Stick around

On July 30th, just a few days away, Arnold Schwarzenegger will be 75 years old.

My plan is to count down using some of Arnold's famous and corny punny lines from all his movies.  If there's a quote you'd like to see, leave it below and I will try to find a corresponding card or item in my Cutch collection to spotlight. 

Predator is in my mind, the ultimate man movie. It just screams I am rough and rugged and will battle to the death.  And not to be biased because it's one of my top 10 movies all time, but it's my favorite Arnold film so I'm using it to kick off this event. 

Today's quote to kick off Arnie week is 

Stick Around

My card of choice is the 2012 Topps Archives 1977 Cloth Sticker.

I also have 3 of the 1/1 printing plates for this card.

What other quotes would you like to see represented?

Who's To Blame pt1: Jacoby Ellsbury

When Andrew McCutchen debuted in the majors in 2009, he was given #22 as his uniform choice.  The number was previously worn by Xavier Nady.  Cutch has gone on record saying he would have liked to have number 24 as it was the number of his childhood hero, Ken Griffey Jr. At the time of Cutch's debut Tom Gorzelanny had been wearing #24 for three seasons. 

The number 22 hasn't been worn in Pittsburgh since 2017 when Cutch was traded to San Francisco prior to the start of the 2018 season. 

Cutch has become very associated with the number 22 and has it as part of his social media handles and sometimes will still sign ACutch22 while a member of the Brewers.  

I thought it may be fun to show off some cards I have featuring guys who have prevented Cutch from wearing #22 in a MLB uniform.  

After spending 9 seasons in Pittsburgh and collecting 4 SS, 5ASG, 1 GG, 1 MVP, the Roberto Clemente award, Baseball America's ROY, and bringing the Pirates back to the postseason for the first time in 20 years, Cutch was traded to San Francisco.  The Giants had #22 available for Cutch and it was announced during the 2018 season that #22 would be retired to honor Will Clark.  Cutch would be the last Giant to wear #22.  With the Giants slipping out of playoff contention and the Yankees having outfield injury concerns the two teams made a late August waver wire trade deadline and Cutch was sent to the clean shaven NY Yankees.

One of those outfielders who was injured was Jacoby Ellsbury, who took a monster 2011 season and a healthy 2013 season which he lead the AL in stolen bases and turned it into a 7 year $153 million contract with the Yankees to start the 2014 season.  

Jacoby debuted with the Boston Red Sox and had established himself as a high contact, high speed threat atop the Boston lineup.

He was becoming one of the young stars of the game by showing an ability to hit for high average (all his full seasons were .280+) while also leading the league in steals in 3 of his 4 full seasons. 

Injuries took their toll on Ellsbury in 2010 and he was limited to only 18 games. 

Ellsbury had a breakout season with the Red Sox in 2011 where he finished second in MVP voting along with winning the Comeback Player of the Year.

Ellsbury improved his power numbers by smashing 32 HR in 158 games.  His previous 4 seasons (2 full seasons) had only 20 HR combined.  

Ellsbury maintained his high batting average (.321) and high SB (39) in the 2011 season.

He would again suffer injuries in 2012 and that would limit him to only 74 games.

He bounced back in 2013 though, leading the American League in stolen bases yet again with 52 swipes and maintaining that .298 batting average.

After the season was over, he switched rivals going from Beantown to the Bronx.  

Ellsbury wouldn't reach 150 games played again in his career, coming closest in 2014 (149) and 2016 (148).  His batting average in NY would never reach the heights they were in Boston and his SBs while still very good would average only 24 a season, a far cry from the 50-70 range he was putting up in Boston.  

Ellsbury suffered injuries and his last game played was September 30th, 2017.  However because he was on the 40 man roster he still had to have a uniform number.  That uniform number was 22.

This prevented Cutch from getting #22 and Cutch was ultimately assigned #26.

Cutch would play 25 regular season games with the Yankees September 2018 and help the team get to 100 wins.  In that month long sample he had an .892 OPS and a 145 OPS+ 

When Cutch left NY for free agency in Philadelphia his #26 was assigned to DJ LeMahieu who has worn it since the 2019 season and has become a fan favorite among Yankees fans. 

