Let's Celebrate our Independence

The 4th of July is meant to celebrate our independence as a free country.  

With all the flaws our country may have, let's celebrate the great things that our country has provided.

Leave a comment below why you love America.

Building the Dynasty from Cutch's former teams

Andrew McCutchen had played for 4 teams over his 13 season career through 2021. 

He has played 1,761 games and has amassed 1,826 career hits which includes a shortened 2019 (injury) and 2020 (COVID) seasons.

Before Cutch's 1st regular season game with the Brewers, I thought it would be fun to look at the best team I can put together using only players from the Pirates, Giants, Yankees, and Phillies.  

I am doing this because I have collected an autograph of Cutch representing each team he has been on via 2021 Topps Dynasty.  Topps Dynasty is a beautiful set. On card autographs, big chunky patches, one touch cases, what's not to love????

This will be a fun exercise, but to avoid putting a roster full of mostly just Yankees All Time Greats though I am making some rules.

I can only select 1 player from that team equal to the number of seasons (even if they weren't full seasons) for each team that Cutch played for. This means that Cutch's 25 games with the Yankees during the 2018 season limits me to select only 1 Yankee to be on my roster because he only played for that team in one season.

My 13 player roster must include one player for each position (1B, 2B, SS, 3B, RF, CF, LF, C), SP, and relief pitcher.  That takes up 10 spots on my roster.  I'm also going to include a DH so I don't have to worry about taking out my starting pitcher late in games and the DH is now a universal rule in both leagues.

Now for the real fun, if a player played for same teams that Cutch played for, all teams count.  This means that if I want to use Barry Bonds for Left Field because he played for the Pirates, I can't use any other players who played for the Giants, so Willie Mays and Willie Mccovey are both out because Bonds played for the Giants and Pirates.  I will have to be diligent about my selections.

The player I select can not have played less games than Andrew did for that team.  This means that if I wanted to use one of the greatest second baseman of all time, Ryne Sandberg, and claim him as a Phillie, I can't.  Cutch played 260 games for the Phillies and Sandberg appeared in only 13 games for the Phillies. 

So here's how the maximum number of players per team will breakdown equal to the number of seasons Cutch played with them.

9 Pirates

1 Giants

1 Yankees

3 Phillies

With a team having to consist of so many Pirates, I wanted to look at the All Time Greats, especially those that played their entire careers with the Pirates.

Let's look at the guys who have statues outside PNC Park first

RF Roberto Clemente

SS Honus Wagner

1B/LF Willie Stargell

2B Bill Mazeroski

That's a good start to the team.  It takes care of my basic infield and a key spot in the lineup with Clemente being a middle of order guy and a perennial gold glove winner.  I will circle back to the Pirates after I knock out some more obvious choices

For the Giants there is only one player I want

The greatest player of All Time

CF Willie Mays

If you wish to argue against Mays being the greatest player of all time, I welcome your challenge in the comments below.

The Yankees have such a deep and rich history I could pick anyone from Yogi Berra to Mariano Rivera to Babe Ruth to Lou Gehrig and everyone in between.  So instead I will skip forward to the Phillies.

Let's fill out our infield with the best 3rd Baseman of All Time, Mike Schmidt.

Schmidt won 3 MVPs over his career along with ten Gold Glove Awards.  He is the most beloved player in Phillies franchise history ahead of notable HOF alumni, Steve Carlton. 

Now as far as pitchers go, Steve Carlton would be an obvious choice.  He started nearly 500 games for the Phillies and won 4 Cy Young Awards.  There is one problem though, he played 6 games for the Giants.  This eliminates Carlton from being used as he played for both the Giants and Phillies and played in less games for the Giants than Cutch did.  Sorry Lefty!

Roy Halladay recently had his number retired by the Phillies and won a Cy Young with the club and pitched a no hitter with them in his first post season appearance.  Unfortunately, Doc doesn't qualify because he pitched in less games than Cutch played for the Phillies.  

If I want to use a pitcher it will likely have to be someone with the Yankees (only 25 games played by Cutch in pinstripes) or be a Pirate or Phillies starter who made A LOT of starts. 

It really is a shame that Carlton played those 6 games with San Francisco disqualifying him from this team I am making.

