Cubs Publications - Programs

Official Programs Through the Years
At every ballpark you go to, major league, minor league, even many high school games, one thing is pretty consistent. Vendors offering to sell you programs when you walk through the gates. It’s a money maker for the teams and a practice that has been around pretty much as long as the game itself. Of course, the programs also make great collectibles. I recently completed a full run of Cubs programs from 1982-2009, the period I refer to as the Contemporary Era for Cubs programs, and I wanted to lay out a short summary of Cubs programs through the years. I may make this a regular piece that goes into more detail and showcases more pictures, but this is just meant to be a primer on the major eras for Cubs programs. And I’m only looking at official Cubs programs here (the ones you could buy inside the park). There have been a fair number of unofficial (bootleg) programs issued throughout the Cubs long history as well. I’ll save those for another time.

The Pamphlet Style Era (Through 1946)
Up through 1946, the Cubs didn’t issue programs per se, but rather small booklets that they referred to as scorecards. These were the precursors to the modern program as they contained both a scorecard as well as some short informational bits. The scorecards from this era were a relatively consistent size, roughly 9” tall x 6” wide. This is similar to the size of most pamphlets, so I refer these as pamphlet style programs. I haven’t seen many regular season scorecards from before 1929, but I have seen some so I do believe programs exist going back as far as the first decade of the 20th century. The ones before 1929 are especially rare though. Blue Valley Butter was a pretty consistent sponsor in the 1930s and their name appears on most of the program covers from this period. I’ve pictured a few of the covers below.


The Vintage Era (1947 – 1981)
Starting in 1947 and continuing through 1981, the Cubs began issuing a slightly larger scorecard booklet which was referred to as a program on the cover. These were standard magazine size programs, roughly 8.5” wide by 11” tall. They featured a unique pop art style scene on the front, with each year having a new piece of art. The artwork on these are very cool, especially when looking at them all next to each other. The inside content of these is pretty small, much like the Pamphlet Style Era. Significant content would not appear until the Contemporary Era starting in 1982. Here are a few of the covers.


The Contemporary Era / Magazine Style (1982-2009)
What I refer to as the Contemporary Era of Cubs programs began in 1982 and ran through 2009. And this time, there was a significant change in the content of the programs as well as the overall style. The program was changed to a full magazine featuring 100+ pages of content in every issue. And after a single issue was sold throughout the year in 1982, the team began to issue multiple issues per year in 1983. From 1983-2000, four regular season issues per year were issued (the programs were called Cubs Quarterly from 1989-2000). Two issues per year became the norm in 2001 and this continued through 2009. It appears the team has abandoned the magazine style format beginning in 2010. A few of the covers from the Contemporary Era are below.


Scorecard Extra Era (2001 – Present)
Note the overlap between this and the previous section. In 2001, the Cubs began selling a publication they referred to as a Scorecard Extra, and these continue this season as the only program type publication the Cubs are offering. The Cubs issue a new one of these every month, so there are six issued per year. And these are sort of a 21st century version of what was issued prior to 1982. A scorecard with some limited information included. The amount of information included is higher than it was pre-1982, but tops out at about 10 pages per issue. So much less than the magazine style provided. A few of the covers from this era are below.

Some Modern Broders

There were a ton of unlicensed cards produced in the late 1980s and these came to be known as ‘Broders’ after Rob Broder, one of the first ones to produce them in large quantities. Typically, neither MLB, nor the players depicted on the cards had licensed the cards. This made them illegal and the trend quickly faded away after the producers started hearing from the image and trademark owners. These cards are typically not cataloged in any of the major checklist books and most collectors view them as an oddity and not a significant part of their collection. A few of the classic Broders are below. They are interesting in that there are so many different cards out there and I do occasionally pick up new ones when things are slow for me on my other lists.


It looks like someone has decided to revive the concept 20+ years later. I’ve been noticing several seemingly unlicensed cards appearing on eBay over the last year or so and wanted to show off a few of the Cubs here as they appear to be similar to the Broders from the late 1980s. They are credited to Superior Card Company on the card back and state that they are limited to print runs of 500 cards. They don’t feature an MLB Properties logo anywhere although they do show MLB trademarks. This leads me to believe they are likely not a legitimately licensed product. It remains to be seen how long they will be able to stay in business before they are caught. I've seen four Cubs cards, shown below.

Andre Dawson goes into the Hall of Fame!

Congratulations to The Hawk on his induction into Cooperstown! That makes it a great day for Cubs fans despite the misery being brought about most days by this year’s team. Of course, it appears the current team decided to honor the occasion by taking a break from their usual suckiness for a few days as well. Two out of three from the Cardinals to celebrate!