Since Jacoby's #22 uniform became available after his 2019 release, two other players have worn the number not available to Andrew McCutchen.  They are Jordy Mercer and Greg Allen. 

What athletes look different wearing a number they're not usually wearing?

Do you think if Jacoby could have stayed healthy, he would have been in discussion for being a great of the 2010s?

Fry Day, Friday

Each year during the month of October, I show off only pink (and shades of pink like magenta, peach, etc) to help raise awareness of Breast Cancer, a leading cause of death for females in the United States.  

Due to my own financial situation this year I will not be able to make a donation for each (meaningful, non spam) comment left by those that follow the blog.  Once things settle down on the home front though I will be looking to make a donation in 2022 based on the comments left during this year's event.  Hopefully together we can help at least one woman get a much needed mammogram.  Early detection is key!!!

If you want to make your own private donation please visit the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  There is a donate button on the main page and it only takes a minute of your time.  Every little bit helps.

I have focused primarily on cards that only feature Andrew McCutchen on the card, but in recent years have also featured cards with a cameo appearance (either being seen on the card or as a name cameo on the back of the card).  In 2019, I created Falco Files which discussed players that replaced (Shane Falco Replacements movie reference) on an active roster, number worn, or trade.  I will also be showing some Cutch's Crew cards that show pink cards of players that have played with Cutch on multiple teams. I will continue to utilize these styles of posts as we celebrate the 5th Collecting Cutch Save Second Base event (I am no longer counting my first run on the Pirates Treasure Room I did back in 2014).

I am always looking for new ways to incorporate new celebrities into the event so today I am presenting

Rebecca Black

Rebecca Black made a song in 2011 and it went viral on YouTube among a few other social media platforms.

The song was called Friday, not to be confused with Fry Day

Friday featured Black riding around singing about her friends and what they were going to do that night.

It was dubbed by several music critics as the worse song of all time.

Today Black is all grown up and still involved with music, but she is not associated with thousands of memes like she was back in 2011.  That song did springboard a small part of a Katy Perry music video though.

Today Rebecca is all grown up and she is back on stage.

Black Friday Magenta Color Progression Proof

The back of the card (like all progression cards) is blank backed.

Where are the best fries found and what style of fries do you prefer?

Do you have any color progression cards in your collection?

Chicks dig the long ball

Who remembers that commercial with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine talking about how "Chicks dig the long ball"?

Well if you forgot it, you can check it out on YouTube here.  Tom Glavine recollects the making of the Nike commercial.

I was watching a game earlier this year and the score was tied up with no outs in the 8th inning with a runner on second.  The top of the lineup was up.

A few things could have played out.

The defense could have intentionally walked the guy up at plate to potentially get a double (or triple) play in order.  This didn't happen and the defense chose to just attack the hitter.  

Now the hitter could have chosen to lay down a sacrifice bunt to advance the guy on 2nd base to 3rd base with one out.  This would almost certainly cause the infield to play in on the grass opening more possibilities for the number 2 hitter in the lineup to manipulate a base hit OR hit a sacrifice fly OR let a ball get pass the catcher for the guy on now 3rd base to score.  The ability to score a run from 3rd base with 1 out and your number 2 and 3 hitters up seems like an easy way to push across a run and put your team ahead.  

Do you think that happened?

Nope.  The guy up at the plate was an All Star with high contact rate, but tried to hit a HR in a selfish manner.  He didn't. 

He lined out.

1 out. Runner still at 2nd Base.

The team's number 2 hitter is up at the plate.  He's a rookie.  He struck out on a ball in the dirt that briefly got away from the catcher.  Throw down to 1st. 

2 outs.  Runner on 2nd didn't advance.

The team's number 3 hitter is up, also an All Star.  Fly ball, deep in the outfield.

Caught.

3 outs.

Runner on 2nd stayed there, stranded.

The team gave up the lead in the bottom of the inning and would go on to lose the game.

In a game with the 3 true outcomes (walk, strikeout, HR) grows more and more each year we are seeing teams play small ball less and less.  