There is one lefty in the Phillies though had a lot of success with the Phillies, more so than Hall of Famer, Robin Roberts.

I am talking about Cole Hamels

294 games started

3.30 ERA

World Series MVP

Nearly 1,900 strikeouts with Phillies

In addition to those stats he had a better ERA+ and a better WHIP than the HOF pitcher Robin Roberts.

Cole's teammates Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Ryan Howard could all have a place on my team.  I will have to see how the rest of my roster plays out.  I do have one more Phillies spot left on my roster. 

Catchers are thin in the history of the Pirates, I may have to look at other teams.

Buster Posey, Yogi Berra, and Thurman Munson all come to mind. I can't use Buster if I want to use Mays.  Do I really want to use my only Yankees selection on Yogi Berra?  

The answer is no. I am using my ONLY Yankees selection on the ONLY PLAYER TO BE UNANIMOUSLY elected into the Hall of Fame.  

Enter Sandman!

Mariano Rivera is my closer and my only Yankees selection.  This may be viewed as an odd selection since I only get one player to represent the Yankees.  No one dominated as a reliever quite like Mo.  Sure there are guys like Roy Face that won 18 games out of the bullpen for the Pirates, but if I want to ensure the game is won late in the game, give me Mo.

So here's what I have left to use 

1 Phillies

5 Pirates

And here is my lineup thus far

1B Willie Stargell (can also play LF)

2B Bill Mazeroski

SS Honus Wagner

3B Mike Schmidt

RF Roberto Clemente

CF Willie Mays

SP Cole Hamels

RP Mariano Rivera

I still need a LF, C, and DH

For catcher, I'm going with one of my favorite players of the late 90s and early 2000s, Jason Kendall.  Kendall is one of a handful of catchers with 2,000 career hits at the position and because he played his best years on a terrible Pirates team, he is often very under rated.  He was a 3 time All Star and finished his career with more walks (721) than strikeouts (686).  He had a .366 OBP which is a very high OBP for a catcher, higher than Carter, Fisk, and Bench.

As for LF, I'm going to put Ralph Kiner out there.  Kiner hit 301 HR over 8 seasons with the Pirates and is the only player to lead the league in HR for 7 straight seasons.  Kiner also provides another option at 1B.

As for my DH, I'm going with another slugger, Ryan Howard.  Prior to his 2011 postseason injury, Howard put the league on watch and became the fastest player in MLB history to get to 300 HR.  Dick Allen would be a fallback option with his .902 OPS in Philadelphia.

So how would I put this lineup together?

SS Honus Wagner

RF Roberto Clemente

CF Willie Mays

1B Willie Stargell

LF Ralph Kiner

3B Mike Schmidt

DH Ryan Howard

2B Bill Mazeroski

C Jason Kendall

SP Cole Hamels

RP Mariano Rivera

At first glance I was going to move Schmidt higher in the lineup but wanted to split up all the right handed bats (Wagner, Clemente, Mays, Kiner) so I threw Stargell into the cleanup spot.  The amount of HR power the 3-7 spots have without a single Yankee is mind blowing.  

Kendall can restart the lineup from the 9 hole and act as another leadoff option if needed. 

Do you agree with my selections?

How would you put together a roster using a max of 9 Pirates, 3 Phillies, 1 Yankees, 1 Giants? 

National Wear Red Day, A Yearly Tradition

Over the past couple years I have had a tradition of showing off red baseball cards the first Friday of February.  You can revisit all those posts here.  The reason I do this is to bring awareness to women heart disease.  

I will continue the theme of showing off some nice red parallels, but first...a reminder to please wear red today to support the movement.

Visit heart.org to help make a contribution.  They set out a goal of $3 million this year and as of Friday morning are falling well short of it as they have only raised just over $100K.

Now for the best red parallel baseball card in my collection that I have picked up over the past few months

2021 Topps Now Game Used Base and (on card) autograph celebrating Cutch's 250th career home run. The card is numbered out of only 10 copies (mine being number 2)

This is a very recent pickup and it was shipped by COMC within a week.

Shocking, right?

That is the 2021 Topps Triple Threads Triple Relic patch Ruby parallel numbered 1/1 featuring relics of Cutch, Bryce Harper, and Rhys Hoskins

You guys like bling?

