1971 O-Pee-Chee Larry Gura Rookie Card #203 Chicago Cubs

Description

1971 O-Pee-Chee Larry Gura Rookie Card #203 Chicago Cubs Every dynasty staff has to start somewhere, and for one of the finest control pitchers of the late 1970s it started right here, in a Chicago Cubs uniform on a Canadian piece of cardboard. You are looking at the 1971 O-Pee-Chee Larry Gura Rookie Card #203 Chicago Cubs collectors have quietly hoarded for decades, his true first major card appearance, offered by Alex Collect in honest raw condition straight out of a vintage nine pocket page. This is a Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back issue through and through, printed in Canada by O-Pee-Chee under the Topps license, with the English and French biography on the back, the Fiche Comme Lanceur Dans Les Majeures pitching record heading, and the Printed In Canada line along the edge that separates it instantly from the far more common American Topps version. The front is pure 1971, the jet black border and giant CUBS lettering framing a spring training photo of the young left hander with his glove raised overhead, his facsimile signature sweeping across the jersey. Gura arrived with real pedigree. A standout from Joliet, Illinois who starred at Arizona State University, he was a College World Series hero before the Cubs brought him to the majors for a 1970 debut at barely 23 years old. Chicago never quite unlocked him, but after a stop with the Yankees he landed in Kansas City in 1976 and blossomed into the most reliable left hander in Royals history, winning 16 games in 1978, then 18 more in 1980 while helping pitch Kansas City to the franchise's first American League pennant and a World Series date with Philadelphia, adding another 18 win season in 1982. He finished with 126 career victories, a testament to intelligence, command and one of the great pickoff moves the game has ever seen. The photographs show moderate vintage wear that keeps this copy in the middle grades, with visible whitening and a small bend at the top right corner tip, lighter touches at the remaining corners, a few honest specks of edge chipping on the bottom black border, centering that leans slightly left at roughly 55 to 45, and a clean surface front and back with no creases, stains or writing, plus a bright bilingual OPC back whose French and English text remains sharp and legible. Given the corner bend and border nicks we grade conservatively at VG-EX 4, and the card still displays beautifully for the grade. Rookie cards of pitchers who won over 125 big league games remain one of the true bargains of 1970s cardboard, and this Canadian parallel is the scarcer, smarter way to own one. Grade Estimate: VG-EX 4