a pretty good job of documenting these types of sets before 1980, mostly thanks to the persistence of Bob Lemke, but they don't seem to have much interest in tracking the more modern issues.  In some cases, the designs can be identical from year to year.  As a result, it can be very difficult to pin down to exactly when they were issued unless one is able to find several that are easily identifiable as being from the same year.  Then the players in question have to be compared to team rosters to see which years they shared a roster.

     These are difficult to track down, especially without already having been signed.  I passed up a chance at a signed copy for $20 last year.  While I was fortunate enough to find this lot of four cards on eBay, I was even more fortunate that it didn't include Mark Grace, Ryne Sandberg or Sammy Sosa, otherwise it probably would have ended well out of my price range.  Here are the other three cards:

*** Checklist Update ***

     Having seen more of these pop up on eBay, I thought I should go ahead and start compiling a checklist for this particular issue.  The year of issue is now completely in question as the recent discoveries don't all tie into the 1994 team.  I'm just going to call these 1994(?) Chicago Cubs Old Style Photo Cards (in alphabetical order):

Willie Banks
Jim Bullinger
Frank Castillo
Shawon Dunston
Jim Frey
Danny Jackson
Wayne Messmer
Mike Morgan
Karl Rhodes
Tom Trebelhorn
Turk Wendell
Curtis Wilkerson
Billy Williams
Mitch Williams
Don Zimmer


1992?
Shawon Dunston

Mike Harkey
Les Lancaster
Vance Law
Greg Maddux
DeWayne Staats

Billy Williams

----------  UPDATE  -----------

After seeing a few more of these, I now think these are two different sets.  The Old Style logo is different on the Dunston, which matches several others I've seen.  I've broken the known cards in to the two separate types.  There is also a third version with a 1990 Chicago All-Star Game logo. I'll list those below.

1990(91?) All-Star Game logo
Joe Girardi
Mark Grace

----------  UPDATE  29 June 2020 -----------

Thanks to a tip from a fellow collector, I can now confirm cards of Shawon Dunston and Mike Morgan in the 1994 set.  When searching eBay's completed items I also found an autographed Billy Williams in that set, as well.