Ben Baller does

And Ben Baller Did The Card for this 2021 Topps Chrome Ben Baller edition red parallel limited to 5

How about some autographs signed in red ink?

2021 Heritage High Number limited to 72 copies and 2021 Diamond Icons limited to 25 copies

And to finish things off I have a 2021 Topps Archives Red Hot 🔥 parallel limited to 50 copies

That's all for now.

Again please go visit ❤ heart.org ❤ and make a contribution if you're able to today.

Don't forget to wear your red!

can't you read?

I am so sick and tired of Topps lack of quality control and fact checking on the back of their baseball cards.

If it's for a low end, print on demand product where they have to create the card and get it to the presses within 24 hours, I can almost understand it.

But when you're talking about a product line like Topps Dynasty where the cards are produced with big chunky patches and a nearly $600 per card price tag attached, I expect higher quality control.

Topps Dynasty is a beautiful set with 1 card per box release.  Andrew had only appeared in the 2018 release prior to the most recent 2021 release.  

His 2021 release features cards of him in the four uniforms he had played with this far into his career: Pirates, Phillies, Yankees, and Giants.

I set out to get one example of each variation and have gotten the 1/1 for his Yankees card along with images for Phillies and Giants.

I was EXTREMELY disappointed to learn that one of Cutch's most defining moments in his career was being mislead on the back of the card.

The front of the card features a great image of Cutch in his Giants gear, on card autograph, and a large chunky S from the Giants sleeve patch.  It of course is housed inside a One Touch magnetic with the Topps Dynasty sticker holding the case together.

The back, while a nice design, is riddled with errors.

Cutch's "Dynastic Deed" occurred on April 7th, 2018 NOT April 8th.  I know this very well because I have the foul ball that was hit just before his epic walkoff blast.

It makes no mention that the walkoff was a home run.

While still early into his Giants career, it was the 7th game that Cutch wore the black and orange NOT the 3rd.  

Do you ever notice inaccurate statements on the backs of baseball cards?  What are some that you've noticed of your favorite players?

Is it Christmas yet?

When I was younger my aunt in California would call us every Christmas Eve and ask "is it Christmas yet?"  This was usually late (8pm or so) and usually lead to the ultimate traditions of setting milk and cookies for Santa, ensuring the stockings were hung, leaving an apple and carrot outside for the reindeer, etc.

I don't have much interaction with my aunt anymore, but every year that it gets closer to Christmas I think of those old phone calls.  

This month I have been showing off some red and green cards and I have a few pairings that could knock your Christmas stockings off.

I want to show off these cards today because they remind me of a funny gift that I received one Christmas from an uncle who has spent his entire life collecting.

Back in the mid 2000s (2003-2005ish?) I was really into the toys from my childhood, specifically Thundercats.  Well, my uncle literally made me cry one year....from laughing at the zany gift he gave me.  

You may recall that I gave up on baseball because of the 1994 strike and that I hadn't attended a baseball game again until 2005.  I told my uncle that I wanted to get back into baseball again, but was so confused with all the card manufacturers and different parallels that were being made at that time.  Boy do those 2005 parallels seem simple compared to,what Topps and Panini are doing now. 

Well on Christmas day 2005 I got a small box with tissue paper and inside was a baseball with a "Lion-O" signature.  Yes, my uncle wrote Lion-O (leader of the 80s cartoon Thundercats) and drew a small paw print on the sweet spot.  Somewhere I think I still have that ball and when I eventually unbox everything from the move, I am sure I will find it again.  Hopefully the signature didn't fade from being in a box for 15 years. 

Card manufacturers have attenpted to make baseballs part of their releases from time to time, the most famous being Sweet Spot signatures. 

Panini used that concept for their 2020 Absolute Baseball product and Cutch was one of the featured signatures.

There were 3 parallels to chase

1/1 Red & Blue stitching

/6 Red

/5 Green

I missed out on the 1/1, but was able to grab both the red and green last year.

I guess it makes sense that the green stitches baseball (/5) would be lower numbered than the red (/6) as I have never seen a baseball with green stitches.

