The Cubs Box

I need to purge. 

At some point in 2016, when it became completely clear that the inevitable was going to happen and the Chicago Cubs were actually going to win the World Series, I decided I needed to rid myself of every trace of the team. Fortunately, there are a lot of Cubs fans out there and I was able to distribute a lot of stuff to people I trade with that I knew they'd appreciate, just by my natural process.

As I went through all of my cards, I started tossing out every single Cubs card. And from there, the Cubs Box was born. Since transferred to the two Loot Locker boxes you see above, I have a bunch of Cubs cards that I need to get rid of.

That's where you, the reader, come in. Do you want a bunch of Cubs cards? Great. All you need to do is send me one thing from my want list. It doesn't really matter what, as long as it's clear that I do want it. I will cover all of the shipping. I just need to get rid of these cards. I doubt I will continue to exclude Cubs cards from the rest of the sorted masses of things I have available to trade, but getting rid of all of this will certainly make me feel better for whatever reason. If you want to send me more than one card, that's totally fine, but I'm not expecting it. Bonus points if you hit up something from my Top 10.

Disclaimer: There's a lot of junk wax in here. There are some cards from the (late) 2000's as well as some current and newer stuff from the 2010's in here, but, I mean... if you look at the picture, I'm sure you're going to recognize the healthy stacks of '91 Fleer, '90 Donruss, etc. If you want to recycle or donate a lot of this stuff after you receive it, I'm totally cool with that.

Not Shocked

The Cubs winning the World Series was one of the least surprising things to happen in baseball this year. 

107 years of past futility has very little to do with how this year's Chicago Cubs team took home the trophy. Was there ever a curse? In order for me to truly believe that, I would have to think that there were more moments in my own lifetime where this franchise was tantalizingly close to winning a title. Since my parents were born, the Cardinals chief rivals made the playoffs just twice in the Ryne Sandberg era and once in the Kerry Wood days (zero playoff wins) before the whole Bartman thing. Twice more they made it in the Derrek Lee/Aramis Ramirez/Carlos Zambrano era (zero playoff wins) only to spend the next several years tanked and rebuilding.

Past Cubs teams have been grossly mismanaged, both on and off the field. Every franchise goes through this. This time around, they accumulated young talent and threw a crap ton of money at a manager and some free agents. When the trade deadline approached, they snatched up an unsavory character and were on their way. There was no better team in baseball this season by a wide margin, and the only surprising thing to me is that there was a good enough team to stand in their way enough to make things that difficult. It was a crazy Game 7 that was reminiscent of Game 6 of the 2011 World Series -- poorly played but very entertaining.

With strong management in place and the talent to back it up, I have a feeling that most baseball fans will be as sick of hearing about this team as I was when this season was still getting underway. Of course, if you were already a fan, that's a good problem to have.

30 Teams in 30 Posts: #30

Each Spring Training, MLB Network broadcasts a series called 30 Teams in 30 Days, where they preview each team as it prepares for Opening Day. At Cards on Cards, I looked at this being the end of the regular season and figured there was no time like the present to roll out a new feature. At some point, some blog somewhere (most likely a great one that I read regularly) came up with a running list of their favorite/least favorite teams and milked some posts out of it. Others followed. And then, a year and a half or so passed and I decided to steal the idea. My twist is that, like many of my other efforts, this is by and large an attempt to get rid of cards in my collection. Every card represented by every image in this series is up for trade. I tried to pick a few interesting ones.

One thing I will give Cubs fans- if you see someone on the streets wearing a Cubs cap, they're probably an actual Cubs fan. Cubs fans wear this on their sleeves, heads, shirts, etc. It's their cross to bear, so to speak. Sometimes it takes real guts to show your pride, and sometimes it's just obnoxious, like some sort of delusional fraternal comradery. Cubs fans always seem to have an excuse or a scapegoat.

This isn't about the fans, however. This is supposed to be why I ranked this team 30th out of 30 teams in Major League Baseball. As a Cardinals fan, I'm supposed to hate the Cubs. While I try to keep the seemingly forced hatred in check, the fact is that I cannot ever find anything to like about this team. Guys like Derrek Lee suddenly become less insipid as soon as they take off the blue jerseys, while seeing my favorite player from the past decade or so put on their version of the pinstripes suddenly made me want to reconsider my decision to make a special effort to collect his cards.