Andre Dawson has been one of the more controversial recent selections to Cooperstown and I’ve enjoyed reading a lot of what has been written on the subject across the internet. I actually think Dawson is one of the lower end members of the Hall at this point but I still believe he is a deserving member. Similar to what they call the person who finishes last in their class in medical school (Doctor!), a Hall of Famer is a Hall of Famer.

One particular piece from the blogosphere that I wanted to touch on here is the case against Dawson by Matt Meyers over at ESPN.com;

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/news/story?id=5403996

You have to be an ESPN Insider to see the whole article, so only a few people will be able to see the whole thing. But to summarize the article, Meyers tries to discredit the 1987 NL MVP award that Dawson won and any impact it might have had on his selection to the Hall.

Meyers is a stathead and I love statheads in the way that I love accountants. Good accountants make a good company better. But not many good companies let accountants make any of the important decisions. So I’m happy to have a good stathead in the front office. You just have to make sure you have someone in charge who can help the statheads see the big picture.

In his article, Meyers uses a number of advanced statistical measures to dissect Dawson’s 1987 season. And while he sticks to currently well known and accepted metrics (OPS, WARP, etc.), these metrics lead him to this statement as one of his conclusions – “Not only did he not deserve the award, he also might not have been one of the 10 best choices.” This is the point where he loses the big picture. And those of you who watched Dawson play that season know why.

Before I get into why Meyers isn’t seeing the big picture, I do want to say that I am not trying to argue that Dawson was absolutely, positively, 100% the right choice for NL MVP in 1987. I can accept arguments for some of the other contenders that year. The specific point I am arguing is ridiculous is that Dawson may not have even been in the top 10.

One of the hurdles the statheads face is that while they can understand what the numbers say, they struggle with what they see. In fact, it seems like some of them don’t spend a lot of time actually watching the game at all. And those that do watch the game seem like they focus on things they can measure rather than things they can feel.

I don’t know Matt Meyers so I have no idea how much baseball he watches. But I know how much I watched in 1987. And I know why I watched it. It was because of how many special moments Andre Dawson produced that year. How many ‘Wow! I’m so glad I didn’t miss that!” moments. Home runs, steals, throwing runners out, key singles, Dawson seemed to come through at every moment when we were praying for a hero that year. And even though the Cubs didn’t win a lot that year, I still watched a ton of games, more so than any other year. Because Andre Dawson kept producing special moments, and kept me coming back hoping for more.

Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy, who also writes at ESPN.com, talks a lot about how Pedro Martinez was a must see guy in his prime in the late 90s. How Boston sports fans never missed watching his starts just because of how many amazing things happened. How many strings of Ks, how many wild swings that missed by three feet, how many emotional fist pumps from Pedro. Dawson in 1987, McGwire & Sosa in 1998, Roger Clemens in 1986. Those are other similar types of years I can remember from my lifetime where I just didn’t want to miss a certain player.

Take a look at all of the MVPs from 1980-2009. See how many of those players you can say something like ‘Yeah, I remember him that year, he was unbelievable’. I can almost guarantee you that Dawson in 1987 will be on that list if you were alive then. Anybody remember Juan Gonzalez in 1998? I remember Juan Gonzalez but not that year specifically.

So Matt Meyers can argue about how much better other MVPs were statistically. But he is missing what most people consider the most important part of the game when he makes that statement that Dawson might not have even been in the top 10 in 1987.

Cubs Breakdown - 2010 Sportkings Series D

2010 Sportkings Series D
Sportkings issued their latest product earlier this month, referred to as Series D. The base set is numbered as an extension of the previous three Series (not surprisingly called Series A, B, and C). From a Cubs standpoint, the review of this product is short and sweet. The only Cub card included is of Andre Dawson, from a set called Cityscapes featuring memorabilia of stars from a certain city.


The Dawson card also features Dennis Rodman and Bobby Hull. There is a silver version which is not serial numbered but has a stated print run of 19 (pictured above) and a gold version which is a 1/1.

I have leaned towards the dislike side for previous Sportkings issues, but it is very hit & miss depending on the individual card. I actually like the base set cards and the mini parallels, which is nice since the base are the things I would purchase one way or the other.

Update - A couple of more Cubs related Sportkings cards popped up from the National Convention. I don't believe a checklist was ever released, but Andre Dawson and Ernie Banks memorabilia cards have been spotted to date. These were apparently available as part of a redemption program for opening boxes at the Sportkings booth. There are silver versions limited to only 9 copies and gold versions which are 1/1s. These are promos that were available only at the 2010 National Convention.