These cards look and feel very much like the Upper Deck Sweet Spot autographs. I have seen many horror stories of those cards fading over time.

What suggestions do you have for displaying the cards while preventing the signature from fading over time?

What are you looking forward to most for Christmas?

Do you have any baseball Christmas memories?

A Masterpiece Addition

It's been a long time since I showed off some Giants cards of Andrew McCutchen and that's mostly due to my focus of Cutch cards is Pirates, Minor League/Pre Debut, Phillies, Giants, Yankees cards in that order.  

If I was to see an autograph card of Cutch I didn't own, the Giants are pretty low on my desire list. 

That's not to say that I pass on adding new Giants items to the collection though.

I picked up this WalMart exclusive Topps Gallery autograph of Cutch before we started our moving process.  It was in that monster box of cards I have been going through.  

Topps Gallery is an art based set that features a variety of artists to draw some of the most popular players in the game.  

Topps tabbed Evan Shoman to draw the Masterpiece inserts. 

There was a limited number of sticker autographs available of Cutch for this release.

On the back you can see that it is limited to only 5 copies in the top left corner. 

The Giants are having a great season this year and should be seeing themselves clinch a playoff spot in the next week and half. 

Belated Star Trek Day

Star Trek

To boldly go where no man hs gone before...

Even if that means going back a day from the future.

Yup, I forgot to tie in a Star Trek Day post yesterday because quite frankly I had no idea such a thing existed. 

Star Trek Day is celebrated every September 8th in memory of it's original airing on September 8th, 1966.

I was never a big Star Trek fan.  

Star Wars was more my thing.

Truth be told though the Alien and Predator film franchises are my true Sci-Fi loves.

To celebrate (a day late) Star Trek Day I thought I would look at some Andrew McCutchen cards in my collection that tie into the Star Trek Mythos.

Let's get started with an actress I have neglected from including as part of my SaveSecondBase event.  I am talking about Jeri Ryan who plays the Borg drone character, 7 of 9 on the show Star Trek: Voyager.

7 of 9

You may recall that a few years ago I attempted to make a Frankenset of Andrew McCutchen cards numbered to 9 copies as part of Daniel's 9 year blogging anniversary contest.  I couldn't quite fulfil that request because I was missing a 7/9.

That all changed when one follower on Twitter hit me up that he had pulled a Cutch 2020 Triple Threads gold parallel numbered...

7 of 9.

Speaking of 9, there was a series called Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that ran for 3 seasons from 1993 to 1995.

This September 8, 2014 issue of Sports Illustrated features Cutch on the cover and the main article is called Andrew McCutchen Goes Deep.

Star Trek debuted in 1966 and Cutch has been featured on several 1966 Topps designed cards.

The 2015 Topps Heritage design used the 1966 Topps design and pictured above is a 3 card advertising panel found in the box toppers.

Star Trek: The Next Generation followed up the success of the original Star Trek and it debuted September 1987.  Now I could easily show off some of the 1987 designed cards I have, but I'm going to boldly go beyond and show off one of my favorite Superfractors in my collection.

Above are the 2015 Topps Finest Generations red parallel /5 and Superfractor 1/1.  These cards pop!!!!

So there are some of my Cutch cards and magazine article that I could tie into some Star Trek items.

What is your favorite Sci-Fi franchise?

Do you like Star Trek?

So, you're a Trade-er?

Today is the trade deadline so I thought it would be appropriate to discuss one of the more surprising trades that has happened.  The Scherzer/Turner to LA is a topic for another day, but I really want to discuss Anthony Rizzo, long time face of the Cubs and the player who owns the ball which ended the 100+ year World Series drought has been traded to the New York Yankees.  This came just one day after Joey Gallo was traded to the Yankees.  Rizzo has the face and personality to win over New York Yankees fans immediately, but I am sad to see him leave Chicago.  I know he was drafted by the Red Sox and played briefly as a rookie for the Padres, but I will always associate Rizzo with the Cubs and their complete rebuild which ultimately lead to a championship.  Rizzo was the Cubs, through and through.  

I've shown off some of my Cutch and Rizzo cards in the past including the one in today's post.

One of my favorite booklet cards I own is a quad patch card of Nolan Arenado, Anthony Rizzo, Andrew McCutchen, and Giancarlo Stanton.  

