I have an addiction aka my first 2018 cards

On the way home today I swung by Target to grab a blaster and hanger of 2018 Topps.

Already knowing that my first 2018 (a Transcendent 1/1) was being delivered due to the eBay notification, I still needed to bust some wax.

So what was my first card of 2018?

None other than future Hall of Famer, Miguel Cabrera.

I can live with that.

As I continued to open the packs I was talking to my cat saying "Still no Bucs. F***"
On the sixth pack I said to Kit Kat "this pack is gonna have a Pirates

Who's on the top of the pack?

Boom!

My main player collection.  Btw...I am OVER 2,100 unique cards of Cutch now.  (I will show off #2100 tomorrow)
Yup....it was a good pack.

It also had former Pirate Neil Walker

And two cards of this guy.
He's kind of a big deal, I hear.

The hanger had some nice cards, but the card that stood out to me was this Legends in the Making of Cutch.

The pack also had the same 2 Aaron Judge cards I got in the blaster.

I have a bunch of cards that are targeted (pun intended) to go out to some of you loyal readers.  If anyone is building the set, email me your needs.

These Are Not The Indians You Seek

As is my customary Wednesday function, I am going to the movies for a $6 matinee.  I might finally see Star Wars, hence the reference in title.

On a completely unrelated note, I am a bit disappointed to hear that Chief Wahoo will no longer be appearing on the Cleveland Indians in future years.  Not that I want to support a politically incorrect baseball cap, but Major League is one of the greatest baseball movies of all time and Chief Wahoo and Wild Thing go together so well.

I wonder if this will ultimately lead to teams changing their names too.  One other not as recognized team called the Indians is the Pirates AAA team who hail from Indianapolis.

The team was formed in 1902 and has served as the farm system for the Expos, Brewers, Reds, Pirates, White Sox, Phillies, Braves (Boston) and of course Indians.  The Pirates have held the rights to the club since 2005 and it was in 2009 that the team saw it's most prized prospect get promoted to the majors.

There's not a lot of Cutch cards with the Indians as he was there for only about 200 games.  Many criticize the Pirates for not promoting him until 2009 after he put up a triple slash line of .283./.372/.398 in 2008 as a 21 year old.  He also would go on to steal over 30 bags that season in AAA.

The reality that many forget is that the Pirates had an All-star centerfielder named Nate McLouth who was posting a .276/.356/.478 line while playing gold glove defense.  The next year Nate would be traded for Charlie Morton, Jeff Locke, and Gorkys Hernandez to make a spot available for Cutch.

Andrew sometimes gets credited as being Daniel McCutchen, the losing pitcher of the Jerry Meals July 26th 2011 game.

I believe that I may have shown the ones above off already, but here is the only other Cutch card I have with the Indians.

How do you all feel about Chief Wahoo being removed?
Do you think other Indians logos and maybe even names will be changed?

Night At The Museum

Here is a jumbo relic I recently picked up.

Nothing too special. Just a plain white jumbo jersey swatch numbered to 50.

A New Gold Standard

2017 Chronicles offered a sampler of Panini products that football and basketball get on a regular basis.

One such subset of Chronicles was the series known as Gold Standard.   It offers a variety of color parallels.

I grabbed the black /15.

It's a great looking and thick stock card.

My girl hooked me up!!!

I have a very understanding woman.  She puts up with my cardboard habit and deals with my crazy goofy daily functions.

Sometimes she even goes above and beyond for me and will win a card on eBay that I need.

Whaaaaaaat!!!!

Yup, she's amazing!

This is my latest addition to the Cutch PC and I can solely thank my beautiful misses I live with.

It's a 2014 Stadium Club Beam Team Gold

They aren't numbered, but do fall 1:36 mini boxes.

WBC Memories

I enjoyed the heck out of last year's World Baseball Classic.

It was awesome to see some of my favorite current players (Cutch, Arenado, Bregman, Adam Jones) all compete on the same team.

It was also awesome to snag all these Triple Threads relics from Probstein around Christmas.

I'm thinking that Cutch is going to have a monster season this year with San Francisco, batting atop that lineup and playing in stadiums he has had success in before (AT&T, Petco, Coors).

In the deciding game of the WBC tournament at Dodgers Stadium, Cutch went 2 for 4 with 2 ribbys.

A 1/1 of my favorite Topps card

I finally picked up a 1/1 printing plate of my favorite flagship card of Cutch.  I lost track of how many printing plates I have of Cutch.  I want to believe I'm getting close to 100 though.

Card #400 in 2015 Topps features the last dreaded image of Cutch on a Pirates Topps card.

SIZE MATTERS: Cutch vs Hoffman

As someone who briefly rooted for the Marlins and modeled my little league game after Gary Sheffield, I am no stranger to the greatness that was Trevor Hoffman.

Cutch had 1 plate appearance against newly inducted Hall of Famer, Trevor Hoffman.  In his lone at bat in 2010, Cutch struck out.

Small Sample Size or not, this is the kind of results you can expect from one of the greatest relief pitchers of all time.

How did some of your favorite players do against Hoffman?
Visit this page to see and leave a comment below.