Favorite current Cubs player: Xavier Nady. I'll have to go with the ex-Portland Beaver by default, because I really don't like any of them. I tried to pick someone with local ties, and I could have picked former Oregon State Beaver Darwin Barney, but I can't in good conscience say anything positive about Oregon State baseball now that the Ducks have a team.

Least favorite current Cubs player: Carlos Zambrano. This could have been tougher, especially with Alfonso Soriano on the team, but Zambrano has established himself at a completely different level of disdain with the way he carries himself and acts as a "professional".

Favorite Cubs player of all-time: Andre Dawson. I normally would choose someone who had spent more time with the chosen franchise, but I feel like the fact that The Hawk only spent 6 of his 21 seasons with Chicago makes him more likable than other Cubs legends that probably did very little to deserve my wrath.

Least favorite Cubs player of all-time: Sammy Sosa. To me, Sosa will always be the most disingenuous of the steroids era sluggers. I don't care if he hugged Mark McGwire or made thousands of children happy. I loathed every second he was on the field. I always have felt that Mark McGwire was a really solid person who made some incredibly poor decisions because his ability to stay healthy never really caught up to his own talent for hitting. Sosa is just a scumbag scam artist, plain and simple.

All Due Respect to the Cubs

Perhaps I'm just getting soft in my advancing age, but I'm beginning to gain a serious appreciation for the Chicago Cubs franchise. The long suffering franchise has many fans for a reason, and I think I'm finally beginning to appreciate their franchise and some of the many great players who play (and have played) for it.

I know Alfonso Soriano gets some criticism for dropping the occasional pop fly and not always being a heads-up baserunner, but I love the way the man plays. He's got a ton of flair and flash, and like my little league coach always said: "It's not the way you play the game, it's how you look playing the game." In this era of big-time entertainment, Soriano knows how to get it done and I for one can appreciate that.

I think a lot of people were way too hard on Corey Patterson. I last saw him in person playing for the AAA Iowa Cubs over here in Portland against the Beavers. He's always had that raw speed, and everyone's seen his amazing potential in the field and with the bat. I just know he's certain to break out one of these seasons, even if he unfortunately didn't get a chance to prove himself with the Cubbies.

Here's another misunderstood Cub... maybe the most of all. I know I've been critical of Mr. Zambrano in the past, but I know deep down he's a gentle giant and most likely is a clubhouse leader who can pull the whole team together in times of adversity and tell them how to win the right way, with poise and dedication.

Sammy Sosa was truly a great baseball hero and I miss his game. I know we'll never see proof one way or another, but I can't believe for an instant that he really took steroids and messed with the record book. I've come to realize now how endearing that little hop he took after he'd hit one out of the park was even though I couldn't always get behind it at the time. His sprints to the outfield were truly epic, nearly worthy of the Ozzie Smith backflips when he'd take the field!

And on to a more recent Cub who has drawn some flack lately. I think that, despite all of the pundits and the broadcasters who think that they know what they're talking about, Kosuke Fukudome will prove to be worth every penny the North Siders shelled out by the time his contract is up. He's definitely one of the most underrated players in the game and I will seriously laugh at anyone who passes on him in fantasy drafts so I can reap the benefits.

I never really found Derrek Lee to be one of the classier Cubs players, but I'm starting to finally come around on him. I do know one thing - he's pretty much on par with Albert Pujols when you're talking about the best first basemen in the game. If it wasn't for the fact that I've been a Cardinals fan for so long and Albert has been around for nearly a decade, I would otherwise have a hard time objecting to a straight up Lee-for-Pujols trade at least when you put it on paper.

Ahh... Dusty Baker. I know he wasn't always so popular with Cubs fans and I know he didn't have a ton of success overall, but he's one of the wisest baseball managers I've ever watched. Sometimes I wouldn't mind if a guy like Baker could go out and manage and stay in the broadcast booth during his downtime because he has so much wisdom to share.

I suppose I also can't really talk about what I like about the Cubs without honoring one of their legendary players. Billy Buckner, man. He looks good in the pinstripes.