It's an impressive piece of oversized cardboard, containing massive chunky jersey cards from

Nolan Arenado

3xTop5 NL MVP

6x All Star

4x Silver Slugger

8x Gold Glove

43.1 WAR (career)

⚾ ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Anthony Rizzo

1x World Series Champion (2016)

2x Top 5MVP

3x All Star

1x Silver Slugger

3x Gold Glove

36.6 WAR (career)

⚾ ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Andrew McCutchen

2013 NL MVP (4xTop5 MVP)

5xAll Star

4xSilver Slugger

1xGold Glove

46.1 WAR (career)

⚾ ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Giancarlo Stanton

2017 NL MVP (2x Top 5)

4x All Star

2x Silver Slugger

42.1 WAR (career)

All players on this card have been traded since they signed their contract extensions.

3 of these players have been traded to the Yankees (McCutchen, Rizzo, Stanton).

All four players signed contract extensions for 6-10+ years with the teams depicted on this massive booklet.  

Many fans of these franchises were hoping these players would all finish their careers with the Rockies, Cubs, Pirates, and Marlins respectively.

It seems that 1 team franchise players will long be a thing of the past.  The days of Cal Ripken Jr, Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones, and Todd Helton type players appear to be gone.  I love the extensions given to Tatis and Acuna, but feel they will one day be traded as well.  

What active player do you think has a chance at staying with one franchise for his entire career?  Can you see Clayton Kershaw or Jacob Degrom pitching for another team?  Will Freddie Freeman test free agency next year and sign with another team? 

With the 1st Overall Pick...

The MLB Draft was last night and the Pirates went in a direction I probably wouldn't have gone if I was the General Manager, but I am not the GM so I guess it's not right for me to question someone else trying to make their mark on something I have no control over.

The Pirates drafted college backstop Henry Davis who has been compared to other #1 overall catchers drafted in Joe Mauer and Adley Ruschmann.  

If Henry Davis can turn into a Russel Martin or Yadier Molina leader type behind the plate with above average offense, I will be very happy with this pick.  I think Jack Leiter will become a future Cy Young winner one day, but that's just my prediction. 

The Pirates have had the number one overall pick 4 previous times having drafted 3rd Baseman Jeff King and college pitchers Kris Benson, Bryan Bullington, and Gerrit Cole.  

Cole is the only one of that group to become an All Star in Pittsburgh when he was selected to the 2015 All Star Game along with Andrew McCutchen, Mark Melancon, and AJ Burnett.

I have shown off some of my Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen pairings in the past, many as recent as last month.

With the draft it is important to plant a seed for a future and recognize what is currently in the system and what will be coming in the future.

The franchise has a major lack of depth at the catcher position in the minors.  The Pirates have only one catcher in their top 30 prospects, Endy Rodriguez, and he profiles to not be able to stick at the position long term.  Rodriguez came to the Pirates as part of the 3 team trade that saw Joe Musgrove go to San Diego and Joey Lucchesi go to the Mets.

The Pirates talent pipeline is loaded with middle infield prospects (4 of top 15 prospects) and that isn't even taking into account their current MLB roster which features All Star Adam Frazier and former first round draft picks Cole Tucker and Kevin Newman.  The team is also very rich in the right handed pitcher department in the minors with seven of their top 12 prospects being right handed starters.

The Pirates saw success in the majors from 2013 to 2015 when the core of their team featured multiple 1st Round draft picks (Neil Walker-2B, Pedro Alvarez-3B, Andrew McCutchen-CF, Gerrit Cole-SP) and homegrown Latin America signings (Starling Marte-LF and Gregory Polanco-RF) all around the diamond.  

By drafting catcher Henry Davis to go with middle infield and starting pitcher franchise strengths, the Pirates are building towards the future with a high contact rate and pitching in mind.  

The Pirates are clearly in a rebuild right now.  They have a few pieces in place for the future already with Ke'Bryan Hayes, Kevin Newman, and Brian Reynolds still under team control through roughly 2026 the next great Pirates teams could feature yesterday's first overall pick, Henry Davis, being the signal caller.

Did you watch any of the MLB Draft?

