Back in June, I wrote a blog entry about the 1982 Chicago Cubs. The interesting thing with collecting that team was that there was a regional set issued to help fill out our checklist beyond the Topps/Donruss/Fleer cards. The existence of this set was tipped off to me by an excellent blog devoted to cards of the Chicago Cubs called Wrigley Wax. It was produced by the Chicago Cubs and sponsored by Red Lobster. Unlike most of these regional sets, we got more than the third string catcher on our checklist filled out, but a true rookie card of a hall-of-famer that predates his rookie card from one of the major national manufacturers. I am of course talking about the "real" rookie card of Ryne Sandberg.
Well, the other day I received an interesting email from someone that recently came across that entry. It turns out that his dad, who was the Cubs Promotions Director back in 1982 was the photographer for the Sandberg card. He gave me a little more information about his father and this set. To check out more about Buck Peden, the photographer of this card...click on this link.
As for the Red Lobster set, here is some information that was passed on to me:
- There were 15,000 sets made and they were passed out to children only at the stadium;
- Finally seeing the back of the Sandberg card for the first time (pictured above), they were numbered by uniform number only;
- Have a Red Lobster logo, so they were definitely sponsored by them;
- Here is the complete checklist (all cards with an asterisk would help toward the ultimate set checklist for 1982):
RED LOBSTER
__ 1982 CHICAGO CUBS TEAM PHOTO CARD*
INDIVIDUAL CARDS
__ Ryne Sandberg, IF*
__ Junior Kennedy, IF
__ Keith Moreland, OF
__ Randy Martz, RHP
__ Bob Molinaro, OF*
__ Ken Kravec, LHP
__ Jay Johnstone, OF
__ Bill Buckner, IF
__ Bump Wills, IF
__ Al Ripley, RHP
__ Jody Davis, C
__ Gary Woods, OF
__ Steve Henderson, OF
__ Larry Bowa, IF
__ Doug Bird, RHP
__ Lee Smith, RHP
__ Dickie Noles, RHP
__ Fergie Jenkins, RHP
__ Mike Proly, RHP
__ Willie Hernandez, LHP
__ Jerry Morales, OF
__ Leon Durham, OF
__ Scot Thompson, OF*
__ Bill Campbell, RHP
__ Lee Elia, MGR*
Coaching Staff
__ John Vuckovich, Gordy McKenzie, Billy Williams, Billy Connors, Tom Harmon*