RunPMC NoMas

Around Christmas I won some Triple Threads cards from Probstein's auctions.  One of the auctions I snagged was this awesome emerald parallel triple relic combo of one of the better outfields in baseball.

In 2014 and 2015 the Pirates were expected to have the best outfield in baseball.

They had a perennial MVP candidate in Andrew McCutchen patrolling centerfield not yet in the prime years of his career.

Patrolling left field was the best defensive left fielder in the game and a constant speed threat on the bases in Starling Marte.

Watching over the Clemente wall in PNC Park was a top 10 prospect in all baseball, Gregory Polanco, who began his MLB debut by having a double digit hit streak.

Things looked great for the Pirates in the outfield.

Merely a few years later though and the face of the franchise, Andrew McCutchen, has been traded.  Starling Marte has been suspended for 80 games for PED use. Gregory Polanco has been suffering with hamstring issues nearly his entire career.

What once looked like the building blocks of a yearly contender has already started to be stripped.

RunPMC (Polanco Marte Cutch) is no longer running at PNC.
This will likely be one of the last triple relics with these three guys on it.

Third Time's The Charm

Continuing the theme of some Triple Threads cards I picked up is this base version of the 5th version of Cutch in 2017 Triple Threads.

This card recognizes Cutch's 3 HR games.

Unlike the other swatches I have from Triple Threads, this one features three solid grey swatches...thus making it the most boring of the bunch.

2+3=5

Who likes math?
I do!!!!

Two Cards

from the Triple (3) Threads release

Talking about Cutch being a 5 time All-Star

This pair of cards was another Probstein win back in December.

Cutch joined Clemente as the only Pirates to be in an All-Star game 5 times when he completed the task from 2011-2015.  He should have been the Pirates rep in 2010 instead of Evan Meek too btw.

Just Cutch It

Back in December I won a bunch of Probstein auctions for a very reasonable price.  This followed one Probstein auction that I absolutely got shilled on.  I will be showing them all off this week.

Up first is this 2017 Triple Threads that spells out Cutch.

The back makes mention of Cutch's role on the Pittsburgh history.

His tenure with the Pirates may be over, but only 3 people are above Cutch on the All-Time HR charts and they are all Hall of Famers: Willie Stargell, Ralph Kiner, Roberto Clemente.

Meet Your New Teammate

I have come to grips with the fact that my favorite player has been traded to the Giants.  I already have plans to purchase tickets for Andrew's homecoming in Pittsburgh May 11-13th.  It should be a fun weekend.

So who will Andrew's teammates in San Francisco be?

Well the most obvious is his Team USA teammate and franchise face Buster Posey.

Cutch has appeared on a numerous amount of cards with Buster before as Buster edged him in the 2012 batting title run.

Pictured above is the 2013 Heritage League Leaders celebrating the top hitters in the NL in 2012.

Now for the Topps Flagship release League Leaders card and six of the parallels I have.

Now for the minis, of which I have 3 (base, Gold, and pink)

In addition to a bunch of League Leaders cards, I do have a really nice Panini 9 prime patch card featuring Buster Posey on the front and Andrew McCutchen on the back.

Another of Andrew's new teammates is none other than the always goofy Hunter Pence.

I wouldn't be surprised if 2018 Triple Threads features Cutch and Longo in Giants uniforms as part of a new triple combo with Posey.  Topps never seems to have a shortage of McCutchen jersey swatches to chop up.

I Got Friends When I'm In Lowly Places

Last weekend absolutely sucked.
I got news that my car was totaled and won't be repaired.
The Steelers defense gave up 45 points to Blake Fricking Bottles and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Pirates traded away their ace, Gerrit Cole, and face of the franchise, Andrew McCutchen.

I have been keeping a positive attitude though.
I can get a new car.
The Steelers are one of thirty one teams that won't be winning the Superbowl and got further than 75% of the rest of league.
Gerrit Cole was going to leave in two years regardless.
Andrew McCutchen is still my favorite player regardless of the uniform he wears.
I have great blogging friends that send card care packages just because.

Sports Card Collector sent me a six card package in a PWE that really helped brighten my day, not because it included some SICK DOPE NASTY NAILS patch or autograph, but because it simply was a package to say just thinking of you here's some cards you might enjoy.

4 cards were of Cutch.

2 were of AJ Burnett.

Thank you Matt!
This helped keep things in perspective and make me smile.

Another Giant Addition, Ho Hum Another 1/1

Continuing the theme of Giant related cards this week I am switching gears a little bit and returning to Oversized Cardboard. I thought now would be a good time to show off this 2017 Gallery Original Artwork by Dan Bergren.

I have purchased several original 1/1 artworks before between Topps Museum, Leaf Best of Baseball, and random Topps Series cards.

This artwork was used to produce the 1951 Heritage parallel of Cutch number 3 of the Wal-Mart exclusive Topps Gallery.

1951 Bowman is best remembered for the Willie Mays rookie card.  Willie Mays of course is the greatest 5 tool player of All-Time and a Giant legend.

The oversized card is my first oversized artwork of Cutch.

Here is another of the 1951 Heritage Gallery cards used in production from this card.

I showed other Topps Gallery cards here.