Are you happy with your team's selection?

Buck buck buck

It's been a long time since I showed off a chicken themed post.  I got another amazing card for what the chicken says (only a) "buck"

The card you see below was won for only $1.

A single buck!

With shipping, it cost only $5.

5 bucks!!!!

For a card limited to only 5 copies???!!!

Granted it's Panini so it's not officially licensed with team logos, but the image used makes it difficult to even realize it's missing the Phillies logo on the helmet.

Did I mention it was limited to only 5 copies and is numbered 5/5?

Um, yes please!!!

The Pirates jersey patch pictured with McCutchen is guaranteed to be game used, which you don't see often with Panini's football releases.  

Have you picked up any card card steal of a deal lately? If so, what have you gotten?

FlawLESS Victory Contest

Saint Patrick's Day is here so I wanted to run a contest perfect for a celebration of green.

Here is one of my favorite "green" cards of Cutch.

It is from 2017 Flawless and is the green emerald parallel which features an on card autograph numbered to only 3 copies (!!!!) And encapsulated in a nice one touch case complete with a Flawless sticker.

From 2016 Flawless I have a giant patch of the Jolly Roger sleeve logo on an Emerald card numbered 2/5.

Flawless Victory

Speaking of Flawless Victory

Above is a video of the Pirates clinching their playoff spot back in 2014.

I have a bottle that was used in the champagne showers that evening and it is signed by Andrew McCutchen.

Here is another image of the bottle. I shrink wrapped around the signature so it won't fade over time.

Here is the authentication for the bottle

The Pirates 2014 team was a fun one to root for despite them not advancing very far in the Postseason.   They, like everyone else in the 2014 Postseason, got Bumgarnered. There are a few other reasons though why I can't label it my favorite team roster.

That distinction belongs to the predecessor year, 2013.

2013 was a magical year for Pirates fans.  It marked the end of the 20 year losing streak.  More important though there was a group of men that I watched develop into one of the best teams in baseball.

2013 was loaded with many individuals getting hardware and personal accomplishments.

Andrew Mccutchen was MVP, Player's Choice MVP, silver slugger

Clint Hurdle was Manager of Year

Pedro Alvarez was a silver slugger and HR champ

Francisco Liriano was Comeback Player of Year

Jason Grilli won Reliever of Month twice and was featured on Sports Illustrated

Pirates All Stars included Cutch, Alvarez, Grilli, Jeff Locke, and Mark Melancon.

The team had veterans like Garrett Jones, Russell Martin, and AJ Burnett built around a young core coming into their prime.

We saw flashes of brillaince from rookie "future ace" Gerrit Cole as he won his first 6 games and beat former Cy Young Winners: Tim Lincecum, Clayton Kershaw, and Zack Greinke in his first three games.  My brother got married in 2013 and I made a bet with him that if the Pirates made the postseason in 2013, he would name his first son Cole because of Gerrit Cole.  I love my niece, but am still hoping I get a nephew one day and my brother lives up to that bet.

Even the bench and role players were fun to root for.  Travis Snyder may have been a top prospect a long time ago, but his career never blossomed into superstar.  Still, Lunchbox as he was known was an everyday guy who fans could root for. The same can be said for guys like Mike "The Fort" McHenry and Clint "Journey" Barmes.  I suspect Pittsburgh is the only city that gave Clint a standing ovation as a visiting player in his career.

So here is the contest.
Make a post about a year your favorite team DIDN'T win the World Series.  Be sure to include why that year's roster stood out to you.  Who were your favorite players that aren't superstars? Did any members of that team go on to Hall of Fame careers? Tell as much as you can about that team and any many memories you may have about that year in general.

After you make the post, leave a comment here with a link to your post.  (Please reference my contest in your post)

On April 2nd, 2019 I will hit the randomizer 3 times.  The person at the top of the randomizer will receive...

2004 Topps Tribute Carl Yastrzemski Green Wall Relic card.

I thought with it being St. Patrick's Day, a green wall relic of one of the most historically trophyless franchises (prior to 2004 at least) seemed appropriate.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Stay safe!

Don't drink and drive!

Wear your green proudly

I'm not going to show all my green Cutch cards this year like I did last year.