A Post About Cubs Baseball Cards & Amazing Fried Chicken
After a mailday lull the past couple days, six packages showed up on Friday.
A PWE from Stan in Tacoma, Washington included a threesome of vintage 50's Cubs, including a 1959 Topps Bob Will, and a pair of 1958 Topps cards of Bobby Morgan and Taylor Phillips.
Michael in Indiana sent 11 autographs. The signed cards included: Steve Ontiveros, Ozzie Timmons, Mike Bielecki, Mike Morgan, Richie Hebner, Derrick May, Danny Jackson, Dean Wilkins, and Vance Law.
Eric from Wisconsin sent a package filled with Cubs cards from the past couple years. This is a 2018 Bowman's Best refractor Javier Baez!
My first Topps Triple Threads cards from 2018 here in Kyle Schwarber and Ernie Banks.
And a numbered Triple Threads of Addison Russell serial numbered 286/299.
Another package from Wisconsin came out of the blue. Another @WisconsinPonch mailday. We've had some brutal winter weather the past few weeks, so he has been sorting and sent some more Cubs!
Paul in California sent just over 100 Cubs cards including an insert I don't remember from 2016 Topps Heritage. It's the Cubs Combo of Jake Arrieta and David Ross. I really miss this Cubs Combo!
Ross was also the personal catcher for Jon Lester, and here's a 2018 Topps Gold Lester.
Deckle Edge Javier Baez. Beautiful card.
Shane in Texas sent 640 Cubs cards, and I'll be shipping out some Houston Astros in return. In my organization of my Cubs collection, I've been using the letter "A" as a test run of sorts. I'm sorting my collection by player's last name. I bought a case of card dividers (they are firm plastic - much better than using paper or index cards), and a label maker for each player. So, I've been sorting the "A" players to see how it looks. I always get a bit excited to get "A" players not named Paul Assenmacher...like Albert Almora.
Here's a "B," Marlon Byrd. This is a 2010 Topps Update all-star. I don't get too many of these cards.
C. Starlin Castro 2015 Topps Heritage Chrome.
Alphabet game is over. Here's Ryno. It's an oddball from 1994 Church's Chicken Hometown Stars. Church's has some good chicken, but my favorite mainstream chicken is Popeye's.
Also, I tweeted this out earlier this week, but there is a place near my hometown with the most amazing chicken I've ever had. It's in a small town of Ladd, Illinois right on Interstate 80 about 100 miles west of Chicago. It's called Rip's Tavern, and the typical wait time to get seated is 90 minutes outside off hours.
About the only thing on the menu is a quarter chicken or half chicken. You can order appetizers such as fried mushrooms, or a plate of pickles, or crispies. Yes, the fried crispies from the ovens in a plate. Can't be that unhealthy, right? Here's what their chicken looks like, and that's a plate of crispies as well.
But a picture just doesn't do Rip's chicken justice. It's an experience. It also makes me nostalgic. You probably remember: when you get into high school and you and/or your friends have a drivers license, so you can leave your small town. We would make the 45-minute drive to Rip's, and it was also a time I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain a pound. Now I only get to Rip's every few years. Here's a video that will add a little more to that Rip's chicken experience for you.
If you're anywhere close to central Illinois, or happen to be driving I-80 through the state make it a priority to pull off exit 70.
Another insert that I don't recognize is from 2002 Topps Heritage. It's Kerry Wood in the Classic Renditions subset.
Another great mailday with six packages! I also made a trip to Shopko, as the chain is closing most, or all, of its stores soon. My local Shopko has everything on clearance so I had to check out the card section. Shopko has been a little honey hole for cards, as the Target and Wal-Mart stores get ravaged by collectors. It seems Shopko gets ignored, plus there are last year's boxes still on the shelf. Unfortunately, the entire card section had disappeared. It's likely the distributor had pulled all the cards since the stores are closing.
One Million Cubs Project Stats Friday's (2/8/2019) Cards: 855 Friday's (2/8/2019) Packages: 6 January's Cubs Count: 9,343 February's Cubs Count: 5,385 Total Trades/Donations: 48 Trade States of Origin: Arkansas California (4) Connecticut (4) Illinois (5) Indiana Maryland Massachusetts (2) Minnesota New Jersey (4) New York (5) North Carolina (2) Ohio (3) Pennsylvania (2) Tennessee (2) Texas (3) Washington (2) Wisconsin (6)