Is it because chicks dig the long ball or is it because analytics and the moneyball way of thinking no longer values a productive out?

Not surprisingly the number of sacrifice bunts in 2021 is down per game compared to a decade ago.  Also not surprising is that 13 of the top 15 teams that do sacrifice bunt are National League teams and are often pitchers attempting to lay down a sacrifice.  

The 2 teams not in the top 15 that are National League teams? 

The last place Miami Marlins (0.15 bunts per game) and Pittsburgh Pirates (0.13 bunts per game) both bunt the least for National League teams. 

Go back to 2011 and the Marlins were bunting 0.55 (most in majors) and the Pirates were bunting 0.46 times per game.  The team with the fewest sacrifice bunts in 2011 was the Boston Red Sox at 0.14 sacrifice bunts per game.

The furthest back I can go is 2007 based on the research I was able to do and the Colorado Rockies were sacrifice bunting 0.50 times a game.  They are also leading the majors this year with 0.31 times per game.  The 0.31 times per game in 2021 would put them in the lower half of the 2007 statistics and lumped in with many of the fewest bunts among American League teams.

The art of bunting is nearly gone from baseball.

I miss small ball and seeing action and strategy on the base paths and defense.

When Andrew McCutchen broke into the majors in 2009 he was a force on the base paths stealing 20-30 bags per season during his first 5 years.  

There were even times that Cutch would attempt to lay down a bunt for a base hit.

The last time Cutch was successful with a sacrifice hit was in 2011.  

There was an insert set in 2012 Topps Opening Day called Elite Skills

The 25 card insert set features various skills from the game of baseball.  Oddly enough, Cutch is featured as the bunting skill.

The back of the card talks about how the elite athlete gets ready to lay down a bunt for a potential base hit. 

What are some of your favorite baseball commercials?

Superman Day

Every June 12th is celebrated as National Superman Day.

You may recall I discussed this day back in 2019 when I showed off a super rare 1 of 1 autograph booklet letter patch card.  

I was never a huge fan of Superman compared to other superheroes.  I always liked the darker more angsty heroes like Wolverine, Green Arrow, or Batman or I liked the comical heroes like Flash or Deadpool.

I do respect Superman though.  He is an American icon.

Superman is also known as The Man of Steel.

Here are some other Men of Steel from my Andrew McCutchen Triple Threads collection

This community is amazing!

So as many of you know, I am in the process of moving to what will hopefully be my final landing spot complete with my own man cave to display the Cutch goodies in proper displays.  

Because of living with the in laws as this housing market settles down and we can save some extra money, I have had my hobby mail go to my dad's house because I quite frankly don't feel like going to storage every few weeks.  He has basically become my personal PO Box for hobby related stuff.

Well about a month ago I got a Twitter message from the blogger "Rosenort" of the Rockies and Redskins based blog condition-sensitive.

He said he had a McCutchen card he didn't think I had in my collection and was willing to send it to me.

Bold statement as I have over 3,000 unique cards of Cutch, but awesome!!!!  I gave him my dad's address and had him send it to me.  

It's been a few weeks since I got the chance to catch up with my dad so over the weekend I stopped by after work to visit with him and he told me that I had gotten a few things since the last time I visited.

Cool.  I put them in my car and didn't think anything of it.

I opened up the package and found a Topps Now card holder inside,

instantly thinking it may be a parallel of a Topps Now card.

Some I have, many I don't. 

I opened it up and was immediately greeted with his signature card

which ranks up there with Fuji's for coolest blogging business cards.

Then I saw what he had sent me....

ARE

YOU 

FRICKING

KIDDING ME?

A 1/1 Andrew McCutchen printing plate from 2012 Topps Mini!!!!!

Yeah I am pretty sure I don't have this.

You win!!!!

For now

But rest assured I will find a way to repay you with a RAK (Random Act of Kindness)

In all seriousness, thank you so much to all of you who read this blog and think of awesome things like this to gift upon me.  It's amazing!!!

Hammer Time

I'm shocked there wasn't a comment about the main image used in yesterday's post.  Congrats on being classy!  Well, as promised I am going to carry on with a string of 7 days of Irish inspired posts as we count down to St. Patrick's Day.

Today I will look at a teammate of Andrew McCutchen who had a very Irish last name.

Joel Hanrahan is today's subject.

Joel is pictured on the ticket stub above, which is a stub from Andrew McCutchen's 64th career Home Run. 

While I don't know what Joel's actual ancestry is, we do know (by way of a quick google search) that the last name Hanrahan is common for Irish descendants and comes from the word anradhan which is an old Irish word for warrior. 

Joel Hanrahan, while his career was short, was certainly a warrior.  

Joel was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2000 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of Norwalk High School and began his career as a starting pitcher.  He pitched in the Dodgers farm system for 6 season before becoming a minor league free agent and signed with the Washington Nationals, where he eventually made his debut on July 28, 2007 against the New York Mets.  He pitched 6 innings, struck out 7, got a triple at the plate in his first MLB at bat, but did not factor into the winning decision of the game.  He continued to start for the rest of the season going 5-3 with a 6.00 ERA.

The next season the Nationals moved him to the bullpen and he eventually became the team's closer notching 9 saves for the worse team in baseball, Washington Nationals.  

In 2009 he was traded along with Lastings Milledge to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett.  Both the Pirates and Nationals were near the bottom of the standings in their divisions and both teams seemed to have moved on from prospects in hopes of the commonly referred to term "new team, new results" outlook.  

It was in Pittsburgh that Joel reached his potential.  Used primarily as a set up man for the Pirates in 2010, he helped lay a foundation for the Pirates newly improved bullpen approach to shorten games.  He finished second in team strikeouts in 2010 (only a few behind starter Paul Maholm) and struck out 100 batters in only 69 innings.  

The next season, Hanrahan was named the closer and would go on to save 40 games, a 1.83ERA and make his first All-Star appearance.  

In 2012 Hanrahan would make the midsummer classic again when he lead all NL relievers in saves and the Pittsburgh Pirates were winning their division at the break.  

He was traded to Boston in 2013 along with Brock Holt for Mark Melancon and a few prospects where injuries eventually ended his career. 

Nicknamed the Hammer, he finished his Pirates career 7th all time on the Pirates Saves leader board (he was 5th at the time of the trade) despite appearing in only 3.5 seasons with the Buccos. 

He currently serves as a pitching coach in the Pirates minor leagues. 

Above are the Pirates 2012 All Star Game representatives. (Hammer, Cutch, Hurdle)

The Pirates 2011 All Star Game representatives (Hammer, Cutch, and Kevin Correia)

Joel signed this ball for me at a spring training game in 2012

I always loved silver ink on black cards. 

A jumbo patch from Museum Collection

A piece of the Jolly Roger 

That image of the big goatee Hanrahan pitching reminds me of a team I had so much fun rooting for specially when he was closing out games. 

What are some famous Irish names you can think of that may be baseball related?

Do you have any other suggestions for counting down to St Patrick's Day.

Red Ink Autos

Topps Heritage, Bowman Heritage, and Allen & Ginter have some of the most elusive and most sought after cards in the hobby with their red ink autographs.

Often times these are extremely limited print runs and the red ink usually stands out on the cards that Topps chooses.  I have 3 red ink autographs in my collection.

The oldest red ink autograph in my collection goes back to Cutch's draft year, 2005.  The 2005 Bowman Heritage cards were made to resemble 1951 Bowman in a more modern twist.  

Moving on from Bowman Heritage to Topps Heritage is the 2012 Topps Heritage red ink numbered to 63 copies.

I love the 1963 Topps design and this card pays homage to the set both in design and limited print run (only 63 copies produced).  My only complaint with this card is that the red ink doesn't pop as much as the other two red ink autographs in my collection.

We close out with my favorite red ink autograph, 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter limited to only 10 copies. 

That is how a low print run, alternative ink (red) autograph should look.  The red ink on the plain white design POPS!  The mini card nestled inside the framed border looks really nice. 

Do you have any red ink autographs in your collection?

Next Year, I'm Swinging For The Fences

I missed a month long opportunity to highlight some of my Negro League throwback cards to celebrate Black History Month.  

I promise I will swing for the fences next year.  In the meantime enjoy the whimsical short print from 2012 Topps featuring Cutch and the Pirate Parrot playing wiffleball in the old Homestead Grays uniforms made famous by guys like Josh Gibson, Judy Johnson, Cool Papa Bell, Smoky Joe Williams, and Buck Leonard.

You can revisit some posts I paid tribute to those guys by clicking on their name in the links above.

The COMC Pirates Package

I recently received a package in the mail containing over 100 cards for my player collections of Andrew McCutchen, Gary Sheffield, and various Pirates players I like to collect. 

While the package arrived in 2021, I am not going to count it towards my 50 card goal because they were all purchased in 2020.  It is only because of COMCs slow shipping that forced me to receive the cards many months after requesting shipment.

Let's dive into some of the highlights of the package...

This card is extremely difficult to find.  

And I mean extremely difficult.

If you travel with me into the way back machine to 2011, the hobby wasn't as strong as it is now.  

Not only could you find retail packs at retail establishments, but many collectors were doing just that...collecting.

Topps wasn't producing factory sets with multiple parallels encouraging people to open their retail factory sets.  Granted there was 1 (yes only 1) pack inside every sealed factory set containing a handful of cards with a unique color border parallel.  

These were often red or orange.  

Trying to find one of these 10 years later of your player?  Good luck!

They are numbered to 245 copies on the back and I suspect many of them are still sealed away in factory sets.

So remember what I just said about 2011 Topps Factory red parallels?

The same is even harder for the 2010 Factory red parallels.

There is another McCutchen that has been looking for one of these for a few years.  I'm hoping to use this as trade bait to help me acquire a card of his that I have been after.

If you've followed the blog for a bit, you probably know that I love the 2015 Topps Strata set.  It is the first set that Topps produced featuring an MLB authenticated sticker on every relic used in the set.  My goal is to collect as many of these of possible.  I added 3 more of the plain grey swatches to the collection.

They will go nicely with all these patches I already had from the set

Next up is a 2016 Optic Teal parallel numbered to 50 copies.  This helps get me closer to completing this rainbow.

Speaking of 2016, here is a 2016 Diamond Kings silver Artist Proof.  It's not numbered, but rare to come across 5 years later.  I really like the design of this year's Diamond Kings release.

This 2016 Bowman Platinum would be a perfect card to show off next month for St. Patrick's Day.  The green parallel, numbered to only 99 copies, really pops in the background.

Here is a card I was surprised I didn't have.  It's a 2013 Topps Heritage Chrome Refractor.  I have the black Refractor, the base chrome, and the purple chrome, but never got the refractor...until now. It's numbered to only 564 copies and is based on the 1964 Topps design.

Ok. This one is kind of a cheating card.  It features Cutch in a Pittsburgh uniform, but is from 2018.  Cutch was traded prior to the start of the 2018 season and this technically doesn't count as a Pirates playing days card because he didn't play for them in 2018.

What do you think?  Should a 2018 card that features Cutch playing for the Pirates count as a Pirates playing days card even though his last game played was for the Bucs in 2017?

Here is the first Panini relic card I picked up that I needed.  I've shown the dual relic off of this card, but not the single relic.  It's from 2014 and is a nice designed card.

Here is one of those cards that I knew existed, but a few things prevented me from adding this to my collection over the past decade:

It is a Topps Heritage card so Master Set collectors are always looking for this.

It is a rare card (only 62 copies) from a set 10 years old.

It features the Baltimore Orioles, who in my eyes have a very loyal collecting fan base.

It features a former MVP in his early career.

It is a stamp set so there are stamp collectors who also collect things like this.

What an awesome looking card.

And to finish up its another pajama party card.  Despite no logos, this early Donruss release is a much needed Press Proof parallel.  The silver proof is numbered to only 199 copies.

That wraps up my Cutch Pirates cards from my COMC pickups from the 2nd half of 2020 (except one notable card).  I'll show off some others in the future.  They will include my Giants, Yankees, and Phillies Cutch pickups.